This video and article looks at Lincoln Riley’s counter game out of 12 personnel.
In this article you will see some variations of the counter game.
Lincoln Riley is one of the best minds in college football. He has had great success and put up an unbelievable amount of points in his run as the head coach at Oklahoma. In 2018 they almost averaged 50 points a game, which is unheard of in college football.
One thing you can't discount is the quarterback play.
When you have Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts it's a good start. With those 3, the worst year they had was 7th in college scoring.
Over the last 7 years they were:
2015 43.5 points per game #4 in college football QB-Baker Mayfield
2016 43.9 points per game #2 in college football QB-Baker Mayfield
2017 45.1 points per game #3 in college football QB-Baker Mayfield
2018 48 points per game #1 in college football QB-Kyler Murray
2019 40 points per game #7 in college football QB-Jalen Hurts
2020 42.5 points per game #6 in college football QB-Spencer Rattler
2021 36 points per game #12 in college football QB- Spencer Rattler
That's 42 points per game over a 7 year window. That is quite impressive.
We will focus on 12 personnel for this video.
USC 12
They run it vs the Tite front. The right guard and right tackle pull. They get good blocks on the down block side. The tackle should have kept going and it could have been a bigger gain.
The H back has a nice angle to the mike and the te on the ball blocks out. Nice scheme but the tackle could have done a better job reading it and getting to the next level.
They package it with the rpo game and hit the screen below in the same game.
The right guard 12/21 Personnel, Oklahoma would often line a tight end in the backfield with 12 personnel.
Lead Counter with orbit motion vs Oklahoma st
1st and 10
Defense 3-3 stack look
Similar concept out of 21 personnel. The overhang defender aligns in a 3-3 stack so the CB becomes the overhang. They motion the WR across and run the Counter back at the tight end as the alley defender is really the CB.
Two things that make this play, the front side does a great job controlling the line of scrimmage. The Guard kicks out and the T does a nice job cleaning up.
Run the wr in motion.
Rb leads on the CB. Takes care of the support player.
Guard kicks out the DE.
The CB becomes the run support
Nice kickoff by the guard.
Good scheme and nice design.1
12 personnel vs UCLA.
Here they run it out of deuce formation, 2 tight ends balanced. They get a nice kickoff by the guard and the tackle leads up.
The guard pulls and kicks out. The de boxes it and the tackle turns up.
You see the tackle turn up and there is a nice crease for the running back.
12 personnel
They run it off jet motion. Similar scheme but no one to block the corner. The pulling tackle ends up blocking his man into him so they get a 2 for 1.
Into the boundary. base to the field.
The OLB who they want to kick out with the guard bails, so the Guard wraps and takes the LB, RB just makes a great play. could have bent that back inside.
Nice job executing as UCLA drops the OLB. They are in an under front to the left if you consider that the strength.
Good double teams
Nice job tackle cleaning up and rb turns the corner
12 counter film
Counter RPO with Motion. Looks like 21 but the TE is in the backfield.
He can run counter to the same side of motion or throw the rpo. Nice design.
The wr goes in motion but they still have the ability to throw the ball to that side.
Orbit motion
Nice job as they lead with the back in the alley and pull the guard backside.
Nice design with the motion as it pulls the OLb out of the box and they can run counter effectively.
I hope you enjoyed this article and some Lincoln Riley analysis of his counter game out of 12 personnel.
Lincoln Riley USC and Oklahoma 12 personnel Counter variations