During a luncheon before this season began, an Oklahoma fan asked Sooners coach Lincoln Riley to describe his favorite play call since coming to Norman. Riley drifted back to Oklahoma’s first offensive play against Iowa State in 2015, Riley’s first season as the Sooners’ offensive coordinator under then-head coach Bob Stoops.
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This play had more window dressing than Saks Fifth Avenue in December. Quarterback Baker Mayfield took the snap and handed to Samaje Perine, who ran right and then pitched to receiver Sterling Shepard running left. Shepard pitched back to Mayfield as he breezed past. But for all the commotion behind the line of scrimmage, at the play’s core was one of the oldest, easiest-to-teach and toughest-to-defend pass routes in the sport. Riley had sent Oklahoma fullback Dmitri Flowers out on a Wheel route, and Flowers was wide freaking open for a 75-yard touchdown.
Lincoln Riley was asked during a virtual Coaches Luncheon on Friday what his favorite play call was at Oklahoma.
His answer was this reverse flea-flicker for a 75-yard touchdown to Dimitri Flowers in 2105. What's yours?#OUDNA | #BoomerSooner pic.twitter.com/ID8kJPxQQb
— Sooner Gridiron (@soonergridiron) August 10, 2020
Later, Oklahoma released the headset audio of Riley’s reaction to the play. Needless to say, he was a little excited.
The Wheel — a route that involves a back or receiver running hard into the flat before turning upfield at the sideline — is the favorite route of offensive coordinators, all-22 nerds and that guy who always destroys you at Madden. It’s timeless and hip at the same time, mostly because it’s a shapeshifter that can be whatever it needs to be depending on how teams choose to defend it.
Play man? Then the offense will try to make sure to get a mismatch with a linebacker covering the Wheel. Play Cover Three? Then the quarterback will try to thread the ball into one of the gaps between zones. Play Cover Two? Hopefully your linebackers and your corners communicate well to pass off the Wheel man.
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Don’t be shocked if a conference title game this weekend turns on a Wheel, because it’s in every playbook in some form or fashion, and nearly all of the teams playing for titles this weekend use it in some form or fashion.
Florida and Alabama, which will face off for the SEC title, each used the Wheel to devastating effect against Georgia, the best opponent on either team’s schedule. The backbone of Oklahoma’s passing game is the Air Raid, and the Stick-Wheel concept (one inside receiver sprints a few yards and then plants himself to receive a “hole shot” throw while another inside receiver runs the Wheel underneath the outside receiver’s Post) is a foundational piece of that offense. (And Riley has added his own two-back flavor to complement the Sooners’ bruising run game.)
At Coastal Carolina, the Post-Wheel (an outside receiver runs a Post while the inside receiver loops underneath and runs the Wheel) is the first passing concept coach Jamey Chadwell installs each year for his triple-option based scheme.
Chadwell’s team won’t be playing in the Sun Belt Conference title game Saturday. It was canceled Thursday night because of a positive COVID-19 test and contact tracing that knocked out an entire Coastal Carolina position group. But if the undefeated Chanticleers face third-and-long in their bowl game, there’s a chance they’ll run some variation of this play that allowed them to convert a third-and-8 earlier this season against Campbell.
On this play, receiver Greg Latushko — in the middle of a three-receiver formation to the short side of the field — runs the Wheel. The receivers on either side of him run Curls. The back runs a Wheel. This is a lot for the defense to process at once, especially because the receiver farthest inside on the play side has just motioned from the back side.
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Latushko is picked up by a safety, who freezes for a moment as Latushko sells his part as a simple flat route. This is bait for the safety, who might have visions of jumping that flat route and grabbing a pick six. But because he paused, he is flat-footed as Latushko turns upfield and blows past. Quarterback Grayson McCall drops the ball in to Latushko just before a deep safety can arrive. First-and-goal. “Whether it’s man or zone, they end up so focused on the other parts of it that they lose sight of the wheel,” Chadwell said. “You’re able to get big plays out of it.”
Latushko isn’t going to be the best athlete on all of these matchups, so a little window dressing (the motion) and some in-route traffic (the curls) help to get him open.
Alabama receiver DeVonta Smith is frequently the best athlete on the field, which makes him especially dangerous running the Wheel against man coverage. On this play, outside receiver John Metchie III runs a Drag and Smith, lined up inside, runs the Wheel. LSU cornerback Cordale Flott manages to avoid Metchie and fellow corner Derek Stingley Jr., but Flott still has no chance one-on-one against Smith, who averages 16 yards a catch. Quarterback Mac Jones hits Smith in stride for an easy touchdown.
This appears to have been a run-pass option with Alabama pulling left tackle Alex Leatherwood to the right to potentially open a hole for tailback Najee Harris, but there truly is no option. Once Jones sees pre-snap that Flott will be alone on Smith with Smith running the Wheel, Flott’s fate is sealed.
Stop us if you've heard this before: Mac Jones threw a touchdown to Devonta Smith. pic.twitter.com/dPcvSk78w3
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) December 6, 2020
Alabama’s opponent Saturday also has flummoxed defenses with the Wheel. For Florida, the Wheel has been a way to get the tailbacks into the mix to catch passes from Heisman Trophy contender Kyle Trask. The Gators ran away from Georgia by creating mismatches with the Wheel. On this 50-yard pass from Trask to freshman Nay’Quan Wright, Georgia linebacker Monty Rice must track Wright out of the backfield, avoid a rub from Florida receiver Jacob Copeland and then cover Wright down the field. That’s a lot to ask of a linebacker in any circumstance — even one as good as Rice — but Rice played that game with a nagging foot injury.
NAY. QUAN. WRIGHT.
