How Kelly Bryant can usher in a new, physical era of Mizzou offense

Things had to change at least a little for Missouri after losing offensive architect Josh Heupel following 2017 and then four-year QB Drew Lock following 2018. But after two visits to the Transfer Portal, things could work a lot differently in 2019 and beyond.

A few weeks apart in December, the Tigers replaced Lock with not one, but two, transfers. Kelly Bryant grad-transferred in from Clemson to play his final season, and a few weeks later, the Tigers secured a backup and heir apparent in TCU’s Shawn Robinson.

While the talk of spring camp was “tweaking” the offense for Bryant, there’s an obvious trend to the incoming QBs: They’re prominent runners.

Lock was really efficient on the ground, but Missouri’s new QBs are on the other end of the spectrum of spread QB play. It’s difficult to run a spread offense without involving the QB in the run game from time to time, and both of Missouri’s incoming signal-callers were active participants in the rushing systems they came from.

They like the physicality it reinforces within the program, being able to impose their will on an opponent, burning clock to give the defense a breather, not having to be as reliant on a special QB, and knowing how difficult it is for opposing defenses to deal with running QBs.

For these coaches, the spread option with a dual-threat QB is the new I-formation/ground-and-pound. RPO spread systems like Heupel installed at Missouri can create an explosive rushing attack. In 2017, Missouri’s RBs Ish Witter and Larry Rountree III combined for 314 carries that yielded 1,752 yards at 5.6 yards per carry with 12 TDs.

However, the RPO spread is an option system designed to use the pass to set up the run.

With a dual-threat QB, the offense can always use the extra man to run the ball, provided effective blocking. With Lock, Missouri had to be passing-oriented, but Bryant is an option distributor who can help clear lanes for the RB or pull it down to pick up tough yards. Even if OC Derek Dooley’s playbook doesn’t change dramatically from Lock to Bryant, the philosophy will necessarily change.

Before the wunderkind freshman came in, Bryant was the operator of an ACC champion that went to the Playoff before getting taken down by a very strong Alabama.

Inconsistent accuracy was the trouble, as well as making the same caliber of quick reads in the RPO game as Lawrence. However, Bryant could be terrific when he had a good pre-snap read that allowed him to throw with easy rhythm ...

... and he’s always been potent at throwing on the move, as he showed in Mizzou’s spring game:

The Tigers have been working with their receivers to maximize this potential, practicing the scramble drill. Spread offenses with RPO elements tend to face a lot of man coverage, and few things shred man coverage like scrambling, either for time or yardage on the ground. At 225 pounds, Bryant is rather difficult to tackle, and even more so for defenders who turn their backs to the ball and can’t close with leverage in space.

With that dimension, Bryant’s new Tigers should command a steady diet of zone coverages, such as the coverage the Aggies were playing above when Bryant hit Amari Rodgers in stride on a dig route.

While Bryant isn’t always laser sharp, he knows how to beat coverages and where the ball should go. With TE Albert Okwuegbunam back for a contract year, it should be easy enough for Dooley to help give Bryant clear reads.

He’ll also be useful for helping to clear lanes for the RBs, if not quite as effective as Lock, and more useful for maintaining an emphasis on the ground game. The RPO game is a double-edged sword for RBs, having an effect similar to the rise of the three-point shot for big men in the NBA.

On the one hand, there’s more room to operate, and teams that have to keep numbers deep and on the perimeter are short-manned trying to stop the rushing attack. See Travis Etienne running for 1,658 yards at 8.1 ypc last year at Clemson.

On the other, the embrace of the passing game as the foundation shifts the focus. Once a team starts structuring the offense to create opportunities to throw it to speed in space or to find targets down the field, the run game starts to feel boring and inefficient. Additionally, by adding pass-options to their runs they necessarily invite opponents to determine where the ball goes. Etienne got 28 combined carries in Clemson’s two Playoff games, in part because of how opponents played Clemson and in part because the Tigers preferred to emphasize the passing game when it mattered.

But when the offense gives the QB more run options rather than pass options, the upshot tends to be a much greater emphasis on both the RB and the ground game. When the defense has the choice of facing the QB pulling the ball on an outnumbered back side of the play or the RB executing a normal scheme, they’ll often choose the latter. In either event, the offense is now running the ball rather than throwing it.

Bryant is solid as an option trigger-man on either RPOs or QB run options and excellent as the featured back on direct snap QB runs.

This is a counter run pulling the center. Bryant sets up his TE to lead downhill, until the QB sees the DE cheating inside and bounces to that soft edge.

Bryant’s exceptional lateral quickness and his willingness to run between the tackles are a deadly combination. There were times on zone-read plays when he’d call his own number even on “give” reads, because of his confidence in beating unblocked defenders. In high school at a SPARQ camp, he ran a 4.87 40 with a 4.20 shuttle and 35-inch vertical, so he isn’t the fastest in a straight line, but has real explosiveness and quickness at 6’3. As he proved at Clemson, he can carry a load.

With Bryant, the Tigers should find it easy to keep defenses from overplaying their RBs and have increased options for converting on the ground.

The former Horned Frog has some durability concerns after missing games as a freshman and the second half of his sophomore season, but he’s also proved to be a little more well-versed as a distributor on pass and run QB options from his time in the TCU air raid ...

... and an even more explosive athlete than Bryant.

His issue at TCU was decision-making and a propensity to turn the ball over. However, he’ll have time and training before being asked to take over for Mizzou.

The Tigers have been able to quickly overhaul their offense without wildly changing their playbook, simply by harnessing the Portal and transforming the nature of their QB room. Perhaps now, Odom will have the sort of physical rushing attack he wants to pair with his defense.