Attacking OffSet Pistol Formations

Troy used Safety pressure to attack Appalachian State's offset Pistol formations in the Sun Belt Championship.

From 2016 to 2019, current West Virginia Head Coach Neal Brown led Troy to success, winning 10 games or more in each of those four years. After his departure, current North Carolina Offensive Coordinator Chip Lindsey stepped in, and the Trojans went stagnant. In his three years at Troy, the Trojans never won more than five games, a far cry from the Brown days.

With the dismissal of Lindsey, the Trojans turned to Jon Sumrall, the co-Defensive Coordinator of the 10-win Kentucky Wildcats. Sumrall was not a stranger to the program, as he was the Assistant Head Coach from '15 to ’17 under Neal Brown. Sumrall understood the culture at Troy and hit the ground running.

In Sumrall's two years as the Head Coach, Troy won back-to-back Sun Belt Championships. Last year, the ’22 team won 12 games, only losing to Ole Miss and App. State in September. Defensively, Troy ended the year 27th in DFEI (think NFL’s DVOA), a massive jump from the previous year, which finished 87th (BCFToys).

Sumrall named Shiel Wood, the current Tulane DC, as his coordinator. Under Wood, the Trojans only allowed 20 or more points four times and dominated the Sun Belt. After the season, Wood was named the new DC at Tulane. Ironically, Sumrall joined Wood a year later as the new Head Coach of the Green Wave.

With Wood’s departure, Sumrall hired Greg Gasparato, the OLB coach at Louisville and someone with intimate knowledge of Appalachian State, one of Troy’s main obstacles to winning a Sun Belt championship. Gasparato worked under Wood at Wofford and was the co-DC with Nate Woody (the godfather of the East Coast 3-4) at Army. From there, Gasparato worked under Bryan Brown at Louisville (via App. State, now Ole Miss DC). In short, Sumrall wanted a DC that understood the East Coast 3-4 and how the App. State system worked.

MQ Film Study: App. State vs UNC (2019)

In his first year as DC, Gasparato has the Trojans sitting 18th in DFEI heading into their Birmingham Bowl matchup with Duke on December 23rd. The 2023 defensive unit also finished 12th in Points Per Drive (PPD) and 13th in TD Rate (how often a drive ends in a TD/BCFToys). The Trojans were also dominant in EPA, coming in 10th in Total EPA, 7th in EPA/run, and 19th in EPA/dropback (no RPOs or play-action/CFBGraphs).

Gasparato is an expert in the East Coast 3-4 system. The philosophy stems from a movement-based 3-4 that leans into middle-of-the-field closed (MOFC) coverages. The Trojans ran MOFC coverages this past season on 55.8% of their snaps.

As stated, Gasparato has extensive experience defending the App. State offense that uses a mix of Wide and Inside Zone as its base way of running the ball. The system can be difficult for a defense to handle. The Mountaineers are Pistol-based formationally, which leads to difficulty deciphering the ball’s direction. From the Pistol, the Mountaineers’ Wide Zones can attack the defense in both directions.

July '22 - Blitz of the Month: Troy Sim Study

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