Kevin Barbay reacts to misconception surrounding his offensive scheme

New Mississippi State Bulldogs offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay is in a difficult position. He is now being tasked with running the offense in the wake of Mike Leach‘s death, transitioning the team away from the Air Raid offense in the process.

Amid this change, there is a major misconception around his scheme that Barbay wanted to clarify. In particular, the idea that Barbay’s offense is primarily under center has been spread but isn’t entirely accurate.

“We’ll use under center whenever it plays to our advantage,” Kevin Barbay admitted. “Sometimes in low red or third and short situations, but I’ll tell you 95 percent of the offense is in the gun.”

There are distinct differences between Barbary’s offense and Leach’s offense. Going under center at all is one of them but acting like that is the primary mode for Barbay would be a misconception.

“Every year it’s a little bit different. You get a little bit more advantage in the run game sometimes in some of those schemes when you’re underneath and sometimes it helps you with play action shots, but I think that would be a total misconception being that we’re gonna play under center the whole time. Because I would tell you 95 percent of it is in the gun,” Barbay said.

“Now, on the flip side of that, where I think a lot of carryover is, is using the pistol instead of just offset because the pistol formation now allows us to kind of balance up a little bit and really try to keep the defense from knowing, hey, the running back’s on the left, the tight end’s on the right, we’re running over here to the right every time. So, a little bit of that is always making sure that you’re giving defensive coordinators different looks, but we’re primarily a shotgun offense.

Kevin Barbay made the jump to Mississippi State from App State. Last season, the Mountaineers were 23rd in scoring offense, averaging 34.9 points per game.

Kevin Barbay highlighted an important aspect of his offensive philosophy

For Kevin Barbay, there are a lot of keys to his offense but it’s also important to keep things simple.

“Yeah, really my mindset is simple but creative, right. I try to tell myself: don’t overthink this, keep it simple for the kids. Conceptually, we’re running a lot of the same things, right. But presentation-wise, we’re in a different personnel group with a shift or a motion. So for the quarterbacks, their progression stays the same, the kids know their landmarks on the concepts of where they need to be,” Barbay said.

“But from the outside view and a defense coordinator’s view, there’s a whole lot of stuff going on and a whole lot of adjustments, and that’s where I think you get those personnel matchups as well. You know when you — ‘hey, I can get in 12 personnel and I can match up this receiver on this DB’ — that’s what I’m looking for in each game plan. My general philosophy without being a real smart guy is simple yet creative.”