Provincia de Santa Fe (Argentina) All-Time Team

Abel Balbo and Gabriel Batistuta

Please also see my All-Time World Cup Team Index.

Argentina All-Time Team
Argentina All-Time Team before 1978
Argentina All-Time Team After Maradona
Angels with Dirty Faces with Di Stefano in the WC 1958
All Diegos Team
Provincia de Córdoba, Argentina All-Time Team
The City of Buenos Aires
Provincia de Buenos Aires 
Argentina All-Time Team without players from Santa Fe, Cordoba and Buenos Aires 

This is my selection of all-time 23 member team for Santa Fe province (Provincia de Santa Fe) in Argentina.   This team is based on birth places.  The number 23 is chosen because this is the same number of players selected in a World Cup Finals.

The Province of Santa Fe (Spanish: Provincia de Santa Fe, Spanish pronunciation: [ˈsanta ˈfe]) is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco (divided by the 28th parallel south), Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero. Together with Córdoba and Entre Ríos, the province is part of the economico-political association known as the Center Region.

Ángel Di María and Lionel Messi

Santa Fe's most important cities are Rosario (population 1,193,605), the capital Santa Fe (369,000), Rafaela (100,000), Reconquista (99,000) Villa Gobernador Gálvez (74,000), Venado Tuerto (69,000), and Santo Tomé (58,000).  Rosario Central, Newell's Old Boys, Club Atlético Colón and Club Atlético Unión are some of the bigger football clubs located in this area.  Amadeo Carrizo, Lionel Messi and Gabriel Batistuta are the most famous footballers born in the region.   César Luis Menotti and Marcelo Bielsa also hails from here.

Team
GK: Amadeo Carrizo (Rufino, Santa Fe)
Amadeo Carrizo was the young goalkeeper for River Plate's "La Máquina" in 1940's.  He won five Championship trophies in 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956 and 1957.  He was considered one of the greatest goalkeeper from South America. He also played for Millonarios F.C.. Despite his greatness, Argentina constantly refused to select him.  He only earned 20 caps. He went to the World Cup Finals in 1958.

Amadeo Carrizo

GK: Nery Pumpido (Monje, Santa FeArgentina)
Nery Pumpido earned 36 caps for Argentina.  He went to 3 World Cup Finals, winning the 1986 edition as the starting keeper. For domestic football, he played for Unión de Santa Fe, Vélez Sársfield and Real Betis.  He was remembered for playing with River Plate between 1983 and 1988, where he won the 1986 Copa Libertadores, the first ever one for the club.

GK: Roberto Abbondanzieri (Bouquet, Santa Fe)
He started with Rosario Central.  In 1997, he moved to Boca Juniors, where he stayed until 2006.  He held the Boca Juniors record of 14 titles, surpassed later by Guillermo Barros Schelotto. He was named South American Goalkeeper of the Year in 2003.  In 2006, he moved to Getafe in Spain.  Capped 49 times.  He went to the WC Finals in 2006.  He started all matched until he was subbed out because of an injury during the quarterfinal against Germany. 

RB: Hernan Diaz (Barrancas, Santa Fe)
Herman Díaz joined River Plate in 1989. He went on to win 8 league titles with the club as well as the Copa Libertadores in 1996.  His 10 titles as a player make him the second most decorated player in the history of Club Atlético River Plate after his former teammate Leonardo Astrada. He also played for  Rosario Central, Los Andes and Colón de Santa Fe.  He was capped 28 times for Argentina.  He went to 1994 World Cup Finals in USA.

RB: David Acevedo  (Santa Fe)
David Acevedo played for Independiente, where he won two Copa Libertadores in 1964 and 1965.  He was a member of Argentina's 1958 World Cup, but did not play in any of the matches. He also participated in the Copa America of 1967, where he played all five matches. He played briefly for Banfield before his retirement.

