Tempo and Touchdowns: Breaking Down UNLV's Go-Go Offense
By Jack Brentnall
Football has changed a lot over the years, but one enduring constant has been the inevitable battle for supremacy between offense and defense. This has spawned countless innovations, and nowhere is that more apparent than college football.
One of the latest and most exciting innovations is emerging as a formidable force: the Go-Go Offense, developed by Brennan Marion. This innovative scheme has captivated coaches and fans alike with its blend of speed, deception, and scoring potential. It has also helped UNLV to earn their first national ranking since the program moved up to Division I in 1978.
But what actually is the Go-Go offense and what is it that makes it so effective?
Origins of the Go-Go Offense
While the origins of many football schemes can be difficult to trace, often blending ideas from various coaches over time, the Go-Go Offense has a more direct lineage. It has a singular architect – UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion.
Marion was a star wide receiver on Gus Malzahn’s Tulsa team in the late 2000s, averaging an incredible 28.7 yards per reception during his two years with the team. An NFL future beckoned, but Marion suffered a knee injury on the final play of the conference championship game and subsequently went undrafted.
He signed with the Miami Dolphins, but injuries curtailed his career and he moved into coaching soon after. At 25 years old, Marion earned his first head coaching role at St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School in California. This was where he began to develop the Go-Go Offense. In his first and only season he took a team that finished 1-9 in the season prior to the playoffs.
He subsequently moved to Waynesboro Area High School in Pittsburgh and more success followed. Marion took a team that had finished 0-10 in the previous season to the league title. A move to the college ranks followed and in 2017 he became the offensive coordinator at Howard.
In his first game with the Bison he helped manufacture one of the greatest upsets of the modern college football era, beating a UNLV team favoured by 45 points. After one year with William and Mary, he spent several seasons as a position coach, including coaching wide receivers under Steve Sarkisian at Texas in 2022.
In 2023 he earned his first shot as a coordinator at the FBS level, joining UNLV. In his first year with the team, the Rebels led the Mountain West in touchdowns and points per game.
Core principles of the Go-Go Offense
The option
At its heart, the Go-Go Offense is first and foremost built around the triple option. As a former wide receiver though, Marion wanted to retain a little more balance. “Really I wanted to run triple option but I didn’t want to lose any cool pass plays”.
Where the Go-Go differs from the traditional triple option is that their standard formations have the quarterback working from shotgun, rather than under center. They then have freedom to change up the positioning of the running backs.
Contrary to what you might think, Marion is adamant that teams do not require a mobile quarterback to run the option. UNLV’s starting quarterback in 2023 was Jayden Maiava, who ran a 5.24 40-yard dash coming out of high school. Marion says that simply the threat of the option is enough to create favourable situations for the offense.
One of the ways that the Go-Go really likes to attack offenses with the triple option is using the sidecar formation. This has the quarterback lined up in shotgun, with both backs lined up to the same side. You can see just how effective it is in the cutup below.
Heavy personnel
Unlike a lot of modern college offenses, the Go-Go is not based out of 10 and 11 personnel. Instead, they major in heavier personnel groupings. Often this will be pony personnel (two running backs on the field at the same time), and others it will be more traditional 12 personnel with two tight ends.
“We are not a spread offense” says Marion. “We are not 10 personnel air raid. We are 21 personnel trying to run through you and throw it over your head”.
Marion also instils a more old-school smash-mouth approach to his coaching too. When asked what the underlying philosophy of his offense is, he says that “How you play without the ball determines how you love your teammates”. Even the wide receivers on the team will put in a shift and block with real tenacity. Marion singles out wide receiver Ricky White as “the best blocker on the team”.
Something else you will see from the Go-Go is the use of jumbo personnel, meaning more than five offensive linemen. Marion says that this helps to get more players involved, but also causes problems for opposing coaches, who will often have to match in unfamiliar personnel groupings. What makes this more interesting is that it isn’t just a gimmick – UNLV don’t just run a couple of specialist jumbo package plays, but instead continue to run their base plays out of bigger personnel.
There are some great examples of this in the cutup below, including a shot play that UNLV runs out of a double wing formation with seven offensive linemen.
Explosive passes
As a former explosive deep threat receiver, Marion understands that there is more to the game than simply running the ball. He recognises that good modern offenses need to be able to challenge defenses with the passing game, particularly downfield.
Marion emphasises that one of the benefits of basing an offense out of two-back formations is that it provides opportunities to “create the angles so you can take the shots downfield.”
To maximize deception and make it difficult for defenses to read, all explosive pass plays in the Go-Go Offense are directly tied to specific running plays. This strategy has proven highly effective.
UNLV’s offense under Marion demonstrated a strong balance between running and passing in 2023, accumulating 3,349 passing yards and an impressive 2,657 rushing yards.
The two plays below against San Jose State are a great example of how this works. On the first play, UNLV runs wide zone out of a two-back set. Marion calls wide zone “the one”, as he says that as long as the offensive line works in unison, the running back can make things right. That is exactly what happens here as Vincent Davis takes it for a huge gain.
On the very next drive, UNLV come out in a similar two-back set and this time fake the wide zone to set up a shot play. It works – in part thanks to some poor DB play – and wide receiver Ricky White takes it for another huge gain.
What makes the Go-Go Offense so tough to defend?
One of the big reasons that the Go-Go is so tough to stop is the variety of their running game. Whilst they take cues from the triple option, Marion makes sure that the team are comfortable executing a wide range of runs.
Their primary runs are inside zone and wide zone, although they run these from a range of looks and formations to keep opponents guessing. They also run a healthy dose of gap scheme runs, including counter, and duo.
To add an extra layer of complexity, they will often tag on RPOs to their run plays, presenting a further strain on the defense. Marion is innovative with his RPOs too. Whilst some will be simple pre-snap reads, he will often design them with as many as four options. This generally involves a pre-snap receiver read, a post-snap receiver read, a handoff, and a quarterback keeper.
The icing on the cake is that they can do all of this at tempo thanks to Marion’s use of one-word calls. Over the offseason he teaches the quarterback the play call in its true, verbose West Coast terminology and then simplifies it.
“The quarterbacks in the spring, they learn the old school West Coast, all the long sentences, learn the names – they’ve got to learn everything and their heads explode” says Marion. “What I do over the summer is let them turn them into one word calls. I put them in families and say here are the categories for each of these plays and you come up with the names and the signals”.
The result of this is that the offense can communicate and move rapidly, allowing them to keep defenses in favourable looks or personnel groupings.
The future of the Go-Go Offense
While the Go-Go Offense may not be a household name just yet, its impact at the college level is undeniable. Before taking the UNLV job, Marion was reportedly considered for several Power Four opportunities, including at Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Given his consistent success at various programs, it feels like it is only a matter of time before a major program recognizes his talent and offers him a chance to showcase his skills on the biggest stage. Until then, we can continue to enjoy the exciting brand of football that the Go-Go Offense brings to UNLV every Saturday.
As with any other innovative offense, there is also a chance that other coaches look to adopt or adapt elements of the system, thereby bringing to wider prominence. That is especially true at a time when striking a balance between an explosive passing attack and a physical running game seems more important than ever before. Make no mistake – the Go-Go offense is going places.
JACK BRENTNALL
HEAD OF NFL DRAFT CONTENT
Previously the founder of The Jet Sweep, Jack joined The Touchdown as head of Draft Content in 2024. A Scouting Academy alumnus, Jack has been Covering the NFL Draft since 2020. Follow him on Twitter @Jack_Brentnall.