ICYMI: This is a part of The Outside Zone’s full 2021 G5 preview series, which last looked at FAU. You can find a master list for all of the previews here.
I’ll admit it: I wasn’t excited coming into this preview. Kent State was a ton of fun to watch in 2020, but the sample size was tiny, and the Golden Flashes run that same all-RPO glance/screen offense that I’ve grown so tired of. This is probably the first real conference title contender on the board for this preview series, but Kent State just… seemed like a known quantity to me.
But after sitting down and watching this offense, I’ll tell you all right now – I’m in. Or… back in. Sean Lewis’ offense is that RPO stuff, it is closely related to the Jeff Lebby/Lane Kiffin/Josh Heupel family, and it is min-maxing offense in a way that feels antithetical to the entire purpose of sport at large. But, it’s also really really good at it. More so than anyone else on the growing list of RPO acolytes in the G5 ranks, save maybe for UCF and SMU. Quarterback Dustin Crum knows his stuff, to the point where Kent State has really started to have some fun with the wrinkles that it adds into this system, creating something really cool, and just about completely impossible to stop.
So, rather than a full preview, I figured I’d go back to my roots a bit and break down a few of these plays. I’ve attached some preview info as well so that you can still get a look ahead at this roster. You can also check out my podcast, Flipping The Field, which previewed the MAC a few weeks ago.
Coach: Sean Lewis, fourth year, 12-17
2020 Essentials: 3-1, 1st in PPG, 114th in PPG allowed; 94th in SP+, 44th in offense, 118th in defense
Departures to know: WR Isaiah McKoy
Returners to know: Everyone else on the offense; Also the entire defense
New faces: WR Nykeim Johnson (CUSE); S Antwaine Richardson (MARY); S Nico Bolden (UNM)
Key storylines:
This was the nation’s best offense last season and every single member of it is back, save for McKoy.
The defense was dogshit.
Staff: The same as it has been.
In a sentence: Kent State is going to look to be the best half-team in the country this year, with an absolutely killer offense and a defense that it’s just going to hope can force a few turnovers.
Prediction: 9-3
Running Game
We have a gadget play up first here, one of the less intriguing of the bunch but still worth talking about. Kent State sets up with a 2x2 formation, 10 personnel, and shows off a pretty simple jet sweep with the halfback taking the lead as a blocker for the weakside motion receiver.
As far as I can tell, based on the length of the mesh point and the blocking assignments, this is a jet inverted veer look, with the option for the quarterback to pull the ball and keep it if that isolated playside defensive end overplays the motion man and sets too hard an edge. Given that the line is blocking to the weakside, with the weakside guard pulling, I think that the quarterback is actually reading here and would be following that guard in the case of a pull read.
I say that, as well, because this is a familiar look for this offense. Similar design here, complete with the pulling guard and the frontside halfback as a lead blocker, Kent State just swaps the handoff man for a second back. The reads are the same though, the end plays it too far out, and BAM! Crum pulls the ball and has an easy touchdown following behind that pulling guard. The option is cool.
I’m not quite sure where Lewis picked it up, but he’s also played around with the extended mesh point option looks that Wake Forest has ridden to success for years. The rushing attack isn’t the most prolific part of this offense, but it’s still very, very hard to stop because of these extended mesh points, and because of the way that they gel with the RPO looks that Kent State is so good at.
For example, this is an RPO. Look at the blocking. The left tackle is pass blocking to pick up the edge rusher, while the backside guard and the frontside tight end are leading the way for the potential handoff. There’s a slant (or glance in RPO cadence) for the pass threat, but the defense has three DBs on the single receiver side of the field before the play, so the quarterback is thinking run here. The next read is that isolated defensive end, who stays home, so Crum gives the ball off.
Boundary screen is the passing threat here, with two backside pullers to help with the handoff. I think this could be a designed handoff, but I don’t want to speak in definitives with this offense because I think there is at least a chance that this is an RPO, and that the overloaded boundary look for the defense scared Crum off of his screen, even though it may go for decent yardage here. However, the blocking scheme and the secondary receiver outside not really blocking the corner for the sake of the screen indicates true handoff, to me. Don’t quote me on that, though.
Passing Game
I say all of that to establish the strength of this offense: almost every play either looks like it has a passing threat, or it actually does have a passing threat. It’s so hard to read and react to anything that this group is doing before it actually does it, because Kent State adheres so closely to its familiar base looks and blocking schemes that literally everything looks the same until it happens. It’s like a pitcher with a nasty slider and a 100 MPH fastball – you aren’t going to know what he threw until it’s already past you.
Here’s one of those RPO screens. It’s another 2x2 look, showing these little flash screens on either side of the field. The defense is unbalanced to the boundary, which in the intended direction of this play, so Kent State has to pull the boundary nickel into the box to create 1-on-1 for the blocker to the outside, with it being a true 2-on-1 because we aren’t accounting for the screen receiver.
That’s what the extended mesh point (and blocking down the field on a passing play) can do for you. Because the line is run blocking and because Crum holds this read for so long, that nickel is forced to collapse in, and as soon as he does, Crum pulls the ball and has a super easy throw to the screen man for six.
The extended mesh point is a common refrain in this passing attack, much more so than you would see from the more standard Lebby offense, which is usually predicated more around getting the ball out before the defense can react, rather than forcing the defense to react and then playing off of that. It’s risky because you may get dinged for sending blockers down the field, but it feels like Kent State knows how difficult that is to officiate, so it just… does it and assumes it won’t get flagged.
Here’s another look at it, this time with a glance attached rather than the screen. The defenders being manipulated here is again the nickel, who should be dropping into an intermediate zone to check that slot receiver. The slot receiver is responsible for the glance here, with a pair of quick-hitter out routes on either sideline for a second option, but the glance is the goal.
Kent State needs to get rid of that nickel, or at least move him out of the middle of the field, forcing either a linebacker or one of the split safeties to make a play. That’s going to be next to impossible, because the safety is supposed to be playing in the deep half, while those linebackers are reading the run first, so that that run fake in the backfield is going to pull them out of the play.
So, how do you manipulate that nickel? You force him to make a choice. Kent State holds the mesh until the nickel flinches, and then throws it past him as soon as he hesitates on stepping back into his zone. Safety isn’t there in time, linebackers are out of the play, and the nickel has fallen into the trap.
I’m really nailing down on this because manipulating the second-level defenders with run fakes is the guiding principal behind all of these offenses, but the way that Kent State does it is just… cruel! A normal quarterback isn’t going to be comfortable enough to hold his mesh point for this long, nor can he pop up like then and fire the ball into the second level right after pulling the ball back.
This last one here is a bit more of a gadget play, a halfback insert into the seam, with that same extended play fake in the backfield to draw all of the second level defenders in. Kent State shows a glance from the field, but the target here is the offset halfback, who shoots upfield, sells a block, and then slips right past the first linebacker he sees and into the seam. This is so convincing in its pitch that this is a running play, and the defense has absolutely no hope of ever catching up when the actual call is revealed. Add in that glance, which is going to draw at least one of the safeties, and you have an essentially unstoppable redzone play.
Wonderful offense.