CB: Oscar Ruggeri (Rosario, Santa Fe)
Oscar Ruggeri played in 3 World Cup Finals, winning the one in 1986 and finishing second in 1990. He had 97 caps for Argentina between 1983 and 1994. He was La Liga Foreign Player of the Year in 1989 and South American Player of the Year in 1991. He played for both River Plate and Boca Juniors in Argentina as well as Real Madrid in Spain. He also had career with Vélez Sarsfield, San Lorenzo, America, etc.

Oscar Ruggeri 

CB: Federico Sacchi  (Rosario, Santa Fe)
Sacchi started his career with Tiro Federal. In 1958 he was signed by Newell's Old Boys. Sacchi joined Racing Club de Avellaneda in 1961 and was part of the team that won the Argentine Primera in his first season with the club. He joined Boca Juniors in 1965 and won another league title in his debut season with the club. In 1967, he joined Sporting Cristal of Peru. Sacchi played 15 times for the Argentina national team, scoring one goal. He was a member of the Argentina squad for the 1962 World Cup.

CB/DM: Javier Mascherano (San Lorenzo, Santa Fe)
Nicknamed "El Jefecito" ("The Little Chief"), he played for River Plate.  In 2005, he joined Corinthians along with Argentine compatriot, Carlos Tevez.  A year later, he moved to West Ham again with Tevez.  He later played for Liverpool and Barcelona.  He has made over 140 appearances for the Argentina national team, making him the second-most capped player in the country's history. He has represented the nation at five Copa América tournaments, and three World Cups.

CB: Roberto Sensini (Arroyo Seco, Santa Fe)
Sensini started in 1986 for Newell's Old Boys before moving to Udinese.  With Parma, he won two UEFA Cups, two Italian Cups, and the UEFA Super Cup. He had a brief stint with Lazio, winning the scudetto, the Italian Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, and the Supercoppa Italiana in his first season.  He played in the World Cup 1990, 1994 and 1998. In the 1990 World Cup Final, he conceded the disputed penalty kick from which West Germany scored their winning goal.

Roberto Sensini

LB:  Federico Vairo (Rosario, Santa Fe)
Federico Vairo started his career at Rosario Central in 1947, he played for the club for 8 seasons before moving to River Plate. With them, he won three consecutive league titles between 1955 and 1957. Vairo played for the Argentine National team at the World Cup held in Sweden in 1958. At onetime he was the player with the most games played for the national team. His record was not broken until the 1990s.

CM/DM: Claudio Marangoni (Rosario, Santa Fe) 
Claudio Marangoni played in Argentina and England before joining Club Atlético Independiente in 1982. He won three major titles with the club: 1983 Metropolitano, Copa Libertadores and Copa Intercontinental in 1984. In 1988 he left Independiente to join Boca Juniors where he won the Supercopa Sudamericana 1989 and the Recopa Sudamericana 1990. He was capped 8 times.

CM/DM: Ricardo Giusti  (Arroyo Seco, Santa Fe) 
During his career Giusti also played for Unión de Santa Fe, Argentinos Juniors and Newell's Old Boys, but he had most of his success with Independiente where he captained the team. He was named as the club's best midfielder during Independiente's 90th anniversary. He won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 and was also a runner-up in the 1990 World Cup. With 53 caps, he played a part in 5 major tournaments.

CM: Miguel Ángel Raimondo  (Rosario, Santa Fe) 
Raimondo played for Rosario Central and Atlanta before joining Independiente in 1969. He won two league championships, three (of their four in a row) Copa Libertadores titles, two Copa Interamericanas and an Intercontinental Cup. He was selected as the Player of the Year of Argentina in 1974. In 1975, Raimondo joined River Plate where he helped the club to win both of the Argentine league titles that year.

RW/FW: Ángel Di María (Rosario, Santa Fe)
After beginning his career with Rosario Central, Di María moved to Europe in 2007 to play for Benfica, earning a €25 million move to Real Madrid three years later. He played a major role in the club's 2011–12 La Liga triumph. After winning the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid, he signed for Manchester United in 2014 for a British record £59.7 million, but joined PSG a year later for around £44 million. At the time of writing, he earned over 90 caps. He went to both 2010 and 2014 World Cup Finals.