The freshman takes the wheel route and goes for a 50 yard gain!!! pic.twitter.com/hkYR9TJJWH
— InAllKindsOfWeather.com (@AllKindsWeather) November 7, 2020
Alabama coach Nick Saban, whose background is on the defensive side, still gives the Wheel a bit of a side-eye even though his offense has plenty of success with it. It’s not that defensive coaches have a problem with the Wheel itself. It’s the fact that offenses frequently combine it with a Post, Drag or Curl that almost always puts a receiver and another defender in the path of the defender trying to cover the Wheel. This isn’t against the rules as long as the non-Wheel receiver attempts to run his route and doesn’t set a blatant pick, but these plays frequently live in gray areas.
“It’s a challenge,” Saban said. “You’ve got to really be on the same page of how you’re going to match the pattern. When you’re playing man-to-man, it’s a one-on-one matchup and sometimes you’ve got to navigate your way through where the X (outside receiver) is, and usually it’s an in-breaking route.”
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The best way to stop a Wheel is to pressure the quarterback. The route takes time to develop as a deep ball. The offense can teach backs and receivers to turn and expect the ball in the flat if the defense gets in the backfield. If a defense blitzes on the side of the Wheel, the Wheel can essentially turn into a screen, but that can be risky if a lineman or linebacker reads it.
Some defenses that use linebackers that are closer to hybrid safeties — think John Heacock’s 3-3-5 at Iowa State — also tend to match up better physically with the players running the Wheel. In some situations, it’s better to let the Wheel be a decoy. “It occupies people so that other routes can get open,” North Carolina offensive coordinator Phil Longo said. “So it’s very effective even when you’re not throwing the Wheel.”
Alabama and Florida have defenders athletic enough to match up one-on-one against nearly any opponent, but even in those situations the Wheel can frustrate a defense because it gives the offense so many options. “It’s almost like three routes in one,” Chadwell said. “Or three things that the defense has to defend against.” If a defense shows pressure, the Wheel man can stop and catch a quick flat pass. Against a zone, the QB can thread the needle on an intermediate range throw. Against man, the route can basically turn into a Go or a back-shoulder fade depending on the matchup.
North Carolina’s Longo teaches two “strike points” on the Wheel for his skill position players. They can catch the ball near the line of scrimmage or keep moving for either an intermediate or deep throw depending on the coverage. With a stable of good receivers and tailbacks Michael Carter Jr. and Javonte Williams, the Wheel is especially dangerous because opponents have little choice but to cover a back running the Wheel with a linebacker or larger safety. That almost always gives the Tar Heels the mismatch they desire.
When QB Sam Howell saw a number in the 40s defending Carter during the Tar Heels’ 59-53 comeback win against Wake Forest on Nov. 14, he knew Carter would be wide open down the sideline. “When you have a back that can run the wheel, then it becomes another legitimate receiver out of your five skill guys that can be a deep-ball threat,” Longo said.
Longo also loves the Wheel because the route is adjustable and doesn’t require the same precision as, say, a slant and go. “I really like utilizing the Wheel in the offense because it’s relatively inexpensive,” Longo said. “It doesn’t take a lot of time to teach. It doesn’t take a lot of time to get good at.”
Like Longo, Hawaii receivers coach Brennan Marion loves throwing to backs running the Wheel. Marion fell in love with the route when he and Charles Clay were running the Post-Wheel together in Gus Malzahn’s offense at Tulsa. When Marion developed the Go Go Offense as the coordinator at Howard and then at William & Mary, he made sure to have several different players running the Wheel behind a receiver running a drag. At William & Mary, he even had two backs run the Wheel on the same play. Want to see a linebacker’s head explode? Watch this.
William & Mary running Drag + Double Wheel out of their Two-Back Set pic.twitter.com/M4eXEs5wiK
— Coach Dan Casey (@CoachDanCasey) December 23, 2019
“Typically, you have a linebacker trying to chase the guys running the Wheel,” Marion said. “But if it’s a two-back backfield, he’s reading run first. So he’ll pause for a second. Then he still has to get through the receivers’ contact and then avoid the receiver to get to the back.”
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Marion’s offenses in the FCS often had to play at an athletic disadvantage, so he had to find a way to make defenses stop and think. But if a coach has a quality quarterback — as Jake Spavital did with Davis Webb at Cal or Will Grier at West Virginia — then he can have a lot more fun with play design. Check out this Wheel masterpiece from the 2016 Utah-Cal game.
Spavital, now the head coach at Texas State, said the use of the Wheel has evolved — he fought back the urge to say coaches have reinvented the Wheel — as coaches have toyed with motion and formation to disguise where the player running the Wheel will start the play.
On this play, Demetris Robertson is running the Wheel after coming in motion from the short side of the field to the wide side. But before Utah’s defense can worry about Robertson in motion, the Utes must diagnose a strange formation. The outside receiver on the right is on the line of scrimmage, meaning the tight end next to the right tackle is ineligible to go out for a pass. There is no receiver on the line of scrimmage on the short side of the field, meaning the tackle is eligible. This makes defenders watch that side because something weird is happening. “You snap it and you have no idea where the guy’s going to go,” Spavital said. “It’s confusing.”
Robertson goes in motion and the Bears snap the ball, but the safety who is mirroring Robertson is a beat slow. He eventually trades off for an in-breaking receiver, but the two cornerbacks on the outside can’t figure out who has Robertson. This only works because Webb has the arm for it, and he hits Robertson for the touchdown.
The coaches and football nerds watching that play probably all had the same reaction, and they’ll probably react similarly when Wheels pop open on Saturday. They’ll scream WHEEL! before the QB even throws, and then they’ll probably celebrate like Riley did watching Mayfield throw to Flowers in 2015.
(Top photo of DeVonta Smith catching a 61-yard touchdown on a wheel route: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)
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