Pistol Formation with James, Clements, and Duke

[rok]

I noticed Fisch used this formation at least a couple times and it worked beautifully as Morris hit Scott on a bomb down the seam in the first quarter.

Since our tight ends have proven to be pretty average, I'm hoping we see some more of this pistol formation.

On the Morris bomb to Scott it was James next to Morris with Clements behind the QB. Duke lined up in the slot with Scott and Dorsett flanked out wide.

Duke comes in motion and the safeties both crept towards the LOS.

The ball is snapped and Morris doesn't even need to fake a handoff to anyone; the damage had already been done. Scott gets past the safety and hauls in a perfect pass from Morris for a big gain.

Some might say it's too cute, but with our struggle to line up and smash teams in the mouth maybe this is why Fisch has been thinking more outside the box.

Here's the play at 5:23

[video=youtube;aOvLRvwWakE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aOvLRvwWakE#![/video]

 

[canadianhurricane]

I never noticed this.. GREAT PULL!

Fisch is very creative... He's knows how to get the ball downfield and get the offense moving. His problem, so far, is that once we get in the RedZone, he tries too hard to be creative, instead of worrying about getting points. We should want to score and not settle of 3, but we also shouldn't take a chance at a FG for granted.

We have a young, talented staff. Just like we have young, talented players. I think the whole team is learning and adjusting. UM has always prided itself on running 'PRO' systems but even some pro's dont run PRO systems anymore. PISTOL, WILDCAT, SPREAD, I dont care.. Whatever it takes to win and keep a culture of winning...

 

[skyman]

Yea its the diamond formation, we ran it twice against GT last week, fake hand off to Duke and hit James in flat, another time we motioned duke out of it. Dana Holgorsen used it alot when he was at Okie st., and Oklahoma has also used it. Dana runs it at WVU sometimes, he has said it gives the illusion of a power run formation but really he uses it to pass (it was a way to get Blackmon the ball in the redzone one-on-one). He does all that just to pass, I can tell Fisch has been studying some Dana stuff or visited him in the off season because of this (we have ran it the last couple weeks but have only thrown out of it). Another thing we have done is package plays (which Dana also does), where we will call a run but also have a constraint play built in (think bubble pass). There was a play where we were in shotgun and everyone at the line of scrimmage ran the play called (which was a counter with Duke) and Morris read something and threw the bubble instead.

If I get a chance I will find the exact play, you will even see in the play Duke is like "give me the ball fool", lol. The Counter looked like it was open but it is interesting seeing so much spread elements in our offense bringing us to the 21 century.

 

[DeadPoets]

We're still very much a pro system offense. All of the NFL fundamentals they like to see taught are being taught at UM.

Morris was going through reads yesterday and hitting 2nd and 3rd targets. This isn't a 100% throw to a spot offense (like Urban Meyer, Leach, Baylor, etc)

 

[CaneLB]

Great thread/post. The pistol formation is the most dangerous in football because there are so many ways to attack a defense out of it. The traditional shotgun spread has a back off-set to a side which informs a defense about which side the run will most likely come to. The pistol formation increases the amount of guessing that a defense has to do, and deception is always a good thing in football. We have a back in Duke who is perfect for the hurry-up pistol offense like Oregon runs, and once Duke proves his durability over the course of many games I think we'll trust him more to be on the field for long stretches.

Imagine what we could do out of the pistol with Duke/Collins/Cook/Sony (pick 2 even)...just saying.

 

[DeadPoets]

Yea its the diamond formation, we ran it twice against GT last week, fake hand off to Duke and hit James in flat, another time we motioned duke out of it. Dana Holgorsen used it alot when he was at Okie st., and Oklahoma has also used it. Dana runs it at WVU sometimes, he has said it gives the illusion of a power run formation but really he uses it to pass (it was a way to get Blackmon the ball in the redzone one-on-one). He does all that just to pass, I can tell Fisch has been studying some Dana stuff or visited him in the off season because of this (we have ran it the last couple weeks but have only thrown out of it). Another thing we have done is package plays (which Dana also does), where we will call a run but also have a constraint play built in (think bubble pass). There was a play where we were in shotgun and everyone at the line of scrimmage ran the play called (which was a counter with Duke) and Morris read something and threw the bubble instead.

If I get a chance I will find the exact play, you will even see in the play Duke is like "give me the ball fool", lol. The Counter looked like it was open but it is interesting seeing so much spread elements in our offense bringing us to the 21 century.

I remember this vs GT (I think)... maybe BC. But we split Walford wide and everyone ran the counter action but Morris throw a bullet to Walford (who quite frankly wasn't ready for it - you could argue Morris threw a little behind)

I'm sure Morris prefers this hot route to a quick WR.

 

[skyman]

We're still very much a pro system offense. All of the NFL fundamentals they like to see taught are being taught at UM.

Morris was going through reads yesterday and hitting 2nd and 3rd targets. This isn't a 100% throw to a spot offense (like Urban Meyer, Leach, Baylor, etc)

Absolutely, no one said we werent, but even the NFL has taken some things from the spread and it works. I know we have alot of guys tied to the I formation like some schools were tied to the option back in the day, but no one an deny the results and recruits love seeing top 15 offenses.