UCF will get back to running identity under Scott Frost

Last year ucf's running backs as a unit were the biggest disappointment. Collectively the unit ran for 975 yards on 356 attempts. There were only 4 touchdowns the whole season. So that is a major reason why the Knights offense ranked 127 in offensive efficiency. Running the ball used to be a staple of the O'Leary system at UCF. But last year's was the worst in his tenure. Sure some will blame injuries and having to rely on a 3rd string back for most of the season. Losing William Stanback did not help either. Of course the offensive line was atrocious  and Brent Key was so uncreative with his rushing packages that defenses were able to stack the box to stop the run. According to football study hall, the Knights were 5th in attempted first down run plays. Thus it is easy to say that the unit was in need of a desperate overhaul. 

The biggest myth that surrounds Scott Frost's offense is that it is an air raid offense. The offense Frost ran at Oregon was the direct opposite. Frost's offense is all about controlling the tempo and maximizing the amount of possessions as possible. A new form of ground and pound if you will.  In fact last season, 3 different Oregon quarterbacks attempted a combined 375 passes. In contrast the Ducks attempted 618 rushes. To put that into UCF terms, the Knights offense ran the ball 356 times last season. Frost's offenses uses a wide variety of runners, using 13 different runners to gain nearly 3,700 yards on the ground. The reliance on the run led Frost's offense to be ranked 8th in offensive efficiency in the country(which was better than power run offenses like Navy, Georgia Tech, Alabama.) The team ranked 3rd in first down rate. Oh and Forst's offense was far from boring ranking 5th in explosive plays. So for those fans that believed the hiring of Frost meant an air raid offense a la Mike Leach, well you were sadly misinformed. 

So what makes Frost's offense so unique and how is it so different from UCF's traditional run first offense? Well as Scott Frost has said his offense is a blend of Tom Osbourne's Nebraska offense and Chip Kelly's offense. In fact Frost has said that his offense is basically like Osbourne's just done out of shotgun rather than the traditional under center style. The blend has given him a schematic advantage. This has been the new evolution for run oriented teams and kept defenses on their toes. The spread option makes the defenses guess on what the offense will do as the quarterback can hand it off to one of the backs, keep the ball  and run, or pass it. The two main plays: inside zone read and outside zone read forces a defensive end to either attack the quarterback or the running back, with the he other option getting the ball instead or the defender will be back in their heels and by that time will be picked up by another blocker. The Straddled Triple Option(the third most run formation that Frost  ran while at Oregon) is even more frustrating to a defense as it introduces a traditional H-back and a smaller scat back type. The offense attacks the line of scrimmage from 2 separate areas. Once the qb knows if the defensive end will attack the running back or qb the qb can either fake handing the ball off for a fake inside run which causes the other defenders to collapse on the fake leaving the outside open. Or the qb can hand the ball off on the inside run and fake the pitch outside. It truly spreads the defense out better than most offenses. At its core, Frost's principals are similar to O'Leary's ground and pound attack. However, O'Leary/Taaffe's traditional I-formation/single back offense was easy to predict in the later years with defenses often stacking the box with several defenders. Frost's is harder to predict and can make up for the deficiencies(cough terrible offensive line cough). 

Which player will stand out in the new scheme is the next question. Well of the returning, redshirt sophomore CJ Jones was heavily featured in the spring game. Jones was the leading rusher for UCF last year and given how awful that line was, that is an accomplishment. Jones fills the mold of a Frost scat back being 5'10 and quite mobile. If any of the returning players were to be heavily it would be Jones. However, Frost likes to use Freshmen. So my guess is that both Adrian Killins and Jawon Hamilton. I suspect that both will be heavily featured in the Straddked Triple Option Formation. Being that Hamilton ran a variation of this in Highschool, he will truly shine in the Frost system and make fans forget William Stanback's name. 

Ucf's identity under O'Leary was always run first smash mouth style. Some fans were under the misconception that the hiring of Scott Frost would mean a loss of this identity. Those fans could not be more wrong. Scott Frost is like O'Leary in terms of offensive philosophy with regards to run first attack. Given how bad the running game was last year, Frost's offense will only help improve the Knights get back to their running identity.