All the numbers are fine but is pretty clear what those number are based on. In the years that the offense were successful he had talented QBs. You can point to the minds around him but Tom Herman's offenses at Texas his first two years as HC are not better than his offenses at UH while Applewhite was calling plays. Why? Greg Ward is better than Ehlinger. At Texas the likes of David Ash and Case McCoy(the other McCoy) were Applewhite's QBs. At Alabama it was John Parker Wilson. At Houston last year the QBs were Kyle Allen and some guy named Postma. This year under Briles, D'Eriq King was the guy before he got hurt and he accounted for 50 TDs. Find a dynamic talented QB and the offense he brings here will be fine.
That's a fair response. And it brings up the larger issue, which is that all successful offenses today have a talented guy at QB. For sure, a good OC can make a QB better, but the QB must have some basic attributes to work with. And those required attributes are different depending on the team and the scheme.
Alabama (Tua), Clemson (Lawrence), UGA (Fromm), etc. have guys who're great passers in terms of anticipation, accuracy and ability to see the field. They're among the most talented passers in college football. Yes those guys can run, but it's a purely opportunistic part of their game. For other teams like OU (Murray), UCF (Milton), Houston (Ward & King), and maybe now Texas (with Ehlinger) they have guys who thrive in an offense where QB runs are a deliberate part of the offense. No, those guys aren't as great pure pocket passers as the aforementioned group, but their effectiveness as runners create more openings in the passing game and they're good enough enough passers to take advantage.
Since it looks like Applewhite will be the guy, the question moves to what style of QB play fits with his system? As you noted, Houston's success on offense came along with Greg Ward (who I liked a lot) and D'Eriq King at QB.
So here's the question: do you/we think that at UM, Applewhite is going to run an offense that's compatible with the Greg Ward/D'Eriq king QB skill set? Because it's the only offense that Applewhite's run successfully. And if so, it speaks to the need to a specific type of QB that we don't have on the team currently (and the Jackson kid from Buffalo isn't it either).
Or, does Applewhite try to run a more pure passer type of offense? If so, then the issue is that not only do we not have this type of QB on the roster (unless Williams is it), but there's also the secondary issue that Applewhite has never successfully recruited for, nor run this type of offense.
If Applewhite goes with the former approach, I could see it being successful. We should certainly be able to recruit the Greg Ward/D'eriq King type of QB's. Quinton Flowers type kids get produced all the time in SoFl. And this style of offense would have been perfect for Lamar Jackson. On the other hand, if Applewhite tries for the former approach, what data points suggest he'd be successful with it? When has a recruited the type of high quality pure passer that it takes to run that type of offense? And when has he run a successful offense that did not have the threat of a legitimate running QB as a significant component?
Again, assuming Applewhite is going to be the guy, what style offense will he run, and what style of QB will he need to run it? Those become the questions.
