UCLA Football: Play call/outcome analysis from the California game

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BERKELEY, CA – OCTOBER 13: Joshua Kelley #27 of the UCLA Bruins runs with the ball against the California Golden Bears at California Memorial Stadium on October 13, 2018 in Berkeley, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /

Personnel

Last week vs Washington marked the first time Chip kept it simple and streamlined on the personnel front at UCLA, using only 3 personnel groups. This week they stayed with only 3 personnel groups, keeping 11 and 12, but swapping last week’s 10 out for 13. There were no plays without a TE on the field this week.

13 Personnel (3 TEs) had a really solid success rate (58%), despite low YPP (3.3) upside. The 13 personnel was only used with an average of 3.5 yards to go. The 13 personnel had only 1 or 2 yards to go on 8 of the 12 times it was used. Their lone 4th down play succeeded in part because it went against the tendency, being the only pass play from 13 personnel the whole day.

Related Story. Statistical progress after the California game. light

RB Playing Time and Alignment

Josh Kelley gobbled up 81% of the tailback playing time this week. Everybody else didn’t do much with the limited opportunities (17% success and 2.6 YPP with Kelley out!). Bolu Olorunfunmi was in for two running plays but didn’t get the ball either time; once was a jet sweep, the other was an IZR where someone got the alignment wrong. DTR meshed right and Bolu went left. Cole Kinder got 6 carries in a row to ice the garbage time. I kept it out of the log for garbage time reasons, but it was really fun to watch!

All the niche RB alignments (Next, Pro I, Pistol) didn’t go so well this week. When they keep it simple with Hybrid and Pro Ace, things go much more according to plan. The pistol had a good YPC because of a single nice DTR keeper but otherwise was not successful. Pro I was new this week; for the first time, they had a 2nd skill player (a TE) in the backfield while QB was under center. I expect it to go away quickly (TEs are simply not the same as FBs). They were under center for 20 out of 63 plays this week (32% of the time); I bet you would have guessed it was more often. The hybrid shotgun is still the basis of this offense, even when getting TE crazy.