I've said this before, but will reiterate. I do not have the time to scout ahead on future teams to try and generate a film study on where OSU will attack. My studies are much more after the fact, and simply trying to use layman's terms to explain what OSU is doing. So with no game to review, this week's film study will be a wholistic high-level overview of how the passing game works. This is obviously a very high-level look at it, but hopefully still detailed enough to learn ya something. 

Buckets

Ryan Day uses what he calls a "bucket" system. These are simply groupings of play-types. Each week during gameplan, they pick certain plays from these buckets based on what they think will work. In this film study, we will talk about a couple buckets, and also a few schemes within some of these buckets:

1. X-iso - Own bucket
2. Triangles - Within X-iso, Short passing, and medium passing bucket
3. Mirrored - Within short passing and medium passing bucket
4. Half-Field - Generally medium passing bucket
5.  Full-field - Rare

X-ISO

These are most generally 3x1 sets with Jeremiah Smith lined up to the boundary. Usually will see this when the ball is on the hashes. Sayin's 1st read is Smith. If he has a safety over the top, he immediately flips to the field side. This scheme is highly effective because if Smith is 1-on-1, he is going to make a play. If he has safety help, that is one less defender to the field side. 

Within X-isolation plays, OSU loves to run triangles to the field side for instances when Smith is bracketed. This simply means the 3 WR/TE will form a triangle to stretch zone coverages apart. Sayin finds the most open target. 

Mirrored

Brian Hartline loves himself some mirrors. While Day has always used mirror concepts, the usage rate under Brian Hartline has increased quite a bit. Most notable, HANK has been called with a high frequency. In a mirrored concept, both sides of the formation run the exact same route. Sayin makes a quick post-snap read on his "key" to determine which side he will look to. Here you can see both sides run the same routes. Sayin picks the side he likes best. Back the video up 3 seconds to see full play

Below is the commonly called 3rd down play HANK. 3 curl routes and 2 flat routes as mirrors. TE in the middle is the 1st read before choosing a side (doesn't have to here)

Half-Field

In simple terms, a half-field read is obviously using just half the field. Flood routes, sail routes, layered type throws to the sideline are great examples. Here is a play of no-gain, but more experienced Sayin probably hits Smith here. 

Another concept within half-field passing is referred to as "split field" reads. Whereas flood routes, sail routes, etc get everyone moving in the same direction to split the field in half, split field reads split the field in half based on the QB's initial read. 

Here is a split field read. To the top of your screen you have a smash concept, while the bottom of the screens runs a Mills concept. While both can be effective against many zones, this play is most likely designed for Cover-3 to the smash side, and Cover-4 to the Mills side. Sayin's pre-snap read is Cover-6 (QQH) based on the alignment. This means the field side will have Cover-4 which is great to runs Mills. Sayin verifies coverage and goes that way. Had the defense ran Cover-3, he would've had a high/low read to Smith and Donaldson on the top side. 

Full-Field

Ryan Day very rarely calls full-field passing concepts. This is also referred to as progression passing. This is simply a QB going through his reads 1,2,3,4,5. Bill Walsh was a huge proponent of this style. It simplifies the process for the QB. End of drop-back = 1st read. Gather step = second read. 2nd gather step = 3rd read. Checkdown. These routes are based on this timing, and are designed to come open on the exact same cadence as the QB's footwork. Very rarely do we see this from Ryan Day. Y-cross is really the only full-field passing combo you see with any regularity. 

Here you have smash fade paired with a y-cross. Watch Fields eyes and his feet work together. Each hop is paired with his eyes moving to the next target in his progression. 

Hope you enjoyed. The vast majority of our passing game is designed to operate to one-side of the field using the vision and IQ of the QB and WR's. If this is well received, the next thread may touch on schemes such as Safety-isolation, RPO's, and shot plays, which have their own buckets as well.