Ángel Di María

LW: Enrique García (Santa Fe) 
"Chueco" García  started playing for local club Las Rosas and was sold to Gimnasia y Esgrima de Santa Fe.  In 1933, he joined Rosario Central where he played until he joined Racing Club de Avellaneda for an Argentine record transfer fee of $38,931. He made a total of 233 appearances for "La Academia" between 1936 and 1944, scoring 78 goals.  García played 35 times for Argentina between 1935 and 1943. He was part of the Copa América winning squads of 1937 and 1941.

LW: Maxi Rodríguez (Rosario, Santa Fe)
Maxi Rodríguez started Newell's Old Boys before moving to Spain.  He played with Espanyol and Atletico Madrid.  Between 2010 and 2012, he played with Liverpool.  He returned to Newell's Old Boys in 2012. He also played for Penarol.  Between 2003 and 2014, he played 57 times for Argentina.  He went to three World Cup Finals: 2006, 2010 and 2014.

AM: Ermindo Onega (Las Parejas, Santa Fe)
Onega played for River Plate from 1957 to 1968, scoring 98 goals in 222 matches. In 1972, he played for Club Atlético Vélez Sársfield, scoring 6 goals in 30 matches. He also had spells with Peñarol in Uruguay and La Serena in Chile. Onega died in a road accident in 1979 on his way to the city of Rosario. He was only 39 years old.  between 1960 and 1967, he played 30 times for Argentina.  He went to the 1966 World Cup Finals.

Ermindo Onega 

RW/FW:  Lionel Messi (Rosario, Santa Fe)
Born and raised in central Argentina, Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency as a child. At age 13, he relocated to Spain to join Barcelona. At time of writing, he won 4 World Player of the Year and 5 Ballon d'Or.  For Argentina, he has played over 130 times.  At the time of writing, he has not won an international trophy for the national team, but reached three Finals in his career.

FW: Jorge Valdano (Las Parejas, Santa Fe) 
Although Jorge Valdano initially played for Newell's Old Boys, Alavés and Real Zaragoza, his most successful period at club level was at Real Madrid, where he played between 1984 and 1987.  For Argentina, he was a key player at the 1986 World Cup Finals. He scored four goals in the 1986 tournament, including Argentina's second goal against West Germany in the final. In total, he earned 23 caps for the Argentine national team between 1975 and 1990, scoring seven goals.

Jorge Valdano 

FW: Bernabe Ferreyra (Rufino, Santa Fe)
He was one of the first professional players in Argentine football to reach great popularity, to the point that he had a movie biography. He started with Tigre and then a spell with Vélez Sársfield.  In 1932, Ferreyra was transferred from Tigre to River Plate for a record transfer fee of 23,000 pounds. He kept this record for a total of 17 years – the longest unbroken time period for this record.  For River Plate, his scoring ratio was more than one goal per match. He was only capped 4 times.

ST: Leopoldo Luque (Sante Fe) 
In a career spanning (1972–1984),  Leopoldo Luque played for Unión de Santa Fe, Rosario Central, River Plate, Racing Club de Avellaneda and Chacarita Juniors. On 22 February 1976, Luque scored all 5 goals in a game in which his club, River Plate, defeated San Lorenzo de Almagro 5–1. With Argentina he was 1978 World Champion, scoring four goals in the tournament, including a spectacular long distance volley against France during the first round. 

Leopoldo Luque

ST: Abel Balbo ((Empalme Villa Constitución, Santa Fe) 
At club level, Balbo played for Newell's Old Boys and River Plate before moving to Italy in 1989.  In Italy, he played Udinese , Roma (two stints), Parma and Fiorentina. He played four games for Boca Juniors before finally retiring. He scored a total of 138 goals in Serie A.  For Argentina, Balbo earned 37 caps, and played at the 1990, the 1994, the 1998 World Cups, and the 1989 and 1995 Copa América. 

