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Explosive Passing Offense

OrangeBowlMagic said:
We know Dawson can and will promote it.

We know Mario will allow it.

I’ll never say this will be 2024 until I see it on the field, but in terms of that explosiveness in the passing game, I think we can approach it. Here’s why:

Cam Ward in 2024 put up the best season any of us have ever seen. He averaged 9.4 yards per attempt that year. Good for #3 in the country. Who was #5? Darian Mensah at Tulane. 9.2 yards per attempt.

Now, at Duke in 2025, that number drops to 7.7 per attempt, good for 38th. But his completion percentage was virtually the same. 65.9% at Duke compared to 65.1% at Tulane. So what’s that tell you? Duke isn’t having him push the ball as much. And that tracks, because in 2024 under this Duke staff, Malik Murphy was 88th in the country in YPA. Johnathan Brewer is the OC there, you should know him. He was here with Lashlee. He’s a Lashlee disciple. Tempo, short passing attack.

So back to Mensah here. We know he can push it. We know Dawson can as well. What about the weapons?

Malachi Toney is an alien. Nuff said. He’s going to be one of the very best players in America, regardless of position. But look at the rest.

Barkate averaged 15.3 a catch last year at Duke, on 74 catches. Really, really good. Wanna know how many receivers on our team had that number this year? One. Tony Johnson, and he caught 7 balls. Even on the 2024 team, that’s a better number than Horton and George. Only Restrepo and Arroyo were better.

Enter Vandrevius Jacobs. Averaged 17.1 a catch last year on 32 catches. VERY explosive production. That number would have led our team in 2024, by the way.

Enter Cam Vaughn. Averaged 15.4 a catch last year, good for 10th in the Big 12. Again, a very good number.

That’s 3 kids who averaged at least 15 yards a catch, oh plus that Malachi Toney guy, who is pretty good.

Josh Moore. Upshaw. You HAVE to think Lofton fully healthy is a **** of a lot more explosive than Bauman. No, he won’t be Arroyo, but he can make plays down the field.

All orchestrated by a kid who has demonstrated he can get over 9 yards a throw, now in Year 3 starting in the most QB friendly offense he’s ever played in.

The question mark is the OL. No, it’s not likely Mensah is going to be able to sit in the pocket and do Wordle like Cam and Beck did. But if there’s literally anything I trust this staff to do, it’s protect the QB. Even in 2023 when TVD was broken, physically and his brain, he had all day to throw. I expect Mensah will be way better protected than he was at Duke or Tulane.

It is scary hours for everyone we play this year. We can come at you with multiple excellent backs, and we have a kid with absurd arm talent throwing to Baby Jesus and the Vertical Apostles. I’m downright aroused at the thought of what this offense can do in the air on explosives this season. I’m not saying it’s going to the Cam experience, because that’s not fair to expect. But I really think it can be **** close. A pinpoint downfield passer with an electric arm behind a good OL throwing to 4+ receivers who have demonstrated they can get over 15 a pop at the big boy level.

Wheels all the way the **** up, boys and girls. The circus is back in town.
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Well said and well written. I keep hearing people say that Oline is going to be the question mark because it’s so young and that’s completely false. Going left to right, McCoy is a five-year player, Sampson is a four-year player and Rodriguez is a five-year player. The only real youth is going to be on the right side with either Buchanan or the kid from Georgia and then of course the number one player in recruiting this year at right tackle. I think him being the number one player in the nation, should put people at ease there. Will the Oline be as good as this past year, probably not, but it will still be dang good and it might be even better for running outside with the kind of athleticism you get with McCoy and Cantwell on the edges.
 
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NicKane said:
Well said and well written. I keep hearing people say that Oline is going to be the question mark because it’s so young and that’s completely false. Going left to right, McCoy is a five-year player, Sampson is a four-year player and Rodriguez is a five-year player. The only real youth is going to be on the right side with either Buchanan or the kid from Georgia and then of course the number one player in recruiting this year at right tackle. I think him being the number one player in the nation, should put people at ease there. Will the Oline be as good as this past year, probably not, but it will still be dang good and it might be even better for running outside with the kind of athleticism you get with McCoy and Cantwell on the edges.
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I'm not sure who is saying youth, but that's wrong. What people are saying is inexperience, which is correct. Doesn't mean they're going to suck, but heading into 2025 we knew what we were getting with Bell, Coop, and Cici. We knew their floors, we saw what we saw in 2024, so we knew worst case we'd get that, with the expectation they'd improve and be even better. We knew, for the most part, what we were getting with Brockermeyer.

