During
Phil Longo’s first season as offensive coordinator at Sam Houston in 2014, his starting quarterback finished with 999 yards rushing. That team won 11 games and reached the semifinals of the FCS playoffs.
During Longo’s third season as offensive coordinator at Sam Houston in 2016, his starting quarterback finished with minus-53 yards rushing. That team won 12 games and reached the quarterfinals of the playoffs.
Those two seasons serve as prime examples to Jeremiah Briscoe — Longo’s quarterback for the Bearkats in 2016 — of how inventive he can be in maximizing the skill set of his players. Briscoe wasn’t a threat to run, but he did throw 57 touchdown passes that season to break an FCS record that had stood for 32 years and earned the Walter Payton Award for the top offensive player in the subdivision.
“One of his old quarterbacks when he first got going, he couldn’t throw the ball over 40 yards,” Briscoe said. “He just did not have a strong arm but was uncanny accurate. So they weren’t a deep ball team. With me, we were an explosive deep ball team, but I was not a runner. The quarterback that was at Sam Houston before me was predominantly a runner.
“He’s going to put you in a position to succeed. He’s not married to one system. ‘Oh, I have to have a quarterback that can sling it 50 times a game’ or ‘I need a dual-threat guy.’ He’s not married to that. He’s going to play the cards that he’s dealt. He’s going to make them as best as they can possibly be.”
The Athletic published a story Saturday detailing Longo’s path up the coaching ladder and why his take on the Air Raid offense can help give Wisconsin — where he has
accepted the offensive coordinator job under
Luke Fickell — the fuel injection it needs. Briscoe offered a quarterback’s perspective with in-depth insight on what he saw working directly with Longo. Here is the full interview:
How would you describe Phil Longo’s approach to offense?
The easiest way to probably explain it is coach Longo wants everyone to play as fast as possible without thinking. And he does that by giving the skill position players a lot of freedom within the offense just to be an athlete and to do what’s instinctual. You play fast by being really, really good at what you do.
It’s not going to be this whole new offense every single week. Like, some schools, they’ll totally change their entire offense to match the fronts and coverage of another opponent. That’s not the way he works. Everything that we do, everything is built in for any coverage, there’s an answer. The guys know that. And that’s what allows them to be free and play as fast as possible.
How did he make you a better quarterback?
I’ve never had someone teach the game to me so simply. A lot of people make the game of football a whole lot more complicated than it needs to be. And that was one of the biggest things that I learned from him is that at the end of the day, the game is very simple and don’t overcomplicate it.
I’ll say this, too. Coach Longo and I, we still talk every single week. I’ve never in my life had a coach like that. I’ll put it this way: His daughters were the flower girls in my wedding. We connected and he has that in-depth relationship with every player. He keeps up with all of them. It’s not just a game to him. It’s developing men and relationships and all of that. There’s a lot of coaches that preach that. But he’s 100 percent about it.
Our first meeting, I’ll never forget it. We sat in one of the offensive conference rooms for — I’m not kidding you — it was like a full 12 hours. Didn’t leave to go eat, didn’t do anything. Just talked life, talked football. That’s how I knew that Sam Houston was the place I wanted to be. I’ve never had that with any other coach before, nor do I know any other coaches that kind of operate that way.
What happens for 12 hours? Do you draw stuff on board?
Just talking about the way that we saw the game. I was on the board. He was on the board. Just talking concepts and philosophies and what different people try and do. It was all the above. And then just life in general.
How was he able to simplify the offense for the quarterback?
A lot of offenses, quarterbacks come out ID’ing the front, changing protections, doing all those things. He tries to take as much as those kind of thoughts off the quarterback as possible. However, the quarterback is still very aware of the fronts and the protection in place. But how he simplifies the offense for the skill guys, he simplifies the offense as well for the big guys up front. He takes that burden off of you.
He does a great job of that. We don’t read defenders as a quarterback. You read areas. Because some people could say, “Oh, here on this play, you’re reading the strong safety.” For some funky coverage or blitz they run, the strong safety might not even be in the area of the play that you’re reading. It’s things like that. He tries to simplify the thinking as much as possible and just allow you to play instinctually and be really fast.
Who’s responsible for calling things?
A lot of things are on the center, as is everything in every offense. The center is making all sorts of calls for the O-linemen. The quarterback can still at the end of the day overrule the center if need be. It’s not like the quarterback is not looking at the front at all. But he’s not going out there and calling out the Mike and setting the front and doing all that. He’s trusting the center to do that. If there’s something radical that needs to be adjusted, then we’ll make that adjustment.
Is there a misconception with his Air Raid about how much the team actually runs the ball relative to how much it passes?
There’s a total misconception. Granted, he’s from the Mike Leach tree. But if you look at the offense statistically from the last 10 years, it is extremely balanced. Everything in there is based around the run. The RPOs, the play-action and then even some of the protections. It’s all based on that run game, and that’s where it starts.
It’s my understanding that he could run the same play, like four verticals, 10 times in a game and it could look different most snaps based on what the receivers see. Is that true?
Yes, that’s 100 percent true. Every play in the playbook is based off of four verticals, as is pretty much every offense. But say we just run four verticals 10 times in a game, it could look different in 10 different ways, depending on the coverage. You get to that point where the receivers have the freedom to essentially not get covered. But you do that by consistent repetition every single day. You’re on the same page with your receivers. You have an identity. That’s what I think gets lost with a lot of coordinators is you don’t have an identity because you’re changing your offense almost every week to match what the new defense is doing.
We’re going to be really, really good at what we do. It doesn’t matter what the coverage is. We have the answers for everything built in. That’s how you simplify things, that’s how you play fast, that’s how you really get on the same page. People are always hesitant to do that because they’re like, “Oh, what if the quarterback and the receiver aren’t on the same page?” It’s like, “Well, that happens because you don’t practice it enough.”
Did you go no huddle?
Yep. Completely no huddle. We have multiple different tempos in which we can go. Our base tempo is probably fast compared to some. But we can go as fast as we can get lined up if you want to.
How is it possible that Sam Houston could have 26 plays in the offense when you were the quarterback there but challenge defenses the way that it did?
Say, like four verticals, it can look 10 different ways. So that one play in four verticals, multiply that by 10. That’s what it looks like to a defense. We have 26 plays, but every single one of them can look five to 10 different ways. However, your skill guys are only learning 26 different plays.
Do you have a favorite story about coach Longo?
I forget who we were playing, but it was my junior year, the year we were real good. It was at home. I was playing really bad. I had made just a couple bonehead decisions early on in the game and Longo was not happy about it. And so he was I guess you could say ripping me. But he was giving me a stern talking to. He’s not a big yeller and cusser and all that stuff, but he let me have it pretty good. And I was like, “We’re good. I got it.” And he kept going.
I was like, “Yes, sir. We’re good. I got ya.’” And he’s like, “Well, don’t do it again.” The very next series, we went out, scored in like two plays, threw a touchdown. I ran by on the sidelines and spanked him on the butt. I said, “I told you we were good. I got it.” He just started shaking his head.
That’s a perfect picture of how he can go from being serious and correcting a problem, yet doing it in a respectful way where I didn’t go in my shell. I wasn’t getting publicly accused and getting yelled at on the sideline in front of everybody. It was a stern talking to. But we were able to go out there and be successful and then that very next series joke about it, just messing with each other.
How did he connect with players?
He’s a person who cares about relationships. He’s very authentic. He’s not a screamer, he’s not a yeller, because there’s no point in doing that. You’re just not going to play if you can’t get it right.
Don’t get me wrong. He can certainly get a serious demeanor about him. He’s not one of those coaches that’s going to publicly accuse some guys of doing things. He’s extremely respectful to his players. Everything is handled behind closed doors if there is an issue. Even not an issue academically but an issue on the field, he’s very good about that. You talk to any player, I think every single one of them will say that Longo respects all of his players at a very high level.
What do you think he’ll be able to do at Wisconsin, which has been a pro-style offense for a long time?
Coach Longo can take a mediocre quarterback and make him great, and he can turn a great quarterback into an elite quarterback. He can do the same thing with a skill guy because he will put you in every position to be successful. He’s not going to put you in a bad play. He’s not going to put you in a position where you don’t have an answer. The beauty of it is he can morph his offense to fit whatever skill the team has.
You go back and look. He used to talk about it all the time. One of his old quarterbacks when he first got going, he couldn’t throw the ball over 40 yards. He just did not have a strong arm but was uncanny accurate. So they weren’t a deep ball team. With me, we were an explosive deep ball team, but I was not a runner. The quarterback that was at Sam Houston before me was predominantly a runner.
He’s going to put you in a position to succeed. He’s not married to one system. “Oh, I have to have a quarterback that can sling it 50 times a game” or “I need a dual-threat guy.” He’s not married to that. He’s going to play the cards that he’s dealt. He’s going to make them as best as they can possibly be.
Go look at anywhere he’s been within the last 15 years, they’ve been successful year one. You look at Sam Houston, you look at Ole Miss, you look at North Carolina, they’ve been prolific offensively year one, out of the gate. Granted, year two is always a big jump from year one. But it speaks for itself, in my opinion.
Do you have a sense of why this job is appealing to him?
We’ve talked a handful about it, just like his future and desires. I know that he has a lot of respect for coach Fickell, has for a long time. They’ve been very close. He’s never said that given the opportunity that he would coach for him. But it doesn’t surprise me that he did take that opportunity because he does have such respect for him and what he’s able to do. So, no, it didn’t surprise me whenever I found out he was taking the job. His wife’s family is from the Midwest up there as well. So they have family close.
Can his offense succeed consistently in a cold-weather location like Wisconsin?
We won games with me throwing it 65 times in a game and we’ve won games with me throwing it 15 times. The offense is so multiple yet so simple. There’s answers built in for everything.
You can go look at Longo’s track record, too. This is speculative, but I’d almost guarantee you Longo has more success offensively than any other coach in the country in bad-weather environments solely because the offense knows where they’re going, the defense doesn’t. Whether it’s cold, icy, rainy, the offense knows where they’re going, so they have the advantage. I’m not going to tell you what he does differently. But there’s a game plan for that, and it’s successful.