ST:  Gabriel Batistuta (Avellaneda, Santa Fe)
Gabriel Batistuta is the current top-scorer for Argentina.  He first gained international recognition when Argentina won the Copa America in 1991 where he finished as the top scorer. He earned a move to Fiorentina spending the next 9 seasons there while becoming their all-time leading scorer.  In 2000, he moved to AS Roma and won the scudetto in his first season. He went to the World Cup Finals in 1994, 1998 and 2002.

Gabriel Batistuta

Honorable Mention
Carlos Roa (Santa Fe, Santa Fe), Héctor Zelada (Maciel, Santa Fe), Daniel Carnevali (Rosario, Santa Fe), Fabián Cancelarich (Santa Fe, Santa Fe), Roberto Bonano (Rosario, Santa Fe), Norberto Scoponi (Rosario, Santa Fe), Franco Armani (Casilda, Santa Fe), Mario Zanabria (Santa Fe, Santa Fe), César Luis Menotti (Rosario, Santa Fe), Ezequiel Garay (Rosario, Santa Fe), Daniel Killer (Rosario, Santa Fe), Vicente de la Mata (Rosario, Santa Fe), Mauro Icardi (Rosario, Santa Fe), Alberto Acosta (Arocena, Santa Fe), Ezequiel Lavezzi (Rosario, Santa Fe), Héctor Scotta (San Justo, Santa Fe), René Pontoni (Santa Fe), Kily González (Rosario, Santa Fe), Sergio Berti (Villa Constitución, Santa Fe), Mario Zanabria (Santa Fe), Lucas Bernardi (Rosario, Santa Fe), Sebastian Battaglia (Santa Fe), Daniel Onega(Las Parejas, Santa Fe).

Squad Explanation
--  I began my projects on Argentina's regional teams around 2015.  I dropped the projects after I discovered that eighteen members of my Argentina All-Time Team came from the Greater Buenos Aires. At the time, I thought that it was impossible to create teams from regions outside Buenos Aires.  In 2020, I decided to have a second try.  I first created Córdoba All-Time Team, which I considered more difficult to research than Santa Fe.
-- San Lorenzo is not based in San Lorenzo, Santa Fe, where Javier Mascherano was born.  The club was named after their founder, Father Lorenzo Massa.
-- Four players Amadeo Carrizo, Lionel Messi, Oscar Ruggeri and Gabriel Batistuta are on my Argentina All-time team.
-- César Luis Menotti and Marcelo Bielsa also hails from Rosario.
-- Nery Pumpido, Ricardo Giusti, Jorge Valdano and Oscar Ruggeri were on the 1986 World Cup winning team.  Leopoldo Luque was from the 1978 team.  He scored 4 goals in the tournament.  Defender Daniel Killer made honorable mention.
-- Provincia de Córdoba, Argentina All-Time Team had many players from the 1978 team while this Santa Fe had more players on the 1986 team.
-- I have many choices for goalkeepers, but the three chosen are obvious.  Carlos Roa (Santa Fe, Santa Fe) of 1998 World Cup, Daniel Carnevali of the 1974 World Cup and Franco Armani (Casilda, Santa Fe) of River Plate's 2019 Copa Liberatdores winning team made honorable mention.
-- Amadeo Carrizo was the young goalkeeper for River Plate's "La Máquina" in 1940's.  He is probably Argentina's greatest goalkeeper.
-- Roberto Abbondanzieri is among the most decorated player from Boca Juniors.
-- Ezequiel Garay lost to four centerbacks who were considered to be among the best from Argentina.
-- Miguel Ángel Raimondo was the Olimpia de Plata winner in 1974. 
-- I have a harder time finding central midfielders. The ones I selected were more advanced or defensive than what I was looking for.  Sebastian Battaglia, Mario Zanabria and Lucas Bernardi were seriously considered.  But since I probably will use Javier Mascherano in the midfield, I do not need so many midfielders.
-- With Independiente, Claudio Marangoni formed a midfield with Ricardo Giusti, Jorge Burruchaga and Ricardo Bochini that was considered one of the greatest ever in Argentine club football.  I am reuniting him with Giusti here.  
-- Mario Zanabria (Santa Fe) played for Newell's Old Boys, a local club, but I did not have space for him.
-- I took Enrique García (Santa Fe) and Maxi Rodríguez over Kily González.  Maxi can also play on both sides of the wing.  Ángel Di María contributed to one of Real Madrid's Champions' League as a key player.  He also had over 100 caps for Argentina.  Enrique García is ranked among the best left wingers in Argentina's history.  Kily González is probably the best player not selected.
-- Gabriel Batistuta came through the ranks of Newell's Old Boys before joining River Plate.  Lionel Messi also was with them before joining Barcelona's youth team.  
-- Valdano is sometimes nicknamed "The Philosopher of Football" because he was very educated person.
-- I have one more spot left in the end.  Logically, I would have taken another midfielder.   In the end, I took Abel Bablo who is probably the best player left on my research.  Abel Balbo's career was overshadowed by playing at the same time as Gabriel Batistuta.  They were club mates with Fiorentina and AS Roma.  Balbo also played for Newell's Old Boys, a local club.
-- César Luis Menotti actually played for Santos with Pele.  He earned 11 caps for Argentina. 
-- Daniel Onega is Ermindo's brother. He became the top scorer in the 1966 Copa Libertadores with 17 goals, setting the record for the most goals ever scored in a single season in that tournament, a record that has never been surpassed. He is also the 4th in the all time Copa Libertadores topscorers list with 31 goals in 47 games.  He made honorable mention.

Formation

Jay Johnson: Coaching Primer

With an incredible defense, Mark Dantonio ushered in one of the most successful coaching tenures in Michigan State football history. While the highs of his tenure will almost certainly be remembered by those quarters-heavy, no-fly zone defenses, his downfall will at least be partially linked to the ineptness of the offense overall. While I don’t believe scheme was the primary issue for the 2019 Michigan State offense, fans will be interested in understanding what Mel Tucker brings in with his new staff. Due to the timing of the coaching change, Tucker heavy relied on bringing his old staff from Colorado with him to East Lansing. With Tucker comes his former Colorado offensive coordinator Jay Johnson. I’ve taken the task of watching the 2019 Buffaloes in an effort to highlight what to expect from the Spartans offense in Tucker’s first year.

MSU Athletics

 Caveats

There always have to be caveats and when talking coaching changes and what to expect going forward. There exist a few when it comes to Tucker and Michigan State:

1. Colorado seemed limited, particularly with offensive depth. They had skilled WRs, a QB that struggled to make consistent reads, but was successful once plays were broken down.
2. Tucker’s staff was only in place for one year in Boulder. While this prevents understanding the full breadth of what the offensive staff wants to go, it does give clues on what they prioritize and what they want to base their offense around.

Now, I wasn’t terribly impressed with Colorado’s offensive line. OL Coach and Running Game Coordinator Chris Kapilovic was at CU for multiple years and made the trip to MSU with Tucker. But Kailovic also has a relatively successful history, particularly at UNC, so without going into significant depth, it can be difficult to know what to take from it. Offensive coordinator Jay Johnson also maintains his role on Tucker’s staff, so the expectation should be a fairly similar offense.

As far as talent, at least early in Tucker’s tenure, Michigan State should be expected to have some limitations. The QB position has to be a primary concern after Lewerke’s graduation and no one stepping up to be a clear heir. The offensive line has underperformed for years. And their best WR bolted for the NFL draft. That said, they have some promising players at the skilled positions and recruited fairly well along the offensive line. It will likely be a transition year, but the cupboard isn’t empty.

Personnel, Formation, and Pre-snap

Colorado ran 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE) probably 90% of their snaps. Outside the red zone they probably only ran a handful of snaps in different personnel groupings, favoring 12 personnel more often than 10 personnel. The red zone saw a slight increase in 12 personnel usage, but they still were in 11 personnel the clear majority of the time.

At RB, they had a clear bell-cow, who handled about 2/3 of the carriers and probably about 75% of the total snaps. Behind that they had a clear backup in former Cass Tech RB Jaren Mangham.

