It's still not known when Florida State will be able to announce the expected hire of offensive line coach Randy Clements; the delay appears to stem from negotiations surrounding financial terms of Clements' departure from Houston.
But that doesn't mean we can't look ahead to some of the things FSU will likely be doing on offense with Clements coaching the offensive line and Kendal Briles serving as offensive coordinator.
During a 48-minute presentation on a coaching clinic video that was uploaded to YouTube in 2016 -- it appears to have been filmed in 2014 -- Clements speaks about his coaching background, spread concepts he learned under former Baylor head coach Art Briles, things he emphasizes in practice and more.
Clements, a Texas native, coached under Art Briles at Baylor from 2008-16, but the ties run far deeper than that. Briles actually hired Clements as an assistant coach at Stephenville High School back in 1990, shortly after Clements finished his college career at Stephen F. Austin.
Clements worked on the Stephenson staff through 2002 before joining Briles at the University of Houston in '03. He then went with Briles' staff to Baylor in 2008.
You can watch the entire clinic video below, but in the meantime, here are 10 insights we can gather about Clements' approach and the Briles philosophy.
1. Adaptability is key -- One of the first things Clements discusses in the video is why he thinks being a high school coach for many years has helped him on the college level. High school coaches typically aren't able to go out and scour the country for prospects, so they have to make due with what they have. Clements said that has taught him to tailor what his players do on offense to their abilities.
"You have to do what you have to do to survive,” said Clements, who served as co-offensive coordinator and run game coordinator at various points during his time at Baylor.
2. Origins of the spread -- In their early days at Stephenville, long before spread offenses would become all the rage on the high school and college levels, Clements said Briles already was tinkering with concepts that would lead them in that direction. One of the first steps, he said, was simply having a running back motion out of the backfield to a receiver position.
Back then, many high schools were using five-man defensive fronts to slow down opposing rushing attacks. Clements said Briles eventually came up with a saying that would be one of their guiding principles: "If they five ... we five."
What that meant was if the defense played a "50" front (nose guard, two defensive tackles and two defensive ends), the Stephenville offense would go with an empty backfield, which often forced an opposing defensive end to cover a skill player in space.
3. 'Spread the ball to run the ball' -- It has become common with spread offenses now, but Clements remembers the confusion among other coaches when Briles first started lining wide receivers up far away from the rest of the offensive formation. At times, he said, the outside receivers will be just inches away from the sideline -- with the intent being to force defensive backs far away from the box and to make the defense account for more ground horizontally.
“It ain’t hard to figure it out,” Clements said. “The wider they are (on defense), the more space you have inside to run the football. … We spread the ball to run the ball.”
This has been a staple of Willie Taggart's offenses since he adopted that approach at USF.
4. Tempo is important, but not everything -- During his presentation, Clements praised the benefits of going up-tempo on offense but also cautioned coaches about believing it can mask fundamental flaws in blocking. He said it will never be a replacement for physicality, effort and technique.
“When you’re doing an up-tempo offense, you can’t use it as a crutch,” Clements said. “But if you are gonna do it, then you have to practice it and you have to rep it and you have to work it.”
He said the goal is to go as fast as possible without sacrificing much in execution.
5. Streamlined approach to running the ball -- One of the main comments Clements said they heard from other coaches when they were at Baylor was in regards to their simplified approach to running the ball. He said they actually use only a few different running plays because they don't want to bog the players down with complex schemes and assignments.
“If you do ‘em well, what does it matter?," Clements said.
He added that they try to be very balanced between the run and the pass. When the number of passing attempts rises above the number of rushing attempts, he said it's usually because teams have stacked the box, which leads to quick throws to the perimeter.
6. Blocking approach on run plays -- Because spread offenses often operate without tight ends or fullbacks, Clements said it's vital to have offensive linemen who can hold their own on single blocks. On most plays, there might be only one or two "combo" blocks (double-teams) because of the lack of numbers inside.
On the single blocks, Clements said, the goal is to at least achieve a stalemate. Moving the defensive lineman "is a bonus," but they are happy with a stalemate. What they can't have happen is penetration from the defensive front, causing the running backs to make drastic horizontal cuts in the backfield.
When there is a combo block, Clements said, the linemen have one of two goals -- either move the defensive player vertically (backward) so that the running back can cut either way, or create an angle to the linebacker.
7. 'Love running the power' -- During his presentation, Clements showed how Baylor ran a variety of run-blocking schemes -- inside zone, man-blocking and a combination of zone on one side of the line and man on the other.
He said repeatedly that power running plays are a staple of their approach.
"Love running the power," he said.
Clements said the guiding principle on those plays is to get blocks on two linebackers and run away from the safety.
8. Practicing tempo -- Clements said they are always looking for ways to incorporate a faster tempo into their practices, to better prepare the players for games. One way they accomplish that is by doing multiple reps of "board drills," with the players running from rep to rep. Instead of two players going head-to-head in a board drill and then making way for the next pairing, Clements said the players will clash four times and hurry back to the line each time.
He said if the coaches only work on tempo occasionally in practice, the players will get gassed during games. He said the coaches also pay close attention to the players' technique during those drills, making sure the fundamentals don't slip due to fatigue.
9. Some similarities to Taggart practices -- When he was developing his "Gulf Coast Offense" at USF, one of the first coaching staffs Willie Taggart visited -- if not the first -- was Art Briles' crew at Baylor. So it's no surprise that some of the drills Clements showed on the video were similar to ones employed by Florida State this past season.
Clements said the first thing they do on offense during team drills is run through a series of plays against "air" (no defenders on the field) to make sure the players know their assignments and to have the linemen focus on getting lined up quickly for the next snap.
FSU ran the same drill at the start of practices this past season.
10. Some differences to Taggart practices -- Different coaching staffs will often modify the same drill to fit their specific needs.
At Baylor, Clements said, they stopped running inside (running) drills during the team portion of practice due to injury concerns. Instead, they scaled it down to their vision of "Oklahoma Drills," with one offensive lineman taking on a defensive lineman, and a tailback coming from behind to find a running lane.
At Baylor, they called it the "Bear Cage" drill.
Taggart ran an expanded version of that at FSU this past season. Instead of only using linemen, they added second and third levels to the drill, with linebackers clashing with tight ends and receivers battling defensive backs. They called it the "'Nole Drill."
We'll find out this spring if Kendal Briles (and Clements, assuming his hire goes through) will adjust to Taggart's approach or if they will run drills the way they have in the past.
Watch the entire Randy Clements video below:
