When Mike Leach left the palouse of Pullman, Washington for Mississippi State most of the Pac-12 exhaled a sigh of relief knowing his high octane ‘air raid’ offense went along with him.
That exhale didn’t last long.
Exit Mike Leach, enter Nick Rolovich and his blazing run & shoot attack.
When WSU President Kirk Schulz introduced Rolovich as the Cougars 33rd head football coach earlier this year, he promised ‘an exciting style of football.’
Schulz certainly wasn’t lying and it showed Saturday when the Cougars bulldozed Oregon State 38-28 in Corvallis.
The Cougars rushed for a whopping 229 yards along with 227 yards through the air compliments of freshman signal-caller Jayden De’Laura who certainly didn’t look like a freshman who was starting his first collegiate game.
You might ask what’s the difference between the ‘air raid’ offense and the ‘run & shoot’ attack?
Without getting to far off into the weeds, the ‘run & shoot’ offense allows its wide receivers to adjust their routes on the fly solely determined on the opposing defense, while the ‘air raid’ attack has very specific routes utilizing the quick release of the quarterback.
Both are extremely difficult to defend, especially if the team who utilizes the ‘run & shoot’ has fast and talented receivers which the Cougars do.
“They just attack you in every imaginable way” said Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal on Monday.
“When you think of run and shoot, I think people a lot of times thinks it’s a primarily passing offense. If you count the RPO’s ( run pass options ) that were run in their last game …the balls handed off instead of throwing them,…that’s predicated on the defense,…you’re throwing off of a certain defender,…they were very balanced, just about 50/50.
They get down hill in the run game. They’ll stretch you,…and then puncture the line of scrimmage. They’re unbelievable at finding the soft spots. They’re complimented by four receivers that are all explosive players. They all have great speed and they all have great body quickness. They all have make you miss ability.
So, they find soft spots,…and if those soft spots close off, they’re very instinctive,…they’re very precise in moving to the next window and finding the next soft spot. They’re very much in tune with the quarterback. They’re a very disciplined operation,…they know their system very well,…these guys look like they’ve been together and running the system for a while.”
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