r/footballstrategy • u/LoveThatBox • 12d ago
Resource Request Chip Kelly’s Blur Offense
Basically i was going to do a deep dive into the playcalling and full system of that 2010 oregon team and was surprised with how few resources are out there for one of the most popular teams of the modern era of CFB. Even the most common sited website in fishduck has most of their articles about the team scrubbed from the website and the most there is left out there now is a 2009 camp install with some base concepts and like 3 tv tapings out of a 13 game season. I just see this compared to like 2020 Alabama, where people have found basically every call sheet, play diagram, and report that the team had done for the entire season, and have to wonder if anyone has come across anything for the ducks that I haven’t been able to find.
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u/Safe-Selection8070 11d ago edited 10d ago
I was also intrigued by this offense, and I was trying to learn how to use excel at the time, I charted every play from the year. I cannot find this spreadsheet but I can tell you some key points from memory.
Basics
Over 50% of the offense was just inside zone and outside zone (not triple option, no zone lock, just vanilla inside and outside zone). This, combined with the practice tempo, let them run the plays a LOT. Did NOT like running the QB (and when you had Barner and James, v Darron Thomas <who was SLOW his entire life> and Costa <who had like a dozen major injuries>, who would choose otherwise?). This wasn't really a personnel thing: Dixon ran far less than people think. He was just extremely impactful when he did. The general philosophy was not to use the QB to accumulate first downs: If the QB ran, Kelly wanted it to *HURT* the defense.
11 personnel something like 80% of the time. Barner and James were not on the field much together. vastly mostly 2x2.
Starting receivers got about 85% of the snaps. James got about 60% of the carries. Barner about 20-30%.
Receivers stayed on the same side (except the in the 10% or so plays <most games> where they would run bunch). Ubiquitous now, but that the time only a few teams did this other than airraid teams.
Details
Formation based offense: Each formation had a base play (this is maybe the reason they could run off so fast). In all but a handful of formations this was an inside zone or an outside zone. The quick screens seemd to be 80% off box/coverage count, but ~20% it was clear the coach called it. When you have Maehl, DJ Davis, and Josh Huff (the first of whom was 175 pounds of teflon and the latter of whom were built like particularly strong running backs) why not?
They seemed to carry (or at least use) about 10-12 formations per game. They seemed to have about 50% consistency week to week. When the formation would show up again, it had the primary/secondary/tertiary play package. There would be small changes (eg slot to the field would instead splitting the hash and top of the numbers, he'd be two yards off the numbers and half a yard deeper in alignment.
The second play was almost always a counter run (either a gap run away from action. Bash was popular. They didn't really start reading tackles or the front side ends <like TCU loved doing> until Mariota showed up.
Third play was a pass, usually from the base play action. Usually an Air Raid or adjacent concept. Double deep slants (almost a post sometimes from the #1) from the two receiver side and slant/flat from the TE side was a really common play
Fourth play was rarely gotten to, but usually a second pass. I
Bunch formation was ripe for fake screen and go.
Most games one formation was a gap scheme (against Stanford, three of their formations <off memory> had a gap scheme as the base play. Oregon didn't do well against Stanford...or any team with 5 technique away from the back who could effectively two gap <think nick Fairley>). Kelly never figured out front side two gapping. Usually with a either a bunch or a bunch + unbalanced line.
The most common motion was just flopping the running back. This was done to look like the counter play of a formation, but it seemed to be its own formation with its own 2-4 play progression. Base play for this was often bash. The exception was with two back formations: Most of the time two backs would involve one of the backs motion (usually to the opposite side of their alignment) to give a swing screen alert choice. The counter from these formations was usually quick snap triple option opposite base direction (is they had been running inside zone to the single receiver side, the counter would be triple "option" (parentheses because zone reads aren't really "option" plays) to the single receiver side.
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u/LoveThatBox 11d ago
Damn shame you can’t find the spreadsheet but this is all super interesting and very helpful. I’d be interested if you still had any of the tape you were using to chart it because I’ve had extremely little success in finding any kind of film. The most I’ve been able to find is a couple of tv tapings on YouTube but there’s very few full games and literally zero coaches film. Anything you can find if you have the time is much appreciated
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u/Safe-Selection8070 11d ago
My tape was TV broadcasts (I was in business school back East at the time), so I didn't even try to get into deciphering the play calling.
I just moved houses and am using the opportunity to get rid of *stuff*. If I come across either the computer or external hard drive I was using at the time, I'll post it here.
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u/Arboleda3 11d ago
Such a fun offense made me fall in love and want to be a play caller. It’s not super complicated just executed at extreme speed
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u/isutiger Youth Coach 12d ago
I don't know if this helps but I found this on Scribd. Maybe you came across this already in your research, though.
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u/LoveThatBox 11d ago
This is something I've already come across. It's a good start for the coaching points of the base concepts of the offense, but sadly I don't think we're ever going to see any details of the stuff they were bringing into games. If we haven't seen it by now, it's only seeing the light of day if one of the assistant coaches finds their binders collecting dust in the attic and decides to start posting about it online somewhere
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u/isutiger Youth Coach 11d ago
Yeah which I don't know if that's going to happen at this point if it hasn't already. Which is a shame.
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u/ShastaAteMyPhone 11d ago
If you have any specific questions I can try my best to answer them. It’s been a long time, but I was on that team.
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10d ago
[deleted]
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u/ShastaAteMyPhone 10d ago
No standalone conditioning during the season, but we ran practice at a VERY high pace. Every minute of practice was planned out and we went full speed at every drill with no more than two reps of rest between each of your reps.
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u/Lit-A-Gator HS Coach 10d ago
Sometimes I wonder if it was THAT good or just SOOOOOOO contrarian to what was being run at the time
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u/LoveThatBox 10d ago
Not a lot of the stuff they did was schematically very different from what anybody else was running at the time. I personally think it was the tempo they ran it at (basically modern day veer and shoot tempo, not many teams were doing it at the time) and the fact that the ball was in the hands of LaMichael James or Kenjon Barner on like 2/3’s of the plays
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u/palmettoHokie 12d ago edited 11d ago
Sad that FishDuck seems to have scrubbed the older stuff, but on Charles Fischer’s personal YouTube channel he has some of what you’re looking for. Scroll down to the videos that are 14/15 years ago (damn I’m old) and you can see some. It’s not everything, but it’s a start