4 WRs rotated through the typical three WR positions on the field at a time, with a clear preference for the top two, which rarely came off the field. The CU TE almost never came off the field.

Because of the limited personnel usage and heavy utilization of shotgun, Colorado was formationally restrained. With the vast majority of snaps being split between Shotgun Near (aligned toward the TE), Shotgun Far (aligned away from the TE), and pistol. In a few game plans they featured an under center component. This was almost always to utilize jet motion and end arounds (think the Rams offense) and all with an Ace backfield.

Further restricting their formation usage was the fact that the TE aligned in a Y-Off position probably about 80% of the snaps. This means there was little to no nub type formations as a single-side WR was always split from the formation.

The two primary formations were Doubles Y-Off and X Open Y Trio.

Far Doubles Y-Off

Pistol X Open Y Trio

One of the ways they did add some formation complexity was shifting the TE out into a WR split. This happened in several ways, either as the #3 WR in a 3x1, as the point man in bunch, or sometimes as the #2 in a twins set (either aligned on the LOS or off).

Near Double Twins:

They also did utilize condensed formations, typically to run the ball, often added with the under center component. When they did pass, it was usually a mesh concept.

And as previously mentioned, they went under center at times

One way you could say they add some wrinkles to the backfield is that occasionally the Y-Off TE will cheat into what is called a "Sniffer" position, where he aligns behind the tackle-guard rather than off the tackle.

Motion was a minor part of the offense, and came in three distinct flavors:

First, they had certain game plan oriented motions, such as the RB shift to out-leverage Arizona State's 3-man front and attack the safety run fit (you'll see an RPO we'll touch on later to the bottom of the screen):

Second, they had some basic motions across the formation or RB push motion to help identify coverage, typically used on key third downs

Last, when they wanted to threaten with Jet Sweep

I had to put a jet sweep to boundary for little gain to troll Michigan State fans, sorry...

They also run it to the field, typically as a fake to hold the edge defenders.

The other time they would add some motion was after a change in possession.

Colorado did run a no-huddle offense, but were middle of the pack when it came to tempo. There were a few instances where they pushed the tempo a bit, but it is not a tool they utilize very often.

Run Offense

Colorado was an inside zone heavy run offense, running both split and weakside Inside Zone about equally (note: a ton of teams in the PAC12 run 3-man fronts, which may impact this balance a bit more)

Split Zone:

Weakside Inside Zone:

Two regular changeups that were utilized over the course of the year were a Lead Stretch Zone play and a Belly Zone Arc Read.

The Lead Stretch Zone had a bit of a unique aspect to it. The Off-Y TE was utilized more like a FB leading to the playside LB level, rather than like a TE working a double to the second level. Watch here as the Off-Y delays his release so he can fold under the Tackle up to the playside LB.

The Belly Zone play was typically run to the strong side of the formation with the TE jabbing down to simulate the first level block before moving to the second level, though they ran it with split flow action as well.

Here was a cool wrinkle where they arc blocked with both playside TEs in one of the rare instances they went into 12 personnel:

One thing Colorado appeared to do what add a unique wrinkle each game that appeared gameplan specific, and not necessarily something that was carried forward or built upon in future games. This applies from a formation standpoint, motion standpoint, and scheme wrinkles.

Some wrinkles that Colorado ran a few times in specific games included Counter OT with a backside read (saw it in two games), and Duo (against Arizona). While they utilized jet flowthroughout the season, the leaned on it more heavily against Washington. But again, I want to emphasize that these run designs were very game plan specific and not a standard part of the offense, it was added flare that those opponents didn't spend significant time prepping for and forced future opponents to at least scout.

Pass Offense

Colorado appeared to be a “concept” heavy offense. What this means is that they utilized fairly generic two-man and three-man concepts within the offense without a lot of deviation. On the plus side, these are relatively easy concepts for the QB to execute, giving clear movement/progression keys that allow for fast processing. On the downside, defenses have many tools and experience executing against these concepts, and it often led to the Colorado offense relying on the QBs legs to scramble and make plays after the play had broken down.

