Mississippi State Football: Spring game offensive film study

Mississippi State Football is breaking in a new offense in 2023. Let’s look at a few plays that stood out in the spring game.

The story of the offseason for Mississippi State football has been the transition away from the Air Raid to a more pro-style attack under new OC Kevin Barbay. Mississippi State Football’s spring game was the first chance for fans to get a glimpse at the new system. And now we can begin to examine the offense a bit closer. Let’s break down a few plays from that game.

Tulu Griffin’s reverse

The first drive of the spring game felt like a statement of change. All four plays were runs, capped off by a 43-yard touchdown by WR Tulu Griffin on a reverse. That reverse was particularly well-designed.

MSU is in 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE) and starts out in a pistol formation with Griffin and the TEs in a tight bunch to the left and WR Justin Robinson alone out wide to the right. They then shift the bunch to the right side of the formation.

This creates an unbalanced formation, as by shifting the bunch to the right, the offense overloads one side and loses an eligible receiver. To the defense, this look screams “run right”, and they shift to counteract. But that’s exactly what the offense wants.

The offense sells the run to the right, with QB Will Rogers faking a handoff to RB Jeffery Pittman. In the meantime, Tulu Griffin reverses into the backfield, Rogers tosses him the ball, and he outraces the defense to the endzone.

Because the defense shifted to account for the strongside run threat, they were out of position to defend the reverse. Barbay loves to use shifts and motion to confuse defenses, and this is a perfect example of how that can lead to a big play.

RPO creates a big gain

RPOs (Run Pass Options) have taken over the sport, and you’ll see them in the Mississippi State Football offense going forward. State’s backups picked up a big gain in a short-yardage situation by running an RPO with TE Nick Lauderdale.

The offense is facing 3rd &1 from the defense’s 39 late in the 1st quarter. Once again they’re in 12 personnel. Lauderdale is aligned as a wing TE to the trips side of the formation. They’re going to run an RPO off of split zone action.

Split zone is a type of zone run where a play-side blocker, generally a TE, will block against the flow of the play and cut off the backside edge defender, hoping to open up a cutback lane for the RB. But for this RPO, Lauderdale is going to fake blocking the edge defender before leaking out into the flat as a pass-catcher.

QB Jake Weir is reading the DB who’s crept down to the backside edge. If he runs with the TE in coverage, Weir will hand the ball off the RB. But if the DB crashes down to defend the run, Weir will pull the ball and throw it out to Lauderdale in the flat.

The defense sells out to stop the run here and had Weir handed the ball off, the play gets blown up in the backfield. But Weir makes the right read and flips the ball out to a wide open Lauderdale, who rumbles 22 yards for a 1st down. It’s truly classic option football but with a modernized twist.

Rogers’ dime to Thomas

Deep shots are a major part of Kevin Barbay’s offense, and that was highlighted in the spring game. Late in the 2nd quarter, he dialed up one of those shots, and MSU’s starters connected on it for a score.

The offense is in 11 personnel with TE Antonio Harmon attached to the line on the left and WRs Justin Robinson, Zavion Thomas, and Tulu Griffin in trips to the right. Robinson and Thomas are going to run verticals while Griffin runs a deep sail route underneath. Harmon has a dig route over the middle with RB Jeffery Pittman working as a check-down option to the flat.

The defense is playing what looks like Quarter-Quarter-Half, or Cover 6, with two deep defenders responsible for the trips side and one deep defender to the TE side. This actually isn’t a bad look to be in against the route combination the offense is showing. But it relies on your safeties holding up 1-on-1 over top.

Zavion Thomas gets behind Shawn Preston, Will Rogers puts the ball out in front of him, and Thomas makes an incredible 1-handed grab for the 55-yard TD. Mississippi State Football has big-time playmakers at WR, and if Rogers can consistently connect on deep shots as he showed in the spring game, the offense could take off.

We still don’t have a great idea of what Mississippi State Football’s offense will be for the 2023 season. This team is still making a big transition and will spend the rest of the offseason figuring out which concepts suit them best. But the plays we’ve discussed above will likely be a part of the arsenal.