The Oregon Ducks use formations incredibly well on offense. Many also categorize them as a “spread offense,” which to most people means 4 wide receivers and 1 running back, or “10 personnel” in coaching speak (1 running back, 0 tight ends). Without getting too nit-picky about the “spread offense” phrasing, I’d like to bust one myth. They use a tight …
The trademark of the Oregon offense since the start of the Chip Kelly era has been the speed with which the ball gets moved down the field. The Ducks have a habit of marching down and scoring in a hurry, and since Mark Helfrich took over last season, not much has changed. Since the Chip Kelly offense took over at Oregon, one …
Chip Kelly didn’t just bring his offensive scheme with him to the Philadelphia Eagles. For the second time in his coaching career, he changed a 4-3 base defense to his 3-4 scheme. To ease this transition in Year 2, Kelly drafted a player in the fifth round who he relied on during the defensive scheme change at Oregon: defensive lineman …
The window for us fans that is the Spring Game revealed much more this year than many would believe as I too had a hard time fathoming what I was seeing on the field from Head Coach Mark Helfrich. Just as he has been aggressive in recruiting and charging ahead faster than previous coaches in pursuing recruits–he is doing the …
The “Fire Zone Blitz” is one of the effective blitzes that the Oregon hybrid 3-4 defense uses to pressure a Quarterback. The Ducks do a great job of bringing heavy pressure with 5-man zone blitzes, and then bringing 4 or often, only 3 pass rushers, but there’s another weapon that helps Duck defensive linemen get to the passer. Having success from a …
The spring season has come and gone in the college football world, it was a teaser sticking around just long enough to leave everyone wanting even more in typical George Costanza-style. It’s often hard to project success or failure based on a few spring practices, and in terms of scheme, most spring games are as bare-bones as it gets. That being said, …
By Charles Fischer and the “Grizzled Ol’ Coach” Mike Morris We have ALL been fooled by Spring Games of the past, as players who starred in these May games would not ever see the light of day on the football field in the fall – or they transferred out. Yet other times they have shown us glimpses of the potential some of …
Thanks to my friend, Charles Fischer, I have had the great opportunity to write about many of my favorite offensive schemes here on FishDuck.com. From the Zone Read Bubble to One Back Play Action to Packaged Tempo Plays, these analyses have been about concepts that are the heart of my own personal offensive philosophy. One of the few core spread …
When analyzing Oregon’s offense, it quickly becomes clear they have an uncommon number of explosive plays. According to ESPN’s PAC-12 Blog, an explosive play is defined as any play that gains 20 or more yards. In 2013 the Ducks were able to gain 20+ yards on a single play 106 times. 42 of these were rushing plays; 14 of which …
When the Ducks travelled south to play Pac-12 rival Stanford, there were predictions of a Duck victory. De’Anthony Thomas predicted the Oregon offense would put up forty points, and many others had Oregon at least securing the W. Vegas even had the Ducks as a 10+ point favorite. The Duck faithful had high hopes, and with good reason. Leading up …
“It’s going to be interesting to see if this style of offense projects to the NFL. I’m going to say no. I just don’t see NFL passing concepts in this offense.” – Ron Jaworski “There’s just so many holes to this offense when you transfer it from college to the pros.” – Heath Evans Despite bold predictions to the contrary, …
(FishDuck Note: There have been rumblings about whether Oregon has better personnel to be running a 4-3 defense instead of a 3-4. This analysis by Coach Peterson helps us to learn the differences and to think of how Oregon operates defensively as you read it. Also keep in mind how so many conference opponents have gone to the Spread offense. Learning a little …