Mountaineer Analysis: Introducing Tyler Urban

Tight end Tyler Urban’s first touchdown for the Mountaineers last season was also his first career reception.  I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of young Tyler this year, so let’s take a look at that notable first touchdown from last year.

Before I do that, let me explain that I’m mainly trying to start a discussion with this post, which I hope will be the first of many. I am not an expert in the game of football, never having played or coached the game. I’m just an interested fan, and I especially enjoy learning about schemes and personnel and their effect on how the game is played.

In other words,  I’m confident many of you know a lot more about football than I do, so please contribute your comments, corrections, and criticisms.

This play takes place during the first quarter, on 2nd and 3 with the ball on the right hash on Rutgers’ 21-yard-line. On the preceding play the ball was also on the right hash; Pat White lined up as a receiver on the left side of the formation and Jarrett Brown took a shotgun snap and ran right, to the strong side of the formation, for seven yards.

This time WVU lines up in an I formation with Will Johnson at fullback, Noel Devine at tailback, and the tight end (Urban) on the left side of the line. As many of you know, we had a tendency last year to run to the boundary side even from the hash marks (I often found this quite aggravating, actually), and as already noted, we had just done it on the previous play. My hunch is that O-coordinator Mullen is playing against his own tendency on this TD play.

Rutgers sets up in its 4-3 base defense with two deep safeties. The strong side outside linebacker walks up to the line outside of the defensive end, apparently in reaction to WVU’s formation strength.

The first key event happens just before the snap. The receiver on the field side, who I believe is Bradley Starks, goes in motion. Before the snap it’s unclear why he’s going in motion, but he ends up swinging behind Devine. This would put him in a potential pitch position, and at the snap the line moves hard to the right, with Johnson moving to the right to provide an apparent lead block.

The important thing about this motion, however, is that it causes both the cornerback and safety to react. The corner follows Starks toward the formation, which will cause him to be running the wrong direction when White and Devine go left at the snap.

The real killer for Rutgers is that the safety bites on the motion too, running up toward the line in run support. Why? Well, I have to believe that tendency reading has something to do with it, plus after Starks goes in motion, there are no receivers left on that side of the formation… except for Urban. Watch the video and it’s clear that the safety is thinking run as soon as Starks moves. In fact, he lets Urban go right by him—which has to be an error. The safety almost certainly is responsible for any receivers on the deep field side.

The second key is the play action, a fake handoff from White to Devine. The defenders who are left, who in theory are in some position to make a play, react to this fake. This second layer of trickery reinforces "run" in the minds of the Scarlet Knights' defenders.

What results is essentially a dynamic spread, rather than a spread created simply by formation. With everyone moving to the right except for White, Devine,  and Urban, and with Alric Arnett coming largely unnoticed from the back side, West Virginia ends up with a momentary 4 on 4 with the entire field to the left of the right hashmark to play with, and with the single remaining deep safety having two receivers to cover. If that isn’t "getting your playmakers into space," I don’t know what is.

It’s entirely possible that, because Urban had never even caught a pass before, Rutgers simply discounted him, allowing him to slip into the secondary more easily. For Urban’s part, he runs a post corner route that breaks at 10 yards. He’s so open that White actually waits a bit for him to make his cut—there are no defenders within 7-8 yards of him.

Rather than being a primary weapon on offense, I suspect that Urban will be used similarly this year. When we see him get the ball, it will again be on counter-type plays where we use some of our other weapons as decoys, and defenses will discover too late that they forgot about Urban. If he keeps scoring touchdowns, however, Mountaineer fans won’t forget about him.