Playmakers on Offense

[zephyr]

_ Jerry was a very special highly underrated athlete.

We forget by Mr. Babb was setting passing records his first 2 years under center yet when the offense was changed to run/run his Jr. year he won a conference championship. Not too many QBs can make that switch.

Unfortunately Jer had cracked ribs his Sr year and was only able to duplicate the 11 game record of his Jr. campaign.

The snag in the Bustle program -that he has yet to recover from- was to change of OC-DC coaches after that very respectable 06 season.

jmo _

I have no problem with the change made at that time. I do not like how Jerry was used his final two seasons as you are correct, we were throwing the ball around the field and running it very efficiently out of the triple option set with Babb but we also went under center out of several traditional sets as well. The point is, this offense has been run with a mobile QB for the past 7-8 years or so and it will continue to do so. This is the type of player we recruit. I felt that the coaching staff made a mistake running more and taking the ball out of Babb's hands those two seasons and while Fenroy was running all over the place, I still think we could have been extra dangerous throwing more.

The point is, I was not impressed with our DC at the time and many of the calls made on the field and I feel we have a better coordinator in there now. Offensively, Christophel was OK but I think the players we had then would flourish every bit as much as they did then and even more possibly with Munoz and Hudson calling the plays.

[DrumRoll]

Well here we go...

It has everything to do with how much trust is placed on the reading and playcalling skills of the QB. I have no idea whether or not our QB's can read and audible properly, never seen it happen... Not judgement. I truly have no idea one way or the other...

On the other hand, it's been a while since I have seen Peyton Manning line the Colts up in the Meerkat :-)

_ The look back to the sidelines is many times in fact, not an audible. They will call the formation in the huddle but the coaches will not call the actual play until they've reviewed the defense's setup and personnel to try to counter that with a better play. It has NOTHING to do with how smart our QB is or not. It is something that has caught fire in a lot of offenses who operate the spread and while it is truly annoying, it is done for a reason whether we agree with it or not. _

[Just1More]

_ Ok, this is not meant to bash any poster on this board or you personally, but have any of you played football at the collegiate level?

If not, then to say an offense in college is not complex is an ignorant statement. It may seem like we run simple schemes and the same running plays every time out, but I can assure you they are not simple. One running play may have multiple variants depending on the defensive alignments, the blocking calls then throw in the fact that there may be 60 different running plays with the same number of reads.

Coaching staffs may also call certain plays that they know may not be very successful just so they can set up a play for later in a series. They follow their game plane and sometimes it works and others it doesn't. _

Nope, I didn't play collegiate football... unless "flag football" counted... Anyhow... I didn't say that we do not run a complex offense. I said that the assignments for our RBs are no more complex than that of other spread offenses. And it goes back to coaching... if I cannot get an "adaptation" by my selection of backs... I either selected and recruited the wrong backs or I need to adapt my offense. Either way, I still haven't seen holes, much less seams, for our RBs, since Fenroy. Last year we practically reverted to end around runs with WRs as much as we ran a back anywhere close to between the tackles. I saw piles of large bodies in front of every handoff out of the backfield last year... following a bunch of dive blocking, so I'm a little curious what adaptions our RBs are expected to make.

I am not buying this scuddlebutt that our RBs aren't picking up the offense. If an entire stable of RBs, over the course of a couple of years, do not succeed... it is a problem with coaching. Period.

I'm not saying that we won't be successful this year. We line up and play football. I am pointing out that even in our offense you have to successfully complete passes and disguise your intentions in order for a ground game to work. The spread is predicated on concerning a defense in every regard. We have way too many good skill players that have to be tossed the ball in order to be a factor. We have to have a QB that is more of a good passer and is mobile and smart enough to tuck and run for a few yards when it's there for him. But... if our QB gets addicted to running... even if he picks up significant rushing stats... we will not go over 6 wins. No way... no how. We do not have Babb or MD... who... by the way... never made it over the 6 win season.

It is ALWAYS the coach's fault if from all of the student-athletes they have to choose from and all of the time they have to prepare for a few months a year on the main stage, that they cannot get someone from a lineup that they selected... to "adapt" to the system. There are RBs dumber than a box of rocks who are superstars in the NFL. It just simply is not rocket science. If it is tough for a coach to teach... then he isn't a very mentally skilled coach for the game we play these days. If he runs a complicated offense, and he can't teach it... HE is the failure.

I still have the same optimistic realism I have had for Cajun football since Bustle took over.... for whatever that's worth.

[CajunZ1]

Last year we practically reverted to end around runs with WRs as much as we ran a back anywhere close to between the tackles. I saw piles of large bodies in front of every handoff out of the backfield last year... following a bunch of dive blocking, so I'm a little curious what adaptions our RBs are expected to make.

You and I saw the same thing. Our O-line was way overrated last year imo. This unit must improve significantly for a 7 win season to occur.

[Just1More]

_ Well here we go...

It has everything to do with how much trust is placed on the reading and playcalling skills of the QB. I have no idea whether or not our QB's can read and audible properly, never seen it happen... Not judgement. I truly have no idea one way or the other...

On the other hand, it's been a while since I have seen Peyton Manning line the Colts up in the Meerkat :-) _

Although the Meercat is annoying... that isn't what I dislike about it. I think there are downsides to it. Defenses are starting to decoy more now than ever. They are almost in constant motion so I really wonder what the true value of a set... then Meercat... then call a play based on this motion defense... truly buys you.

I understand the concept of the Meercat. But, I see some intangibles taken away from the boys on the field.

And before I get attacked... I used to have one of those vibrating board football games with the little plastic football players... so I know my football. The Meercat never worked with those guys no matter how hard I tried.

