Ohio State Football: Can Kevin Wilson fix J.T. Barrett?

Let’s hit the film room to dissect how Ohio State football offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson will fix J.T. Barrett entering the 2017 season.

Kevin Wilson began his rise up the college football ranks in 2002 when he took over as the co-offensive coordinator of the Oklahoma Sooners. From 2002-2010, five of Wilson’s Sooners offenses rank in the top 10 of Oklahoma scoring offenses of all-time. His scheme produced Heisman Trophy winners in Sam Bradford and Jason White.

In 2011 he took over lowly Indiana. The Hoosiers 2011 offense was 101st in the country. By 2015, in Wilson’s last full season, they finished 24th. So what is a “Kevin Wilson” offense and why do they work so well?

Width of Knowledge

Coach Wilson’s width of knowledge is the first key element. He’s coached offensive line giving him a perspective on run and pass blocking schemes and techniques. He’s coached quarterbacks, which gives a coach an entirely new perspective and allows for an Offensive Coordinator to get more involved in the player that has the ball on every snap. Coaching a quarterback helps a coach understand the finer points of every play as quarterbacks have to know what everyone is doing on every play. The detail of their technique and eye training prepares both the coach and player.

Wilson then took over coaching full backs and tight ends before going to Indiana as head coach where he still worked closely with the quarterbacks. Now at OSU he will serve as both the offensive coordinator and the tight ends coach. With Coach Meyer being a wide receiver guru and Coach Wilson understanding the offensive line and the quarterbacks, this staff will get JT where he needs to be.

Attention to Detail

A lot has been said about Kevin Wilson leaving Indiana and how it went down but we’ll leave that alone. I’ve met the man, he was actually very low key. But his attention to detail is something no one will argue. Every last step needs to be perfect in Wilson’s world.

Look at the different between Barrett in 2016 (left) and 2017 (right). On the left, Barrett throws off balance with his shoulders dipped to one side and his leg still swinging in the air after the throw. On the right, Barrett looks like a textbook of quarterback play. His belt buckle is pointing directly at his target and his feet and square with shoulders balanced. Not every quarterback has Brett Favre or Mike Vick’s arm strength. Many passers need to be perfect in their technique to get the ball to the target on time.

Needless to say, the left image is of an interception and the right was of a deep completion. I’m not saying Barrett is fixed overnight as quarterback mechanics are a work in progress. They have many hard habits to break (see: Tebow, Tim). But Coach Wilson won’t allow for ‘good enough.’

Scheme

The scheme Wilson will install will be a run heavy system based on outside zone. Kevin Wilson uses a few different types of outside zone in his blocking scheme. But don’t get me wrong, OSU is still going to throw the ball. In 2015 at Indiana, Wilson’s quarterback Nate Sudfeld threw for 3,500 yards while having two running backs eclipse 1,000 yards rushing.

While outside zone won’t directly improve Barrett, it will indirectly benefit him. Wilson will get the offense into better down and distance situations, and will get Barrett out of situations where the drive or game are dependent upon his arm. He can use play-action passing instead of 5-step drops where his accuracy and technique will be under pressure.

Below, outside zone with fan blocking. What that means is the offensive line tries to push the defensive line and linebackers to the sideline and the back tries to cut underneath it (think: Denver Broncos 90’s run scheme).

Below, reach blocking the defensive line (a wide step where you get turned and get your hands on the outside shoulder, trying to turn the defensive lineman back inside). Now the back can sprint outside the tackle and get upfield like this.

The outside zone scheme has some intricate details which you can find here. I’ve also put together a primer of the offensive line run blocking responsibilities.

The pin/pull scheme Wilson used here involves the play side tackle and play side guard blocking down while the center pulls, the back side guard blocked down and the back side tackle can pull and kick (block the defensive end to the sideline) the most dangerous man that shows (probably the defensive end). The back gives a false key because his flow goes away from the play. Below, play-action passing off of outside zone. The O-Line flows with the running back and the quarterback will look to hit that space route to the A. He’ll slant and look to find space and drag and sit down.

What’s a false key? A false key is when someone on the offense will move the opposite way of the play. For instance, in our example above, the fullback is blocking away from the play. This makes the linebackers freeze because while the center and tackle went left, the fullback went right. That split second freeze in play will allow the running back to get more yardage because the linebackers are slow to make the play.

Interesting side note: quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator Ryan Day coached for Urban Meyer at Florida in 2005, but also coached former Wilson protege Sam Bradford during his record-setting season with the Eagles. He worked under Chip Kelly in Philly and San Francisco which means he understands the finer points of zone blocking.

Next: Game by game predictions for the Ohio State in 2017

These are just a sample of the various offensive concepts that Wilson brings to the table for the Buckeyes. Their offensive was already impressive prior to him joining the staff, but his ability to develop the offense around Barrett will only fuel the Buckeye barrage in 2017.