One thing is clear, the offense is going to give WRs a shot downfield to make plays. One of their go-to concepts is a IZ Play Action 3 Verts (this is more pure verticals, release based on leverage, than the Houston concept or Seattle Concept). Find the single matchup, throw, and expect the WR to make a play.

The offense has a handful of core concepts that they heavily relied upon, much of the time out of 2x2 sets, where they mirror the concept on both sides. A favorite is Double Pole.

Another favorite is a double slant concept in which the inside receiver runs slightly deeper than the outside WR.

The mirror quite a few concepts, including flat-7, flat-9, Smash, etc.

They also utilize their fair share of 3-man concepts, sometimes with the third man coming from the opposite side. Typically these too are your standard concepts such as Stick, Boot, Flood, Snag.

They often also attach a pre-snap read opposite their 3-man concepts, typically a slant or a hitch. The QB will read leverage and matchup, and if it is favorable, they will attack the single receiver side.

Lastly, their go-to concept inside the Red Zone is Mesh.

I would note that their success rate with mesh was not great, but they were dedicated to it, running it with several different tags (RB wheel, corner routes, super mesh, etc.). So I expect it to continue to be a staple.

They dabble in screens a little bit, but it isn't a major part of the offense. Their most effective screen was a fake Outside Zone Tunnel Screen Throw Back.

Run-Pass Offense

Colorado didn’t show an extremely robust RPO offense, but it did exist. Most of their screen game came off “Now” screens attached as part ofan RPO.

Note, this is a pre-snap RPO based on numbers/leverage. They also utilized slants and hitches in their RPO offense for post-snap reads, but they weren't used often. As I said, it isn’t a robust RPO offense, but enough to keep the offense honest.

Etc.
I did watch a little bit of the film from Johnson's time with Minnesota. The offense was very similar to the one he ran in Colorado. The primary difference is that he inherited a FB and OL that could pull. This did lead to some gap schemes being more prominent in the playbook, including regular use of pin and pull and some Power/Counter. They were still very much Inside Zone based though.

General Thoughts

Overall, I’m not in love with the offense, but it is fundamentally sound. The idea, it seems, is a simplified offense that allows players to play fast. The formations are limited, the playbook is limited, but you can tell they have concepts they feel they can rely on. Unfortunately, this led to a lot of instances of WRs not getting open and the QB having to scramble in order to make plays. Johnson will give his guys chances to make plays, but outside a few gameplan concepts, the play design doesn’t do a lot to scheme players open.

They do appear to have some ability from a scouting standpoint. In my mind, the gameplan specific plays generally made sense and worked. They were willing to borrow from a variety of areas and attach it to the existing playbook. But overall, there were very obvious tendencies based on formation, down-and-distance, and field position. Tendencies exist for a reason, fans that scream about having known tendencies don’t tend to realize you create tendencies based on the things that work for you, and in order to strategically break them, but this is a very simplified offense.

Lastly, and this is very difficult to pin-point, but there seemed to consistently assignment errors, particularly with the non-standard plays. This could be why the Buffaloes relied so heavily on a limited playbook, it could be a player limitation, it could be a position coach limitation, it’s almost certainly an aspect of a first year offense, but too many plays broke down because blockers going the wrong way, routes running into each other, etc.

I personally felt Salam had a schematically more interesting offense. He used a variety of bunch concepts, had a relatively strong RPO attack, a mixed things up from a pass game standpoint. Maybe these are things the new staff will carry over and attach to their scheme, or maybe they have a foundation they want to build based on simplicity and execution.

I do like that the offense gives guys chances. It gives the team the option of playing at varying speeds and it attacks with both the quick game and is willing to take shots down field. They relied heavily on an inside zone scheme that was mostly uninspiring, but it’s something MSU has repped a lot of and you can build off, especially for an offense that I anticipate will aim to be nearly 50-50 run-pass balanced. But overall, the scheme is going to force MSU mostly to out-execute opponents, and won't give them much of a schematic advantage from game-to-game.