[Damon]

_ Although the Meercat is annoying... that isn't what I dislike about it. I think there are downsides to it. Defenses are starting to decoy more now than ever. They are almost in constant motion so I really wonder what the true value of a set... then Meercat... then call a play based on this motion defense... truly buys you.

I understand the concept of the Meercat. But, I see some intangibles taken away from the boys on the field.

And before I get attacked... I used to have one of those vibrating board football games with the little plastic football players... so I know my football. The Meercat never worked with those guys no matter how hard I tried. _

You need to upgrade.

[VObserver]

_ You and I saw the same thing. Our O-line was way overrated last year imo. This unit must improve significantly for a 7 win season to occur. _

The problem did not rest with the OL.

What you and J1M saw was a Quarterback in Masson who is absolutely HORRIBLE in the running game. He consistently made the wrong read on the Zone Read, and as a result, the RBs consistently had the ball handed to them with defenders blocked into their path. Now, my sources tell me that Masson is quite capable of making the correct read, but has delicate sensibilities about getting his uniform dirty.

That is why his teammates do not play for him with the same intensity that they play for Brad or Blaine, and why one of them should be the starter at QB this fall.

[zephyr]

_ You and I saw the same thing. Our O-line was way overrated last year imo. This unit must improve significantly for a 7 win season to occur. _

I agree. The problem is it refutes his logic that its always the coaches fault. This type of mentality usually comes from someone who did not play a lot of competitive sports, especially on higher levels of even high school and/or beyond that. By his logic, the inability of the offensive line to open up holes last year lies solely on the coaching ( which is complete B.S.). However, these are the same linemen who were considered to be the strength of our team last year and were coached the same way the previous 4 years of their careers! Were they coached differently last year rather than before? NO. They didn't get the job done and that is cold hard fact. How do you theorize that? You don't. They didn't get the job done, in large part because Fisher and Bustle fought injury throughout the last couple of years of their career but the bottom line is that I'm supposed to believe that the coaching was subpar for a unit that was considered one of the best in the country going into last year in an offense that we've run for several years now? That's crazy.

I'm not saying that I haven't seen some bonehead coaching here in the past either. I've been very critical of coach Bustle and certain members on staff when I feel they've really missed something. However, to say that because a young man doesn't do his job on the field or progresses slower than we feel he should doesn't mean that the coaching has failed him. That takes away the accountability of the player.

[ManAboutTown]

_ The problem did not rest with the OL.

What you and J1M saw was a Quarterback in Masson who is absolutely HORRIBLE in the running game. He consistently made the wrong read on the Zone Read, and as a result, the RBs consistently had the ball handed to them with defenders blocked into their path. Now, my sources tell me that Masson is quite capable of making the correct read, but has delicate sensibilities about getting his uniform dirty.

That is why his teammates do not play for him with the same intensity that they play for Brad or Blaine, and why one of them should be the starter at QB this fall. _

I've been told virtually the same thing.. and if this is the case. its a big problem

[CajunZ1]

What you and J1M saw was a Quarterback in Masson who is absolutely HORRIBLE in the running game. He consistently made the wrong read on the Zone Read, and as a result, the RBs consistently had the ball handed to them with defenders blocked into their path. Now, my sources tell me that Masson is quite capable of making the correct read, but has delicate sensibilities about getting his uniform dirty.

That is why his teammates do not play for him with the same intensity that they play for Brad or Blaine, and why one of them should be the starter at QB this fall. _

We cannot win more than 6 games without a consistent passing game. That has been proven many times throughout Bustle's tenure. The coaches know this, so they have to pick who they believe is the best passer/decision maker.

We as fans are perhaps the least qualified in having an educated opinion about who's better, especially when the talent differences are so minor. Remember last spring? Who was going to be quarterback?? The answer was, "there is no real answer."

[zephyr]

_ The problem did not rest with the OL.

What you and J1M saw was a Quarterback in Masson who is absolutely HORRIBLE in the running game. He consistently made the wrong read on the Zone Read, and as a result, the RBs consistently had the ball handed to them with defenders blocked into their path. Now, my sources tell me that Masson is quite capable of making the correct read, but has delicate sensibilities about getting his uniform dirty.

That is why his teammates do not play for him with the same intensity that they play for Brad or Blaine, and why one of them should be the starter at QB this fall. _

The true problem rests with all of the above. This OL played subpar last year and its not real hard to see that. I do not doubt that Masson was not as comfortable running the ball in the zone read as Brad or Blaine but that didn't mean he made the wrong reads. The problem was stated often by our coaches in the quarterback club luncheon. They were asked this question several times and I asked coach Hudson about it twice on separate occasions with the same answers. He mentioned that most teams took away the QB keeper option knowing that we didn't have the speed or burst in those RB's like we did before. He pointed out a few things he and the staff looked for when the QB was doing the read and after he made those points, I was watching teams as they played the run and often it became clear. When Chris did get the opportunity, he ran well at times as he had 6 TD's last year himself. This line did not play as expected last year but that inconsistency was coupled with many issues such as a lack of firepower and explosiveness at RB, an obsolete gameplan that refused to acknowledge that Chris had certain talents that could be enhanced through other formations and playcalls rather than continuously running the zone read and even when we started using Joseph and Miller in the reverse plays, there was still little room to maneuver. Bottom line is that we simply didn't have the firepower or athleticism to beat people last year. I think this year will be a little different.

[CajunZ1]

_ I've been told virtually the same thing.. and if this is the case. its a big problem _

For the sake of our teams' chemistry, let's hope it's just a few disgruntled fans hyperbolizing a bit.