Trojan Football Analysis

Mark Sanchez QB Footwork Drills

Ran across this short clip of former USC QB Mark Sanchez with one of his former coaches working on his footwork. Nice 30 second clip to watch if interested in drills.

Stanford Runs

I had a request to re-post some of the Stanford running game from the old site. Here is what I was able to retrieve.

Here is a sample of the running plays Stanford used versus USC to rack up 325 yards on the ground on 50 carries. For simplicity I just looked at the plays for Stanford that gained +9 yards or more. Here is a histogram of all the Cardinal runs in the game.

Stanford had 15 running plays in the game that gained 9 yards or more in the contest. An impressive 9 of these went for 12 yards or more… Continue reading Stanford Big Runs vs USC 2009

USC Base Defensive Fronts

I am just starting a new collection of basic defensive fronts used by USC. Here are the three most common fronts you will see USC use during the course of a game. Keep in mind that defensive personnel groupings (4-3 or 3-4) as loosely tossed around by the media mean almost nothing to coaches who are looking for specifics. They want to know what gaps are the players lined up in. For example is the NT aligned strong or weak on the play. Is the DT playing a 3 technique spot strong or weak? To the field or to the boundary? Etc.

Basic USC Defensive Fronts

1. Over Front Example SL & EZ


Here is an “Over” front out of 4-3 personnel. In this case it is pretty clear that the secondary is in Cover 1. In this case Ohio State is in a one back set with the QB under center and a TE Bunch formation to the wide side of the field.	Here is a better viewing angle to see what is going on. By an Over front the 3 technique DT is to the strong or TE side of the formation and the NT is weak in a 1 technique alignment. One DE is in a wide five technique to the weak side and the other is solid or heads up on the opponent.

2. Under Front Example SL & EZ

Here is the same formation formation for Ohio State later in the game with the strength now into the boundary of the field. USC this time aligns in an Under Front with Cover 1 in the secondary.

Here is a better viewing angle from the end zone angle. The DT is now in a 3 technique to the weak side along with a 5 technique. To the strong or TE side of the formation USC has a 1 technique a 5 technique player and a 9 technique player. Note that LB’s are the 5 technique and 9 technique players in this case. Clay Matthews was actually a hybrid DE/LB for USC in many situations due to his versatility.

3. Double Eagle Front Example SL & EZ


Here is the same basic offensive alignment by Ohio State again later in the game. The strength is again into the boundary on the play. Post snap this might have been some type of quarter quarter half coverage in the secondary but I was not certain.	From behind this time you can see the NT is heads up on the center in a 0 technique alignment. There are two 3 technique players on the outside shoulders of the guards. The #10 LB Cushing is in a 5 technique alignment weak. SS Kevin Ellison is cheating down on a run blitz. To the strong side Clay Matthews is heads up on the end man line of scrimmage (EMLOS)

One formation by Ohio State and three different base defensive alignments by USC. Actually each of these plays was a one back power play by Ohio State. I don’t think they even tried to disguise it much out of this formation. As I recall they did not have a stellar fullback during the season this game was played and they tried a lot of 2 TE sets as a replacement.

USC 2010 Spring Running Game

So far it appears that the running game is the problem spot for the USC offense after only a week of practice. There have been two Saturday scrimmages and the passing game so far has appeared to been stronger side of the offense so far. Matt Barkley is 30 of 48 passing for a 62.5% completion rate and zero interceptions in the two scrimmages. He has thrown for 468 yards which is not bad when you consider that Mitch Mustain has also taken 35 snaps in passing situations and thrown for another 248 yards in the scrimmages. With Barkley having a full year under his belt and with the talent at wide receiver the passing game should do well in 2010. Continue reading USC 2010 Spring Running Game

USC 2010 Spring Practice Clips

Here are a couple of nice plays from last Saturday’s spring practice scrimmage at USC. The athletic department put up the two main highlight plays on YouTube for people to see. On the first play DaJohn Harris strips the ball from QB Mustain and almost takes it the distance. On the second play the 50+ yard effort by freshman Dillon Baxter evoked memories of the Reggie Bush run versus Fresno State back in 2005 by Coach Lane Kiffin.

Down for Site Maintenance

Apologies to all Trojan Football Analysis visitors. We will be down for a few days for site maintenance reasons. I am switching web hosts and I am setting up the site from scratch again due to security and convenience concerns. I should be able to restore all files and have things up and running again in a week or so (knock on wood).

Monte Kiffin Defensive Philosophy - Part 2

In a previous post I threw up some slides from a Monte Kiffin presentation on his defensive philosophy. Let’s take a closer look at some of what he actually does on defense based upon some video from last season at Tennessee versus Ohio.

For starters here is three minutes of some video. Coaching film is courtesy of Brophy Football.

09Tenn @ Yahoo! Video

Notice anything interesting? This was all Double Eagle up front with the center covered heads up and two three technique players on the outside shoulder of the guards. Here is a picture from behind. Continue reading Monte Kiffin Defensive Philosophy – Part 2

Monte Kiffin Defensive Philosophy - Part 1

Here are some simple notes on what USC fans can expect from a Monte Kiffin defense in 2010. I don’t think it will be all that different from a Pete Carroll defense but I think Kiffin is probably better at teaching technique and getting the most out of his players. We’ll see what happens in 2010. It won’t take much to improve upon the lackluster effort of the second half of the 2009 season.

You can download about 80 pages of overview stuff on a Kiffin defense from a partial Tampa Bay defensive playbook located here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3111211/Cover-2-Dungy-Tampa-Bay-Defense-Install

I will just pull up 5 images as a preview for anyone interested. Unfortunately it is not a full playbook just a partial one and the majority of the pages relate to naming conventions and common pass routes the defense must learn.

Here are some notes about the defensive philosophy overall and two common fronts the over and the under out of 4-3 personnel. Continue reading Monte Kiffin Defensive Philosophy – Part 1

Nebraska Running Game - Part 8 (Power & Shovel)

Here are the final two plays from the Nebraska rushing game for which I have some video. This post will end the eight part look at the Nebraska rushing offense of the 1980’s and 90’s. I may take apart an entire sample game time allowing later in the Spring or Summer. Unfortunately I was not able to locate video for every run in the playbook but the past several posts cover the important 80-90% of the attack. A few other plays such as QB counters, draw plays, and a couple other special items are in the playbook if you visit Coach Teed’s playbook site or track down a copy another way. Continue reading Nebraska Running Game – Part 8 (Power & Shovel)

TFA Site Update

Well it has been a very trying past week for me to say the least. For those that have visited this site in the last month or so you may have received warnings from either Google or your browser that this site was suspected of hosting malware. This happened to me once about a year ago and it wound up being a false alarm so I was hoping that it was the same result this time. Unfortunately it was not. Somehow different types of malware did indeed exist on this website indicating that it was hacked into in some fashion which I could not discern. Continue reading TFA Site Update

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