RUNNING AN SEC OFFENSE
Fourth year in league will see Aggies trying more physical attack.
Texas A&M introduced the up-tempo offense to the SEC three years ago, proving to the defense-oriented league what an ab-libbing quarterback and athletic receivers could do to its established hierarchy.
But an 11-2 SEC debut record dropped to 9-4 in 2013, then 8-5 in 2014. As Johnny Manziel gave way to Kenny Hill, then Kyle Allen, the quarterback became far less of a threat to run. The offensive average yards per game for A&M dropped from 558.5 in 2012 to 538.4 in 2013 and then to 455.4, when there were far fewer explosive plays.
If you’re A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, what do you do to return to offensive dominance?
A year ago, A&M’s rush offense ranked only 84th nationally with 150 yards per game. But the running game was even more anemic in A&M’s five losses, averaging only 86.8 yards per contest.
In the offseason, Sumlin committed to looking like more of a traditional SEC offense. Building a better running game also should make the passing attack much more difficult to defend.
Sumlin hired Dave Christiansen, formerly head coach at Wyoming and offensive coordinator at Utah, as his new line coach in charge of the running game. Sumlin then added Aaron Moorehead as his receivers coach with the directive to make the guys catching the ball bet- ter blockers on the perimeter. Moorehead, a former receiver with the Indianapolis Colts, has had recent coaching stops with Virginia Tech and Stanford.
Sumlin figures an emphasis on the running game will help make the job easier for new defensive coordinator John Chavis. The Aggies defense also has been told to up its game against the run. The Aggies will see more physical running plays in practice each day.
“As the head coach, you’re always assessing the program and where you are,” Sumlin said. “Whatever you’re doing well, you need to continue to work on that to stay ahead of the curve, and when you’re not where you need to be, you need to make adjustments. Coming into year four in this league, it’s a line of scrimmage and depth league. We’ve recruited to that, but also schematically we needed to make some changes to help us try to move into the top tier in this league.
“It’s hard to be physical on one side of the ball and a finesse team the other way,” Sumlin said. “It’s helped us. The running game style has helped, practicing against that with our defense. It changes our attitude up front.”
Tra Carson, a 6-foot, 240-pound bruiser of a tailback, is expected to be first team. The rotation also will include James White, who at 6 feet, 220, considers himself more of a physical back than a finesse one, and possibly freshman Kendall Bussey, a shorter back at 5-9, but who weighs 200.
Brandon Williams, who might be the team’s fastest player, was moved from tailback to cornerback to help with depth in the secondary.
White said he likes the changes he’s seen so far.
“The running backs are having fun,” he said. “We see the difference; it’s pretty good.”
Center Mike Matthews said that Christiansen has installed more of a gap scheme blocking philosophy, with the guards and tackles asked to do more pulls. That means A&M probably will add counters and other misdirection plays this fall.
“Obviously, last year we weren’t very satisfied with what we were able to do,” Matthews said. “With Coach Christiansen coming in, we’ve run the ball pretty well. We have a great opportunity to do a lot better than what we did last year. … He tells us, ‘Hey, if you’re going to be a soft guy, you’re not going to play for this offensive line.’ You’ve got to be a physical, bad dude who goes out there and tries to move the guy off the ball.”
Offensive coordinator Jake Spavital still is most comfortable working with the spread. But he said he doesn’t mind putting an offense on the field that would rather be more physical than finesse.
“Up front I’ve always thought we’ve been physical, but we’ve changed some of the schemes, and that’s going to help them out,” Spavital said. “We do a lot of stuff where we try to get the ball on the perimeter and make plays in space. We’ve always prided ourselves on getting the ball to our playmakers, but if you can’t block for each other it’s not going to do much. We need to dig down and help each other.”