The 2026 question is not youth, it's inexperience. McCoy has never played LT. Samson has never been an every down player at LG. Rodriguez has never taken a meaningful snap at Center. We don't know who the RG will be, but whoever it is, we've never seen them play. Cantwell is a true freshman.

So the concerns over the OL are very valid, but they're not centered on youth, they're centered on inexperience. I trust Mario and Mirabal will find 5 who can be quite competent. But we still don't know how that's going to look, whereas headed into 2025, we did.
 
DoctorKrazey said:
It’s been interesting to watch the paradoxical metamorphosis of this program under Mario each year. Early on in his tenure we obviously had QB issues and uncertainty. Tyler Van Dimes quickly became Tyler Van ***. So we go out and snag Cam and the offense literally puts up Xbox numbers. The only problem is the defense was bad…horrendous and historically bad. So then he goes out and makes, which in my estimation, was the best coordinator hire in all of college football on defense. The defense was dominant and kept us in every game but now the offense had taken a step back again. It had become too conservative and lacked the ability to stretch the field vertically. Now we’re looking forward to 2026 and I can’t help but wonder is THIS the year it all comes together? A dominant/elite defense to go along with a dominant/elite offense? Me thinks so.
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Agreed. Its like after each year, we address the weakness from the previous year. But its not only do we address it, we address it immensely. Last year it was the DBs, we go out and sign a whole new seconcary. This year its get the offense to be more explosive, we bring in multiple impact WR's to go with Mali and sign Mensah.
 
Calinative said:
2025, Mensah vs Beck Stats on Intermediate, Deep, Under Pressure, When Blitzed, and Non Play-Action passes.

Mensah was basically pressured on legit DOUBLE the Dropbacks as Beck. Idk how they **** Mensah had 30 throw aways under pressure but that seems like a **** load.... but even with double the pressure rate basically, he had a better Pass Grade + QB Rating. He held onto the ball substantially longer as well. This probably goes with the increased pressure rate, but his Sack% and P2S% relative to Beck were mostly similar or better. Seems like Mensah really needs to clean up fumbles, cause his INT% is lower than Beck across the board - substantially in some cases. I think probably the ONLY real concerning statsistics in these groupings is just the category of Under Pressure. Mensah was mostly better than Beck in most other metrics....

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Great post..Where did u find these numbers
 
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SouthsideAtl said:
Kinda nervous to see how the OL looks this season
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It's by far the biggest question mark on the whole team, IMO.

And before anyone freaks out because they're emotional weirdos, a question mark does not mean a frightening concern. It's just a question mark. It doesn't mean we'll suck. It doesn't mean I have zero confidence. It doesn't mean the team will be bad.

It just means, as literally every single team does for various position groupings heading into a new year, we have a question as to how the OL will perform this season. It was not a question mark headed into 2025. We knew we'd be **** good, the only question was, how good? This year, I have no idea what to expect. I suspect it'll be good, because we obviously have talent, and I think if anyone trusts Mario to do one thing, it's produce a good OL. So I'd be shocked if it's not good. Beyond shocked.

But when I look at the entire roster and 2026 outlook, to me, by far the biggest and first question I see is, "Who will be the 5 starting OL and how well will that unit play?" That's #1, and there's a big gap to #2 and beyond.
 
Not alot of talk about it but im curious to see how ryan looks at center, he’s been here and we made it a priority to get a center in the portal for the last 2 years?

Im guessing they’re thinking it can’t be far off from Brockermeyer so just save money there and trust the development

I know people will mention him starting at guard in 24 vs uf but that was the last time he started, idk if he even played 20 snaps that game. I think that was them motivating mccoy because he started the rest of the year
 
E1k said:
Not alot of talk about it but im curious to see how ryan looks at center, he’s been here and we made it a priority to get a center in the portal for the last 2 years?

