One of the things I was most excited about when GD left and Harsin took over was the fact that we would have a completely unpredictable offense. However, during the Wyoming game, I found myself knowing what was going to happen much more than I would have liked. For instance, when DJ Monroe comes into the game, guess whose getting the ball 9 times out of 10, especially if he goes in motion. For that matter, most of the time when someone went in motion they got the ball. Whenever Jonathon Gray came into the game, it was usually a running play. Our player substitutions in general completely give away who the intended target is going to be. On the statue of liberty play, we have done it enough times now that if we try that against OU and line up the three receivers on the side of the field, they are going to blow it up, especially if Malcolm Brown is in the backfield. It seems he is the RB of choice when we run that play. Our passing game is still predominantly dink and dunk with very little vertical attacking. It seems that our receivers are just never open. I am certainly not an football genius, but I certainly hope that our offensive sets and player substitutions become better disguised as the season goes on. I am always reminded of the Bret Robin play on 3rd down. Is there no other player that can execute a shovel pass besides Robin? It was the most predictable play ever and it never changed. Thats how I feel about DJ Monroe in particular. The coaches have to mix some of these things up.
Boise did a good amount of the sideline screen. A lot of teams do. The trick is to make your block and execute the play by preventing the D from doing their jobs.
I have the exact same concerns. however, the whole time GD was here, we always hoped we were sandbagging and it never really worked out that way... but with harsin/applewhite, I think there's some hope.
It does feel very repetitive and predictable at first, but I feel like that is what Harsin is going for. Once the defense is in tune with what we're doing, he will give the same look, but throw in some sort of wrinkle that completely throws the defense off. He did this a bit Saturday, but I wouldn't really have expected him to do a lot of it against Wyoming. He did enough to keep the offense moving steadily. There was no need to do anything more than he had done.
Bret Robin was awesome as the third down back. What's wrong with sending in a Preston Pearson on third down? Who cares if everyone knows the guy is getting the ball, if when he gets the ball he gets a first down all the time? I don't care if we announce it on the scoreboard before the play, if we can execute it successfully. And, BTW, we could do something slightly less predictable against certain teams which I will not name...like OU.
let's throw the whole playbook at a defense that really doesn't require anything except plain-vanilla offense. I hope some of you are better at your real jobs than you are at being internet coaches.
This is a great thread. If NM makes us go 3 and out on the first offensive series because of three runs up the middle, something's rotten.
I noticed a pattern where every time Mason Walters comes in he blocks a defensive player. And it never fails that when Ash is in he either throws or hands off to someone. The Wyoming defense was cleverly picking up on this and started tackling people, except when we scored. Also whenever the punter comes in—guess what—we punt. Duh. No wonder they went into kick coverage. It’s a good thing our fans are smarter than opposing coaches or we would be totally screwed.
We actually do a great job of mixing similar looking plays with similar personel that does a great job of slowing defensive pursuit. The jet sweep motion forces the defense to honor the weak side of the formation. We don't hand it off to the sweep 90% of the time but we do split it roughly 60/40. This offense is far from predictable.
In the second half we took play action shots down the field on two out of the five second half possessions. That is a good amount considering these are low percentage passes that can kill drives considering we are a ball control run first offense. This is not Madden where you chunk it deep every other play. Our explosiveness will come from long runs and deep passes off of play-action. This is who we are.
This thread expressing predictability is way premature. Harsin/Applewhite are breaking in new players. They are hoping that the so called "trends" you pointed out are seen that way by opposing team's scouts. Because you can bet that we won't always hand it gray when he comes in. We won't always hand it to Monroe when he is in motion. The plays need to be run, the decoys need to be set in motion. There are multiple plays that can be run off these player combinations and Harsin/Applewhite know this better than anyone.
Guys. calm down. Give the op a break. A) He's right. B) He has not need to worry, though. Peter Bean at BON had a great explanation of this. It is just Harsin's way. He runs vanilla plays in the first quarter regularly because its part of his methodology. He wants to see how teams play against us in certain packages and then makes adjustments accordingly. Yes, SOME of the big gash runs in the fourth qtr are due to gassing the opponent. But i am convinced lots of that is from making the proper adjustments. I was very frustrated too in the first qtr. It was almost as if things were scripted. We weren't getting out of bad matchups. First and 10. THey have 9 in the box. We run it. 3rd and 9. They had 6 in the box ... we pass it. Etc. Good grief. Near the goal-line they had 12 in the box... and we still ran it. To your point on Gray. The first 2 times in the game... we ran it. third time he went into the game.... We through a screen and faked the handoff. So there is definitely hope. Just watch Iowa barely get by against their foe and you'll see how far we've come. 2nd and 2 was a run play 99% of the time with GDGD. Somethings don't change.
