Keys to the Game: How OSU Can Take Advantage of an Inexperienced Baylor Secondary

The Baylor Bears are without two of their starters at cornerback from a season ago in Grayland Arnold and Harrison Hand. They are currently starting a sophomore in Raleigh Texada, who only played in two games a year ago and has played in five this season. Derrek Thomas, a converted wide receiver grad transfer from Temple, is starting opposite him.

At the safety spot, the Bears are going with a true freshman in Christian Morgan and senior Verkedric Vaughns. Outside of Vaughns, there is not much experience in this Baylor secondary. Additionally, the backups at these four positions consist of two true freshman, a junior and a sophomore who has only played in two games this season.

This inexperience has led to many missed assignments and busted coverages which have resulted in big plays for the Bears’ opponents. Oklahoma State needs to look to exploit this inexperience, and one way to do this is with motion, RPOs and creative route concepts.

Duke used motion earlier this season against BU to set up the touchdown shown in the video below. The running back goes in motion before the snap behind the quarterback.

After the snap, the QB pump fakes the swing pass out to the motioning back and as the receivers to his left side run a “switch” concept (post from the outside receiver and inside receiver running a wheel), the Baylor secondary gets confused and no one picks up the inside receiver, leaving him wide open down the field.

Here we see West Virginia also use pre-snap motion to find the endzone against BU. You can see in the clip below the confusion in the Baylor secondary as the West Virginia wide receiver motion across the field for the fly sweep.

The safety and corner both follow the single receiver to Will Grier’s left, leaving the motion man wide open.

The Pokes have done a great job at times this season in their RPO game utilizing the fly sweep motion as we see below on the touchdown against KU. Landon Wolf’s motion causes both the KU defensive backs and linebackers to move toward their right and respect the threat of the fly sweep.

After the snap, the Cowboy offensive line blocks towards the motion, and the defense follows the flow of the run play, leaving the Jayhawk corner in one-on-one coverage against Tylan Wallace (not good for the Jayhawk corner). Cornelius sees the linebackers and safety cheating towards the run, so he pulls the ball back and hits Wallace in stride on the slant.

The Pokes will also need to involve the backs in the passing game, as we saw in the Duke highlight above, and mix in some misdirection to keep the defense guessing.

A good example is this swing pass out to Chuba Hubbard against K-State. The Cowboys utilize the zone run fake to Justice Hill, as well as the fly sweep motion with Stoner and then TC ends up hitting Hubbard on the swing pass for a nice gain.

Route concepts which can confuse this young and inexperienced secondary and bait them into making a wrong first step will need to be a part of this game plan as well. We saw a solid concept on TC’s first touchdown pass against Texas last week. This is referred to as the “Crease” concept.

Inside receiver Dillon Stoner runs the post against the two-high safety look of UT, and both safeties key on him attacking the middle. The safety to OSU’s right side takes a few steps towards Stoner, leaving Tylan Wallace open on his dig route across the middle. Amazing throw by TC here as well.

Knowing that this Baylor secondary has shown a tendency to make mental mistakes this season, I expect Mike Yurcich to draw up some pre-snap “window dressing” along with some new formations like we saw last week against he Longhorns. However, if the Cowboys come out with a game plan similar to the one they utilized against Iowa State, it could be a long day in Waco for this OSU offense.

Also, just to note, if Baylor decides to show zone to one side with their corner lined up over the single receiver in man coverage on the other side against Tylan Wallace or Tyron Johnson (example shown below from the Baylor/Duke game) … then throw the rest of the game plan out the window and just completely expose that.