How will Gleeson's no-huddle, fast tempo offense affect the offensive line?
Rutgers football offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson said Tuesday during a video call that his offense will feature no huddling and it will move swiftly down the field.
“We want to be fast,” he said. “That sounds like a coach platitude but to me it's a little deeper than that. We want to be a fast no huddle offense. If you can envision the best press basketball team that you guys have ever watched, that's kind of how we want to do our business. We want to snap the ball around every 15 seconds. It's kind of our timestamp for no huddle football.”
When you talk about an offense and how the scheme will look and operate on gameday, many, with good reason, focus on the quarterback as well as the skill players such as wide receivers, running backs, or even right ends -- especially in an up tempo spread offense.
But what about the offensive line, which arguably makes the engine go no matter what type of system is being run? If your line can’t perform in the trenches, then most of the time everything falls apart.
TKR asked Gleeson how the line has been adapting and what he will be looking for from the line. The Glen Ridge, N.J. native said the group will have to improve their conditioning to be able to line up faster than normal and also not shy away from being physical.
“Yeah, I think everyone has their own individual responsibility in no huddle. The formation is something that is largely controlled by the wide receivers. They got to get aligned really quickly to try to kind of keep the engine of the no huddle going,” Gleeson said. “I would say that the offensive line has a responsibility to kind of limit some of the things. One of the things that people say about the no huddle is that, because you're playing up tempo, it limits some of the defense's ability to kind of dial up certain pressures because they're just too worried about getting aligned. So I think all parts of the offense have to work together and be like that press basketball team and keep ourselves on the attack. So the offensive line would be responsible for getting on the ball very quickly and trailing the play and getting the running backs off the ground and in some ways that helps you kind of clarify what run is supposed to look like when they can get on the ball as quickly as they can.”
The Scarlet Knights will have to replace three starters on the offensive line, and even those returning starters aren’t guaranteed anything. Much like defensive coordinator Robb Smith mentioned last week, all the players have a clean slate with the new staff.
“They've responded to it really, really well and my only evidence of it is just the way that they have approached their level of conditioning in the workouts that we had,” Gleeson said.
In charge of the offensive line is Andrew Aurich, who spent six togethers with Gleeson at Princeton. Aurich was also the Tigers’ offensive play-caller in 2019. Aurich oversaw 12 linemen who earned All-Ivy League honors and during a two-year span in 2017 and 2018, the Tigers ranked in the top 15 in the country in the least amount of sacks allowed and they were in the five in the nation with the fewest tackles-for-loss allowed. In 2018, when Princeton went undefeated at 10-0, it boasted the top rushing offense in the conference with 295.5 yards-per-game and the second-highest passing offense with 241.3 yards-per-game. The offensive line tied for second in the conference with the fewest sacks given up and second in the FCS in scoring offense (47.0 points-per-game), second in total offense, and sixth in rushing.
The two of them reuniting at Rutgers is important for the Scarlet Knights getting their offense back on track.
“I know Andy Aurich is one of the best coaches that I've ever been around. So if there's any guy that's that's responsible for taking the group to the next level I think he's gonna be the guy to do it. When thinking about an offense, our task right now is we've got to get this offense off the ground. Well, in different position groups there's more guys than another. We mentioned earlier how many wideouts we have. The two rooms that have the most people are wide receiver and offensive line right. You would expect me as a coordinator, I would love to be able to teach everybody individually, but you have to trust the guys that you work with to impart wisdom and knowledge to their groups, especially the ones where there's a lot of guys. That's a big undertaking.
“At Princeton last year as a coordinator himself he had some things that he brought to the table and kind of made recommendations to me as well. I think that's all part of being a good leader is giving it but also taking it as well. And Andy from day one, his ability to kind get everyone up to speed and not speaking the same languages is of great value to me. I can't say that enough.”
Stay tuned for more on Gleeson and the offense on TKR.
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