How to Split the Field
Georgia vs. Tennessee in 2023
I had hoped to get to Duo today, but in its current state that post is not ready to do the play justice. Soon.
-EW
Good day to you and welcome to today’s conversation on “splitting the field.”
There is much conversation to be had about how to construct quick game concepts. You can mirror them on both sides, you can offer a man side and a zone side or you could work off post-snap movement like where the Mike goes. In short, you can do a lot and I’m not sure there is a right answer.
The Georgia Bulldogs ran a stick-adjacent concept that I’ve sometimes seen called Shock. This concept is run out of three-receiver sets with the number one receiver running a hitch, the number two a slot fade, and the number three a stick route that can convert to an out against man.
The Dawgs ran this play eight times against Tennessee this past season. When you run a play eight times in one game, it’s either working super well and you don’t need to change a thing or you run it a few different ways so it feels like a couple different plays. This play on this day in Rocky Top was a combination.
So that leads us to today’s study: splitting the field. I will let the cutup do the talking because there are eight plays that tell the story of how Georgia runs this play. They do not line up and run the same thing each time, but change up routes and reads whether by call or in reaction to the defensive structure. At the core of their attack is the idea of splitting the field. The Shock concept is run to the three receiver side and then they run gos, slants, and option routes to the backside. They also ran a slant-like route by the number three receiver in the Shock concept — I hadn’t seen this before but am curious if they did it in other games.
Watching a team work through this many variations on the play is as fascinating as it is inspiring. Their ability to solve problems and create answers within a concept is a real fruit of creativity. Creativity comes from constraint and I argue these plays are a great example of that proposition.
Enough talk, enjoy the cutup of all eight plays:
Until tomorrow,
Emory Wilhite
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