I wasn't too worried about being too vanilla. We ran more gadget plays last Saturday night than we used to run in half a season. What worries me is having first and goal and not being able to just blow back one of the worst run defenses in Division I football. I believe we scored twice on 4th down runs with one just barely getting in. We did finally wear them down. I liked Wyoming's offensive play calling. Good thing that wide receiver got hurt because he was absolutely killing us. When he went down their passing game was totally out of sink. We need to hopefully improve in the passing game to open up the run. The Wild Horn offensive set appears to have real promise and I was a little surprised we sent Ash back in on that last 4th down TD which barely got in. I guess that was kind of a challenge issued to the offensive line to score there.
This post is utter fail. There are some people out there that couldn't be pleased if somebody handed them a 10,000 dollar check...they'd gripe because it was a penny less than what they want. It was the first game of the year. UT is breaking in a basically new quarterback. UT was playing a team that could be overpowered with a strong running game. IT WAS THE FIRST GAME OF THE YEAR! It's been as obvious as the nose on your face that UT has needed to become more physical, more of a run-based offense, and more balanced on offense since at least the Colt McCoy years. I can't count how many posts there are here from people griping and moaning because UT was getting pushed around while running the spread offense...that the Horns couldn't run to make the necessary yardage they needed, WHEN they needed to. Now? UT has a much improved offensive line, a three or four headed running attack that is getting where it can impose its' will on most teams we'll play, and a new, much tougher attitude, to go along with a vastly improved strength and conditioning program...and all of a sudden, some here are griping because UT is "too predictable"??? If that's true, then I will take the kind of "predictable" 'Bama has been under Saban. Mack is obviously using the Tide as a role model, after they schooled us a couple of years ago in the championship game when Colt went down. UT is trying to get to the point, like 'Bama, where they don't have to hang their hat on a consistently great performance from the quarterback to win. If that's what "too predictable" means, I'll take it all day long. Since when is winning a lot more than you lose too predictable???
Agree with Cool. Could not finish reading the original post. Total fail. We are not predictable, folks. You do what works and when they show that they can stop it: you let them think they know what is coming and then... BOOM! Life isn't what you thought it would be, *******! You have got to work and set things up. Why? [whisper] because that's the way love goes [/whisper] The Link
Bama won a NC against us by almost exclusively running it down our throats. And we supposedly had a good rush defense and knew it was coming. No need to get in a shoot out if you don't have to.
Our team will improve every week and I'm sure that we're going to mix it up more as the season progresses. They are not going to show everything until the big games come up. As far as bama running it down our throats, with Colt that wouldn't have happened as bama would have been playing catch up. Our D knew they were toast after Colt went down and lost a lot of confidence.
Man there are some butt hurt people on this thread. Breaking in a basically new quarterback? What? Ash played virtually the entire season last year with the same offensive system, so that "point" makes no sense at all. The second half did show some wrinkles. 100% accurate, and they worked very well. Execution is of course the name of the game, but against Wyoming we looked awful in the first quarter and marginally improved in the second quarter. The second half we had some great moments, but my point remains. When we sub in certain players, the play is usually given away. I thought I already said Im not a football genius, but I thought the whole reason we brought in Harsin was to make our offense less predictable, and when I can sit on the couch and have a pretty good idea of what is coming, that is not good. That said, simmer down everyone. We didnt suck on saturday, but after a full year in this offense, it was disappointing to see the level of ineptitude we put on display to start the game. We were down 9-7 at the end of the first quarter, to Wyoming, at home. Being critical doesnt mean shitting on the team. Some of you think thats the case, but it isnt.
I was waiting for the "we just don't want to show too much yet" excuse. We've been saying that for 15 years. There is not a single play that we will run against WV or OU that we didn't run the other night. And that should concern us all... I think Greg Davis' chair just sucks the life out of anyone that sits in it.
? uh... so what. As long as the plays nets positive yards and opposing defenses can't stop it, who cares if you know what will happen. With GD... what drove me crazy was the bubble screen to the left... -2 yards... bubble right 3 yards... oh wait.. bubble back tot he left 2 yards... punt. That was predictable.
I would like to see offensive plays called based on random numbers. That would break all tendencies. Coach Bert LaBrucherie who coached Cal Tech from 1949 through 1967 attempted just such a thing during the entire football season of 1962 and found no differences in success rates of drives from the previous year.
I will become concerned if we don't start throwing to the tight end especially against osu, ou, and wv. Also we will need more screens to the tailbacks. On the lhn Fred Akers mentioned that we don't have NC talent yet but soon will. Based on Saturday I agree with him and look to be a year or two away from turning into a dominant team. osu will tell us where we are. I know that when asked the coaches have to say something but there seems to be a lot of talking, let's do most of our talking on the field. I hope that they are holding back a game plan that includes the TE and some tailback screens.
