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The offense isn’t so blurry anymore. That doesn’t mean it’s any less effective.
After the uniforms and the billboards and the Nike connection brought the Oregon Ducks to the national forefront in the early 2000s, there was a period where the success of the Oregon brand was largely buoyed by a little thing called tempo.
Mike Bellotti brought the spread to Oregon in 2005. He brought Chip Kelly in as offensive coordinator in 2007. And when Kelly took over in 2009 the evolution became complete. Oregon wasn’t just the team with a million different helmets — it was also the team that snapped the ball so quickly that it left opposing defenses gasping for air and opposing coaches pleading for rule changes.
De’Anthony Thomas graced the cover of Sports Illustrated in 2012 under the headline “Speed Wins.” The New York Times called it “Oregon’s speed-freak” football. Kelly simply called it the Blur: an up-tempo offense that, at its peak, had football aficionados questioning what they really knew about the game.
Time of possession? Why would the Ducks give a hoot about time of possession?
“We don’t look at that stat,” Kelly said in 2012. “It means absolutely nothing to this operation.”
And the Ducks backed it up by averaging 49.6 points per game that season while snapping the ball every 20.8 seconds.
With a roster filled with fast players who often got 100-plus snaps in at practice to prepare for games, the Blur was Oregon’s signature during Kelly’s four years at the helm. And in the 11 years since his departure, it’s a topic often brought up to his successors.
Mark Helfrich faced plenty of questions about tempo during his tenure.
“Last week was the time that we did that the most to this point of the season,” Helfrich said after a 2014 loss to Arizona. “And then sometimes when you don’t get anything out of first down it’s tough to tempo like we would hope for.”
Willie Taggart knew what buttons to hit during his introductory press conference when asked about his 2017 offense.
“It’ll be faaaaaast,” Taggart said.
But by the time Mario Cristobal took over from Taggart in 2018, the Ducks appeared to be gearing down. That year, the Ducks ranked 30th in the nation after snapping the ball every 22.7 seconds. They slowed down even further in the 2019 Rose Bowl season, snapping every 24.5 seconds. By 2021, Cristobal came out and said what everyone already knew.
“We played fast a couple of times,” Cristobal said after a scrimmage that fall. “But we’re not a super high-tempo operation. We’re very efficient.”
The Ducks snapped the ball every 26 seconds that season — good for 75th in the nation.
If you’re like me and assumed that the Ducks have sped things up in the two years since Cristobal’s conservative offense departed for Miami, well, have a seat.
In 2022 with Dan Lanning as head coach and Kenny Dillingham as offensive coordinator, the Ducks averaged a play every 25.8 seconds. And in 2023 with Will Stein as offensive coordinator, the Ducks waded through a heap of molasses to snap the ball every 27.4 seconds — 90th in the nation.
Said Stein in a 2023 interview with Adam Breneman: “Part of our plan to win every week is to dictate tempo, and we want to utilize not only our fastball menus but our huddle, our muddle-huddles, traditional no-huddle. We do like to dictate that and control the pace of the game. But it just goes to our prep and what we’re feeling each week is going to give us the edge.”
So, Oregon’s 2023 offense wasn’t breaking any land speed records for how quickly it was getting the ball off. That doesn’t, however, mean Oregon’s offense wasn’t scoring at a fast pace.
With a sixth-year quarterback in Bo Nix who had the freedom to take his time and make changes at the line, the Ducks averaged 44.21 points per game — their highest mark since the 2014 season. With Oregon controlling the ball for 31:01 minutes per game the Ducks averaged 1.43 points for every minute of possession.
Here’s a little chart to show you how that looks in context:
A few thoughts from the chart:
Oregon’s offense may have been methodical in 2023, but it still posted the program’s most efficient Points Per Minute of Possession since the 2015 season. The Ducks may not have been snapping the ball quickly, but they had more possession than any team in recent Oregon history and took advantage of it with an explosive offense that tied for first in the country in plays of 10 or more yards.
On the other end of the spectrum, snapping speed doesn’t always lead to results. In Helfrich’s final season, the Ducks got in more snaps per minute of possession than any other Oregon team we tracked. But the quarterback tandem of Dakota Prukop and an 18-year-old Justin Herbert, coupled with one of the worst defenses in program history, meant Oregon’s offense was snapping the ball quickly (20.7 seconds, 7th nationally), not moving the ball (relative to program success) and often getting it right back.
Those slower, “efficient” offenses Cristobal spoke of? Cristobal’s four years as head coach saw Oregon’s four lowest points per game totals and four lowest points per minute of possession totals. It was the only period during these 15 sampled years — minus those few weeks in 2016 with Prukop as QB 1 — where Oregon fans openly complained about the offense. The moral of this story? Snap it quick or snap it slow, just score a lot of points.
The Ducks face Ohio State on Oct. 12. Last season, Ohio State snapped the ball at just a tick faster (26.9 seconds, 82nd nationally) than the Ducks. Ohio State’s offensive coordinator is now Kelly, who even in an era where his once prolific offensive gimmick no longer comes by surprise, still had UCLA snapping the ball every 23.1 seconds (13th nationally) last year down in Westwood.
Obviously, this has nothing to do with actual speed. With players like Rodrick Pleasant, Tez Johnson, Devon Jackson, these Ducks are just as fast — or faster — than they’ve ever been.
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
