An area of both hope and concern on Offense

[LuCane]

Last year, we were 96th out of 128 teams in offensive plays per game. Unfortunately, Georgia was 126th of 128.

With early camp talk being almost weirdly around the new FB, thought I could express two concerns:

1. My hope is the FB only sees close to 10-15% of offensive downs. For a lot of reasons. Yes, I understand the added benefit of a physical tone. I've been harping for years about our inability to commit to any kind of power run game. It hurt the OL - from tone and mentality to outcomes. However, you don't need to run straight I-form in order to flash the power run game. Many teams now do it from the 'Gun. Further, with a utility player of Chris Herndon's caliber, I think we're giving up flexibility and potential mismatches.

You can run Herndon out of broken I sets, in motion and in the H-Back role. When I think of him, I think of Fred Baxter of the Jets, who played TE and some H-Back. In the Curtis Martin (whose style isn't totally different from Knowshown Moreno, a player Walton reminds me of) days and before, Baxter's versatility was used in a number of different "Pro sets" where he'd crack down on counter plays, run combination routes out of the backfield and get in the flats. While Williams (the new FB) may help us in short yardage and downhill plays, Herndon can beat LBs in the flats and perhaps even get vertical down the seams.

2. Pace of play. We've read early on about the players "sprinting everywhere." How they want the guys to "finish" and be focused. My hope is Georgia's pace last year was dictated partly by injuries and mainly by a playcaller who was not Richt. One of the biggest complaints of the James Coley tenure was that, after his initial scripted set of plays (often very good), it seemed he just ran out of bullets and scenarios. And, plays would come in so slowly that it left fans (and players on the field) frantic. Coach Richt has to be as focused as he wants his players and hopefully think quickly so we can get into the 30-40 ranking range in plays/game - which would essentially give us 75-77 plays per game and a small boost of 10% or so.

 

[fincane]

**Braxton Berrios will be a prominent component to Miami’s offense if he is able to stay healthy.

“He’ll be an every down option. With the tempo that we want to go at, I’m hoping to be two-deep in 3-receiver sets. I don’t see him as a situational guy….he can do it all,” Richt said.

Hopefully we see that philosophy in-season.

 

[The Franchise]

Exactly how I see the FB situation. And you're dead on when it comes to pace. There's absolutely no reason with our QB and the weapons we have that we should be bleeding the clock. Folden might have done that in an effort to protect his defensive ranking to get people off his back.

Richt needs to pick up the pace dramatically. I'd like to see us higher ranked than the 30-40 range in plays/game with our QB and skill talent.

 

[fivecent]

Didn't even read yet, just upvoted because it was a Lucane football thread. Football season is officially herre!!!

 

[motorcitycane]

My boy Lu is back!!!! Aww **** it's really football season and we going to talk football. Good topic here man.

I expect from just the talk that is going around that we will wing up a top 10 FBS club in plays per game.

I hope we can average 80 plays per game
https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/plays-per-game

 

[Cans4life]

I can't wait for the entire offense to not be staring at the sideline for 25 seconds before every snap.

 

[Pentagon Cane]

Well, if you're looking for a rapid pace of play then I don't think you'll find it with Mark Richt. Even before Mike Bobo called plays, Richt is deliberate. I'll be happy if he get plays in on time and he makes the right adjustments. Should not be a problem with a junior at quarterback with 25 career starts.

 

[rok]

Baxter used to pwn the Dolphins.

 

[ben]

 

[cflacane2]

Well, if you're looking for a rapid pace of play then I don't think you'll find it with Mark Richt. Even before Mike Bobo called plays, Richt is deliberate. I'll be happy if he get plays in on time and he makes the right adjustments. Should not be a problem with a junior at quarterback with 25 career starts.

Didn't he have a fast break offense with Charlie Ward? Anyway, just having Kaaya not make 30 checks at the line and look over to coley every 5 seconds should speed things up on its own. Praying we don't see Joe Yearby throw a pass this year.

 

[fincane]

Well, if you're looking for a rapid pace of play then I don't think you'll find it with Mark Richt. Even before Mike Bobo called plays, Richt is deliberate. I'll be happy if he get plays in on time and he makes the right adjustments. Should not be a problem with a junior at quarterback with 25 career starts.

He wasn't deliberate at FSU or in his early days at UGA. He actually asked officials to spot the ball more quickly when he was still calling plays but was denied.

Richt doubts that up-tempo offenses add to injuries | Times Free Press

Richt started quickening the tempo as Florida State's offensive coordinator in the early 1990s, adding that the Seminoles were operating at a "breakneck pace" before he took the job in Athens. He initially tried to speed up the Bulldogs with a no-huddle offense led by quarterback David Greene.

The Bulldogs averaged 73.1 plays a game in 2003, but when Richt met with then SEC coordinator of officials Bobby Gaston at the 2004 SEC spring meetings and asked officials to spot the ball more quickly, his request was denied. Gaston reasoned that at least 12 seconds had to elapse for the officials to be set.

Those numbers are before no-huddle became the norm too.

 

[Jeeperaf]

Last year, we were 96th out of 128 teams in offensive plays per game. Unfortunately, Georgia was 126th of 128.

With early camp talk being almost weirdly around the new FB, thought I could express two concerns:

1. My hope is the FB only sees close to 10-15% of offensive downs. For a lot of reasons. Yes, I understand the added benefit of a physical tone. I've been harping for years about our inability to commit to any kind of power run game. It hurt the OL - from tone and mentality to outcomes. However, you don't need to run straight I-form in order to flash the power run game. Many teams now do it from the 'Gun. Further, with a utility player of Chris Herndon's caliber, I think we're giving up flexibility and potential mismatches.

You can run Herndon out of broken I sets, in motion and in the H-Back role. When I think of him, I think of Fred Baxter of the Jets, who played TE and some H-Back. In the Curtis Martin (whose style isn't totally different from Knowshown Moreno, a player Walton reminds me of) days and before, Baxter's versatility was used in a number of different "Pro sets" where he'd crack down on counter plays, run combination routes out of the backfield and get in the flats. While Williams (the new FB) may help us in short yardage and downhill plays, Herndon can beat LBs in the flats and perhaps even get vertical down the seams.

2. Pace of play. We've read early on about the players "sprinting everywhere." How they want the guys to "finish" and be focused. My hope is Georgia's pace last year was dictated partly by injuries and mainly by a playcaller who was not Richt. One of the biggest complaints of the James Coley tenure was that, after his initial scripted set of plays (often very good), it seemed he just ran out of bullets and scenarios. And, plays would come in so slowly that it left fans (and players on the field) frantic. Coach Richt has to be as focused as he wants his players and hopefully think quickly so we can get into the 30-40 ranking range in plays/game - which would essentially give us 75-77 plays per game and a small boost of 10% or so.

A few points (I haven't researched UGA's issues from last tilt...)

OpG stat as low as Miami's last year would indicate...1) sustained, g-t-g quick strike offense, or 2) g-t-g offense who couldnt sustain drives, and 3) g-t-g defensive unit who couldnt make stops to give ball.back to offense

I think we can all agree Miami last year wasnt really about a g-t-g sustained quick strike offense.....

IF this year's squad is able to do either #2 or #3 (both even better), Miami's OpG stat should improve dramatically (and by inference be much more competitive in all.games or even have more Ws)...

by just doing #1 (unrealistic), that in of itself wouldnt lead to a "better" OpG stat and could actually be a touch misleading...

 

[DTP]

Slowing the game to a crawl helps when you have an offense struggling to score like Georgia last year. Kirby Freeman would have been an upgrade over that guy who took over at quarterback when the starter got hurt. IF you can't score in bunches on offense, you want to give the opponent as few chances as possible. I would expect the opposite this year with a great quarterback and a talented group of skill players. I don't care about running some Oregon no huddle crap but they should be able to run 70 plays a game.

We all know Golden slowed the pace to a crawl to mask his horrible defense. The longer the offense held the ball, the less chances his defense had for messing up.

 

[motorcitycane]

Last year, we were 96th out of 128 teams in offensive plays per game. Unfortunately, Georgia was 126th of 128.

With early camp talk being almost weirdly around the new FB, thought I could express two concerns:

1. My hope is the FB only sees close to 10-15% of offensive downs. For a lot of reasons. Yes, I understand the added benefit of a physical tone. I've been harping for years about our inability to commit to any kind of power run game. It hurt the OL - from tone and mentality to outcomes. However, you don't need to run straight I-form in order to flash the power run game. Many teams now do it from the 'Gun. Further, with a utility player of Chris Herndon's caliber, I think we're giving up flexibility and potential mismatches.

