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Ross Fulton Analysis: How Will Chip Kelly Change The Ohio State Offense This Spring? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Friday, March first time, your host Tom
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  Moore. The Akron game is in one hundred and eighty three days, the
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  game against Michigan in two hundred and seventy four days. We are also continuing
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  our countdown to spring football. On today's show, we're talking to our buddy
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  Ross Fulton, the exes and nose Guru at buckey Huddle dot com to find
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  out you've heard what I am interested in watching this spring. Now let's hear
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  what everyone's smart football friend is interested in watching this spring. Because there's a
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  lot of fascinating storylines that we're gonna be talking about the offense. And of
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  course when we talked to Ross, we were sponsored by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse,
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  proudly offering nationally acclaimed USDA Prime Stakes, seafood and sushi, impeccable service,
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  live entertainment, and an attention to detail that is simply unmatched. Just go
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  to Jeff Ruby dot com slash Columbus today. All right, so we're gonna
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  be talking about the offense today, what we're most interested in seeing, and
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  there's you know, there's new personnel, there's you know, potentially maybe a
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  tweak in the scheme. There's guys who are maybe shifting positions. There's all
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  sorts of stuff to talk about in the offense. But ross it feels like
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  we got to start. Let's start at the top of the offense with the
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  new offensive coordinator, Chip kell How different do you think things might look this
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  spring with Chip Kelly there running the offense with Ryan Day. That's what I'm
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  interested in finding out. I would say that's at the top of the list.
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  I think that is a couple of dimensions. I mean, so when
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  Bill O'Brien, when Brian Day had his last press conference when Bill Obrian was
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  still the offensive coordinator, he talked about it being the Ohio State offense with
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  elements added in from Bill O'Brien. Now with Chip Kelly, there's as we've
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  discussed, there's a lot more overlap between what Ryan Day does and what Chip
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  Kelly does. But I think to the extent, what I'll be looking for
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  right away is how much different is the run game and that that's a couple
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  different dimensions. That's both in terms of the play usage and like you know,
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  we've talked about, Chip Kelly is using a more diverse run game.
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  You know, plays like pin and poll for instance, which were an element
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  of what Ohio State has done in the past, but a much more constant
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  part of Chip Kelly's offense and has been for a long time. You know,
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  his his sweep play where he pulls two linemen and blocks down. So
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  there's things like that, you know, but then also like formationally, I
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  think we'll be interesting as well. You know, one thing chip Kelly did
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  in response to some of the issues he had in the NFL in terms of
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  being predictable by tendencies was that he at UCLA started using a lot more same
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  side run. So just by that, I mean that running the ball to
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  the side the half back lines up on a shotgun because obviously, I think
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  we've talked about before. If you're you know, you can become predictable,
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  especially an eleven personnel, by where the tight end and running back are because
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  you can only run certain things. But chip Kelly did a good job at
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  UCLA at least of you know, like, for instance, that same side
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  sweep play, like he would run it to the side the running back was
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  on, and so you change up the steps for the running back, but
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  it's still the same for the offensive line, and that you know, helps
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  break tendencies or you know, he'd run power to the side of the running
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  back, and so that would be an area as well that I'm looking at.
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  I would also you know, then we'll see some of how much are
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  they going to incorporate the Q read into the mix, particularly Q read run
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  play, so right reading a defender and the quarterback has the option to give
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  or keep. I wouldn't expect, at least like to see a lot of
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  quarterbacks keeping you know, whether it's in the spring game or open practice sessions,
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  but like you'll still be able to tell somewhat whether it's a live read.
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  You know. Another thing Chip Kelly has done is like he's he's good
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  at changing up who is read to keep the defense off balanced. So like
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  he'll you know, it won't just be the defensive end every time on his
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  own read. Like they'll run an outside zone where they read the defensive tackle.
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  Again that both changes up the bocking scheme. Let you get outside,
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  you know, because you're not as worried about a bigger defensive tackle running with
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  the running back, but also just keeps defenders off balance because all of a
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  sudden they're not blocked, So how much are they doing that, you know,
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  changing up who's being read? And then I guess that the fourth thing
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  I'd add to that is personnel too. So another thing we saw from Chip
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  Kelly at UCLA was a lot more use of heavy personnel than he had used
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  in the past. That gave the four both of using two tight ends but
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  also like bringing wide receivers in tight and using them for instance, like if
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  you're running countertrait using one of the wide receivers as the poll and leading.
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  And I do think that creates an interesting dynamic for a state because I like
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  last year, I would say that tight end is probably the weakest position group
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  on the offense, whereas wide receivers the strongest. So it's like, how
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  much do they really want to use twelve personnel when they do? Can the
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  tight ends block better than they did last year? And you know, I
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  think I think that conversely, a Mecca BUCA has the size and to sort
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  of fill that role of playing tight and being a you know, blocker accounted
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  for in the tackle box. They oh, I say, actually did do
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  a little bit of that last year with him on split blocks. That like,
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  so looking for whether that role increases. So those are sort of the
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  things that jump to the top of my mind on the offense, and then
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  as far as the run game, one thing that's really interesting to me is,
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  you know, we're talking about the changing you know, what they might
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  do differently on the run game, and there's some stuff that you know,
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  hey, running the same side run, so you talk about like, sure
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  you can, you can do that, and that's that's fine. There are
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  other schematic changes in terms of maybe different times, types of running, or
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  you can be running more inside versus outside that are contingent potentially in a bunch
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  of different stuff, all of which is potentially a little bit different this year.
