Baylor: Breaking Down the Ofense Baylor has one of the most explosive oenses in college football. The Bears, under coach Art Briles, have become one of the power programs in college football over the last ve years, and the most noticeable culprit for this rise to power has been Art Briles' oense. Briles' oense is a bit of a homemade creation, rst honed during his high school days at tephenville ! in Texas. !e then went to !ouston and further honed this attac" during his # years there, before nally coming to Baylor in $%%&. Splits and Spacing
Baylor's oense depends upon its wide splits, which can throw you o when you rst start watching them.
They ta"e the idea of a spread spread oense to its logical extreme, with the (an"ers )or outsid outside e recei receiver vers* s* often often below below the number numbers, s, and the slot slot guys guys also also being being very very detached from the oensive line. The Bears use this spacing to open u p the defense with their athletes ++ most spread teams do this, but with the way Baylor splits their receivers, the defense essentially has to put everyone on an island in uasi+man+to+
man coverage- it's really tough for opposing defenses to get safety help on at least one or two of their receivers. Tempo
Tempo Tempo is also central to Baylor's scheme. The Bears were second nationally this year in total plays, and rst nationally in plays per game. n this era, bu//words li"e up+tempo and playing fast have become almost clich0d, but Baylor remains dedicated to this philosophy in a program+wide sense ++ the whole entire football program there is dedicated to playing up+tempo and trying to scorch the opposing defense. Running and Passing
1ost people thin" of Baylor as a passing team, and certainly they do li"e to throw the roc". !owever, most of their oense is built o of their running game, or at least the threat of it. 2uring one game charted of them in $%34 )5"lahoma*, they either handed the ball o or fa"ed a hando about 6#7 of the time. They only throw o of a dropbac" about $#7 of the time. n short, they don't want to dropbac" and throw a lot, because they thin" that in order to get the matchups and the loo"s they want in the passing game, they have to present the threat of the run, primarily to hold the safeties and linebac"ers from committing one way or the other. Baylor wants those guys to have to thin" about what they're playing, and a defensive player that has to actively thin" and uestion his assignments is an ineective defender. defender. What Playbook
Art Briles doesn't actually actually have a playboo". playboo". 8hile it might stri"e stri"e you as odd that a 9ower # program doesn't have a playboo", it's actually by design. Briles believes that once you start needing a playboo" to go over, you've probably got too much for your "ids to remember. This bogs them down in terms of :ust going out there and playing football, so Briles has chosen :ust to install his oense without issuing his "ids one. Terminology
Briles played for Bill ;eoman at !ouston. ;eoman was the inventor of the veer oense ++ basically a triple option out of a split+bac" loo" )if you're a !ouston ote? this is obviously not exact and is pieced together using ;eoman's terminology and "nowledge of Briles' oense. 8e will use this terminology when discussing
Baylor's oense. @ower numbers are to the right- higher numbers are to the left. 8hen you see $& one in this section, it's the same play, but it's how it would be called to the rightleft.
!umbers
Series
ingle 2igits
9re+determined 9re+determined give to CB, no read
3%'s
Cead option play with 8C screen on ba bac"side
$%'s
Dap scheme runs )power, counter, sweep, etc.*
4%'s
1an scheme run plays )isos, EB snea"s ++ this isn't going to be used a lot*
F%'s
Glipped versions of the ingle, 3%'s, $%'s, and 4%'s series
#%'s
#3#= are screens to the receivers, ## is a draw play, and #$+#F and #H+#& are the basic dropbac" passing game
H%'s
5pen9ossibly not used
6%'s %'s
@ead ead optio tion seri series es in ;eoma eoman' n's s playb layboo oo" "po poss ssib ibly ly not not used used any mor more
4%%'s
9lay action passes ++ attached to the ingles, 3%'s, $%'s, 4%'s and F%'s scheme.
F%%'s
ame as 4%%'s, but with counter action
Base Plays 13/17 Bubble + A simple inside /one with a receiver screen on the bac"side is Baylor's base play.
This is a called run play, but if the numbers in the box are not favorable ++ i.e. the defense has H in the box versus only # run bloc"ers ++ they'll tell their EB to throw the uic" screen. This "eeps the defense from committing too many resources to stopping one thing. Additionally, even though this is diagrammed as 34 Bubble, there can be a number of tags added to this play to ma"e it loo" li"e li"e a good number of plays. Gor example, you could call it as 34 >ow to get a screen to the outside receiver.
Additionally, they could call 3# Cead Bubble )we're putting the bac" to the right this time so the EB can see if he needs to throw the bubble* to ma"e it a sort of triple option- an inside /one read with a receiver running a bubble screen ++ if the EB sees the 2I crashing, he pulls the ball out and ta"es o. f the defense overplays the EB when he ta"es o, he can uic"ly throw the bubble. This adds another layer of complexity without dedicating dedicating too much more teaching time with their scheme.
