Why Ryan Grubb's Offense Could Change Things For Ryan Williams: The Extra Point

Grubb was on Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer's staff at Washington when the Huskies made the College Football Playoff national championship game and went 14-1 in 2023.

We can sit here and talk about Ty Simpson and Alabama's quarterback play all day long. But what does this do for superstar sophomore wide receiver Ryan Williams and why should he be excited? Let's dive into it.

During Grubb's time calling plays at Washington, he enjoyed utilizing receivers and being aggressive, throwing on first down at a near 60 percent clip. Even in Seattle, the Seahawks threw the ball on 58.5 percent of their first downs.

Grubb loved using a variety of pre-snap motions to expose coverages and exploit matchups. Washington used pre-snap motion at close to a 50 percent rate on all plays.

His favorite pre-snap motion at Washington with former top 10 pick and current Chicago Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze was zip motion into tight formations or stacks.

What is zip motion? In layman's terms, zip is when a receiver moves a couple of steps towards midfield just before the ball is snapped.

Why does Grubb love zip? Using zip allows receivers to move closer to the formation to avoid boundary press coverage, and it forces defenses to tip their hand regarding their coverage scheme, whether they're playing man or zone.

This frees up players like Ryan Williams to get a head start on corners and allows him to not have to win in one-on-one coverage as often. Expect a lot of deep crossers and slant concepts for Williams in the fall.

Another pre-snap motion Grubb loves? Orbit.

Orbit is when a receiver runs behind the quarterback, somewhat like a planet orbiting around the sun. Again, like zip, orbit forces defenses to tip their hand, creates mismatches in space, and will give Williams a head start on his defender.

This next clip isn't exactly what orbit looks like, but it's a significant Alabama play using the orbit concept.

In the 2021 National Championship game, former Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian drew up an orbit return route for DeVonta Smith, where instead of orbiting around Mac Jones, Smith reversed field and had a walk-in touchdown.

Expect to see a bit of this from Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard this year.

Grubb has a lot of talent at wide receiver this year with Williams, Bernard and Miami (FL) transfer Isaiah Horton, so it will be very intriguing, and one of the biggest storylines of the 2025 Alabama Football team, to see how he fits the pieces of this offensive puzzle together.