Deep Dive Inside Phil Longo's Offensive Philosophy
Analysis of Phil Longo's offenses from Ole Miss-UNC. Explore the data and why he was a fantastic hire by Luke Fickell for Wisconsin Football
(Photo credit: @RealMikeMurph)
Spring football is in full swing, and I wanted to rehash an analysis I did in December on Phil Longo's Offensive Philosophy and what he brings to Wisconsin Football.
You're not alone if you still need to become more familiar with Phil Longo. While we've seen some interviews and videos highlighting his rather exciting personality. There is a lot more to learn, and I want to give you a look into his impressive track record at Sam Houston State, Ole Miss, and UNC, where Longo became known for his innovative offensive strategies and for producing high-scoring offenses.
So, let's dive back into the data and see what Longo brings to the table for the Wisconsin Football Program in the upcoming season.
Phil Longo Offenses vs. Badger Offenses (2017-2022):
This first chart is "supposedly" telling us the ACC (where Longo spent the last 4 Seasons as the UNC OC/QBs) is not very good—especially their Passing Defenses. More on why I say "supposedly" shortly.
My second chart breaks down the amount of PA/RPO utilized as a % of all Passing ATTs. From 2017-2022 Longo's Offenses doubled the usage of PA/RPO in their scheme when compared to Wisconsin Football at 42% vs. 21%. We'll see why that's very important a little later on!
The third here chart gives a breakdown of Longo's Offenses vs. the Badgers' Offenses in Pass Yards per Attempt (YPA), Rush YPA, and Total Offense YPA. As you can see, Longo's Offenses outperformed the Badgers in every category, EVEN IN THE RUN GAME!
This fourth chart fills you in on a stat you probably were aware of already. That being, even though Longo is an 'Air Raid' disciple of Mike Leach who had a particular distrust for "balance" offensively, Longo does not as he was perfectly "balanced" run vs. pass with a near even 50% split between the two from 2017-2022.
Lastly, when looking at Yards/Game, you can begin to see that while Longo is balanced, a majority of the Yards "gained" are done so through the Passing Game. His offenses gained, on average, 89 more yards per game in 2017-2022!
Why "Rankings" don't matter when comparing Defenses Longo faced to Defenses Wisconsin Football faced:
Many people have called out the "Rankings" a seemingly fair critique because the ACC does have poor Pass Defense "Ranks". But should we discount how that production will translate to Wisconsin? No and here's why: