FishDuck Article Administrator No. 1 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Kenny Dillingham's Offense and the Inclusion of the Pistol | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM Coach Eric Boles takes a look at the type of offense Coach Kenny Dillingham looks to bring to the Oregon Ducks, and its use of the Pistol alignment. There is a sentiment among those who follow Oregon football that we have no idea what Coach Kenny Dillingham plans on doing offensively with the Oregon Ducks. But we actually have a pretty good idea. It’s uncommon for a coach who learned under an extremely successful coordinator/play-caller to drastically deviate from that system when he becomes “the guy.” Coach Dillingham ... 1 Two Sites: FishDuck and the Our Beloved Ducks forum, The only "Forum with Decorum!" And All-Volunteer? What a wonderful community of Duck fans! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duck 1972 No. 2 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Thanks coach. I really don't understand all the Xs and Os but do a lot of reading and saw in 1 article the reason for the pistol is deception. Where the RB lines up gives tips to the defense. By putting him directly behind the QB they have no idea which side the play is on. Also is the pistol brought from Nevada by Mastro the same one your describing? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathis No. 3 Share Posted March 2, 2022 I don't inherently dislike the Pistol, I believe it can be an effective offense. I don't believe formation was the issue the last few years, I believe it was pace and explosive plays gained from taking shots down the field. So long as we do that, I think we'll fly high. I'm 100% game to watch how KD utilizes it while in Eugene 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quackerbacker No. 4 Share Posted March 2, 2022 I'm definitely not a coach but when we used the pistol in under MC it seemed the running back was so far back that it gave the edge rusher time to cut inside and make a tackle or disrupt the running play for no gain. I'm not real excited about bringing that back but I do trust in KD and DL to use whatever sets and formations are needed to exploit the defense and make our offense explosive again. Can't wait for spring. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haywarduck Moderator No. 5 Share Posted March 2, 2022 The last example it seemed the RB didn't observe the set gap the play was designed for. Instead of running straight into a wall of defensive players he shifted to the left into a gap which opened up. This would never have been acceptable under the previous coaches expectations. Hopefully we will see our RB's be given the latitude to look for the hole, even when it isn't where designed. That will be a refreshing change, maybe even a hesitation as the hole opens up too? Wow, the possibilities! These plays also seemed to be set up as RPO's and the qb made some nice decisions. A qb who plays with his head up and reads a defense will also be a nice development. A diversity of options and good decision making will move our program back to an offense feared, not just prevented. Go Coach Kenny, can he bring our offense back, I think so! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Ducky No. 6 Share Posted March 2, 2022 I may loose my mind if I see one more pistol plunge. Hopefully our backs will be coached to go where they see daylight instead of wearing out the backs of our offensive lines legs and get 1 yard and a cloud of dust. The pistol has been used successfully by many coaches but our last staff had no idea how to operate it. But our opponents sure new how to defend it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drake Moderator No. 7 Share Posted March 2, 2022 As long as the formation has a number of plays it can run while giving the same/similar looks, then I am good. It is when you run the same basic play from a formation that the defense starts to figure it out. Who knew? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph No. 8 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Thank You Coach for the great article. And thank you Charles for the very helpful 'inserts' that help Coach's article come to life. Coach, what do you expect we will see this spring? The whole O enchilada on display; or, keeping a lot of the O 'under wraps' before the match-up with UGA? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DUCati855 Moderator No. 9 Share Posted March 2, 2022 On 3/2/2022 at 8:32 AM, Haywarduck said: The last example it seemed the RB didn't observe the set gap the play was designed for. Instead of running straight into a wall of defensive players he shifted to the left into a gap which opened up. This would never have been acceptable under the previous coaches expectations. Hopefully we will see our RB's be given the latitude to look for the hole, even when it isn't where designed. That will be a refreshing change, maybe even a hesitation as the hole opens up too? Wow, the possibilities! I saw the same thing and 100% agree. Mario/Mastro taught to "trust the gap". I'm so looking forward to "find the gap" coaching. The Pistol can work fine if the RBs are taught to keep their eyes on a swivel. I'm pretty sure Mastro told them to close their eyes and pray for Mario's OL to do their job. