This is a compilation of material that I have stored up over the past few years. Everyone knows that Norm Chow came to USC via BYU with a brief stop over at North Carolina State. I have been curious about several things over the years since Pete Carroll arrived at USC back in 2001 and recruited Norm Chow to join him. One question I had was just how much of the recent (2001-2006) USC pass offense stems from the old BYU attack of the 1980's and 1990's? The second minor question was just how much of the old BYU attack did Norm Chow actually create?
The questions are partly answered by some tapes I received on Norm Chow talking about the old BYU offense, a copy of a BYU playbook from 1995, and some speeches given by Lavell Edwards former BYU Head Coach. Also there is an interesting comment from a book on USC football that I should relate as well (see end of this post). The answer to this topic however is somewhat open to interpretation and there is lots of room for debate. The simplest answer I can give for starters is that currently none of the USC Trojan rushing attack stems from the old BYU offense. The BYU offense had minimal power run game to speak of and consisted mainly of very few running plays in the playbook. The staples of the running attack were the draw play, the counter play, the draw trap, and some delay type runs. No zone running plays or isolation type plays were really in the play book and that fits my recollection of watching the team back in the 1980's & 1990's. USC's running game is much more related to the Alex Gibbs style of zone blocking and some other power run plays used in the game. BYU's attack was a carefully structured pass first attack to control the ball, down, and distance. The running game was used to keep the defense honest and somewhat off balance with mainly draw and other deception oriented plays.
A much harder question is answer is how much of the current USC passing game stems from the old BYU offense. My guess is that a small portion of it does and some of the philosophy of emphasizing the check down receiver - especially the fullback. The short three step drop timed passes (hitches, speed outs, slants, etc.) that USC uses are common to so many teams that they are difficult to comment upon and not really solely developed by BYU anyway. From various sources and reading however I gather that some of the USC Trojans mid-range attack (i.e. the 5 step drop or 60 series type passing game) is still related to the old BYU passing attack with modifications. The same might be true for the roll out and play action passes as well for deeper drops but I honestly don't know. So perhaps a subset of the current attack has some relation to the old BYU attack. Only the coaching staff knows for sure and I'll relate some media comments below for an interesting contrasting opinion.
If you are interested in coming up with your own opinion on the matter I have two BYU presentations by Lavell Edwards about their passing game and one about USC's passing attack by Norm Chow a couple of years ago. They seem to derive from largely the same material which helps answer my second question. I will put links to the files here at the bottom of this post and caution you that it is a lot of reading. Warning: You can easily spend an hour going through these presentations and they still don't answer all that I'd hope to know on the matter. Proceed at your own risk and time sink!
The first presentation listed below is by Lavell Edwards and it was his presentation to the American Football Coaching Association (AFCA) back in 1985. This glimpse into the system is just a subset of the offense and it focuses mainly on check down type plays and adjustments using the halfback and fullback in passing situations. Norm Chow was promoted to offensive coordinator in 1982 at BYU and was probably still learning the overall system at this point in time. The BYU passing game dates back to the 1970's when Lavell Edwards was promoted to Head Coach and decided upon a pass dominant offense for the team. He recruited Doug Scovill from the NFL pro ranks to be QB Coach and Offensive Coordinator to help him. By the early 1980's the system was very well developed especially the notion of stretching things vertically and horizontally, in order to attack defenses. The main concepts for this attack (at least from what I can conjure up from different sources) do apparently stem from Lavell Edwards and Doug Scovill. Scovill no doubt brought NFL concepts with him to BYU. Norm Chow then mostly "inherited" the passing offense of BYU in 1982 via promotion so it was not really ever Norm Chow "invented" although he probably jointly modified it with Lavell Edwards in latter years. Norm Chow basically states this on tapes and in writing. I have looked for material written by Doug Scovill for study but sadly he passed away quite a few years ago and did not leave any coaching presentations that I could find. Scovill left BYU for a head coaching position at San Diego State in 1981 and this movement opened the possibility for Norm Chow to advance up the ladder.
The second presentation is also by Lavell Edwards. It is from sometime in the 1990's and it details some of the origins of the BYU attack in better detail and historical context. If you are only going to read one of the BYU presentations then I'd focus on this one. It has more historical information and the text matches up to the charts in a very clear fashion. It presents the basic philosophy of the BYU attack overall and then dives into certain types of pass plays. In general Lavell Edwards notes they used 5 basic runs and about 12 different pass plays in total to build the offense. However there are so many "derivatives" of the pass plays possible as you will see the number can easily multiply.
