There is a misunderstanding about the Briles system. Fans and pundits laud the wide splits and “Deep Choice” highlight-reel throws, but the engine of the system has always been the run game.
Josh Heupel wasn’t always a disciple of the Briles system. Initially, he played for Mike Leach in ‘99 and continued under the system in 2000. When he started calling offenses, he had to pivot to a more power-run game with lackluster results. Heupel was not renewed after the 2014 season.
Before taking the offensive coordinator job at Mizzou, Heupel spent one year at Utah State still running his Leach-based system. When he arrived in Columbia, he had fully embraced the Briles system, learning the playbook from his former college roommate, Jeff Lebby, the current Mississippi State Head Coach and Art Briles's son-in-law.
Mizzou’s offense would explode, and Heupel turned that job into the head-coaching role at UCF, then at Tennessee, where he brought the “pure” Briles system to the SEC in ‘21. Though Lebby started coaching at Ole Miss and Kendal Briles was hired at Arkansas in 2020, the system they each ran had been pared down to match LSU Head Coach Lane Kiffin’s current adjustments, since both had formerly worked for him.
Tennessee’s offense has evolved to use the TE in the passing game, incorporate more motion, and run a more diverse run game. Still, the roots are directly from the up-tempo uber-spread alignments that force defenses to defend every blade of grass and manufacture consistent light boxes.
Over the years, the Saban-centric SEC has developed unique ways to defend the Vols, from Georgia’s 3-High Mint package to Austin Armstrong’s Gators defense, which refused to blitz (<18%) and played a modified Cover 2 from the Tite Front. Defenses get “weird” when they have to defend this offense.
Texas had not played Tennessee since the 1969 Cotton Bowl. But Texas’s new defensive coordinator, Will Muschamp, was well-versed in the Vols’ offense, having worked for Georgia for five seasons in different capacities.
Muschamp is a familiar name in Austin, having coached there last in 2010. It’s been 15 years since he stalked the sidelines at DKR, but Head Coach Steve Sarkisian brought him back to raise the level of play on the “Forty Acres.”
Steve Sarkisian brought him back as an autonomous “head coach of the defense” to free up Sark’s offensive focus, adopt the Saban/Smart vocabulary that has given Texas fits (0-3 vs. Georgia), and replace Pete Kwiatkowski’s softer zone footprint with aggressive, SEC-style man-match physicality.
“Instead of robbing Peter to pay Paul, I’m letting him go do his thing on defense...
which allows me to get back to doing the things that I believe I’m really good at.”
To counter the Vols’ offensive system, Muschamp dug deep into his Rolodex and used a scheme similar to the one Georgia used in Smart’s inaugural matchup with Heupel: a “Penny” or 5-1 Front. Heupel uses wide splits and tempo to force light boxes, run the ball downhill to open space downfield, and isolate their speedy receivers. Muschamp’s Penny alignment creates a barrier across the front without prematurely declaring extra box players.
Instead of creating a “new” package or adjusting by playing a different style of defense, Muschamp leveraged two of his best defenders in Edge Colin Simmons (1) and Will LB Rasheem Biles (3).
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