Ceally, this play can become about 6+& plays with all the dierent tags that you can attach to it and all the dierent ways to call it. Baylor will even attach dropbac" passing concepts to it )primarily stic" or slot slants*
Duess what- you've :ust learned about $#+4%7 of their oense right there. They really do run a variant of that play that much. 2/8 Zone + An outside /one play with no bac"side call.
To To be honest, haven't seen Baylor run it that much, but considering their /one scheme, it has to be included as a base play. Baylor will generally run this with a TI or !+Bac" in the bac"eld so that they can get an extra bloc"er at the point of attac". The bac"s are reading the helmet of the TI on this play- if the helmets are facing in, they brea" out. f the helmets are facing out, they'll go bac" inside. Power play and variants/20’s series + Baylor also runs the power play. The only real dierence is that they've got two or three dierent ways of running the th e power series )in which case, it'd simply be called $4*. The rst one is :ust a straight up power play with no read. This is how most pro+style p ro+style teams do it.
The second way is the power read concept, which has become en vogue over the last # or so years in high school and college football.
The rules are the same as the regular power, except that the playside tac"le is down bloc"ing the rst down lineman to his left. The EB reads the unbloc"ed man on the line of scrimmage- if he goes to the EB, the EB will hand o to the CB. f the
unbloc"ed man (ies up to stop the CB going to the outside, the EB will pull it down and get up the eld. The third way, and probably the least tal"ed about way, is simply treating it li"e a /one read, with the bac"side tac"le going to bloc" the rst second level defender he nds. The EB will read the bac"side 2I li"e it's a /one read play- if the 2I hesitates or slow plays the read, the EB will hand it o. f the 2I crashes on the bac", the EB will simply ta"e himself and replace the 2I. Also, the power play series is much li"e the /one series when it comes to all the options on the bac"side when it comes to uic" throws. 8e've only really tal"ed about 4 plays thus far, but with all the ad:ustments and tags they can add with this oense, you've really got about 4% plays here. Play action concepts/300's and 400's eries + This is where Baylor does the most damage in the passing game. Baylor loves to fa"e the run and drop bac" and pass. 1ostly, this is done with uic" passes to the slot, li"e a short post, slant, or shallow crossing route to a slot receiver. The reason they do this is to mess with outside linebac" linebac"ers ers trying to ll too uic"ly on the run, thus leaving their area open in the passing game.
5n the the outs outsid ide, e, it's it's rare rare that that Bayl Baylor or does doesn' n'tt run run eith either er a fade fadeg go o route route or a comebac" route. They will usually have one+on+one coverage to the outside on the defense's corner, so they will try and ta"e advantage of that with one of their speedy receivers going deep. 5n occasion though, they'll ta"e their outside receiver and run a post route with him. !ropbac" concepts/#0's eries + Baylor doesn't dropbac" a lot, but when they do, they usually ma"e use of one of the following concepts. A common play they use is one where the slot receiver runs a slightly angled go route, while the (an"er, or outside receiver, runs a uic" slant in.
This is basically a pic" play, as the corner usually runs into the slot receiver when the outside receiver is running a slant route. Another play Baylor li"es to use is the old witch concept from the run 'n shoot oense. The inside receiver gets an outside release, and runs a wheel route. The outside receiver gets an inside release, and runs a post route. don't "now for sure whether they are actually reading the defense li"e the run+and+shoot guys did, but do "now that they do have at least the postwheel version of this play. Baylor also has the old reliable Gour
This is typically something they'll do as they hurry up to the line. suspect this is something that's an automatic call when they hurry up near the goal line.
"onclusion
Ceally, that's about it in terms of the base oense. t doesn't seem li"e much for a GB program, much less a top 3% program to have, but this is about &%+=%7 of what they run. Cemember though, that Baylor is not a team that sacrices a complete scheme for simplicity- their scheme is uite complete when it comes to options for attac"ing a defense and having multiple ways to do it.
#urther Reading On This Ofense $not already included in the write%up&
http?www.sbnation.comcollege+football$%34336#%6 http?www.sbnation.comcollege+fo otball$%34336#%64#$%baylor 4#$%baylor+football+ +football+ oense+art+briles+$%34 http?grantland.comfeatureschris+brown+how+art+briles+potent+oense+made+ baylor+national+title+contender
http?www.footballstudyhall.com$%34#$$F4#3FFHBay http?www.footballstudyhall.c om$%34#$$F4#3FFHBaylor lor+bears+football+art+ +bears+football+art+ briles+lache+seastrun"+spread+oense http?regressing.deadspin.comwhy+baylo http?regressing.dea dspin.comwhy+baylor+is+por r+is+porn+for+fo n+for+football+nerds+3FH&3F3 otball+nerds+3FH&3F3FH4 FH4 W'T"( T()S OR D)* $no+ not really&
Art Briles at a coaching clinic giving a general overview of h is oense Art Briles' tephenville ! highlight lm Baylor's
