A 42 point performance and garbage time early in the 4th quarter against an SEC defense was the first look K-State fans had at a Coach Klein led offense. Not surprisingly, Klein was officially named the offensive coordinator long after the game. That performance was going to make it tough for Coach Klieman to not make the hire, even if he had doubts about Klein. There were some legitimate reasons the offense looked so good beyond the play calling, namely an elite performance from his super senior quarterback. In fact, if Klein gets a bowl game bonus I'd say he should share a bit with Skylar Thompson because Thompson made his job easier, even if the LSU defense wasn't a full strength. That said, the LSU defense still had plenty of SEC talent and that talent flashed often on Tuesday night even as Klein along with Thompson, Deuce Vaughn, and Malk Knowles among others made plays early and often. K-State finished with 5 points per drive,a mark only equaled this season against Kansas in Lawrence and only 10 times in any game against FBS opponents going back to 2007.
The key question coming out of the game after that production is what was different? There were some differences that I will highlight, but the biggest key was a healthy Skylar Thompson. Thompson made a bunch of plays with his legs, even though there was a single QB run called all night. His mobility was a key to extending plays against a relentless LSU pass rush as he either bought time and found open receivers or scrambled out of the pocket and took off on a big run, most notably a huge 4th down conversion that looked like it had no shot.
There were some things that were clear changes from Klein compared to Messingham. Even though the pace was nearly identical to the regular season (over 31 seconds per offensive snap), much more time was spent at the line of scrimmage as opposed to in the huddle. K-State broke the huddle generally with around 15-20 seconds left on the play clock, but still didn't snap it until single digits. This allowed for the next biggest change which was much more "check we me" calls at the line of scrimmage, something we didn't see often under Messingham. A few times K-State didn't appear to huddle at all (it's hard to tell from the telecast), but still waited to check the LSU defense. Another was slight alterations to formations, especially bunching receivers in spread sets. We saw more bunched pairs or even trips in a variety of formations than we saw during the season. Third, Klein really catered the offense to the strengths of his quarterback while utilizing his talented skill guys, namely Vaughn, Knowles, and Phillip Brooks. Thompson not only thrived because of his health, but I think seeing things early at the line of scrimmage and having time to make reads an adjustments (with the help of Klein and check with me) freed him up to make plays. There weren't a ton of throws down the field either as Klein utilized a majority of 5-15 yard throws, often getting the ball out quickly to easy reads against LSU's pressure and man coverage. Plus we saw some creative wrinkles like the now screen to Knowles and shovel pass to Sinnott off of jet motion and some plays that had Thompson on the move on drop back passes instead of just dropping back into the pocket. None of this was revolutionary, but it did contribute to a game with a ridiculous conversion rate for K-State on 3rd and 4th down as the Cats scored touchdowns on 6 of their first 8 drives, and one of those was was a 1 play drive before halftime resulting in a missed field goal. The other saw K-State drive to LSU 20 yard line before a couple of penalties pushed them back out to the 40 and forces a punt with K-State already ahead 28-7.
The play chart shows balance as 53% of the plays out of the first 57 called were passes; catches, incompletions, or sacks. The calls were actually 58% to 42% though, as 3 QB scrambles are tallied in my run categories. This was similar to the middle of the season as K-State had pass calls 63% of the time against OU, 58% against Texas Tech, 50% against TCU, 51% against Kansas, and 85% against Baylor. The drop back passing game was really good too, gaining nearly 10 yards per snap with an impressive success rate of nearly 53%. The run game was built on duo or inside zone with a good mix of power run, and most of that power came out of 2 back formations. Play action again had some struggles and a couple of screens worked very well.
This breakdown will be very thorough and feature 55 GIFs of plays out of the first 58 offensive snaps. I'll break them out by scheme starting with duo/inside zone run game, then 2 back play calls, then a breakdown of the drop back passing game out of 1 back formations and empty, then go into play action, before finishing by breaking out a few of the special plays that don't fit any of those categories.
The key question coming out of the game after that production is what was different? There were some differences that I will highlight, but the biggest key was a healthy Skylar Thompson. Thompson made a bunch of plays with his legs, even though there was a single QB run called all night. His mobility was a key to extending plays against a relentless LSU pass rush as he either bought time and found open receivers or scrambled out of the pocket and took off on a big run, most notably a huge 4th down conversion that looked like it had no shot.
There were some things that were clear changes from Klein compared to Messingham. Even though the pace was nearly identical to the regular season (over 31 seconds per offensive snap), much more time was spent at the line of scrimmage as opposed to in the huddle. K-State broke the huddle generally with around 15-20 seconds left on the play clock, but still didn't snap it until single digits. This allowed for the next biggest change which was much more "check we me" calls at the line of scrimmage, something we didn't see often under Messingham. A few times K-State didn't appear to huddle at all (it's hard to tell from the telecast), but still waited to check the LSU defense. Another was slight alterations to formations, especially bunching receivers in spread sets. We saw more bunched pairs or even trips in a variety of formations than we saw during the season. Third, Klein really catered the offense to the strengths of his quarterback while utilizing his talented skill guys, namely Vaughn, Knowles, and Phillip Brooks. Thompson not only thrived because of his health, but I think seeing things early at the line of scrimmage and having time to make reads an adjustments (with the help of Klein and check with me) freed him up to make plays. There weren't a ton of throws down the field either as Klein utilized a majority of 5-15 yard throws, often getting the ball out quickly to easy reads against LSU's pressure and man coverage. Plus we saw some creative wrinkles like the now screen to Knowles and shovel pass to Sinnott off of jet motion and some plays that had Thompson on the move on drop back passes instead of just dropping back into the pocket. None of this was revolutionary, but it did contribute to a game with a ridiculous conversion rate for K-State on 3rd and 4th down as the Cats scored touchdowns on 6 of their first 8 drives, and one of those was was a 1 play drive before halftime resulting in a missed field goal. The other saw K-State drive to LSU 20 yard line before a couple of penalties pushed them back out to the 40 and forces a punt with K-State already ahead 28-7.
The play chart shows balance as 53% of the plays out of the first 57 called were passes; catches, incompletions, or sacks. The calls were actually 58% to 42% though, as 3 QB scrambles are tallied in my run categories. This was similar to the middle of the season as K-State had pass calls 63% of the time against OU, 58% against Texas Tech, 50% against TCU, 51% against Kansas, and 85% against Baylor. The drop back passing game was really good too, gaining nearly 10 yards per snap with an impressive success rate of nearly 53%. The run game was built on duo or inside zone with a good mix of power run, and most of that power came out of 2 back formations. Play action again had some struggles and a couple of screens worked very well.
This breakdown will be very thorough and feature 55 GIFs of plays out of the first 58 offensive snaps. I'll break them out by scheme starting with duo/inside zone run game, then 2 back play calls, then a breakdown of the drop back passing game out of 1 back formations and empty, then go into play action, before finishing by breaking out a few of the special plays that don't fit any of those categories.
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