TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State coach Mike Norvell’s offense is hard to fit into an archetype. Offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham described it as a “pro-style offense that plays fast,” but that’s overly simplistic.
Norvell often utilizes two-back and two-tight end sets, but he also goes to three- and four-receiver formations. He pushes the pace at times, but he likes to slow things down and be methodical at others. He’s willing to predicate the offense around the run, but it’s a zone-read-based system and the quarterback always lines up in either the Shotgun or Pistol formation. And he’ll just as soon call a traditional play-action pass as he will a run-pass option.
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Under Norvell’s watch, Memphis was prolific offensively. The Tigers averaged 38.8 points per game (tied for 15th nationally) in 2016, 45.5 points (second) in ’17, 42.9 points (seventh) in ’18 and 40.5 points (eighth) in ’19. They also averaged 6.3 yards per play (third) in 2016, 7.4 yards per play (fourth) in ’17, 7.1 yards per play (fourth) in ’18 and 6.9 yards per play (eighth) in ’19.
Ideally, the Seminoles offense’s multiplicity will make it a nightmare for opposing defenses. To Norvell, though, having an offense that’s on the same page is far more important than the tempo, formations and concepts.
“We’re going to have a football team that’s focused on discipline, on structure, on making sure that we can be innovative in our approach schematically, but also we have a football team that understands the importance of the knowledge that they have,” Norvell said earlier this month. “Most people talk about playing fast. We’re going to do that. But if you don’t play smart, man, you can play fast going in the wrong direction and you’re going backwards.”
Although FSU improved from 22.2 points per game (113th) in 2018 to 29.1 points per game (T-66th) in 2019, the Seminoles didn’t always play smart. Many of the 111 penalties (128th) that the Seminoles have committed this season have been false starts, illegal substitutions and illegal formations. And they frequently struggled to execute late in games, most notably in losses to Virginia and Wake Forest.
Correcting those mistakes will be a chief concern of Norvell and Dillingham. The next biggest priority will be improving a line that’s allowed 44 sacks (125th) and 101 tackles for loss (125th); that responsibility largely will fall on line coach Alex Atkins, who had been at Charlotte, and deputy head coach Chris Thomsen, who had been TCU’s line coach.
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The most important position in any offense is the quarterback. Florida State is set to have a good mix of styles in its quarterback room after signing four-star prospect Chubba Purdy and three-star recruit Tate Rodemaker during the early signing period. Sophomore James Blackman and Rodemaker are pro-style quarterbacks, while Purdy and redshirt freshman Jordan Travis are dual-threat guys. There will be an open competition for the starting job, and the staff will adjust the offense accordingly.
“Our philosophy is create one-on-ones,” Dillingham said last week. “That’s going to tailor around who our quarterback is. If our quarterback’s a guy who can make a safety miss, we’re going to create a one-on-one in the running game with our quarterback vs. that safety. If our quarterback’s a guy who can locate the ball on the back shoulder vs. a one-on-one corner, then we’re going to seven-man pro and isolate somebody and find the best one-on-one for him.
“We’re completely going to adapt our position and our offensive style around that position because that’s the most important position on our offense.”
Dillingham spent three seasons (2016-18) with Norvell at Memphis, and was the Tigers’ offensive coordinator in 2018. (Courtesy of Memphis Athletics)That outcome can’t be known at this point, but projections for how the offense will look can be drawn from Norvell’s time as coach at Memphis from 2016-19. Dillingham was his offensive coordinator in 2018 before leaving for Auburn in 2019, so there are 14 games of evidence to assess how the two run an offense together.
Norvell called plays in 2018 and Dillingham coached from the box; an FSU spokesman said there has been no decision on how play-calling will work in 2020. Here’s a breakdown of what the Florida State offense may look like next season based on film review, advanced statistics and the roster.
Tempo and personnel
From 2016-19, SportSource Analytics data shows that the national average for time-of-possession per play is about 25 seconds. During that span, Memphis averaged 23.5 seconds per play, so it was above average in terms of pace. The Tigers moved quickly, but it definitely wasn’t a breakneck pace compared to some of the faster offenses across the country.
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The Tigers’ tempo significantly slowed to 26.1 seconds per play in 2019, but that was an outlier. During Norvell and Dillingham’s lone year together in 2018, for example, the average was 23.9 seconds per play.
Even with the relatively normal pace, penalties were an issue for Memphis. The Tigers averaged 6.3 per game (T-69th) in 2016, 8.5 per game (T-128th) in 2017, 7.2 per game (T-102nd) in 2018 and 7.3 per game (T-111th) in 2019.
Memphis’ most-used personnel grouping every season under Norvell was “11” personnel (one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers). The percentage varied significantly from year to year.
