Demetrice Martin has seen this look in Noel Mazzone鈥檚 eyes before.
Martin and Mazzone joined the UCLA coaching staff in December 2011. The venerable coordinator installed his offense the following spring.
Six years later, a similar process is unfolding in 蜜柚直播. Martin and Mazzone joined the 蜜柚直播 Wildcats staff in late January. They are halfway through their spring installation. The possibilities are boundless.
鈥淚t鈥檚 wild looking at him right now,鈥 Martin said. 鈥淯ntil he finds out what his weapons are, where they are and how he can use them, that鈥檚 when the real stuff begins.鈥
So is Mazzone kind of a mad scientist at this point, using spring practice as a lab to conduct personnel experiments?
鈥淗e鈥檚 a little kooky when it comes to this stuff,鈥 Martin said. 鈥淣o telling what you鈥檒l get.鈥
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That鈥檚 hyperbole, of course. Mazzone has a system and a plan. It鈥檚 just that the latter isn鈥檛 fully formed yet and probably won鈥檛 be until the week leading into the Sept. 1 opener against BYU.
Mazzone, who鈥檚 also 蜜柚直播鈥檚 quarterbacks coach, said the Wildcats are 鈥減retty much鈥 running the same offense he has directed for 鈥渢he last eight or nine years,鈥 encompassing his time at 蜜柚直播 State, UCLA and Texas A&M. He summed it up as follows: 鈥淭empo, create some space for our athletes and try to get it in their hands.鈥
But Mazzone also said 鈥 in lockstep with UA coach Kevin Sumlin 鈥 that the offense will be molded to maximize the talent on hand.
鈥淭he offense kind of takes on its own personality,鈥 Mazzone, 61, said. 鈥淗opefully, we鈥檙e smart enough as coaches to play to the strength of our players.鈥
Mazzone鈥檚 history suggests they will. When 6-foot-7-inch pocket passer Brock Osweiler was ASU鈥檚 quarterback in 2011, the Sun Devils threw the ball 58.4 percent of the time. When 6-4 pocket passer Josh Rosen was UCLA鈥檚 QB in 鈥15, the Bruins threw the ball 54.1 percent of the time. (Sacks, which count as rushing plays in the official statistics, are considered passing plays when calculating these ratios.)
In between, when Mazzone had Brett Hundley, the figures flipped. From 2012-14, 52.2 percent of UCLA鈥檚 plays were rushes as Mazzone incorporated Hundley鈥檚 mobility into the offense.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 鈥榖alanced鈥 mean? In my mind, balanced is like, when I want to throw it I can complete it, and when I want to run it I can make yards. That would be a balanced offense,鈥 Mazzone said.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 a magic number to that. I鈥檝e had seasons where we鈥檝e thrown for 4,000 yards, and then I鈥檝e had seasons where we鈥檝e had 1,500-, 1,700-yard rushers.鈥
Mazzone inherits a mobile quarterback in junior Khalil Tate, who鈥檚 among the most prolific rushers in college football, regardless of position. Tate ranked fifth in the Pac-12 with 1,411 rushing yards last season despite appearing in only 11 games. His 128.3-yards-per-game average ranked second behind Stanford tailback Bryce Love, the Heisman Trophy runner-up.
Asked whom Tate reminds him of, Mazzone cited Hundley, who rushed for 1,392 yards in his final two seasons at UCLA before becoming a fifth-round pick of the Green Bay Packers. It makes sense. But Tate is a superior athlete, the type you get to coach maybe once in your career, Pac-12 Networks analyst Yogi Roth said.
鈥淵ou could coach your whole life and not get a guy like Khalil,鈥 said Roth, who compare鈥檚 Tate鈥檚 athleticism to that of Vince Young, Marcus Mariota and Cam Newton.
Under Mazzone, Tate needs to 鈥渂ecome surgical鈥 as a passer, Roth said. 鈥淐an he do that?鈥
It鈥檚 a great question. Tate is naturally accurate and completed 62 percent of his passes as a sophomore. But whether it was Rich Rodriguez鈥檚 offense or the way plays evolved, Tate didn鈥檛 complete many balls in what Roth labels the 鈥渋ntermediate passing game.鈥 Those are throws in the 10-to-18-yard range in the middle of the field that are sometimes the second or third read in a pass play鈥檚 progression.
Can Tate do that? Having been around Mazzone and studied his offense for years, Roth believes the veteran coach is the right man to tutor the talented young QB. Mazzone has coached in college and the NFL for nearly 40 years.
Quarterbacks he has helped develop include Osweiler, Hundley, Rosen, Philip Rivers and Jason Campbell.
鈥淣oel is one of the best quarterback-builders I鈥檝e ever seen in college football,鈥 Roth said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 been at every level. He鈥檚 been around big and various types of personalities.
鈥淨uarterbacks take up a lot of space in the room. His personality 鈥 he鈥檚 that guy. If you meet him, you sense it instantaneously. He can talk to anyone. He鈥檚 been around the game enough to where he takes it seriously, but it鈥檚 not life or death. For quarterbacks, that allows them to play freely.鈥
Tate flourished under previous position coach Rod Smith and Rodriguez, who had something of a good cop/bad cop dynamic. Special-teams coordinator Jeremy Springer, who worked with Mazzone the past two seasons at Texas A&M, said Mazzone is 鈥渘ot the type of coach who鈥檚 going to be all over everybody.鈥
But Mazzone still demands excellence, and he seems to have a knack for coaxing it out of quarterbacks no matter their playing style or personality type.
He even helped the high-strung Springer, who was a quality-control coach with the Aggies. Thanks to Mazzone, Springer learned to 鈥渃hill鈥 on occasion.
鈥淭hings happen for a reason,鈥 Springer said when asked what he鈥檇 learned from Mazzone. 鈥淩elax. Don鈥檛 feel so anxious about everything.鈥
The coaching staff as a whole is taking a wait-and-see approach this spring, using the 15 practices to assess the incumbent players before making any firm decisions about schemes and roster construction. Mazzone and Sumlin know what they want in a quarterback. Mazzone鈥檚 starting points are passion and energy. Sumlin is seeking someone who鈥檚 smart, makes good decisions, can communicate and throws with accuracy.
Like Mazzone, Sumlin has succeeded with a variety of QBs. Case Keenum passed for more than 5,000 yards three times under Sumlin at Houston and never rushed for more than 221. Freelancing Johnny Manziel ran for 1,410 yards and 21 touchdowns when he won the Heisman Trophy as a redshirt freshman at A&M in 2012.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to tailor the offense to what a guy can do,鈥 Sumlin said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e won with different kinds of guys. For where we are right now, we鈥檙e pretty flexible offensively.鈥
