Appalachian State Quarterbacks Coach Scott Satterfield wished the question had never been asked.
“If you could go back and play LSU again, what adjustments would you make?”
“I don’t even want that thought to come back in my mind,” Satterfield admitted. Neither Satterfield nor the Mountaineers have any reason to be ashamed of their opening loss in Baton Rouge. With Satterfield calling the plays, the three-time defending FCS champs have dominated their division more than LSU has its.
A former Mountaineer QB himself, Satterfield efficiently captained the offense’s transition from the power-I to it current, potent form of the no-huddle spread. Satterfield has developed consecutive All-American quarterbacks in Richie Williams and Armanti Edwards (pictured below), who’s expected to become the school’s all-time leader in total offense this season – as a junior. And there’s that one win at Michigan.
Two weeks after falling to LSU to open the season, Satterfield visited with Gridiron Strategies to discuss defensive trends against the spread, and the effectiveness of play action from the shotgun.
A defense that possesses “what” gives your offense the most trouble?
Defenses with a lot of speed and quickness. What we’re trying to do is basically outnumber the defense in certain aspects. Even if we get a defense outnumbered and blockers for each of their guys, if they have speed they can overcome some of that.We’re trying to attack certain holes, certain windows in the defense, and if they’ve got speed to get the ball those holes and windows close very quickly.
What are some of the defensive trends you’re seeing from teams trying to defend you?
We’re seeing more teams throwing another DB out there, getting that linebacker off the field and that one extra guy out there that can run. I think Furman may be going to something like a 4-2-5 look. Teams are doing that not only to better defend the pass, but also to disguise and bring more blitzes. Since they have five guys that can cover, then they can blitz from all over the field.
How do you counter when teams start exchanging linebackers for defensive backs?
We try to use multiple formations and personnel groups. We’ll take a two-tight end group to try to get one of our bigger tight ends in a position to block one of the smaller DBs. We’ll look at different formations and try to out-man them, whether it be by overloading one side or the other. We’re trying to find the best match-ups that will be most advantageous to move the ball.
How do you outnumber a defense on one side before the snap?
We’re a no-huddle team. If we see a situation where we can motion a guy over to give us one extra guy, then we’ll call it down from the booth. If they don’t bump, then we’ll come back from the side that we just motioned.
Sometimes it takes us a quarter to get into the groove of things because we’re all feeling out the defense. What you see on tape is not always what you see on the field game day.
Does starting in the shotgun take away some of the effectiveness of play action?
Yes, it does. The one great benefit of being under center is play action. When you’re under center, the quarterback turns his back to the defense and makes you think they’re getting ready to run the ball.
Those backers have to hold or step up, and it’s really easy to pull it for a waggle or a boot.
Even with a straight drop-back pass, you’re making the linebackers hold in. We try to use play action [out of the shotgun], but we’re not getting as much effect as you do from the I-[formation]. There’s definitely an advantage from play action on waggles and boots from under center. There’s no question about it.
Is there anything you can do to increase the effectiveness of play action out of the shotgun?
For us to get any kind of reaction from the linebackers, we have to use our protection up front. We have to actually move the whole offensive line as if we were running a stretch zone play. When the whole line moves across the line of scrimmage like that, it gets a reaction from linebackers. That’s the only thing.
How do you game plan against a team like an LSU that has superior size and quickness?
Whatever we did didn’t work (laugh). They were just superior up front. That was one of the best defensive lines I’ve seen. They were so big and fast. If you can’t get any kind of movement up there against the D-tackles, it’s not going to open up any kind of running lanes inside.
The thing that made those guys so special is that they had those guys on the inside that plug up the middle. That’s where we like to run the ball – up the middle. Then, they had guys on the perimeter.
Several times in that game we got out on the edge, and if you paused the tape, it looked like it was going to be a good play, but then the window of opportunity closed so fast. That’s where their speed came into play. We were just outmatched. We couldn’t move their D-tackles any to create space on the inside. We were trying to do different things. Formation-wise, we thought we could get in empty and spread the field and be able to get in some good plays. But with their scheme they played man out on the edge, and they were bigger defensive backs and just as fast as us. It was hard for us to get loose on the edge. Then they had enough guys on the inside where we couldn’t run it.
So if you have a team with superior talent, that’s probably the way you want to defend us. But when we’re playing against guys on our level in our division, if we break the line of scrimmage we’re probably going to score on you. Playing against LSU, that’s not going to happen.
Scott Satterfield is the Quarterbacks Coach at Appalachian State University. You can reach him at ScottSatterfield@GridironStrategies.com.