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  So you've got some new faces on the offensive line. There's at least
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  one spot open on the offensive line, and we'll see if you know,
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  maybe someone steals if Sethn Glocklin comes in, steals that starting center jobway from
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  Carson Hinsman, and you got the right right guard spot open, you got
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  a new quarterback, and it's going to be they have five quarterbacks on the
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  roster this year. It's going to be number one, a new starting quarterback,
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  and number two a running quarterback, which they very much did not have
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  last year. And then number three, you've also got new running back,
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  You've got Quinn Shawn Judkins on the roster this year. When they're figuring out
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  this spring, hey, here's some stuff that we think we're going to do
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  more of or less of. How much? I mean, I'm sure all
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  of those things factor into some degree or another, But is there one of
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  those that really you know, hey, we have concerns about the middle of
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  the offensive line, or you know, hey, the quarterback run really opens
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  up this Like, which of those factors is maybe the deciding factor in you
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  know, what they end up doing or not doing. Is there is there
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  one that's more impactful than others. I think the quarterback run element is where
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  you start, because that impacts how you constrain defenses and what your responses are
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  to defenses, you know, versus is using our pos versus using other heavier
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  personnel. I mean, there's different ways to go about this that we've discussed
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  over time, but I think it's how much of a commitment are they going
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  to have to a live quarterback regame it as well as like you know,
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  quarterback designed run plays. We saw some of that. Both of those with
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  Devin Brown last year, and so, you know, I think the Day's
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  offense, I mean, I still believe that, like for the issue is
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  when you're spread out in the shotgun and you don't have the quarterback read element,
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  it makes you somewhat predictable by formation in alignment, and it makes you
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  somewhat predictable in terms of not being able to count for numbers. It's so
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  I think a lot of what Day's offense is designed was the concepts are based
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  upon having a quarterback that can at least serve as a read threat, and
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  so that should make everyone look better because you know, there were times when
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  the blocking the offensive line was blamed. You know, the offensive line got
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  blamed for the tight end blocking, which is like a whole other issue that
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  we've talked about that drives me crazy. But also like you know, when
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  there's unaccounted for defenders, you can only do so much. And so I
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  do think that like how much they're going to go back to what I would
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  even consider like what they were like with justin fields, you know, twenty
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  nineteen, twenty twenty, in terms of just making that an element that defenses
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  have to account for. That that's where I would start, and then I
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  think, you know to your question. The second issue again where I'm looking
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  forward when I talked about run game diversity, is you know, how dependent
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  are they still with stretch being their base run play versus a more amalgamation of
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  inside zone, outside zone power, counter pin and pull which is sort of
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  like a buck sweep and you know, duo my back again, like when
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  we talked about like the overlap of Chip Kelly and Ryan Day, like all
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  those things just named off are plays that I that I can show you examples
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  of where Ohio States has run them over the last couple of years. Again,
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  it's just emphasis, right, It's like what percentage you know some of
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  those plays like windback for instance, So like you know what running back steps
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  one way and comes back the other way. It's like an inside down of
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  play but effectively functions like down a block, like you'd see it once or
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  twice in a certain game and then you wouldn't see it again, you know.
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  And like chip Kelly was much more consistent and using a variety of concepts
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  at EACLA. So again that's like I think you'll you you know, spring
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  is for installing your base offense and so like that it is someone telling what
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  they rely on because that's like the what they consider the base offense. And
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  it feels like every time we've talked about Chip Kelly and his potential impact at
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  Ohio State, we've kind of focused on the run game. Are there things
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  that you might see in the past game this spring that would make you say,
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  okay, that's maybe like the chip Kelly influence in the passing game.
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  And you know, is that based on chip Kelly's influence or is that based
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  on hey, you got a different type of quarterback potentially now, Yeah,
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  I mean so someone hard to disentangle those. And it's also hard to disentangle
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  that Chip Kelly and Ryan Day's passing games, like if you just pulled their
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  playbooks out, are virtually identical. There might be some different emphasis, Like
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  you know, there's certain plays that chip Kelly loves to run, like why
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  cross, like deep crossing her oute, spacing snag. But again, these
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  are like all concepts we talked about with Ohio State Ryan Day all the time.
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  Uh. But you know one thing that I do think chip Kelly used
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  a little bit more of the day was like quick game like tight end stick
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  routes you know, like sort of three step drop concepts where you you know,
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  five or six yards you know, hit hit it quickly. And again
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  that's like also something that Bill Brian used more of than Day, So maybe
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  that's something he's looking to add in the passing game, and you know,
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  something to look for if you see a little bit more quick game concepts.
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  But you know, I think that as I've as I said before, I
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  mean I think that you know, I would personally say that Ryan Day has
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  been a better developer of the past game that Chip Kelly has been in their
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  career. So I don't think that's like an area where you will see a
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  tremendous amount of change. And then, you know, I guess it does
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  depend on what they feel that Will Howard's comfortable with as a quarterback, particularly
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  in terms of RPOs and how much either of them rely upon that. All
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  right, well, we will start finding out how much they're going to rely
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  on RPOs and everything else starting next Tuesday when the Buck guys open the spring
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  practice at the Pity Hayes Athletic Center. But there's going to be a lot
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  to talk about and a lot to watch and a lot to follow this spring.
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  A lot of interesting positional battles, some cinematic changes, much much more.
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  We're gonna be talking on tomorrow show about the defense and what we're watching
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  for there, so you can look forward to that coming up in about twenty
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  four hours, but even before that, you can look forward to a nice
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  trip to Jeff Ruby Steakhouse. Treat yourself, you deserve it. It is
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  the award winning upscale steakhouse in downtown Columbus, named one of the top fifty
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  steakhouses in a Buy Food Network. Just go to Jeffruby dot com slash Columbus
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  to check out the menu and make a reservation today that we'll do it for
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  today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you tomorrow