Breaking Down the FCS Championship Game: Part 1: The Offenses

It's the holiday season and with that comes a plethora of shopping, weather changes (knock on wood), and our final dose of high-major college football as the NCAA dumps its annual buffet of 30-plus bowl games on us. Lost in the shuffle of this bevy of entertainment is the FCS Championship game. This year's tilt features two teams marching into the uncharted territory that is Frisco, Texas for the first time. In part one of my two-part series on this biggest of FCS games, I'll attempt to break down and analyze these team's two offenses.

(In my best Michael Buffer voice)
In the orange corner, from Huntsville, Texas, the champions of the Southland Conference at 14-0...the Sam Houston State Bearkats!!!

TEAM SCHEME- SAM HOUSTON STATE BEARKATS
Sam Houston State's (SHSU from now on) bread-and-butter, like so much of the FCS, is their rushing game, ranked fourth nationally. One look at the team's stats and depth chart tells you all you need to know- four Bearkats have over 300 yards rushing on the season, two are at or over 1,000 yards and their passing attack is 103rd overall. It wouldn't be unfair to call Sam Houston State one-dimensional. When your one dimension is running the ball and it's as good as SHSU's, it could be worse. There's a reason running the ball is prevalent in FCS- it wins. Consider this- only 1 of the top 10 passing offenses in FCS (Lehigh) made the playoffs, whereas four of the top 10 rushing offenses made the playoffs (and the 11th- and 12th-best rushing offenses made the playoffs too.)

Sam Houston runs the ball out of a lot of formations and I think it would be fair to categorize them as a spread, read option-based scheme. Keep in mind that "spread" does not mean they throw the ball 40 times a game- it simply means an offense run primarily out of the backfield from shotgun or pistol sets. Based on their personnel, it's a wise decision as running back Tim Flanders and  WR/RB Richard Sincere are best suited to use their speed in space. Philosophically they're quite similar to Oregon, though don't rely on the hectic pace the Ducks do.

PERSONNEL
Quarterbacks: QB Brian Bell won't wow you or evoke memories of former Bearkat great Rhett Bomar, but he'll manage the game (62% completion percentage), protect the ball (5 interceptions), and run the option with aplomb. Bell was #2 in FCS football in passing efficiency, but the Bearkats only threw the ball for more than 200 yards in a game once all year. Bell added 400 yards and 6 TDs on the ground. To use a basketball comparison, Bell is a classic pass-first point guard. He's not there to score, he's there to get the ball to his teammates in places so that they can score. He'll get his TD's when you don't respect him or cheat on their running game, but his strongest asset is the distributing ability he has mastered this year.

Running Backs: The first guy most FCS fans think of when you bring up SHSU is easily sophomore All-American RB Tim Flanders. The Midwest City, Oklahoma native and Kansas State transfer is the bell cow for coach Willie Fritz's scheme as evidenced by his 1,560 rushing yards and 22 rushing TD's. Toss in another 404 yards and 2 TD's in the receiving game and it's pretty easy to see why Bill Snyder wanted Flanders at K-State- Flanders reminds me of former KSU stud Darren Sproles.

Flanders

 The other weapon the 'Kats throw at their opponents is athlete Richard Sincere. It's hard for me to call Sincere a RB because he is used all over the field in much the same way Florida utilized Percy Harvin and Kentucky used Randall Cobb. One of Sam Houston's favorite formations is in fact a "WildKat" package featuring Sincere at QB that is very similar to how Kentucky used Cobb last year. Any time you see Sincere in the backfield, odds are good you're going to see a speed option run of some kind.
Rounding out SHSU's depth chart are running backs Ryan Wilson and Keyshawn Hill, who combined to offer  an additional 732 yards and 6 TD's off the bench.
None of SHSU's running backs are particularly big (Flanders is the biggest at 5-9, 210) but what they lack in size, they make up for in brute speed.

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends: SHSU has no true go-to wideout, but they've got plenty of speed and and balance there. Five different 'Kats have more than 240 yards receiving, but the team's top 2 wide receivers are the aforementioned Flanders and Sincere. The only true starter SHSU features at WR (they consider Sincere a WR on their official roster) exclusively is Torrance Williams, who had 3 TD's and 397 yards (28 yards per game). The rest of the depth chart is a mishmash of guys averaging around 25 yards a game who each have anywhere from one to three TD catches all year.
The team's tight ends combined for 3 catches and 30 yards over the whole season. That's not a misprint, folks. You can forget about their tight ends.