You can run Herndon out of broken I sets, in motion and in the H-Back role. When I think of him, I think of Fred Baxter of the Jets, who played TE and some H-Back. In the Curtis Martin (whose style isn't totally different from Knowshown Moreno, a player Walton reminds me of) days and before, Baxter's versatility was used in a number of different "Pro sets" where he'd crack down on counter plays, run combination routes out of the backfield and get in the flats. While Williams (the new FB) may help us in short yardage and downhill plays, Herndon can beat LBs in the flats and perhaps even get vertical down the seams.

2. Pace of play. We've read early on about the players "sprinting everywhere." How they want the guys to "finish" and be focused. My hope is Georgia's pace last year was dictated partly by injuries and mainly by a playcaller who was not Richt. One of the biggest complaints of the James Coley tenure was that, after his initial scripted set of plays (often very good), it seemed he just ran out of bullets and scenarios. And, plays would come in so slowly that it left fans (and players on the field) frantic. Coach Richt has to be as focused as he wants his players and hopefully think quickly so we can get into the 30-40 ranking range in plays/game - which would essentially give us 75-77 plays per game and a small boost of 10% or so.

A few points (I haven't researched UGA's issues from last tilt...)

OpG stat as low as Miami's last year would indicate...1) sustained, g-t-g quick strike offense, or 2) g-t-g offense who couldnt sustain drives, and 3) g-t-g defensive unit who couldnt make stops to give ball.back to offense

I think we can all agree Miami last year wasnt really about a g-t-g sustained quick strike offense.....

IF this year's squad is able to do either #2 or #3 (both even better), Miami's OpG stat should improve dramatically (and by inference be much more competitive in all.games or even have more Ws)...

by just doing #1 (unrealistic), that in of itself wouldnt lead to a "better" OpG stat and could actually be a touch misleading...

Look at that link I posted and look at the teams chilling near the bottom with us. Look at the teams at the top

 

[Bennubird]

I'm in shock that we were ranked as high as 96th. I hated watching Kaaya come to the line, survey the field, step away from the line and look at Coley, and then after all that come back to the line and run a trick play.

Even if big boy is in the line up frequently I think we go fast(er) than last year.

 

[ThomasM]

Exactly how I see the FB situation. And you're dead on when it comes to pace. There's absolutely no reason with our QB and the weapons we have that we should be bleeding the clock. Folden might have done that in an effort to protect his defensive ranking to get people off his back.

Richt needs to pick up the pace dramatically. I'd like to see us higher ranked than the 30-40 range in plays/game with our QB and skill talent.

Does Richt use the first three games to fine tune a hurry up O, or does he work on it in practice then spring it on the first ACC team we play? Or FSU?

 

[ThomasM]

With the talent we have, there is NO REASON to go slow. Hurry it up, tire team's Ds down, and let our D attack. That's what we Cane fans have been dying to see for years. Attack all game long.

 

[LuCane]

Exactly how I see the FB situation. And you're dead on when it comes to pace. There's absolutely no reason with our QB and the weapons we have that we should be bleeding the clock. Folden might have done that in an effort to protect his defensive ranking to get people off his back.

Richt needs to pick up the pace dramatically. I'd like to see us higher ranked than the 30-40 range in plays/game with our QB and skill talent.

Does Richt use the first three games to fine tune a hurry up O, or does he work on it in practice then spring it on the first ACC team we play? Or FSU?

I suspect we'll see only a small glimpse of packages through those first 3 games.

 

[ThomasM]

Exactly how I see the FB situation. And you're dead on when it comes to pace. There's absolutely no reason with our QB and the weapons we have that we should be bleeding the clock. Folden might have done that in an effort to protect his defensive ranking to get people off his back.

Richt needs to pick up the pace dramatically. I'd like to see us higher ranked than the 30-40 range in plays/game with our QB and skill talent.

Does Richt use the first three games to fine tune a hurry up O, or does he work on it in practice then spring it on the first ACC team we play? Or FSU?

I suspect we'll see only a small glimpse of packages through those first 3 games.

That's what I'm thinking. A drive here and there, just to work it into a real game. Just not so much teams expect to see it all game long.

 

[fincane]

He can run the same 3 or 4 plays out of 4 or 5 formations the first three weeks. I don't think pace of play should be dictated by opponent though. If we're gonna be up-tempo let's not wait till ACC play. Up-tempo teams don't slow it down against lesser opponents.