Kansas Jayhawks Drop Back Passing Game: Dagger, 3 wheel, Shadow and other Concepts

Kansas is know for their great offense. They have many elements that make it hard to defend.

Those include:
Shifts  and motions
Unbalance Formations
Great Play Action Game
Boot Concepts
Dive Option 
Lead Option

But the thing that gets overlooked is their drop back passing game.
Let’s look at a few concepts they run.

Dagger

The Jayhawks run dagger in a few different ways.

Advantages of the concept:

1. It is good against any zone: cover 2, cover 4, 6 or cover 3 variations.  The read is the same, read the alley player(curl, flat defender. You read the dig to the shallow.  It is also effective vs cover 1 defenses.

2. The safeties and cb are taken care of by the post or skinny post by the #2 wr and this opens the dig window.

3. It is excellent vs man as most teams will run it vs some type of stack formation. This usually creates some type of soft coverage and again the reads are the same. 

4. It is a great route to run with 6 man protection. You can handle most 5 man pressures and the shallow cross is a great man beater if it's a 5 man pressure with man principles. There is no sit down and he usually can get open on the crossing route.

5. When you hit the shallow it allows the wr to catch the ball full speed with room to make more plays in the open field.

The first is the traditional way below.

Film:

The 2nd variation is when they run y cross with the dagger concept.

Read:
Cover 1: y cross(dover) to shallow off leverage.
Zone: Eliminate the dover, look dig/shallow reset to swing
Vs zone cover 2 ,3 and 4

cover 2 man: Shallow/RB to run it (toughest D vs the route concept)

You eliminate the y cross and throw the in or shallow off the alley defender.

Here’s the same concept vs Oklahoma who is in a single high, man to the boundary and 3 carry to the field(playside cb looks like 3 or inside man)

He carries out his read and hits the dig.

The shallow is taken as is the cross so he works to the dig.

The #1 wr runs a nice route and is open on the dig.

Film 2 clips vs Oklahoma

The last concept is their 3 wheel concept. They like this to the boundary. This is a 4 man flood concept as they also release the RB to that side.

The #2 wr releases inside on the crossing route. He is the #1 read vs any type of hot pressure. #1 runs the post and #3 runs the wheel. Adding the RB further stresses the alley defender.

Film

Man Beaters

They have some nice rub concepts in their offense on 3rd and 3 and 3rd & 4-6.

3rd and 3

They run a nice 2 ,3 rub route with the #2 WR picking for #3.

Another 3rd down Concept

3rd and 6

They Run Bunch and run a nice 3 out concept. They get the natural pick route from the formation. It also has answers vs zone. The defense is playing combo coverage trying to match. The flat opens up and the qb makes the easy read.

Film

I hope you enjoyed some analysis of the Kansas Jayhawks passing game. More analysis to come!