Whereas there’s deservedly a ton of consideration on whether or not Jim Harbaugh leaves Michigan to return to the NFL, there’s one other head coach within the Midwest who may additionally be in line for a transfer as much as the professionals. This coach didn’t win a nationwide title or come anyplace near having a High 25 workforce, however Akron’s Joe Moorhead might be an intriguing possibility as an offensive coordinator or quarterbacks coach within the NFL.
In 2022, the 50-year-old Pittsburgh native took over a dismal state of affairs at a college that gained solely two video games within the earlier three seasons mixed. The Zips have gained simply 4 video games in two seasons since he arrived, however I’ve heard that Moorhead’s offensive acumen — he’s the godfather of the faculty RPO sport — has gotten him on some NFL groups’ radars.
Moorhead did a terrific job in his first stint as a head coach at his alma mater Fordham earlier than James Franklin employed him to be the offensive coordinator at Penn State. Moorhead proved to be the very best coordinator rent Franklin has made there.
The Nittany Lions made dramatic enhancements offensively, as they’d ranked No. 100 in scoring earlier than he arrived and shot as much as No. 7 nationally in his two seasons operating the offense. He additionally helped them win a Large Ten title in 2016. After he spent two seasons as a head coach at Mississippi State, he arrived at Oregon as offensive coordinator after Justin Herbert left for the NFL. His capacity as a play-caller could also be finest illustrated by how his offense at Oregon carved up a two-touchdown favourite Ohio State on the street in 2021.
🎯Joe Moorhead was operating Identical-Aspect Dart RPO again in 2014 at Fordham! pic.twitter.com/17oaXj7SO0
— Coach Dan Casey (@CoachDanCasey) November 23, 2018
Moorhead interviewed for an NFL offensive coordinator job a yr in the past, in keeping with a number of sources accustomed to the method, and I wouldn’t be shocked if he will get some NFL curiosity once more this winter. What provides to the attraction of Moorhead is the success his protege Joe Brady had this season after taking on because the Buffalo Payments’ offensive coordinator.
Brady would be the first to inform anybody that every part he realized in regards to the RPO sport got here from his relationship with Moorhead, below whom he was a graduate assistant at Penn State.
Joe Brady will scheme these QB run pushed RPOs with the power to learn each side.
Right here is Q Draw RPO. Learn the MLB vs the Tear movement for swing display screen choice. Submit Snap learn the WS for Look. pic.twitter.com/vBJ42LFBT0
— James Gentle (@JamesALight) January 22, 2024
“It’s wonderful how a lot ball I didn’t know,” Brady informed me a couple of years again quickly after he bought employed to turn out to be LSU’s passing sport coordinator. He stated he’d realized a lot from Moorhead, who taught him the run tags and the way they need to be included into the run sport.
“It was superior for me,” Brady stated. “He allowed me to run some conferences, run drills and apply, and it form of modified my thoughts and my outlook on teaching. Joe’s extraordinarily shiny. He has a confidence that the fellows feed off of, and he does an unbelievable job of motivating his gamers. They see it on the sphere, and, man, they imagine in every part he says since you had this man coming from Fordham and also you’re watching the movie and also you’re seeing them have an important offense, and it’s like, ‘Wow, that’s good things nevertheless it’s at Fordham,’ however he’s like, ‘Belief me, that is going to work,’ they usually get motivated and it simply takes off from there.
“He’s going to regulate who he desires to regulate of the defenders based mostly upon sure tags with how he calls it, so it’s not a tough offense to study, nevertheless it’s superb at what it does, and also you don’t should be an advanced offense nowadays.”
It in all probability doesn’t harm that one other inventive faculty offensive coordinator, Todd Monken, has had a improbable debut season operating the offense for the Baltimore Ravens. The NFL is a copycat league. Moorhead doesn’t have prior NFL expertise like Monken did, and he additionally wouldn’t work with Lamar Jackson like Monken does, however he’s well-versed in plenty of the ideas groups are in search of now.
Moorhead all the time has been an enormous believer in Chip Kelly’s previous run-game method of “in search of numbers, angels and grass” and placing defenders in battle.
His model of an RPO-based run sport mixed with the West Coast system passing assault of taking calculated photographs down the sphere is one thing we’re seeing extra of within the NFL. There’s by no means been extra overlap between faculty and NFL offenses than there’s proper now, particularly with operating quarterbacks thriving within the league the best way they’ve.
(Photograph: Jeff Moreland / Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photos)
