Analyzing Virginia Tech Head Coach Justin Fuente's Run Attack

Justin Fuente brings a new mentality to Virginia Tech's offense that reflects old-style thinking with regards to design of the offensive run game. Starting with Southern Cal during the O.J. Simpson era, the use of the one back and I-formation offenses conditioned most fans (myself included) to believe that an effective running game is built on getting a superior athlete at the tailback spot, and winning battles at the point of attack. The early 80's was the golden era of this line of thought, as the era produced super-backs like Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, Emmitt Smith, and Barry Sanders. Where they went, the ball went. There was very little misdirection outside of play-action, counters, and draws.

Prior to that era, running the football was equal parts winning physical battles and influencing a defense out of position. That deception was created by multiple potential ball carriers repeating similar backfield motions with different players getting the football on different plays. Those offensive concepts have returned with abandon in college football with elements of single wing, Wing T, veer, and zone systems present in modern offenses.

Fuente's running game philosophy at Memphis and TCU proves that he is an embodiment of "what is old, is new". He stretches the defense with formation, and then uses similar backfield motions and alignments to fool the opposition. His running plays don't vary greatly from Scot Loeffler's playbook. However, with Loeffler, there were certain formations where there was a high degree of likelihood that you knew where the ball was going when you saw the personnel and the formation. For example, against East Carolina, if you saw Travon McMillian in the in the slot, and Ryan Malleck lined up as an H-Back on the opposite side, there was reasonable certainty that the Hokies were running a jet sweep or a two man deep route off the jet sweep play-action. That predictability made a defense's job much easier.

You get no such predictability with Fuente. While he does have some tendencies, every base running play can and will be run from every formation in his playbook. Fuente doesn't use many different formations, and he employs similar motions, blocking, and route structure on most of the snaps. So, despite having the capability of running more plays, his offense is relatively easy for the players to execute without worrying about multiple checks and pre-snap motions.

I documented one particular formation and then watched 8 games stretched over Memphis' 2014 and 2015 seasons. The backfield alignment featured the quarterback in the shotgun, with a running back and an H-Back aligned almost in an I-formation to either his right or left side. I'll refer to it as the I-Gun. Opposite those backs, a slot receiver aligns several steps off the line of scrimmage. The other two receivers will change their alignments. Here is a look at the basic formation.

From this formation, I observed 22 unique run, run-pass option, play-action (not accounting for different routes off the same structure), and true pass pro plays. This is a conservative estimate, and with more time I could likely prove this number is higher. From this formation, I noticed only two variations pre-snap. Sometimes the slot receiver will motion to the quarterback. Sometimes he won't. That motion is the only tip. This variability forces defenses to account for all those possible plays every time the Tigers used the formation. This prevents them from effectively anticipating the play. If they try and guess wrong, they're exposed elsewhere on the field.

To go with this basic alignment, Fuente incorporates series where multiple players may get the football off of a particular run action. Let's break down some of the basic series and how they work to confuse a defense.

In his last season at Memphis, Fuente showed heavy preference to running the jet sweep and the inverted veer from the slot receiver alignment. In this look, a receiver/running back aligns deep in the slot away from the play side. After the defense calls their set, the slot receiver jet motions to a mesh point in front of the quarterback.

Now, things start to get tough for the defense. On the jet sweep, the two offset running backs both try to seal the edge. This allows the running back to fly around the corner. The offensive line essentially blocks straight ahead to keep their step from taking the linebackers to the football. The quarterback takes a jab step to freeze the linebackers inside.

The offensive line barely blocks a soul on this play, yet the motion seems to freeze the inside defenders. As long as the H-Back and the tailback get their block, the receiver is free and clear around the edge. The defensive pursuit is woeful because the defenders have to account for multiple runs from this formation.

Let's analyze two back-to-back plays from Memphis' game against Tom Herman's Houston Cougars. Paxton Lynch uses the same backfield motion, but instead of reaching the play-side defensive end, they option him. He has been conditioned to the sweep and runs hard up field. This time, the offensive line blocks down and the backside guard pulls and leads up. This leaves the defensive end unblocked. Lynch properly reads the outside linebacker flying up field, pulls the football from the jet sweep motion, and follows his guard inside for a nice run.

On the previous play, the Cougars saw the exact same formation and backfield motion. However, this time the right halfback delays instead of flying to the corner.

Lynch fakes the jet sweep handoff and instead of plunging up the middle, he hands off to the halfback. The offensive line runs an inside zone to the left and the halfback picks up a solid gain. The linebacker is in a really tough position. If he overplays to the motion, the defense becomes susceptible to the inside zone and the inverted veer dive. If he slow plays the motion, the offense has the numerical advantage on the outside.

Fuente exacerbates the problems for opposing linebackers reading keys by adding even more variety to the series. Ole Miss was very aggressive over pursuing to the motion side to take away the sweep and the inverted veer. Off the same motion, Fuente used that strategy against the Rebels by running a counter back against the grain. On the counter, the offensive line steps left and the motion man heads that direction too. The halfback takes a hard step to the left, and then takes a counter step back to the right to take the ball from Lynch after the jet sweep clears. The left guard pulls back to the right to lead up on a corner. Ole Miss has no defenders in place because they have over-pursued to the sweep action.

