In his 5th year at Cincinnati, head coach Luke Fickell has put together a team with a spread offense built on running the ball, and he’s scoring darn near 40 points per game doing it. Fickell is a Big 10 guy as longtime defensive coordinator for Ohio State, and the offense he took to Cincinnati is very much inspired by the Ohio State offenses of the mid 2010s.
The entire gameplan is based around the read option, with QB Desmond Ridder being a threat to run, throw on the run, or hand it off on any given play.