The third presentation is by Norm Chow when he was early in his tenure as USC offensive coordinator. I had great expectations for this presentation but I was left a tad disappointed by the content as I was hoping for some new material. (Note: It is still highly worth reading however.) The text is a transcription of a speech and it sort of rambles at points and is repetitive in places. I tried to clean it up in a few places with some minor editing to make it easier to read. In some spots the text and the play diagrams did not match up very clearly as they were not labeled as well as I would have liked. Defensive fronts and coverages are unfortunately not well labeled either. Overall it revisits some of the same material from above and even uses some of the same wording and plays outlined by Lavell Edwards in his presentations. It appears to be more of a re-write of the earlier BYU presentation in many ways. That is of course fine, I was just hoping for more and newer material regarding the pass routes, etc.
For an entirely different opinion however consider the following passage from this book by Loel Schrader and Steve Bisheff in their book about USC football.
According to the authors:
Although there was little talk by the staff about a change in offensive strategy after the 2001 Las Vegas Bowl loss (USC lost 10-6 to Utah to finish the season with 6 wins and 6 losses), Carroll told the authors of this book the Trojans were "so awful, disgraceful," that he "decided that we were going to change the offense."
A former member of the staff said Carroll, in effect, "junked the BYU offense" Norm Chow brought with him to USC in 2001. Carroll turned to two professional coaches for assistance -- Alex Gibbs of the Denver Broncos and Jon Gruden, who was then at Oakland but moved to Tampa Bay. Denver had been known for possessing the best running attack in the NFL, and Gibbs was generally accorded most of the credit for developing it. Gruden was young, but he was known for his passing schemes and offensive brilliance. Each summer, Lane Kiffin has spent time with Gruden, who is head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His defensive coordinator is Monte Kiffin, Lane's father.
"I had decided we were going to do the whole offense over again," says Carroll. "I had gotten real frustrated with our offense, and I always wanted to be more involved to see if the things and concepts I liked would work. But I always gave in to the coordinators I had. This time, I decided this might be my last shot at being a head coach, and I'm not going to go down that way. I'm not going to leave it all on somebody else's shoulders. So, I spent the off-season working with the offense, and we recreated everything--philosophy-wise, rhythm, and principles--and the results have been phenomenal. The first game against Auburn, Carson Palmer was poppin' that ball around, and we were running the ball better. I even told the guys, 'I don't care if we're the best running team in the conference, just get it to average.' That was how high I set my goals then."
When Chow was praised for what "his" offense was doing, the offensive coordinator would make a point of saying, "It isn't *my* offense, it's Pete Carroll's offense." But most USC followers assumed Chow was just being modest, when, in fact, he was telling it like it was. (End of passage)
So as you can see in this contrasting view the elements brought to USC by Norm Chow were certainly down played by Pete Carroll as time went on. Other elements I mentioned above (zone running schemes and some different passing schemes were indeed added). In my personal opinion what remains from the BYU emphasis is perhaps the importance of hitting the check down receiver and some of the mid-range pass attack patterns. The rest is all Pete Carroll and USC.
The article by Norm Chow clearly shows there was indeed a large BYU influence on his thinking and that carried over to his early career at USC as offensive coordinator. After that however it changed. How much of that influence remains in tact today? My guess is that in the form of Steve Sarkisian (former BYU QB 1995-96) it is still somewhat present but the amount is hard to measure. I listened to Coach Sarkisian speak earlier this year and some the of the points about keeping it simple, hitting the check down receiver, and forming triangles or obliques around defenders were still parts of his speech as points of emphasis. USC of course does not hand out copies of its playbook or the presentation (NCAA rules don't allow it) so the matter is entirely one of conjecture for the curious fan. My guess however is that as I mentioned above some of the mid-range series of the USC passing attack especially the 5 step drop back style passes and flares to the fullback, etc. still contain some elements of BYU influence. Anyway for those interested in this sort of thing it is something more to study in the off season and then watch more closely in 2007 as Steve Sarkisian takes over the helm as USC's offensive coordinator and assistant head coach.
Lavell Edwards - BYU Passing Game and Adjustments
Lavell Edwards - BYU Passing Game
Norm Chow - The USC Passing Game