Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Essayist
In a while ahead of his dying in December, Mississippi State professor Mike Leach spoke with Phil Longo about Longo touchdown the Wisconsin offensive coordinator process.
Consistent with Longo, Leach was once extremely joyful his Breeze Raid offense — the transcendent scheme he helped foundation many years previous — would after all achieve the Bulky Ten later impacting each alternative primary convention. Longo has worn the offense week hopscotching the school ranks, maximum lately as a coordinator at Ole Miss and North Carolina. He has obvious the Breeze Raid paintings in quite a few settings, however now not the only at the back of his flow place of work window: Camp Randall Stadium, house to the traditionally run-heavy Wisconsin Badgers.
For 30 years, the Badgers have received with tough backs plowing at the back of gargantuan offensive linemen on clock-eating drives. The Breeze Raid, marked through fast pace, receiver-heavy units and passing proclivity, couldn’t be extra other from what the Badgers have completed. The primary day Wisconsin will get the ball Sept. 2 in opposition to Buffalo will mark a watershed of types for this system, its enthusiasts and the Bulky Ten.
“It’ll be a little bit of a culture shock, but hopefully [fans] enjoy it,” Longo mentioned. “If we’re scoring points, I think they’ll enjoy it. If we’re winning games, they’ll enjoy it. You have your old-school enthusiasts that don’t want change, but there seems to be a large part of the Wisconsin contingent that has been waiting for a change.”
The seismic shift at Wisconsin is essentially the most clear walk for a Bulky Ten offensive soil whose plates are forming to rattle. Wisconsin is considered one of two Bulky Ten methods bringing the Breeze Raid to the league for the primary day this season. Purdue will usefulness it beneath brandnew professor Ryan Walters and offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, a record-setting quarterback for Leach at Texas Tech. Each groups introduced in switch quarterbacks from Texas — Wisconsin’s Tanner Mordecai (SMU) and Purdue’s Hudson Card (Texas) — to manage the devices.
Wisconsin and Purdue headline an offensive shake-up which may be precisely what the Bulky Ten wishes. Since 2015, the time later the Bulky Ten’s ultimate nationwide identify, the league has had simplest two offenses rank within the summit 25 in scoring (Disagree. 2 Ohio State, Disagree. 17 Michigan), just one (Disagree. 2 Ohio Environment) within the summit 48 in yards according to recreation, and simplest two within the summit 30 in anticipated issues added (Disagree. 3 Ohio Environment, Disagree. 24 Michigan).
Bulky Ten defenses, in the meantime, have thrived all the way through the similar span. 5 rank a number of the summit 11 in fewest issues allowed and 5 are within the summit 8 in anticipated issues added. However how a lot of the defensive good fortune is tie to the offenses they usually face? In all probability extra vital: Are Bulky Ten offenses adequately making ready their defenses for the School Soccer Playoff? Michigan was once a top-five protection in issues and yards allowed getting into the CFP, week Ohio Environment was once within the summit 15 in each divisions. The 2 allowed 79 offensive issues (TCU had two defensive touchdowns) and 1,021 yards in slender playoff losses to TCU and Georgia.
“Unless you’re playing Ohio State, you’re not going to get exposure to offenses like that,” a Energy 5 defensive coordinator out of doors the Bulky Ten informed ESPN. “Michigan only plays Ohio State once. Six Big Ten teams are in the top 25 defense-wise. Yeah, well a lot of that is because there’s only one or two offenses in the top 25.
“Now it more or less is sensible, when you get started sight via one of the crucial layers.”
More offensive innovation will arrive in 2024 with the expansion additions of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington. All four teams ranked among the nation’s top six offenses in 2022, while the existing Big Ten produced just one top-20 offense (No. 9 Ohio State) and two in the top 30 (No. 24 Michigan) last season.
“We will have to have had Michigan and Ohio Environment within the [national] championship recreation, so clearly, we’re proper there,” Indiana coach Tom Allen said. “Bringing in a workforce like USC, you simply take a look at how they contract and the ability they’ve, it’s particular. Now you’ve were given some other workforce that’s committing to have that SEC-type ability. UCLA’s now not that some distance at the back of. That section is helping us.
“We’ve got to be able to have the athletes. You get exposed way too fast if you don’t. That’s been the knock in the past, and it’s slowly changing.”
Each Bulky Ten groups introducing Breeze Raid offenses to the league q4 are led through head coaches with backgrounds on protection and good fortune inside the convention. Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell performed for John Cooper at Ohio Environment and later got here up as a Buckeyes defensive workman beneath Jim Tressel. From 2002 to 2010, Fickell helped develop defenses to enrich Ohio Environment offenses that flaunted conventional Bulky Ten characteristics — run-based, methodical, continuously conservative however efficient on account of elite group of workers.
Upcoming going 4-8 in his first season as a head professor at Cincinnati, Fickell determined to pivot from his soccer roots. Later, some other revelation got here.
“To change from the Jim Tressel [approach] to be more aggressive, to do some things on fourth [down], we had to do that at Cincinnati, but then I realized, I don’t know that I’m excited about staying and always doing the things, the same things you’ve always done,” Fickell mentioned. “I want to win more than anything. A part of the evolution is not a bad thing.”
5:10
Is that this the time Ohio Environment stumbles?
Day by day Guess breaks ailing the Bulky Ten and whether or not that is the time Ohio Environment falls, plus they take a look at win totals for diverse groups within the convention.
Walters spent the time two seasons surveying Bulky Ten offenses as Illinois’ defensive coordinator. In 2022, Illinois led the society in scoring protection (12.8 PPG allowed). But if Walters landed his first head-coaching process at Purdue, he picked a scheme that he hadn’t in reality obvious within the league.
