Game Review: UTSA Was Ready For The Big Time
The Roadrunners were the better team on Saturday against Illinois
If this is your first game review, welcome aboard! I suppose I should lay out the schedule here, for those of you that are new. During the season, Monday is for a game review, which is exactly what it sounds like. One game from the week, rewatched and reviewed from a schematic perspective. How did [X thing from any week] work or not work.
Wednesday is for whatever I’m feeling. Sometimes it’ll be a throwback, sometimes it’ll be something else. This week, it’ll be something else.
Friday is your tasting menu for the weekend. What G5-involved games should you check out. Pretty simple stuff. The Monday and Friday posts are paid, Wednesday is free. Let’s review.
One of the biggest factors in pulling off a G5 over P5 upset is the production of the former’s best player, in more ways than just the obvious; the obvious being that if a G5 team has a star player that performs extremely well when facing a P5 opponent, it will be a pretty big deal for determining that game.
More important, though, is how the G5 team will respond when that star player can’t contribute to that level, which is quite a bit more common in these kinds of matchups. The bigger schools like to key in on or two really excellent players, focusing on shutting them out and forcing the rest of a less talented team to beat them, even if it means sacrificing a numbers advantage to ice out those stars. It’s a good approach. If you have a talent advantage, losing the numbers edge isn’t as big a deal, because your nine are still likely better than your opponent’s 10, if the 11th guy on the field is the star, who you’ve locked out of the game.
It happens every season and is part of what makes these games so hard to predict. Hell, just look at Texas-Louisiana. Texas focused on shutting down the running game, forcing Levi Lewis to become a true pocket passer that lacked full confidence in his receivers. Louisiana likes to keep the pace of the game with its ground attack, Texas knew that and made it a point to take that away, even if it meant loading the box more than it usually would. That’s the rub with these matchups. If the P5 team is smart, it will identify the top strength and focus almost entirely on taking it away.
Here’s where this matters most, and what can determine these games: response. How the G5 team responds to losing the contributions of its star player (at least to the extent that it has become accustomed) is the No. 1, most important factor in weeding out the actual upsets from the upset bids on paper. Adjusting your game plan on the fly, especially when you have to scheme without leaning on your best player, is a tremendously difficult thing for a coaching staff to do. Most can’t do it well.
The ones that can, though, will almost certainly be able to find the room to win their game. Our best example in the young 2021 season? UTSA, which upset Illinois 37-30 on Sept. 4 to earn its first win over a Big Ten foe, and to crack open Jeff Traylor’s second season with a bang as it looks to be a serious contender atop the C-USA.
The Roadrunners were hit with a similar challenge. Illinois entered the game with its mind on shutting down halfback Sincere McCormick, one of the nation’s best ball carriers and a serious threat both in efficiency and explosiveness. The Fighting Illini loaded the box and keyed on McCormick all game, forcing him into tighter lanes than usual and sacrificing downfield defenders to make sure that he couldn’t break free for any huge gains.
For the most part, it worked. McCormick rushed for 117 yards, but he had a long of just 13 and carried the ball 31 times. Illinois can live with sub-4.0 yards per carry, especially if the back involved is getting 31 one of them.
UTSA can’t, though. It depends on McCormick to keep its offense ahead of the chains, leaning heavily on the star back behind a gap blocking system that sprung him for huge gains consistently last season, but that also helped to build a lethally efficient ground game, keeping quarterback Frank Harris out of obvious passing downs. How do you replace that when McCormick is only able to churn out a few yards per carry, especially on early downs when Illinois is really keying in on the ground game? Well, you turn your new weakness into a strength elsewhere.
For UTSA, that meant letting McCormick serve as a decoy. For everything. It still fed him the ball plenty, but to keep him cleaner when he did get the ball and to free things up for everything else, UTSA sold McCormick as the primary ball carrier on a ton of early-down passing plays and just about every other look that it showed.
Here’s an example. First down, still in the first quarter, ball on the 25-yard-line. Illinois has seven defenders in the box, with a box safety looming to make it eight. UTSA shows 11 personnel and dials up a pretty standard RPO look, with a tight end insert and zone blocking up front, a bubble to the field and a glance from the boundary. The bubble is just there for show to hold the backside defensive backs, with the quarterback reading the linebackers to determine his pull read.
Those linebackers collapse in to take McCormick on, leaving the center of the field vacant, with Illinois in off-man coverage. The cornerback never has a chance to get in on this glance in time to make a play, meaning that barring something phenomenal from one of those linebackers, the box safety or the field safety, this is going to be an easy, in-rhythm throw for Harris on a standard down, keeping UTSA well ahead of the chains without any real challenge for the quarterback or offensive line.
It’s a similar idea here, this time on second-and-medium. With trips to the boundary to pull two defenders away and hold that backside linebacker, UTSA flashes an outside zone RPO, with the quarterback reading coverage pre-snap. Illinois is in off-man again, so Harris pulls the ball and hits Zakhari Franklin on the quick hitch for another easy first down.
It comes back to this look in the fourth quarter, going now to the wide receiver screen in the trips bunch to the field. McCormick is still serving as a threat, especially on third-and-short. Because Illinois has seven in the box, UTSA pulls that hitch receiver and replaces him with an in-line tight end, to sell the run (you wouldn’t run on third-and-one with five-on-seven unless you’re a crazy person, you have to give that front something to respect). From there, it’s just execution. UTSA has three on three on the perimeter, with its blockers set to take on the first two arrivals. The run fake can hold that box and safety in place, and Franklin makes it happen. You’ve surely heard the idea of using the screen as an extension of the running game. Well, here it is.
Given that UTSA is still a running team, it did need to find some rushing threats to keep the ball moving here, and it’s a little harder to use your star halfback as a decoy in the running game. Read option looks like this one did work in UTSA’s favor, but risking injury for Harris didn’t seem to be worth the benefit, seeing as he ran just eight times here.
Instead, UTSA usually leaned into its new strength to create room for backup Brenden Brady, who rushed 11 times for 61 yards and two scores. Illinois was still keying on the rushing attack but expected a pass whenever McCormick left the field. It did occasionally portend a pass, but it worked best for the rushing attack, with Harris still able to sell the quick passing game, keeping those linebackers out of the gaps and clearing a little room for Brady. It didn’t create an electric rushing attack or anything like that, but it was enough to keep the chains moving, and did well to give the receivers a bit of a breather.
This is all just really good game flow, play calling and in-game adjustments. UTSA recognized early on that it wouldn’t be able to ride McCormick as it can in the C-USA, and it reworked a strategy around that, rather than panicking and either trying to force it or going away from McCormick completely, leaning into a strategy that it wasn’t comfortable with. The reward? A big win, and a framework moving forward if McCormick disappears again.