Film Study: Different Year, Same Ol’ Dana

Since its move to the Big 12, West Virginia has been consistently productive on offense. The main reason? Current head coach and former OSU offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen.

Holgorsen, who comes from the Hal Mumme coaching tree, has long been an air raid guru since his first offensive coordinating job at Texas Tech in 2007.

If Cowboy fans watch closely, many of the things that WVU will do on Saturday will bring back memories of Holgorsen’s time at OSU during the Weeden era. While Holgorsen has added his own wrinkles to the Mountaineer offense, much of his scheme stays the same, and that’s what makes it so great.

The Mountaineers still use the same old staples of the air raid offense such as …

Y cross.

Stick.

And verticals.

These are, of course, just naming a few plays. He also still packages almost all his zone run plays with screens.

And all his draws with route combinations.

Again, these are just a couple of examples, but they are part of the base of any modern air raid playbook. He also frequently uses the fly sweep series with the base sweep.

And an inside zone off the same look.

He will also go hard play action with only two receivers going out on routes.

Finally, he has added a bit more power to his scheme. In Dana’s early days at Houston and Oklahoma State, other than his full house formation, he hardly ever used tight ends or fullbacks; mostly every formation was in 10 personnel.

But in the past couple of years he has gradually incorporated tight ends and fullbacks into his offense. Now, he uses both 20 (two backs) and 11 (one back, one tight end) personnel formations fairly frequently. He usually saves his full house formation for short yardage and goal line situations, and along with his base zone plays, he has added some power schemes as well.

Football purists appreciate offenses like Holgorsen’s for their efforts of keeping the air raid alive. It’s important to note that the air raid is not named so because the offense passes a lot; rather, it describes the scheme and its plays as a whole.

Expect West Virginia to effectively use the air raid scheme against the Cowboys on Saturday. Holgorsen’s offenses are known for their scoring ability, and Cowboy fans know that firsthand.

How do you think the Cowboy defense will fare against the Mountaineers? Leave your comments below!