http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...2/1062/SPT

UC's new wide-open offense
Kelly bringing innovative schemes to Bearcats
BY BILL KOCH

Brian Kelly, the University of Cincinnati's first-year football coach, has a reputation as an offensive innovator.

As the coach at Grand Valley (Mich.) State, he won two Division II national titles. His 2001 Grand Valley State team set a Division II record by averaging 58.4 points per game, averaging more than 600 yards of offense.

Kelly, who's conducting his first UC spring practice sessions through April 21, talked this week about his offensive approach.

Q. Where did your offensive system come from?

A. A lot of it is an accumulation of my experience of being a defensive coordinator and a head coach. ... I used a lot of my experiences of what was hard to defend and one of the things that were hard to defend were teams that kept the pressure on the defense with formations and tempo and balance.

Q. How would you characterize it?

A. It's a system that has grown over a long period of time. People talk about the West Coast offense or the spread offense. This is really a coast-to-coast offense in that there are principles that I have used from all different structures and put it together. It's the evolution of a head coach who has his hand on the offense and understands that it's not about how many yards you throw for, it's about winning.

Q. What's unique about what you do offensively?

A. The ability to play power football from a spread offense. We run some triple option. Everyone thinks that you should be in the wishbone or some split-back veer, but we run the triple option out of a spread one-back. We've got the principles of veer and wing-T so they're all available to us, which is pretty unique within a spread offensive situation.

We can get in a no-back. We can get in two backs. Last year, we used three backs. It's about being able to have an offense that's easily taught and that has that multiplicity, but if you said what is your standard look, we're going to be one-back, one tight end and three wide receivers.

Q. Because of the many options available in your offense, I assume that you ask a lot of your quarterback.

A. He's an extension of me on the field and he's got to be on the same page. He's got to be thinking like I'm thinking and that's why its so important that I'm in every quarterback meeting because if you're a play caller and the quarterback is not an extension of what you're thinking, then there's a disconnect there.

Q. Since you call the plays, what role does your offensive coordinator, Jeff Quinn have?

A. He's responsible for implementing the offensive structure as a blueprint for what I have given him. A lot of it is organizational. Jeff handles all the meetings. We come to conclusions together as a staff. The easiest way to define it is here's the play book, pull out of it what is going to work against the defense that we're going to see what their strengths and weaknesses are, then I'll tweak it as we go through.

Q. UC officials are hoping that your offense will be entertaining enough to attract fans to Nippert Stadium. How much did entertainment value enter into this system as you developed it?

A. It was part of developing it. I was in Division II. You have to have an offense that people want to come and see. We had to have an offense where people would say, hey, I'll go to a Division II school because maybe I'll have a chance to play in an exciting offense.

Q. But it's not all about passing, right? You plan to run the ball, too, when circumstances dictate.

A. If you look at the International Bowl, we ran the ball 13 of the last 17 snaps to win the game. The offense is set up for us to win ballgames. And scoring points is the only way I know that you can definitely win games on the offensive side of the ball. Taking care of the ball and keeping people off balance, that's really been what this offense is driven on.

Having said that, I think you have to have some flexibility and some innovative techniques within your offense to keep people excited about the game you're playing.

Q. Will UC fans see the full range of options from your offense?

A. Our personnel will dictate some of the things that we can and can't do with this offense in the first year. The biggest transition for us will be on the offensive line. Once we can get a hold on the personnel on the offensive line, we'll be able to do a lot more of what we want.

Q. What do you look for in an offensive lineman?

A. Just a more athletic kid. (The previous staff) had power football, bigger kids, stronger, for run blocking. We need guys that have that balance if we throw it 70 times to be able to pass-block 70 times.

I'm really excited about Coach Kelly. I've also seen some quotes from him where he urges the seniors to have a sense of urgency to win NOW. You've got to like that.... he's not saying give me a couple of years to build and win with the guys I recruited - he's saying he wants to win immediately.

I have a lot of concerns at the QB position; especially in regards to his expectations.

I'm anxious to see what Zach Collaros and Chazz Anderson can do with Kelly's offense. I was impressed by the videos I have seen of Collaros.

Crewdogz Wrote:I'm really excited about Coach Kelly....

I have a lot of concerns at the QB position...

Me too on both counts.

bearcatfan Wrote:I'm anxious to see what Zach Collaros and Chazz Anderson can do with Kelly's offense. I was impressed by the videos I have seen of Collaros.

I'm anxious too but it's a rare that a true freshman can come in and contribute especially at the QB position. Physically they look to be there from their videos but the mental aspect and playing at game speed is what concerns me. Others have mentioned it but maybe Mauk is the one year answer while Zach and Chazz redshirt and learn the playbook.

I'm encouraged about the QB spot, from the perspective that he is putting so much pressure on them.

I think previously the key consideration was making the safest choice, and that led to Grutza. Now there's so much more pressure being placed on the position to perform, and I think that's a very good thing. Between Grutza, Carey, Mauk, Anderson and Collaros, you have a lot of possible choices, and I have more faith that this staff will make the best choice for what they want to get done on offense.

Coach Kelly and Coach Cronin haven't won anything yet but I'm excited about both....

How awesome would it be if Kelly took UC to a new level and decided this was his home for a looooong time? He could put UC football on the map! Whether he stays or not remains to be seen.

I'm pleased with the hires Z has made....I like both Cronin and Kelly.

while i still have some concerns on the defensive side of the ball for years to come, i did find this quote a little reassuring, however not much...

Quote:A lot of it is an accumulation of my experience of being a defensive coordinator and a head coach