Decoding Langsdorf: The Best of Both Worlds

The Huskers combine three of their core philosophies into one streamlined package

By now, the recipe for Nebraska’s offensive success in the wake of the NIU loss has coalesced into a streamlined philosophy that is predicated upon running the football and utilizing quick passes on the perimeter to mask Nebraska’s ails in pass protection. Leading up to the Illinois game, Nebraska had delved into this by running the Huskers’ pet RPO play, Inside Zone-Slant/Bubble. Against the Illini, however, a new play was unveiled, combing the inside run Duo play with a quick slant route by the X receiver. This is packaged within another core principle of offensive coordinator Danny Langdorf’s offense: setting the strength of the formation into the boundary (FIB).

As previously discussed, FIB forces the defenses to declare their gap and coverage integrity pre-snap, unless they wish to get out-flanked at the boundary point of attack (POA). Normally, the Huskers have used FIB concepts in the passing game, with a 3 man route combination to the boundary and an isolated route to the field to the X receiver. Against Wisconsin last year, this concept was used on the game-tying drive to force overtime.

In utilizing FIB principles against the Illini, Nebraska packaged Duo with the quick slant from the X receiver into one play, Tribe/Zip to Tribe Duo X Torch. X Torch is a simple tag to tell the X receiver to run a route depending on secondary coverage from the field corner. If a defense wishes to adequately leverage the boundary with even numbers, or a numbers advantage, they will leave the CB covering the X receiver on an island, typically in off-man coverage to prevent getting beat deep, with either late over the top help from the free safety or no help at all. If the corner is in off-man coverage, the X receiver will run a quick slant, hitch, or smoke screen for an easy underneath catch. If the opposing defensive coordinator feels that his corner wins the one-on-one match-up, the corner may be in press coverage, which results in the X receiver running a deep fade route.