Do we run any other plays out of empty, or just QB draw?
Any other run plays besides inside/outside zone?
We have a high school playbook.
Anybody who thinks our offense is perfectly fine can't possibly watch other (good) college football teams.
I too disagree with OP.
We need to do a better job of taking advantage of what defenses give us and trust our players to make plays.
Also, as you know, depending on where you are on the field, e.g., not on your own goal line, the offense has an advantage on first down because down and distance leaves our offense with multiple options.
On first down, we repeatedly ran the ball into an eight or nine man front coming downhill using what amounts to a delayed hand off. That put us into obvious passing situations on second down, typically second down and, I'm guessing, eight or more on average in the first half. That puts more pressure on our offensive line and more pressure on Nkosi; his completion percentage reflected having to throw against a defense that knew he was going to pass. His sacks and QB pressures against us, in part, also are a reflection of that. And, It doesn't help that we continue to play Jahir Jones.
Anyway, in the first half, we averaged 1.9 yards on first down. Obviously that's not acceptable. I get wanting to protect Nkosi and wanting to establish the run, both are important, but the way Richt went about it, running against 8 or 9 in the box on first down, was counterproductive and will cost us in the future against better teams, if he does not make adjustments. Running into those types of fronts, also runs the risk of getting our running backs seriously banged up. It is concerning that we did not adjust to what FSU was doing defensively earlier in the game, as I recall they played a single safety high for what seemed like much of the time, and that we did not expect that they would attempt to take away the run by stacking the box. To be clear, I'm not calling for an air raid, just more in-game adjustments on first down to counter our opponents. That will be something to pay attention to going forward.
I read in another thread where Canes were raving about Richt's willingness to go for it on 4th down as evidence of Coach not being a conservative play caller, and I'm glad too that he did go for it on those fourth downs, we all are, but it should not have come down to having to go for it on 4th down. And the way to fix that, is to do more with first down. That is correctable, but is Richt willing to do it? We shall see.