With the bye week, and the must-win nature of the MSU game, it's a forgone conclusion that Stoops, Gran, and Eliot will be working on new wrinkles on offense and defense in an attempt to gain an advantage over a team that just made a cross-country trip. With that in mind, don't be surprised if you see UK pulls some proverbial rabbits from the 'ol hat next Saturday.
OFFENSE:
The Screen Game: UK has all the elements of a screen team: speed at WR and RB, a QB that doesn't throw the ball well downfield, and a desire to mitigate a overaggressive pass rush from MSU. Getting screen passes to Boom and Badet seems like no brainers, but I'd wouldn't be surprised if we also saw Conrad get some screen passes (similar with what South Carolina runs).
More Options on the Option: To this point we've used a fairly vanilla version of the zone read with an occasional RPO for Johnson. This makes sense, of course, since you're breaking in a new QB. With the off weak, though, Gran has the opportunity to explore a myriad of option attacks that lots of teams are employing. Now, my dream triple option team of Boom and Benny (aka, Benny and the Jet, aka the Hammer and the Razor) will most likely never come to pass, but the veer option (yes, the veer option) out of the pistol isn't out of the question. What's more, MSU has been burned by the veer before.
Tempo Variance: Unlike Mullen teams in the past, this version of MSU is not a very disciplined lot. At BYU, personal fouls, over pursuit, and dumb penalties became the norm. One way to take a young, undisciplined defense off its game is to vary the tempo and cadence at the line of scrimmage. Note, they will not go totally "up tempo", as that would put too much strain on our defense and would allow MSU's defense to play fast and loose. Look for occasional tempo shifts, like the no huddle (milk the clock variety) for a series or two.
DEFENSE:
Make the Old Look New: I strongly doubt we'll see a bevy of exotic blitz and coverage packages; this team improved when things got more simple, not the other way around. However, running the same plays from new formations and alignments is a smart way of getting variety of the the defense "on the cheap". You give MSU a new look, but you basically run the same zones and man to man schemes you've always run. There are some obvious limitations to this strategy (i.e. you can't run the prevent out of the 46), but you can run Cover 2 Man out of damn near anything.
For God's Sake: Plan for the read option! Mullen has run the QB everywhere he's been. The current MSU QB is not Dak Prescott (who the hell is?), but he can and will run. Do whatever you have to do, but stop the read first; force them into becoming a passing team.
Rotate More Players: It's mid-season, and those true freshmen aren't babies anymore. If MSU goes ground and pound, which I think they will, don't make the mistake of leaving the first string out there to wither on the vine. Time to get the kids out there for some meaningful minutes.
OFFENSE:
The Screen Game: UK has all the elements of a screen team: speed at WR and RB, a QB that doesn't throw the ball well downfield, and a desire to mitigate a overaggressive pass rush from MSU. Getting screen passes to Boom and Badet seems like no brainers, but I'd wouldn't be surprised if we also saw Conrad get some screen passes (similar with what South Carolina runs).
More Options on the Option: To this point we've used a fairly vanilla version of the zone read with an occasional RPO for Johnson. This makes sense, of course, since you're breaking in a new QB. With the off weak, though, Gran has the opportunity to explore a myriad of option attacks that lots of teams are employing. Now, my dream triple option team of Boom and Benny (aka, Benny and the Jet, aka the Hammer and the Razor) will most likely never come to pass, but the veer option (yes, the veer option) out of the pistol isn't out of the question. What's more, MSU has been burned by the veer before.
Tempo Variance: Unlike Mullen teams in the past, this version of MSU is not a very disciplined lot. At BYU, personal fouls, over pursuit, and dumb penalties became the norm. One way to take a young, undisciplined defense off its game is to vary the tempo and cadence at the line of scrimmage. Note, they will not go totally "up tempo", as that would put too much strain on our defense and would allow MSU's defense to play fast and loose. Look for occasional tempo shifts, like the no huddle (milk the clock variety) for a series or two.
DEFENSE:
Make the Old Look New: I strongly doubt we'll see a bevy of exotic blitz and coverage packages; this team improved when things got more simple, not the other way around. However, running the same plays from new formations and alignments is a smart way of getting variety of the the defense "on the cheap". You give MSU a new look, but you basically run the same zones and man to man schemes you've always run. There are some obvious limitations to this strategy (i.e. you can't run the prevent out of the 46), but you can run Cover 2 Man out of damn near anything.
For God's Sake: Plan for the read option! Mullen has run the QB everywhere he's been. The current MSU QB is not Dak Prescott (who the hell is?), but he can and will run. Do whatever you have to do, but stop the read first; force them into becoming a passing team.
Rotate More Players: It's mid-season, and those true freshmen aren't babies anymore. If MSU goes ground and pound, which I think they will, don't make the mistake of leaving the first string out there to wither on the vine. Time to get the kids out there for some meaningful minutes.