Now That Billy's gone, Can We Have an Honest discussion?

[zephyr]

First off, I want to say I know Billy Napier is & always will be a living legend in Lafayette. He was an incredible manager, a great organizer, super recruiter & tremendous leader of men. IOW he had everything it takes to be one of those legendary coaches. I'm going to say something that might rub people the wrong way. What else is new? But just being totally honest, I didn't think Billy was the greatest play caller of all time.

And that is where I think Mike Desormeaux has a chance to prove himself & set himself apart as a great coach in his own right. I am hoping the Louisiana football team not only comes out with a super fierce aggression in the upcoming bowl game with something more to prove.

Personally I'm looking forward to Mike running a little bit more of a high powered spread offense, hopefully featuring a little more of Levi running out of the zone read to help him & his receivers get better looks when they do throw the ball. And to allow his running backs & offensive line more opportunities to not be so predictable. I believe this offense has so much talent for a G-5 school, if handled correctly, they can get big chunks of yards & score a lot of points consistently. Anyone else's thoughts?

You will honestly probably not get a lot of kickback on the playcalling. I think that was honestly the biggest knock against Billy if anything. The offense would just stall at times during the game or he would completely abandon one thing that was working and lose any offensive balance we had. Obviously, he knew how to win games and that's what its all about.

[zephyr]

Last game, what do you mean last game . .

Settle down now. He's not talking about Des.

[zephyr]

Just so you know Levi had 88 rushes on the year. Back out 24 sacks and that is 64. 64 divided by 13 is 4.9 rushes a game on the season. You want him to run 5-6 times a game. He basically did.

He probably wants him to run like Des did where he averaged 15 or so carries a game. Of course, as effective as he was he also ended the seasons injured or played with injury every year because of the beatings he took.

[RaginDave]

He probably wants him to run like Des did where he averaged 15 or so carries a game. Of course, as effective as he was he also ended the seasons injured or played with injury every year because of the beatings he took.

Well I hate for facts to get in the way, but here is Levi's breakdown, without sacks taken out for the season by game:

Texas 6 carries
Nicholls 5 carries
Ohio 12 carries
Georgia Southern 5 carries
USA 10 carries
App 5 carries
ASU 6 carries
Texas State 4 carries
Georgia State 6 carries
Troy 9 carries
Liberty 5 carries
ULM 6 carries
App 9 carries

[Balanced_view]

some people was never going to be satisfied with Levi performances because he was not a perfect QB. running or throwing.

[CharlieK]

CBN's play calling got too cute sometimes, and I'd have like to see us burn more playclock late in games when we had a lead.

I'd also like to see at least once a series a true zone read where Levi has the option to keep if the play dictates. But I have a feeling if he would have run much more than he did he would not have stayed healthy. Dezmo was legendarily tough, larger than Levi, and was always beat up by the end of the season.

[BrockMeaux]

Billy’s greatness was in his preparation and organization, and outside of a couple instances (Levi’s taking the safety against App last year, and several 4th down calls this year due in part to not having a kicker), he was generally composed, logical, and smart on the sideline. He wasn’t the greatest play caller in the world, though I will wonder aloud if some of that wasn’t due to execution.

[CajunFun]

Definitely wasnt a fan of Billy’s play calling.

I don't think we really understand play calling. It is a really complicated chess game, but it's speed chess.

Some plays are called, knowing they're low-yield but they a) either force the defense to cover something that makes their job harder, or b) gets them looking one way, so you can call a play going the other way later in the game.

And I would imagine, for the really smart coaches, they may call a play just to put it on the game film to lure in future opponents.

Sometimes I sit back and think about how to write a program that would generate a list of plays for the coach, with probabilities. It would have to be really, really complicated: what has worked for your team in this situation, in this part of the field, at this time in the game, against this kind of defense? How predictable is it, how long has it been since you called it, when is the last time the other team has seen it?

Then, what is the other team likely to call, offensively or defensively, under all of those same considerations?

Ain't easy.

[CajunVic]

I don't think we really understand play calling. It is a really complicated chess game, but it's speed chess.

Some plays are called, knowing they're low-yield but they a) either force the defense to cover something that makes their job harder, or b) gets them looking one way, so you can call a play going the other way later in the game.

And I would imagine, for the really smart coaches, they may call a play just to put it on the game film to lure in future opponents.

Sometimes I sit back and think about how to write a program that would generate a list of plays for the coach, with probabilities. It would have to be really, really complicated: what has worked for your team in this situation, in this part of the field, at this time in the game, against this kind of defense? How predictable is it, how long has it been since you called it, when is the last time the other team has seen it?

Then, what is the other team likely to call, offensively or defensively, under all of those same considerations?

Ain't easy.

But in reality the play caller
to some extent
is doing that
on every play
in real time . . .

[cjr3888]

Delete this thread. There's no need to discuss play calling from a coach no longer here. The man led these teams to wins, that's all that matters. Time to move forward and keep the train rolling!