Hokies Tailback J.C. Coleman excels in Loeffler's Simple Rushing Attack

Virginia Tech running back J.C. Coleman has to be the feel good story of the year for the Hokies. During rough seasons, it's up to the fanbase to celebrate those shining stars, if only to make the season bearable. J.C.'s story has been told many times through many mediums, but it never ceases to put a smile on my face. Coleman went from starter, to off-the-depth-chart-afterthought, to backfield savor. I was just as guilty as anyone when I gave up on the gutsy player, believing he was too slow and too small to ever make an impact on the field. Coleman has forced me to eat crow over the last few games of this up-and-down season. Boy, is it delicious.

Regardless of how well the defense played on Saturday, the run game was going to have to show up if Virginia Tech was going to beat Cincinnati. J.C. Coleman was going to have to carry the load with Trey Edmunds' availability limited, and he was up to the task. He finished with 157 yards (a Hokie bowl record) and tacked on a touchdown for good measure. It was an impressive game, especially considering Virginia Tech didn't have to rely on any trickeration or abnormal game plan to get Coleman rolling. All Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler had to do was rely on a solid display by the five guys up front, and a tailback who spent the day punching above his weight.

Back To The Basics

Loeffler relied on the simplest of run plays Saturday, frequently leaning on the inside and outside zones to open up holes for his new star back. It was clear early on in the game that Cincinnati wasn't going to respect VT on the ground, hoping to force VT into dinking and dunking their way down the field. In the first half it appeared to be working, but once the second half opened up Loeffler pounded the Bearcats into submission.

On the very first run play of the game, we see how Cincinnati is set up with two deep safeties. Their goal is to invite Loeffler to run the ball against a shortage of defenders in the box, then converge to the football to make the tackle.

Loeffler calls a simple outside zone here. The defense does a decent job rallying to the football, including the play side safety. The reason this play doesn't pick up much yardage is because of the back side pursuit by the defensive line. If the offensive line can do a better job cutting their men and getting them on the turf, then Coleman can cut it up field. Regardless of the result, we can see how Cincinnati wants to wait until they are sure it's a run play to get a safety involved in the run game.

This is Coleman's second carry of the game, and again it's nothing fancy. Just an inside zone with a Sam Rogers leading the way. Cincy is giving up plenty of breathing room at the line of scrimmage on this play. Counting the defenders tells us that they don't have enough bodies to stuff this run play, they're hoping that one of the defenders can make a play before Coleman picks up too much yardage.

Cincinnati is dropping a safety towards the line of scrimmage at soon as they get a run read. They are choosing which safety based on the alignment of the running back. If J.C. lines up to Brewer's right, they drop the safety to Brewer's left. The assumption is that Coleman will run away from the side he starts on the majority of the time. This does make the Bearcats defense a little predictable though, and Loeffler exploits that for a big gain later on.

Tech runs a pin and pull variation of the outside zone read, preventing the back side defender from getting involved in the play. The pin and pull is a perfect companion for outside zone runs because often the defense crashes directly into the offensive line's down blocks, giving the line a great angle. While blocking down with the tight end and tackle to seal the edge, the guard and center pull around to kick out the safety that's crashing and the linebacker thats scraping. The linebackers are slow with their outside pursuit because they are used to J.C. cutting back inside when their teammates secure the edge. Perfect blocking and good speed by J.C. lead to a huge pickup on first down.

The Second Half Takeover

In the second half Loeffler decided to just pound the rock. He kept it simple from a blocking scheme standpoint (using inside/outside/pin and pull blocking almost exclusively), but made one major change in his rushing attack. He started bringing both Bucky and Malleck in tight and aligning Coleman directly behind Brewer in a pistol. This made it much more difficult for Cincinnati to accurately predict which side Coleman was going to run. The Bearcats got caught bringing the wrong safety towards the line of scrimmage a couple of times. On this play we see the consequence of guessing wrong when the offense was in the pistol.

The safety to Coleman's left drops back into coverage and the defense has no free hitter to challenge J.C. until he is well into the secondary. It's no coincidence that most of Coleman's successful runs came behind the left side of the offensive line. Wyatt Teller was mashing all day and he got good help on his double teams from Farris. Bringing the tight ends in tight stretched Cincinnati's defense out in order to cover all the gaps, and when the offensive line started dominating the interior they had no answer.

Even when Cincinnati guessed right they weren't always able to stop Coleman. Here we see the effect of a brutal push by the interior of the line. Coleman has a huge hole to run through and is able to get his momentum going downhill. He ducks under the tackle of two defenders and takes on the last safety with attitude. J.C.'s ability to get small at the right times and use his leverage to fall forward has been the biggest difference in his game over the past couple weeks. This is probably the most promising thing about J.C.'s game right now, his ability to get those yards after contact. We saw time and time again on Friday that Coleman didn't need to have a huge hole to run through in order to get positive yards, he was able to see a crease and attack it with vigor.

J.C. Coleman has proven all of his doubters wrong over the last few games. He has turned into a tailback who can make explosive cuts, who is decisive when he sees a hole open up and who can take on defenders to get those valuable extra yards after contact. Coleman has been an absolute joy to root for, and I think he'll continue to play a valuable role in Tech's offense in the 2015 season.