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Administrator No. 10 Share Posted March 2, 2022 As all of you can imagine...I am not pleased with the news of extensive use of the Pistol by Dillingham. However the biggest problem was the predictability of the plays out of that formation, and if the new staff can mix it up enough as Coach Boles explains--then it can work. I will reserve judgment until I see it in action this fall! And I appreciate Coach Boles bringing this to us. 4 Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 11 Share Posted March 2, 2022 The pistol isn't a bad formation... but it is not an every down straight ahead no deviation formation. It needs to be utilized in a varied way that is not predictable. The use of the pistol here gives me hope of it being used correctly. Lots of teams use the pistol as apart of their overall scheme ... Cristobal wanted to use it like an I-Formation and it didn't work... but that was mostly because it wasn't being used correctly. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzDucksIt No. 12 Share Posted March 2, 2022 All I want to see, no matter the formation is a back like this one that sees a hole and adjusts to it. Loved watching him play and his back up was not so bad either. LaMichael James and Kenjon Barner both having great vision and running skills. Love MadMike videos, was one of the Original staples of Oregon Football and FishDuck. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Eric Boles No. 13 Share Posted March 3, 2022 On 3/2/2022 at 8:49 AM, Duck 1972 said: Thanks coach. I really don't understand all the Xs and Os but do a lot of reading and saw in 1 article the reason for the pistol is deception. Where the RB lines up gives tips to the defense. By putting him directly behind the QB they have no idea which side the play is on. Also is the pistol brought from Nevada by Mastro the same one your describing? Yeah, the pistol definitely makes it harder to decide which way the run is going. Other coaches that use the shotgun will counter this by using same side runs. For example there’s the regular inside zone where the RB crosses the QBs face and the OL is also blocking in that direction, and then there’s the same side IZ where the OL blocks in the direction of the RBs alignment and the RB doesn’t cross the QB. And it is very similar to what Mastro brought from Nevada. The overall alignment is the same, but the depths are different. Dillingham has his QB at 5 yards and the RB 2 yards behind him. At Oregon, with Mastro, the QB was also at 5 yards but the RB was 3 yards behind him. That’s actually even different from how Nevada did it when Mastro was there. They were a 4 yard QB depth and the RB was 4 more yards behind that. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Eric Boles No. 14 Share Posted March 3, 2022 On 3/2/2022 at 8:53 AM, Wrathis said: I don't inherently dislike the Pistol, I believe it can be an effective offense. I don't believe formation was the issue the last few years, I believe it was pace and explosive plays gained from taking shots down the field. So long as we do that, I think we'll fly high. I'm 100% game to watch how KD utilizes it while in Eugene It’s looking like you won’t have much to worry about then! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Eric Boles No. 15 Share Posted March 3, 2022 On 3/2/2022 at 10:26 AM, Quackerbacker said: I'm definitely not a coach but when we used the pistol in under MC it seemed the running back was so far back that it gave the edge rusher time to cut inside and make a tackle or disrupt the running play for no gain. I'm not real excited about bringing that back but I do trust in KD and DL to use whatever sets and formations are needed to exploit the defense and make our offense explosive again. Can't wait for spring. The version that Dillingham uses puts the RB a yard closer. Again, I know that doesn’t sound like much, but things do hit a little quicker. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Eric Boles No. 16 Share Posted March 3, 2022 On 3/2/2022 at 11:32 AM, Haywarduck said: The last example it seemed the RB didn't observe the set gap the play was designed for. Instead of running straight into a wall of defensive players he shifted to the left into a gap which opened up. This would never have been acceptable under the previous coaches expectations. Hopefully we will see our RB's be given the latitude to look for the hole, even when it isn't where designed. That will be a refreshing change, maybe even a hesitation as the hole opens up too? Wow, the possibilities! These plays also seemed to be set up as RPO's and the qb made some nice decisions. A qb who plays with his head up and reads a defense will also be a nice development. A diversity of options and good decision making will move our program back to an offense feared, not just prevented. Go Coach Kenny, can he bring our offense back, I think so! Yeah, he definitely took the cutback there. Also, there are a ton of of RPOs in the system. Coach Moorhead has some cool RPOs out of the pistol in 2020 but they seemed to all go away in 2021. