(Notre Dame Football News | The Rock Report) – The New York Times recently ran an in-depth look on what it termed Oregon’s “Speed Freak” offense.  Chip Kelly’s offensive vision described within is helpful in understanding Brian Kelly’s offensive vision and what you can expect from Notre Dame in the future.

I’ve seen more than few posts on Rock’s House wondering if Kelly’s going to run a more power focused offense after success doing it against the latter part of the schedule.  It was heartening to see Robert Hughes (with the aid of great blocking up front) pound through the Trojan defense, but given Kelly’s history and what he’s trying to accomplish, I don’t think those games are indicative of what we’ll see in the future.

Barring a change in philosophy, what Irish fans will likely see in the future is the passing version of the Oregon “Speed Freak” philosophy where aggression isn’t about physically beating up the opponent, but wearing them out.  And Chip, like Brian, has been criticized heavily for not caring a wit about time of possession. Both Kellys have been near dead last in that category. Here’s how the Times depicts Oregon’s offense:

Kelly’s teams have found a new way to intimidate, one that does not involve high-speed collisions and head injuries. “Some people call it a no-huddle offense, but I call it a no-breathing offense,” Mark Asper, an Oregon offensive lineman, told me. “It’s still football. We hit people. But after a while, the guys on the other side of the line are so gassed that you don’t have to hit them very hard to make them fall over.”

When asked to describe his philosophy, Chip Kelly was succinct, “Score. That’s it… whatever we do our philosophy is to score.” Brian Kelly talked about the offense in a similar vein  before the season, “I think we all think in terms of a defense being aggressive, you have to have that mindset that from an offensive standpoint right away, before we even talk about the first X or O or the first play call, it’s about having an aggressive mentality,” he said. “It’s not about anything else but scoring points.” Bob Stoops is also in the damn the TOP, score fast camp: “They can’t score fast enough for me,” said Stoops. “That’s always been my mentality as well — to score as often and as quickly as you can. You go up 21-0, that presses the other team, too.” They all want to score, get the ball back, and score again as quickly as possible.

The key component in making this work is tempo, it creates the constant pressure that both Kelly’s are looking to apply.  Brian Kelly made it a point of emphasis in the spring, “I want them to think faster, I want them to walk faster, I want them to go to the bathroom faster,” said Kelly. “We want to change the tempo in everything they do.”  Pittsburgh player Jabaal Sheard and former coach Dave Wannestedt talked about the effect of the pressure offense.

Pitt defensive end Jabaal Sheard said the thing he remembers about the battles with Cincinnati was the breakneck pace of the offense and how it wore the Panthers down. He said it is especially tough on the defensive linemen because there are so many quick passes and screens, which make the linemen spend a lot of time pursuing players other than the quarterback. “[The offense] gets us tired,” Sheard said. “It kind of slows us down a little bit, those quick passes and everything, it just tires you out because you are working your motor so much. And then they screen you, so I’d say it slows you down and you get mad and tired but you have to keep working every play and play for four quarters and try to get the job done.”

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said that the Notre Dame offense is similar to what the Bearcats ran under Kelly, but it’s obvious that it is still in the infant stages. “Notre Dame is probably not playing at the same pace [as Cincinnati last year], but all of the routes, the formations and the plays are the things that Brian Kelly believe in,” Wannstedt said. “We went back and looked at the films and it looks like he is doing some of the same things that they did the first and second years at Cincinnati when he was there.  “Last year they were just so much more advanced in the tempo of the game and the plays that they ran, that if you compare the different years you do see some differences. But that is just because as the players grasp the system, you can add more.”

You cant play at a fast tempo without execution, which is why you’ll hear Kelly talk about attention to detail ad nauseam. Where the philosophy really pays off (and my guess is you’ll see more teams doing this because it’s damn smart) is in the use of tempo in practice. Both Kellys employ relatively simple offenses and use high tempo practices to get more repetitions to hone execution. In a time constrained practice environment, they can get many times the repetitions in the same amount of time. The other key payoff of that philosophy is that the high tempo practice helps condition the team.

But where the system broke down for Brian this year, in my opinion, was in putting too much pressure on Crist. It was a calculated risk with an eye toward the getting the offense up to speed by the end of 2010.. As Charlie Molnar put it, “We’re really banking on it picking up in games 11-13 and not waiting until next year.”

But with a slew of injuries and without a QB to run the system, the offense couldn’t execute to push the tempo and continually put the defense in bad positions.   As Molnar said before the season, when this offense goes 3 and out, it’s not pretty.   When that happens, the entire philosophy breaks down, which is why I wrote “You Can’t Win Unless You Run.” Crist’s completion percentage is below 60% and that spells disaster in this offense. The Sun Times summed it up well:

And completion percentage is the key statistic in the spread. Completions lead to first downs and provide the rhythm and pace that make the spread so lethal. It’s no coincidence that the two most accurate passers in Kelly’s system — Curt Anes at Grand Valley State in 2001 (69.7 percent) and 2002 (67.1) and Zach Collaros at Cincinnati in 2009 (75.0) were a combined 30-0 as a starter.

Former Cincinnati offensive coordinator Jeff Quinn described the transition at Cincinnati.  “What we couldn’t do in ’07, we can do in ’09,” Quinn said. “We’ve made the transformation from a huddle, slow pace, ball control offense to, ‘There is no huddle, you better get your rear end to the line now.”

The second part of this is how that philosophy plays into game management.  Both Kellys are aggressive risk takers.  Chip Kelly takes a lot of risks. He goes for it on 4th down about three times a game and from all over the field despite only converting 65% of the time. Over the course of a game, those bets work when they’re made within the context of the pressure philosophy. Even when the defense makes a 3rd down stop it can’t rest.  As Charlie Molnar warned before the season, Brian Kelly will make decisions that seem puzzling, but are made with an eye toward putting more points on the board as fast as possible and keeping the team focused on aggression. Quinn said that Kelly has a “uncanny knack and feel for a game” and throughout his career he has been known for head scratching calls that pay off. During the Michigan I went ballistic when Kelly went for the touchdown at the end of the half. My friend from Cincinnati looked at me and said “get used to it” or something to that effect.

When Kelly said, “get used to it” he was talking about aggressive decision-making as part of an overall pressure philosophy.  I don’t think he had a good enough handle on this team to be that aggressive in year one. Upon further reflection, Kelly seemed to understand a couple of important calls had more risk than reward, but I don’t think he’ll pull back completely from the philosophy he’s practiced for years.

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