The same Ole Miss team that defeated Alabama didn't know whether to wind their head or scratch their watch against Fuente's Memphis squad. Fuente also thoroughly confused the BYU defense. The repeated sweeps conditioned the edge defenders to stay wide, which opened up the inside for Paxton Lynch.

On this play, Fuente changes up his veer release by the tight end on the inverted veer to get even more blockers inside, yet BYU continues to overplay the sweep.

Did you see the change up? Let's review. The receiver to the bottom of the screen motions to the top, and then crosses in front of Lynch for the fake sweep.

Here is the gag — this isn't a true inverted veer option. Fuente threw a curveball. Instead of leaving the edge player unblocked, the running back ties him up (or tries to). The tight end blocks down, and the H-Back loops isolates off his block and squares up on the linebacker. The back-side guard pulls and leads up. This is a quarterback keeper all the way designed to look like an inverted veer, and every other movement in the backfield follows the normal inverted veer pattern! The one player who can really mess up the play (the edge guy) is totally wrapped up in defending the sweep. Confusion allows Fuente to get a numbers advantage at the point of attack, and the players deliver a touchdown.

From this formation, Fuente also incorporates a series of base plays that he can run with or without motion including: and isolation lead draw, fake isolation quick screen, and play-action.

Fuente even uses a multitude of straight drop back pass routes from the same formation, so the defense can't just key on a run-play-action combination. The quarterback can drop back from this and any other formation and throw typical passing route combinations.

At different points over the last two seasons, Fuente even used the motion man and the two backs as lead blockers on a student body type of sweep, then ran run-pass options and reverses off that pre-snap movement! Throw in the occasional speed option if the outside linebacker starts to cheat, and it is easy to see why so much Memphis film features opposing defenders looking completely out of position so frequently.

To illustrate how difficult all these different potential options become to defend on gameday, I wanted to highlight one particular play-action pass that really grabbed my attention for both the design's simplicity and effectiveness.

Focus on the Ole Miss outside linebacker to the top of the screen (No. 4). Before the snap, the outside linebacker has to account for the jet sweep, the inverted veer, the quick toss, the quarterback sweep, and any play-action where he has man coverage responsibility to the secondary inside passing threat. After keying slot motion, at the snap the linebacker widens out a step to prevent the halfback from sealing him inside. The linebacker has to keep his weight forward and his outside shoulder free so he can take on the block effectively and force the sweep to the inside.

At the moment of contact, the halfback angles hard back to the inside. Suddenly, the linebacker realizes that the sweep is a fake. The H-Back runs off the linebacker's inside leverage help, and the halfback slides into the empty space. The linebacker has no chance. If he plays the run fake soft, the sweep itself will be effective. No matter what the linebacker guesses, he has a good chance of being wrong. This scheme repeatedly confused much more talented defenses and made them look very bad.

As with all offensive schemes, having players who buy-in and execute their assignments to make such a series work is critical. These plays don't work if the defense believes one of the players involved in the motion are not credible threats to do damage with the football. The H-Back and halfback must be effective blockers. The halfback must also be a credible running threat on the counter, the isolation/inside zone, quick pitch, and speed option along with being a good lead blocker. The slot receiver has to sell the jet sweep fake effectively even when he isn't getting the football. The other two receivers have to option stalk effectively when they are not running play-action or pass pro. If any of those elements go awry and the offense becomes one-dimensional, it is much less effective.

I believe the Hokies have the personnel to run this series very effectively. Memphis used wide receivers and backup tailback Sam Craft as the slot receiver. Craft had a similar running style to Travon McMillian, who was excellent early last season as a slot motion-sweep runner before the meat of the ACC schedule. McMillian is comfortable running to the edge and cutting sharply inside off the kickout block on the corner. As a feature back, McMillian would likely stay in the game and move into the halfback spot in other formations. DeShawn McClease seems to be a good fit in this role, and Fuente will use his wide receivers there as well. Isaiah Ford could even be featured with some limited touches off this action.

I wouldn't be shocked to see Steven Peoples as the halfback when McMillian moves to the slot. Peoples has the power and athletic ability to be a credible threat on inside runs and counters. In the film clips I watched last spring and August camp, Peoples has the ability to move bodies as a blocker. His athleticism and size seems pretty comparable to Doroland Dorceus, who was terrific as both a blocker and a tenacious runner for the Tigers.

Expect to see Sam Rogers playing in that H-Back role. His ability to block in space, tenacity (Memphis H-Back Alan Cross was also a walkon and was very difficult to play against), and ability to catch the football are a perfect fit for how Fuente uses the position. I have pointed out in the past that Rogers needs to be stronger at the point of attack, and as I will point out in future columns, Fuente loves to run with his H-Back at the point of attack. Chris Durkin also has a similar size to Cross and I believe has the athleticism to really be effective if he learns how to block effectively. Chris Cunningham also fits the body type that Fuente used at Memphis and is more polished as a receiver. Expect Bucky Hodges to be lined up as a play-side receiver away from this motion, and I would expect to see him highlighted on play-action skinny posts and fades once the jet sweep and inverted veer are established.