Sincere

Offensive Line: To have such a phenomenal rushing offense like SHSU's, it goes without saying that the big uglies were a big part of it. LT Chris Crockett and C Travis Watson were both First-Team All-Americans. Rounding out the offensive line starters for Sam Houston are RT Kaleb Hopson, OG Matt Boyles, and OG Dan Jenkins. Across the board, their offensive line averages 288 pounds. They've only allowed 9 sacks all year to boot.

(In my Michael Buffer voice)
In the green corner, from Fargo, North Dakota, the champions of the Missouri Valley Conference at 13-1...the North Dakota State University Bison!!!

TEAM SCHEME- NORTH DAKOTA STATE BISON
When NDSU hired former Nebraska assistant Craig Bohl almost a decade ago, some wondered if the Bison were going to go back their option roots. Instead, Bohl brought with him a power running version of the West Coast offense that permeates the majority of NFL and has applications in nearly every college playbook today. Bohl's version of the West Coast is akin to Wisconsin's under Barry Alvarez or Bret Bielema or Jim Harbaugh's Stanford teams, featuring multiple runners running behind fullbacks and tight ends. As far as NDSU's passing game is concerned, how often and well it has been utilized has varied depending on Bohl's level of trust in the starting QB he's using at that moment.
NDSU is certainly more balanced than their Texan counterparts and will run a lot of their plays out of i-formation looks to go along with other pro-style formations featuring 2 TE's. Less common are shotgun plays, but NDSU has opened up their playbook more as the season has worn on, a sign of the development sophomore QB Brock Jensen has made.

PERSONNEL

Jensen

Quarterbacks: Sophomore QB Brock Jensen matured from the raw, immature freshman he was in his freshman season into a steady, reliable game manager with improved accuracy in 2011. Although he threw the ball almost 100 times more than Bell, he only managed 13 TD's to Bell's 20. However, his 3 INTs were the 2nd-fewest in the country (among eligible passers). Jensen, like Bell, knows his role. He's there to distribute the ball, protect it, and keep his team in the game.

McNorton

Running backs: Just like SHSU, this is where NDSU's offense comes from. NDSU doesn't have the depth or gamebreaking ability out of the backfield that SHSU does, but they certainly have the balance. Both of NDSU's top rushers, D.J. McNorton and Sam Ojuri topped the 1,000 yard mark this year and each had 11 or more TD's to go with it. Although their stats are similar, their skill sets are somewhat varied, allowing NDSU to broaden their offensive playcalling depending on which particular back they have in the game. McNorton is the more well-rounded of the bunch, catching 22 passes to Ojuri's 4 this year. He'll be used both in the screen game and as a check-down for Jensen. Ojuri is more of a slashing running back and the Bison like to use him as their closer as his juking, hard-cutting style are the perfect style to wipe the floor with defenders tired of being run on.

Receivers/Tight Ends: Unlike Sam Houston, NDSU utilizes their receivers much more conventionally. Warren Holloway is the big name here, and he led the Bison in receptions, yards, and receiving TD's this year. Jensen looks his way early and often (Holloway had more than 30 more catches than the next closest Bison WR) and his size and leaping ability make him absolutely deadly in the red zone. Complement Holloway is North Dakota kid Ryan Smith, a Wes Welker clone who lives out of the slot and whose short-area quickness and speed make him lethal in space. He has had to deal with a nagging hamstring injury and missed most of NDSU's first 2 playoff games against James Madison, Lehigh and Georgia Southern. No other NDSU WR's have emerged of note as this unit was decimated by injuries this year.
Unlike Sam Houston, NDSU heavily utilizes their tight ends in both of their roles. Matt Veldman, the 6-7 Becker, Minnesota native, was NDSU's 3rd leading pass-catcher this year and his ability as both blocker and receiver doesn't allow defenses to key on whether NDSU is running or passing based on his being in the game or not. Backup TE Garrett Bruhn added 10 catches as another safety valve for the Bison.

Offensive Line: Just like SHSU, the Bison feature a monstrous (in size and talent) offensive line. OT Paul Cornick was an All-American. Accompanying him on the line for NDSU is Austin Richard, Joe Lund, Tyler Gimmestad, and Billy Turner. One of the MVFC's best offensive lines, the Bison allowed only 21 sacks in 14 games this year. They average 303 pounds.


Who will these offenses be going up against? That's still to come in Part Two of FCS Championship preview. (I promise no more Michael Buffer references.)