“Philosophically, the general thesis of the conference is: Control the clock, don’t turn the ball over, limit possessions and try to win the game in the fourth quarter, which equals success and that’s been proven,” Walters informed ESPN. “But in today’s college football world, you see there are other ways to win games. Obviously, I still am a defensive guy and the goal is to keep points off the board, but I do want to be aggressive on offense and force the issue.”
Bret Bielema has seen Bulky Ten offenses for many of his grownup era: as an Iowa defensive lineman, as a tender Hawkeyes defensive workman, as Wisconsin’s defensive coordinator and head professor, and now as head professor at Illinois. Bielema adopted Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin and persevered the use of a run-heavy, clock-control, power-based taste on offense. He noticed the manner manage to total workforce good fortune, now not simplest at Wisconsin, which received 3 instantly Bulky Ten championships beneath his keep an eye on, however at alternative methods like Iowa, Northwestern, Minnesota and, maximum lately, Michigan. No longer unusually, he’s taking the similar manner at Illinois, which ultimate fall inclined on Chase Brown, the society’s Disagree. 4 rusher and Disagree. 2 carries chief.
Bielema has classified Bulky Ten offenses into the ones dedicated to related schemes and rules, which hardly ever alternate a lot from time to time, and people who diversify. He’s additionally conscious about the most important shake-up coming.
“Wisconsin, in particular, you go from one extreme to the other,” he informed ESPN. “That was a pro-style offense that was pretty old-school, and now you’re going to have this offense that is completely different from anything they’ve ever done. That’s a premier team in the league, so a big difference.”
A new manner most probably was once wanted at Wisconsin, which ranked ninetieth nationally in scoring and 103rd in offensive performs of 10 yards or longer all the way through the time two seasons. This system has been undeniably constant, however with an expanded CFP coming in 2024, Wisconsin needed to display it will reserve up at the scoreboard.
All through Longo’s 4 seasons as North Carolina’s OC, the workforce ranked 5th nationally in yards according to play games, 6th in yards according to recreation and twelfth in scoring. Ultimate season, quarterback Drake Maye blossomed beneath Longo, environment single-season data for passing yards (4,321) and completions (342) week cementing himself as a summit probability for the 2024 NFL draft.
Longo’s model of the Breeze Raid isn’t precisely like Leach’s. He has had a number of 1,000-yard operating backs and fertile tight ends, two positions Wisconsin traditionally options on offense.
Nonetheless, the Madison makeover has drawn skepticism, from each inside of and out of doors the league. A number of coaches and defensive coordinators informed ESPN they query whether or not the device will paintings at a college that has recruited a undeniable method for many years. A defensive coordinator known as Longo “one of the strangest hires” he had obvious within the Bulky Ten. A Bulky Ten professor puzzled if Wisconsin’s protection, a number of the society’s easiest, would have a tougher day making ready for the Bulky Ten offenses it usually sees later working towards day by day in opposition to the Breeze Raid.
Longo has heard all of it ahead of.
“There may be those that don’t think we can run it in this league, maybe,” he mentioned. “It’s been proven to be run just about anywhere. That’s what the [Kansas City] Chiefs are doing right now. I look at the Chiefs, and I feel like I’m watching our offense. There’s so much overlap.
“The program is actually part of what everybody’s doing at the moment.”
The Breeze Raid’s arrival is the fresh segment in what Bulky Ten coaches imagine a small offensive renaissance, regardless of the league’s middling nationwide illustration.
Former Purdue professor Jeff Brohm introduced aggressiveness and innovation to the convention, generating 3 wins over AP top-three warring parties, six top-25 passing offenses within the time seven years (3 within the summit 15) and a West Category championship ultimate season, ahead of depart for Louisville. Maryland professor Mike Locksley, who coordinated top-10 speeding offenses early in his occupation at Illinois, oversaw the society’s Disagree. 13 cross offense in 2021 and returns some of the society’s maximum skilled quarterbacks this season in Taulia Tagovailoa. Locksley got here to Maryland from Alabama, the place he spent 2017 and 2018 in a coordinator function.
“Some of the branding that the Big Ten had — of being run-the-ball and I-formation — are over-exaggerated,” Locksley informed ESPN. “It’s not your mama’s old Big Ten. There’s a ton of teams in this league that know how to throw the ball, that spread you out, that play with speed and tempo. I don’t see a big difference [with the SEC], having been in both leagues, from an offensive standpoint. What we do on offense, it’s the same thing Alabama is doing, the same thing that Georgia is doing.”
There also are extra conventional Bulky Ten offensive schemes that lately have increased their manufacturing, particularly Michigan, which has bulldozed its option to consecutive league titles at the back of a speeding assault that ranks Disagree. 8 nationally since 2021. The Wolverines are Disagree. 7 in scoring all the way through the span.
Nebraska is attempting to reclaim its offensive roots beneath brandnew professor Matt Rhule, particularly alongside the form of scrimmage, later a schematic pivot beneath Scott Frost by no means materialized. Penn Environment and Minnesota are seeking to perceivable up their passing video games with brandnew quarterbacks — Drew Allar and Athan Kaliakmanis — week keeping up a powerful base at the grassland.
“Change is inevitable,” Minnesota professor P.J. Fleck mentioned. “You can have traditions of this school used to do this, but that’s why the words ‘used to’ are there, because you’re constantly evolving, you’re constantly changing. Even us. Your identity and your belief as a football coach? I don’t know if that necessarily changes. But you can adapt to how the game is changing and what your team is going to have to do to win more.”
