As the offensive coordinator at Ole Miss and North Carolina, Phil Longo has mentored some very talented quarterbacks orchestrating explosive offenses in the SEC and ACC and had record setting FCS offenses at Sam Houston State (FCS) as well before making the jump to the FBS level.
Now in Madison as the offensive play caller for Luke Fickell, Longo is looking to bring his unique version of the Air Raid to the Big Ten.
During a recent media session after practice, Longo spent some time talking about the installation of the offense, and provided some perspective on the prerequisites it takes for his quarterbacks to earn reps in practice.
"On my board, it says 'KNOWLEDGE = REPS.'"
"I have learned the hard way, as a coach, that putting the best athlete out there, or the strongest arm out there, slows the production of the offense...particularly when you're installing it for the first time."
"Really, those guys never really tap out, or max out the potential that they have if they don't understand how to play the game. So I learned a long time ago that the prerequisite now, we won't recruit him if he doesn't have the arm strength. We won't recruit him if he hasn't demonstrated the accuracy. But once they get here, they're not getting on the field and they're not repping if they don't know their job."
Longo goes on to share that Ole Miss, they had a quarterback that was super athletic with a great arm, but struggled to learn the offense and therefore never got the opportunity early on to compete.
"So that is a prerequisite. They will not rep here, unless they know what they're doing."
Hear Longo's thoughts in the clip.