Im guessing they’re thinking it can’t be far off from Brockermeyer so just save money there and trust the development

I know people will mention him starting at guard in 24 vs uf but that was the last time he started, idk if he even played 20 snaps that game. I think that was them motivating mccoy because he started the rest of the year
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Rodriguez got hurt for essentially the season in that game.
 
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DoctorKrazey said:
It’s been interesting to watch the paradoxical metamorphosis of this program under Mario each year. Early on in his tenure we obviously had QB issues and uncertainty. Tyler Van Dimes quickly became Tyler Van ***. So we go out and snag Cam and the offense literally puts up Xbox numbers. The only problem is the defense was bad…horrendous and historically bad. So then he goes out and makes, which in my estimation, was the best coordinator hire in all of college football on defense. The defense was dominant and kept us in every game but now the offense had taken a step back again. It had become too conservative and lacked the ability to stretch the field vertically. Now we’re looking forward to 2026 and I can’t help but wonder is THIS the year it all comes together? A dominant/elite defense to go along with a dominant/elite offense? Me thinks so.
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jokes on all of us. we're gonna have the special teams of a short bus now to balance it out
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
Can the bus be shorter than having a punt blocked to lose you a national championship game by a team who wasn't even trying to block said punt?

What does that bus look like? Just a headlight?

(Too soon. I know.)
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The bus is one of those Chinese tricycles with 35 containers of fuel on it waiting to explode at the slightest touch
 
Dilber said:
jokes on all of us. we're gonna have the special teams of a short bus now to balance it out
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Luckily, the guy riding shotgun on the short bus(Bauman) got dropped off. Actually, I don’t think we should even refer to him by name anymore. Just call him, “He who shall not be named.”
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
It's by far the biggest question mark on the whole team, IMO.

And before anyone freaks out because they're emotional weirdos, a question mark does not mean a frightening concern. It's just a question mark. It doesn't mean we'll suck. It doesn't mean I have zero confidence. It doesn't mean the team will be bad.

It just means, as literally every single team does for various position groupings heading into a new year, we have a question as to how the OL will perform this season. It was not a question mark headed into 2025. We knew we'd be **** good, the only question was, how good? This year, I have no idea what to expect. I suspect it'll be good, because we obviously have talent, and I think if anyone trusts Mario to do one thing, it's produce a good OL. So I'd be shocked if it's not good. Beyond shocked.

But when I look at the entire roster and 2026 outlook, to me, by far the biggest and first question I see is, "Who will be the 5 starting OL and how well will that unit play?" That's #1, and there's a big gap to #2 and beyond.
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When you consider what Mario has done to rooms he hasn’t been happy with (DB last offseason, WR this year), and how he did not go in the portal to load up on OLmen this offseason, the logical conclusion would be they are happy with what they have going into next season.

Only thing that gives me pause is that we didn’t really rotate any of the bench guys in this past season. Even with all the infractions the OL had. One would think if the backups were that good, they would’ve got some burn.
 
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I see Barkate as someone who complements Toney very well. Put them two on the same side of the field in stacked or zone beaters and watch them eat. Put a combination of VJ, CV, JM, RW and EL on the other side and you are cooking with grease with the potential to make it look 7v7 easy e, especially with Fletcher who can either pass block or take an audible into a light box.
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
It's by far the biggest question mark on the whole team, IMO.

And before anyone freaks out because they're emotional weirdos, a question mark does not mean a frightening concern. It's just a question mark. It doesn't mean we'll suck. It doesn't mean I have zero confidence. It doesn't mean the team will be bad.

It just means, as literally every single team does for various position groupings heading into a new year, we have a question as to how the OL will perform this season. It was not a question mark headed into 2025. We knew we'd be **** good, the only question was, how good? This year, I have no idea what to expect. I suspect it'll be good, because we obviously have talent, and I think if anyone trusts Mario to do one thing, it's produce a good OL. So I'd be shocked if it's not good. Beyond shocked.

But when I look at the entire roster and 2026 outlook, to me, by far the biggest and first question I see is, "Who will be the 5 starting OL and how well will that unit play?" That's #1, and there's a big gap to #2 and beyond.
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I’d like to add that it’s not just the starting 5 but also the depth behind it. We will have very little margin for error. The good news is that Mensah has shown he can play behind a patch work OL and he will have even more weapons here. Now all that said, this will be the most balanced and talented team we have had in years
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
We know Dawson can and will promote it.

