I think people are overthinking the play calling last year.
The pass defenses we played in October were good, the pass defenses we played from November were pretty bad.
It wasn't like Kaaya got better or Richt's play calling got better. The defenses just got worse, so the same plays worked better. Sometimes it's just that simple.
There was a noticeable shift in playcalling from the second half of ND through the bowl game, though some early seasons habits did show their ugly head early in the bowl game.
We started running more quick hitting pass plays. Swing passes to the slot WR, hitch passes to the outside WRs. And we would keep them honest by hitting the TEs down the seam or taking a shot deep to a WR here and there. That was almost exclusively out of shotgun, and it did a good job of opening up the run for Walton and the other guys.
Kaaya looked really good towards the end of the year. He was in rhythm for a month. He had a tendency to hold the ball too long, but he was making some progressions and finding open guys. Maybe he just wasn't suited to make quick decisions based on the conflict defender in the RPO? Even though its only a split second, its a split second his eyes couldn't be down the field, where he wanted them.
None of this was from a light clicking on in Brad's head. It was a change in the play calling that maximized Brad's talent (keep him upright and clean, and he can make all the throws), and the WR/TE talent (just get them the cot **** ball in space). IMO, the 4 game skid was more on Richt than Kaaya or anyone else.
We will see what that means for this year's squad, as we don't really know the particular skillsets (and possibly more importantly, the limitations) that the QBs have. But the hope is that Richt is not too rigid on what he wants to run, and adapts to the skills of the players he has.