Is Florida State's New Offense Sustainable?
I'm certainly open to another spread option, but is this one built to last?
Mike Norvell notched his first major accomplishment during his tenure at Florida State on Saturday, knocking off No. 5 North Carolina 31-28 despite a fervent second half comeback attempt from the Tar Heels. It was an impressive win for the Noles certainly, and one that they pretty desperately needed after a brutal start to the season that saw blowout losses to Miami and Notre Dame, and a close defeat at the hands of Georgia Tech to open the season.
Perhaps even more encouraging than the win itself was the way that Florida State achieved it. After looking completely hapless on both sides of the ball for the vast majority of those first four games, Florida State seemed to find a spark of sorts in new starting quarterback Jordan Travis when he entered the game in relief of Tate Rodemaker against Jacksonville State, who himself was filling in for the benched James Blackman. Travis was far from stellar in his first start against Notre Dame, but he inspired enough hope against JSU and ND to keep him in the top spot on the depth chart, given that the rest of the offense seemed to actually work with him on the field, which was certainly a positive change from the first two and a half games.
That read on Travis and his impact on the offense was correct. He’s extremely limited as a passer, which bore out in the second half of the win over North Carolina (more on that later), but his ability as a runner kept the offense ahead of the sticks in the first half and did more to open up the game for FSU’s skill players than anything else that Norvell and company had tried so far this season. He’s a stopgap solution, but that stopgap solution just beat the No. 5 team in the country, so it’s hard to complain too much.
However, it is worth taking a closer look at that win over North Carolina and examining the viability of Travis and this new look FSU offense moving forward.
First, it’s probably wise to actually identify what Florida State was doing offensively with Travis at the helm, because it was a step that I think makes a lot of sense given the coaching staff in Tallahassee and the talent around Travis on this roster, along with the skill set he actually brings to the table.
This was, at its most basic, a spread option offense. I’ve touched before on how that’s essentially a meaningless term in modern college football, given how many offenses are running some form of “spread option” in the loose sense, with every staff in America implementing a little bit of basically every successful offense of the last 10 years into their own playbooks.
However, in this case, I do think that the term is a little more apt because of the staff running it. This is a spread option staff. True spread option. Norvell and offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham have experience working under spread option stalwart Gus Malzahn, while offensive line coach Alex Atkins has some of the best option bonafides in the country, spending a ton of time under Willie Fritz. These guys know how to coordinate an offense built around the spread triple, and honestly I was a little surprised that they went with a non-Travis quarterback to open the season, given the lack of talent up front. It’s a lot easier to work around that in an option system than it is in one centered around passing.
That was really what worked against North Carolina. Travis carried the ball well, as did halfback La’Damian Webb (who I like a lot), but this win was a result of things being made a whole lot easier for that offensive line. This wasn’t brand new, obviously (FSU has been shifting into this for a few weeks now), but this felt like the first time that it was fully unleashed.
You can do that in an option system because you’re taking defenders out of the play without having to block them. This is all very basic, fundamental football, so I’ll spare you the full explanation, but that’s the basic idea behind all of this. FSU is isolating a defensive end to read him, which is going to take one defender out of the equation regardless of what he chooses to do.
Suddenly, a six-man box with a creeping safety, like this one, is a five-man box with a creeping safety. That’s a little more manageable.
What isn’t so basic and fundamental is the way that FSU actually blocked these plays. This is where that Malzahn is really coming in. Most modern option attacks are leaning heavily on zone blocking, partially because it’s easier for linemen to understand, and partially because a lot of option teams have the dudes up front needed to make it work. Malzahn has never really subscribed to that, and likes to heighten the misdirection in the backfield by pulling multiple linemen to really sell the play to linebackers, while also potentially beefing up the box if the defense forces a handoff on this read.
When you pull the right guard and tackle, it accomplishes that about as well as anything else can. That pull influences the isolated edge defender, the blitzing linebacker, the back side linebacker and that creeping safety, because defenders are taught across the board to trust their eyes and follow those pulling linemen to the gap, because pulling linemen usually indicates offensive gap intent (a term I’ve just made up). By adding those pulls onto a play like this, you’re really making the defense bite in, which is going to free up the quarterback to pull this ball back and run with it away from where the defense is heading, almost like an inverted counter play.