We know Mario will allow it.

I’ll never say this will be 2024 until I see it on the field, but in terms of that explosiveness in the passing game, I think we can approach it. Here’s why:

Cam Ward in 2024 put up the best season any of us have ever seen. He averaged 9.4 yards per attempt that year. Good for #3 in the country. Who was #5? Darian Mensah at Tulane. 9.2 yards per attempt.

Now, at Duke in 2025, that number drops to 7.7 per attempt, good for 38th. But his completion percentage was virtually the same. 65.9% at Duke compared to 65.1% at Tulane. So what’s that tell you? Duke isn’t having him push the ball as much. And that tracks, because in 2024 under this Duke staff, Malik Murphy was 88th in the country in YPA. Johnathan Brewer is the OC there, you should know him. He was here with Lashlee. He’s a Lashlee disciple. Tempo, short passing attack.

So back to Mensah here. We know he can push it. We know Dawson can as well. What about the weapons?

Malachi Toney is an alien. Nuff said. He’s going to be one of the very best players in America, regardless of position. But look at the rest.

Barkate averaged 15.3 a catch last year at Duke, on 74 catches. Really, really good. Wanna know how many receivers on our team had that number this year? One. Tony Johnson, and he caught 7 balls. Even on the 2024 team, that’s a better number than Horton and George. Only Restrepo and Arroyo were better.

Enter Vandrevius Jacobs. Averaged 17.1 a catch last year on 32 catches. VERY explosive production. That number would have led our team in 2024, by the way.

Enter Cam Vaughn. Averaged 15.4 a catch last year, good for 10th in the Big 12. Again, a very good number.

That’s 3 kids who averaged at least 15 yards a catch, oh plus that Malachi Toney guy, who is pretty good.

Josh Moore. Upshaw. You HAVE to think Lofton fully healthy is a **** of a lot more explosive than Bauman. No, he won’t be Arroyo, but he can make plays down the field.

All orchestrated by a kid who has demonstrated he can get over 9 yards a throw, now in Year 3 starting in the most QB friendly offense he’s ever played in.

The question mark is the OL. No, it’s not likely Mensah is going to be able to sit in the pocket and do Wordle like Cam and Beck did. But if there’s literally anything I trust this staff to do, it’s protect the QB. Even in 2023 when TVD was broken, physically and his brain, he had all day to throw. I expect Mensah will be way better protected than he was at Duke or Tulane.

It is scary hours for everyone we play this year. We can come at you with multiple excellent backs, and we have a kid with absurd arm talent throwing to Baby Jesus and the Vertical Apostles. I’m downright aroused at the thought of what this offense can do in the air on explosives this season. I’m not saying it’s going to the Cam experience, because that’s not fair to expect. But I really think it can be **** close. A pinpoint downfield passer with an electric arm behind a good OL throwing to 4+ receivers who have demonstrated they can get over 15 a pop at the big boy level.

Wheels all the way the **** up, boys and girls. The circus is back in town.
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Dawson needs to get the ball to the playmakers and the way to do that is to have the playmakers on the field.

I want to see diversity in formation and a restricted use of the TE. I believe our 2/3/4 rb all bring more to the offense than any TE we have on the roster (outside of short yardage situations). Gimme three wide and run a 2 back offense. Create a Kyle Yuscheck (I know it’s spelled wrong) type roll for Marty who is a skilled pass catcher and physical runner/blocker. Gimme a lot of 4 wr sets. Our wide outs are willing blockers and spreading the D should help create rushing lanes. I think our 4/5/6 best wr are all better playmakers than any TE currently on the roster.

Let’s find reps for the Josh Moore dalton Upshaw types. Let’s see what Paris Spafford and Wingo can do. You are never finding reps for these guys with Toney Barkate and the two transfers eating up the reps.

You can only play 11 at a time. Let’s get creative and get the ballers on the field.
 
Do we think this WR room is better than 2024?

I think it is (or it’s at least debatable)

If so, best WR room since ____ ?

You got about 20 years of mediocrity before that with a few positive blips
 
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