Matt Brock shares how Mississippi State’s new offensive scheme impacts defense in practice

The unfortunate passing of Mike Leach forced several notable changes within the Mississippi State program. The most notable is the shift away from the Air Raid, which is going to have a trickle-down effect on the entire team. New defensive coordinator Matt Brock, who is replacing Zach Arnett after his promotion to head coach, explained how the change in the offensive scheme is impacting the defense in practice.

As Brock explained, by not competing against the Air Raid every day, the defense has a chance to see things they didn’t see before in practice.

“I think, for sure, in terms of seeing formations, adjustments, motions, shifts, all those things for sure has made us better,” Matt Brock said. “It’s exposed things schematically that we have to go back and make sure, alright, are we doing the things we need to from our standpoint to give them the best possible chance to be successful?”

There are other teams that operate Air Raid offenses. However, there aren’t any teams that run the Air Raid exactly the way Leach did. So, it really wasn’t replicating what the defense was going to see at any point in the season.

“The second thing, the physical aspect of it,” Matt Brock. “I mean, we’re rolling off the ball, running the football, and so that creates a different element too for you and you get to decide who actually wants that contact when it gets a little noisy in there. That’s what’s been fun, to see that daily.”

Matt Brock is in his fourth season with the Mississippi State program. He previously coached linebackers and was the special teams coordinator. He also got his first taste of playcalling against Illinois in the bowl last season.

Mississippi State offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay on misconceptions about his scheme

There are misconceptions out there about the new Mississippi State offense under Kevin Barbay. In particular, there is the idea that the offense will be primarily under center. It’s an idea that Barbay has pushed back against.

“We’ll use under center whenever it plays to our advantage. Sometimes in low red or third and short situations, but I’ll tell you 95 percent of the offense is in the gun. Every year it’s a little bit different. You get a little bit more advantage in the run game sometimes in some of those schemes when you’re underneath and sometimes it helps you with play action shots, but I think that would be a total misconception being that we’re gonna play under center the whole time. Because I would tell you 95 percent of it is in the gun,” Barbay said.

“Now, on the flip side of that, where I think a lot of carryover is, is using the pistol instead of just offset because the pistol formation now allows us to kind of balance up a little bit and really try to keep the defense from knowing, hey, the running back’s on the left, the tight end’s on the right, we’re running over here to the right every time. So, a little bit of that is always making sure that you’re giving defensive coordinators different looks, but we’re primarily a shotgun offense.”

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