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Eric Boles No. 17 Share Posted March 3, 2022 On 3/2/2022 at 12:35 PM, Jon Joseph said: Thank You Coach for the great article. And thank you Charles for the very helpful 'inserts' that help Coach's article come to life. Coach, what do you expect we will see this spring? The whole O enchilada on display; or, keeping a lot of the O 'under wraps' before the match-up with UGA? Jon, I’m not sure what we’ll see out of the spring game. But I’d rather see more out of the offense. It’s cool to “hide” things from your opponent but I think practicing your offense in live game situations really help. And I do have to ask, what inserts? Everything I see in the article is stuff I put in it lol. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Eric Boles No. 18 Share Posted March 3, 2022 On 3/2/2022 at 3:46 PM, David Marsh said: The pistol isn't a bad formation... but it is not an every down straight ahead no deviation formation. It needs to be utilized in a varied way that is not predictable. The use of the pistol here gives me hope of it being used correctly. Lots of teams use the pistol as apart of their overall scheme ... Cristobal wanted to use it like an I-Formation and it didn't work... but that was mostly because it wasn't being used correctly. I could see it every down but it’d have to be pretty varied. Like Oklahoma in 2013. Or Michigan this past season. Michigan’s offense was pretty effective with it. I can see why Coach Cristobal decided to hired Gattis at Miami. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Eric Boles No. 19 Share Posted March 3, 2022 On 3/2/2022 at 4:16 PM, EzDucksIt said: All I want to see, no matter the formation is a back like this one that sees a hole and adjusts to it. Loved watching him play and his back up was not so bad either. LaMichael James and Kenjon Barner both having great vision and running skills. Love MadMike videos, was one of the Original staples of Oregon Football and FishDuck. I have no doubt that we’ll se backs with great vision. Coach Locklyn is going to have them ready. But I don’t think we’ll see many backs like James and Barner, just because Dillingham’s system has traditionally used bigger backs. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OhioDuck No. 20 Share Posted March 3, 2022 The pistol has some advantages for running backs who have good vision and also allows for more counter kind of action. Yes it does have the draw back of having the running back a long way from the line of scrimmage, and giving defenses an extra step to close a hole, but it also allow for the back to see cut back lanes and to some extent get more to full speed when they hit the hole. Any offense has it's pluses and minuses. My hope is that one formation will not dominate, but the defense will prepare for each play not knowing what formation the ducks will be in. I liked much of the older Malzan offenses because they created so much stress on the defense to defend the run and pass at the same time, but that was before they ran much pistol. In that system you never knew where the running back and receivers were going to be. Creating a situation where the defense is off balance and exploiting that is the most fun for me to watch. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph No. 21 Share Posted March 3, 2022 On 3/2/2022 at 8:22 PM, Coach Eric Boles said: Yeah, he definitely took the cutback there. Also, there are a ton of of RPOs in the system. Coach Moorhead has some cool RPOs out of the pistol in 2020 but they seemed to all go away in 2021. The Mario stomp? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck No. 22 Share Posted March 4, 2022 On 3/3/2022 at 3:56 PM, Jon Joseph said: The Mario stomp? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
toketeeman No. 23 Share Posted March 4, 2022 On 3/2/2022 at 1:16 PM, EzDucksIt said: All I want to see, no matter the formation is a back like this one that sees a hole and adjusts to it. Loved watching him play and his back up was not so bad either. LaMichael James and Kenjon Barner both having great vision and running skills. Love MadMike videos, was one of the Original staples of Oregon Football and FishDuck. This video really brought home how much Oregon has lost in running offense in the past few years. Sigh. I really miss those days. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzDucksIt No. 24 Share Posted March 4, 2022 Watching Verdell and Dye they did not have the fast eyes and twitch that LMJ, Barner and DAT had. They saw openings and took em. Mario had them running into the big uglies, instead of trusting the RB's to find the holes. Looks so natural for the older guys, not so much in Mario's world. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