Here are Memphis’ most used personnel groupings during the Norvell era. (NOTE: ‘10’ is one back and four receivers; ‘11’ is one back, one tight end and three receivers; ‘12’ is one back, two tight ends and two receivers; ‘21’ is two backs, one tight end and two receivers.)
2016 SEASON
10 personnel
Percent of plays: 14%
Yards per play: 5.5
TDs: 4
Pass percentage: 56%
11 personnel
Percent of plays: 62%
Yards per play: 6.5
TDs: 32
Pass percentage: 54%
12 personnel
Percent of plays: 20%
Yards per play: 6.4
TDs: 14
Pass percentage: 31%
2017 SEASON
11 personnel
Percent of plays: 32%
Yards per play: 7.6
TD: 28
Pass percentage: 51%
12 personnel
Percent of plays: 22%
Yards per play: 6.6
TD: 17
Pass percentage: 38%
21 personnel
Percent of plays: 25%
Yards per play: 8.2
TD: 13
Pass percentage: 53%
2018 SEASON
11 personnel
Percent of plays: 39%
Yards per play: 7.4
TDs: 23
Pass percentage: 43%
12 personnel
Percent of plays: 21%
Yards per play: 7.9
TDs: 21
Pass percentage: 30%
21 personnel
Percent of plays: 29%
Yards per play: 6.5
TDs: 18
Pass percentage: 46%
2019 SEASON
10 personnel
Percent of plays: 7%
Yards per play: 10.8
TDs: 6
Pass percentage: 74%
11 personnel
Percent of plays: 58%
Yards per play: 7.5
TDs: 32
Pass percentage: 48%
12 personnel
Percent of plays: 22%
Yards per play: 6
TDs: 16
Pass percentage: 30%
21 personnel
Percent of plays: 8%
Yards per play: 4.5
TDs: 2
Pass percentage: 33%
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The Tigers used “11” personnel on 62 percent of their plays in 2016 and 58 percent of their plays in ’19, but just 32 percent of their plays in ’17 and 39 percent of their plays in ’18. Norvell went to more two-back and two-tight end sets in 2017 and ’18 because of a loaded backfield that featured Darrell Henderson, Patrick Taylor Jr. and Tony Pollard.
Even in less diverse seasons regarding personnel, Memphis was able to avoid becoming predictable. Coaches would sprinkle in “10,” “20” (two backs and three receivers) and “22” (two backs, two tight ends and one receiver) personnel to mix things up, but the primary method for accomplishing that has always been using a variety of formations.
Formations
Memphis lined up in Shotgun, Pistol or split-back formations the most often. Within that, though, there would be twists. In addition to being in the backfield, his running backs can be split wide or take direct snaps in Wildcat packages.
Particularly in 2017 and ’18, Norvell mixed in several versions of the Wildcat. Sometimes, the running back would have another back alongside him, two tight ends up front and two receivers on the outside. In others, the running back would line up alone in the backfield, have a tight end on either side of the line and three receivers on the outside.
Wide receiver Antonio Gibson has 32 receptions for Memphis this season; he also has 31 rushing attempts and is the Tigers’ second-leading rusher. (Justin Ford / USA Today)Norvell sometimes would line up tight ends at wide receiver while in “11” personnel. He’d also put wide receivers at H-back, tight end or even running back. This season, for instance, senior wide receiver Antonio Gibson rushed for 363 yards.
Within drives, Memphis often would switch personnel groupings and use various formations.
“I think that probably goes back to varying tempo and formation versatility,” Dillingham said. “And that goes back to the system being extremely multiple. The system allows so much flexibility that when we can move guys around to create matchups, to create one-on-ones, we do that quickly. And we do that through a variation of formations. It makes it extremely difficult for a team to match up player-versus-player.”
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No matter how creative Norvell and Dillingham get, though, the success of the offense will be determined by the ability of Florida State’s playmakers to win their matchups. The coaches can put the players in position, but they can’t make them execute. While they haven’t spent much time around the players, the staff has confidence that it won’t be an issue.
“Our guys on this football team are going to have one-on-one opportunities, and we’re going to put you in the best situation to win your one-on-one,” Dillingham said. “And, at the end of the day, they are going to go win it.”
Run concepts
Regardless of productivity, the running game has been an integral piece of Norvell’s offense. Memphis ran the ball 50.5 percent of the time in 2016, 48.1 percent of the time in ’17 (when Memphis was No. 7 nationally in pass offense), 59.8 percent of the time in ’18 (when Memphis was No. 4 in the nation in rush offense, behind three triple-option teams) and 57.2 percent of the time in ’19.
