OT: San Diego State Rushing Attack

Submitted by Whole Milk on

Maybe I just haven't been paying attention, but I saw today that San Diego State's Rashaad Penny is in the heisman conversation due to his 716 yards in 4 weeks at a little under 8 ypc and 7 TD's. I was surprised to see this because I knew Pumphrey was gone, and didn't think they could possibly get lucky enough to have 3 elite runningbacks in a row (with Hillman as well).

After doing some research on a very boring day at work, I found out that San Diego State is simply an elite system for running backs. In 86 games dating back to 2011, they have had 73 100 yard rushers! Only 21 games in 7 years have they not had a guy break the century mark, and often times they have multiple guys do it (They even had 3(!) guys hit the century mark one game last year).

For those who have a higher football IQ than I, can you tell why they are so successful at running the ball? Is it an ability to find useful runners? Is it coaching? Mountain West competition? Or is it simply a system that is ideal for high running production? And if so, would it work in the Big 10? I would love some discussion on something that I found interesting on a boring Bye Week Wednesday.

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UofM626

September 27th, 2017 at 12:01 PM ^

And this kid can flat out burn and turn. He has destroyed ASU and Stanford in consecutive weeks, his vision is amazing and his YAContact are truly legendary. If you get a chance to watch him play it's a joy. I sat there in Arizona and watched him just burn through a good d line at ASU.

Joined: 01/02/2012

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PopeLando

September 27th, 2017 at 12:50 PM ^

Yea, and the Lord heard the lamentations of the faithful. And taking pity on his children, He granted them a Bye week, that they may learn the errors of their ways, repent, and become worthy of His rushing attack. Mgoboards 9:27 Happy Yom Kippur, U of M football!

Joined: 08/01/2015

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DrMantisToboggan

September 27th, 2017 at 12:05 PM ^

Maybe this Mike Schmidt, OL coach, is a guy to look at? In his 6 seasons at SDSU the Aztecs are in the top 20 in rushing yards per game, rushing TDs, and yards per carry. Pretty great for a non-power 5 school that gets the leftovers from local major P5 programs.

Joined: 11/26/2014

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CarolinaWolverine

September 27th, 2017 at 12:16 PM ^

Let's say Drevno and Frey were hired away from M (assumption being for head coaching jobs) and Harbaugh had to hire and OL dude and further let's say he wanted Schmidt...my question is would he leave San Diego for AA?  Now I love me some AA, don't get me wrong but San Diego is one of the few places I'd have trouble leaving for greener pastures (if I lived there).  No doubt he'd make much more $ at M and have more national exposure but if he's making a great living at SDSU as OL coach (he almost certainly isn't) would he leave?  He probably would.  

Oh well, it's moot anyway because if Drevno is a HC candidate then that means M's OL is kicking butt and then Frey would be promoted in all likelyhood.  I don't want to think of the circumstances where the M OL stinks badly enough that Harbaugh fires Frey and Drevno...ugh.

Tl;dr: Drevno and Frey are the Line coaches for the foreseeable future so the idea of getting Schmidt is moot.

Joined: 08/25/2009

MGoPoints: 706

MGoKalamazoo

September 27th, 2017 at 12:32 PM ^

Their head coach, Rocky Long, has always had a run first offense. They run it something like 66%. Long is the first coach to have sustained success at New Mexico until he retired.

Joined: 01/13/2010

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FatGuyTouchdown

September 27th, 2017 at 12:35 PM ^

with all the teams going to the spread, and more hurry up offenses, there's become a vacuum for primarily blocking fullbacks and tight ends that aren't being recruited by the big name programs that would have offered them even 5-10 years ago. San Diego State runs a VERY basic offense with great success because while everyone goes further to the spread, they go further the other way. They found a market inefficiency and are exploiting it with good coaching and good development.

Joined: 09/07/2014

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Whole Milk

September 27th, 2017 at 1:18 PM ^

Isn't that essentially what we are trying to do as well but only with better athletes? We seemingly have our pick of the litter with blocky/cathcy types for the most part. Is it as simple as not having enough push from the OL that is keeping us from putting anywhere close to SDSU numbers on the board?

Joined: 09/01/2015

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ituralde

September 27th, 2017 at 1:52 PM ^

 

 

 

 

 

 

They play in the Mountain West.  It's still a good accomplishment, but take it with a grain of salt. 

However, there is something to it, and its a pattern not just seen at SDSU.

Since 2012, in all but 1 year, they've been in the top 30 rushing defenses in the FBS.  In the past two years, they've had a top ten unit.  

Running the football is primarily an execution thing more than it is a scheme or strategy thing, especially outside of a spread offense.  

On spread runs (such as any run with any sort of option) and on pass plays, you get a lot of extra edge on decision making alone.  Your offense will have a bunch of free success simply because thy can make a defense guess wrong. This shifts your practice emphasis inherently more towards making the right post-snap read rather than on individual execution.  

When you line it up and attack directly at people, the reads move more pre-snap, and the actual play and coachable moments are more about reacting in the moment and executing correctly on an individual level.  You take more of the post-snap reading out of it.  

Now, it's one thing to have to learn those post-snap reads on an occasional basis against your scout team.  It's something totally different when those post-snap reads are necessarily part of your daily practice simply because of the unit you practice against. 

This might seem like a symmetrical choice, but it turns out winning those individual matchups can absolutely blow up any offense, regardless of how it tries to rely on post-snap reads to ignore defenders. 

On the offensive side of the ball, when your blocking front can out-execute their opponents, you are effectively guaranteed at least a modest gain on a consistent basis.  If the opponent over-committs to stopping this bread and butter, then it opens up your constraints that punish dishonesty.  

For a while in the mid-2000s, this was a bit unclear as the spread/option offenses were fairly young, and were tearing up stale traditional defensive powers (such as us) who were slow to adjust.  However, since then, execution has caught back up and is again king.  If you look at all of the top programs right now in college football, they all rely on basic execution and good defense as their foundation and treat their star power as a bonus, rather than re-tooling their entire team around elite skill-position talent.  

The other side effect of this focus on execution is it also is the best formula for developing talent.  This helps get the most out of the existing recruits, regardless of entry talent level, as well as enticing recruits based on offering a path to a potential NFL career.  

On the offensive side of the ball, when your blocking front can out-execute

It may seem like this is the obvious choice - and for a football blueblood, it should be.  However, if you aren't a football blueblood and think you need that asymmetric edge over higher-tier programs, exotic systems remain an attractive choice.  

Joined: 11/14/2009

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Sllepy81

September 27th, 2017 at 10:02 PM ^

we were set to play them with Hillman a few years back. Saw his stats and figured we were doomed. They remind me of the good Fresno State teams long ago, very dangerous team that you really shouldn't schedule.

Joined: 01/02/2013

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