That’s what happens here, and that creeping safety is the only defender left for the offensive line to worry about, creating a massive lane and an easy touchdown for Travis. It’s counter trey GT, or GT counter-read. Easy stuff, works well, has worked well for years. This was the basis for a lot of what FSU did on Saturday. Get the defense off balance with misdirection in the backfield, and then use pulling linemen to either add strength into the intended run, or as further misdirection to put defenders into a ton of conflict and create mistakes.
FSU had more base handoffs with looks like this too, using those pulling linemen in a creative way to optimize the big boys without asking them to do too much. Here, Florida State is selling an inside run with the handoff and every lineman except for the right guard. He’s kicking out to seal off the defensive end, who is being left unblocked off the snap so that the play side tight end can get into the second-level and make sure that those linebackers stay inside and really buy the inside handoff.
The inside fake works, honestly, better than it probably should, because even that isolated end is fooled. He makes the job of the guard a whole lot easier, and by the time the running back bounces outside to the D gap, there’s nobody there within the first eight yards. Really cool way to run outside without needing to actually block on the perimeter.
FSU also did some really nice stuff in the passing game in the first half, which is worth at least a mention, if not a complete deep dive. This is a designed play fake (not an RPO, because there’s nothing to read and Travis isn’t even looking at the defense as he starts the play), built, like the rest of the offense, to put linebackers into conflict and then hit the space they vacated.
A quarterback zone run accomplishes that goal well, because it convinces the defense that it can safely sell out to stop the run. That brings those linebackers in and away from the intended target, the back side tight end, who can just slip right into the secondary completely unnoticed while the defensive front seven is watching the backfield. Easy pass for a big gain.
This is the kind of play you need to be able to run as a spread option offense without an especially good passer at quarterback. Travis has a “2012 Braxton Miller” feel to him in that regard, and the only way to win consistently with that kind of player is to manufacture big passing plays by really selling the run hard. It’s a lot easier to do when you run as much as FSU did on Saturday.
It also makes true play action easier, but I don’t think that FSU has the quarterback or the line to pull this off consistently, especially given what we saw from the passing attack (and the offense at large) in the second half when faced with a defense selling out to stop the run. This looks great, but you’re probably only going to get one of these a game at the most because there are just too many variables that involve serious shortcomings of this offense. Travis isn’t going to get that ball there more often than not, and he won’t even be able to throw it if the line can’t pass block, which we already know it can’t do. It’s worth trying a few times a game, but it can’t be a staple.
Those second half struggles are why I have a lot of trepidation with this offense, and why I think a lot of people around the sport feel the same way. This is a cool offense with some really smart coordinators and well-designed plays, but the talent is what it is. If FSU isn’t going to add a second option into these looks (in other words, running the spread triple like Auburn or Georgia Southern), you’re going to get a lot of looks like this for the rest of the year, because defenses are going to just load the box.
The tight end fake on this QB fake (like the one they ran earlier for a lot of success) isn’t enough to peel those linebackers away, so Travis is running into a six-man box with six blockers. That’s fine for good lines. This isn’t that. When the defense isn’t biting on fakes (or when there aren’t fakes), it’s just not going to work.
North Carolina stopped buying it in the second half, and this offense completely fell apart because of it. Travis isn’t a good enough passer to take advantage of a defense so steadfast in defending the run, and there isn’t enough happening in the backfield on a lot of these plays to move the defense off of that commitment. There isn’t an easy fix to this, other than “get better talent” or “lean in further to being an option team.” I don’t think that FSU fans love either of those options in the short term, bit it’s the unfortunate scenario that has to be dealt with. There is a case to be made that the passing game could be simplified (and I think it should be in the long-term, because this attack is way too vertical), but the halfway point of the season is already here. It’s a little late for that.
So what is FSU left with? I’m not sure. I think there are some really nice things here, things that can form a foundation moving forward both on the field and in recruiting. You can recruit to this system if you want to really lean in, and we know that it can work at a power five level, though it likely won’t win titles without a really good quarterback at the helm.
In the short term, however, I think it’s just a stopgap for respectability, which is all FSU really needs this year. Travis isn’t a long-term solution, and this system may not be either, depending on what Norvell wants to build, but this at least turns the Noles into a decent football team that opponents need to think about. With the schedule FSU has left, that honestly might be enough to finish 6-5, which seems like a godsend given the way the year started.
Up next: What to watch, week eight