Memphis used a zone-read-based running game, which often gets incorrectly lumped in with run-pass option offenses. A dual-threat quarterback isn’t necessary for the run game to be successful. Memphis quarterback Brady White had minus-43 rushing yards in 2018, but the Tigers averaged 279.9 rushing yards per game (fourth nationally), gained 6.3 yards per carry (third) and scored 48 rushing touchdowns (second).
Norvell does use RPOs, too. And in terms of specific run plays, Memphis used a healthy blend of power, counter, draw and dive. They also leaned on the Wildcat when the personnel fit. The Tigers forced defenses to read and react to their running game, which opened up plenty of opportunities for the pass.
Passing game
Most of the attention went to the running game at Memphis, but the passing attack also was deadly. Riley Ferguson completed 63.1 percent of his passes for 7,955 yards, 70 touchdowns and 19 interceptions in 2016 and ’17. Current starter Brady White has completed 63.5 percent of his passes for 6,856 yards, 59 touchdowns and 18 interceptions in 2018 and ’19.
Norvell and Dillingham have expressed the “balanced attack” aspect to the current players and on the recruiting trail.
In two seasons as Memphis’ starter, Brady White has thrown for 6,856 yards and guided an offense that has scored 1,128 points — 41.8 per game. (Alonzo Adams / USA Today)“We don’t have to go up there and tweak things to make it look like this offense is built for playmakers,” Dillingham said. “We can put everybody in a room and we can say if you play quarterback here, you’re going to put up roughly over 3,500 yards and 35 touchdowns. You play wideout here — only one other person in seven years has had a thousand-yard receiver every year, and that’s Lincoln Riley other than coach Mike Norvell.
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“We can say our running backs, two of them (Henderson and Pollard) were drafted at Memphis. We had a 2,000-yard back (rushing and receiving yards). I left, he left, and (Memphis) had another 2,000-yard back (this season) in Kenny Gainwell, who is a freshman. We can say our tight ends’ productivity is top five in all of college football in the four years that we were there.”
The passing game is intrinsically tied to the running game because of the RPOs and play-action passes, but there are plenty of traditional dropbacks. A large portion of the passing attempts are short (within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage) by distance.
Despite the focus on shallow passes, the wide receivers are asked to run the entire route tree: screens, seams, slants, flats, outs, ins, curls, posts and streaks. In combination with the running game, that frequently led to big plays over the top: Memphis leads the nation this season in pass plays of at least 40 yards (23, seven more than FSU) and is tied for the lead in pass plays of at least 50 yards (12, one more than FSU).
Much as with the running game, Memphis’ passing game was versatile. The Tigers had a 1,000-yard receiver every season under Norvell, but that wasn’t it. The tight end position averaged 497.5 receiving yards per season and the running back position averaged 763.3 receiving yards per season. Look for Florida State to target multiple areas of the field and spread the ball around evenly through the air.
Integrating the offense moving forward
There will be 29 players on the 2020 Florida State roster who’ve been coached by Jimbo Fisher, Willie Taggart and Norvell. And for those on offense, Dillingham will be their fourth offensive coordinator in as many seasons. That’s an incredible level of turnover, but it doesn’t faze everyone.
“I’m excited,” junior center Andrew Boselli said. “The way (Norvell) does the pro style with the tight end is more similar to what I came here to run. It’s more you get to look and read the defense. It’s definitely more run-heavy. You can use the tight end to get an advantage and have an extra man running the ball.
“And if you don’t have the right numbers, you can check it the opposite way and hit them on the weak side. It’s a pro-style offense. That’s what I came to play and what I’m most comfortable playing.”
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Fisher used a pro-style offense as coach, Taggart switched to a version of the spread and Norvell’s offense provides a middle ground of sorts.
Norvell and Dillingham have started to meet with the players in between their work on the recruiting trail. While they aren’t coaching yet, they’ve been attending practices. The roster should mostly be set after National Signing Day in February, and the work will ramp up heading into spring practice in March. For the staff, having created a bond by then with the players is essential.
“I don’t expect them to trust me,” Dillingham said. “I don’t expect them to believe a word I say right now. I just expect them to give me a chance. That’s it: ‘I just want a chance to coach you, I want a chance for you to learn and I want a chance to put you in this system and see what we can do.’ ”
The offensive skill position talent always has been there for Florida State, but now there’s newfound quarterback depth and seeming unity among the coaching staff. With improved play in the trenches — and uncontrollable factors such as improved health — the offense has the potential to become special.
“We’re going to have a team that understands that our knowledge will be our greatest talent,” Norvell said. “Then we’re going to play fast because of the confidence of who we are, what we do, how we train, and the unbelievable skill that we’re going to recruit here to be able to showcase these great players and individuals.”
Advance statistical data provided by Sports Info Solution
(Top photo: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)
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