Conclusion – It is difficult to say with 100% certainty … but it appeared SU was ready for this play before the ball was even snapped. Their FS, LDE, SLB, and MLB all took a different and more successful approach to a play they had already seen. The FS even waited until right before the ball was snapped before making his run down into the middle ... in coordination with Franklin sliding with Shirreffs.
Although it succeeded in the first half … I’m not even sure I like the design of the play at all. Much like a few plays in the UVA game … it puts too many receivers into a small area and makes them easier to defend. If you consider how SU defended the zone read by continuously scraping the SLB off the SDE then it appears that the SU defensive coaches had just as much success against the UCONN offense as the SU offensive coaches had against the UCONN defense.
In the week leading up to the SU game … nobody would have predicted that SU’s D would make one of the most decisive plays of the game.
