Utilizing Our Weapons/Strengths

[Rellyrell]

It's the off-season, and I always use the off season to watch old games. One thing has me a bit worried this upcoming season, however...it's the utilization of our talent.

Since Schnelly, we always created mismatches on both the defense and offense. Do you think we are, truly, best utilizing the weapons we have? I mean, the offense was vanilla, and not even french vanilla. I see Manny is trying to use the 4-2-5 concept, and I appreciate that, but are we using Mike Smith appropriately based upon his skill set?

One thing we were upset w/ Golden about was trying to force kids in to his system vs. playing to the strength of his roster. In some instances, when I look back at some of our games over the last couple of years, I feel Richt and staff does that as well, just not as egregious, which included some of the running packages.

Just an observation and maybe I'm tripping, but I'm interested to know your thoughts and potential concerns regarding the use of our roster.

 

[ghost2]

I have a LOT of thoughts on this, both in terms of what we are running (especially offensively) and what I think we *should* be running, based on my armchair coaching acumen... If I have time I'll try to piece together something later this week that speaks to this.

In brief, I think we're "okay" at utilizing our strengths, but there's way more we can be doing, and much of it doesn't require a complete overhaul of offensive philosophy - and some of it Richt is already doing or at least alluding to.

 

[Canezum5]

Yeah, im inclined to agree. The thing is, I don't think its something Richt is doing to a point of insanity/stubbornness like Pyrite.

I said this back when Jedi was bichin profusely about Richt not running the offense to better fit our personnel.

Well, the thing is, we know the personnel better than Richt because weve studied these players since recruitment.

Richt admitted to not watching film of the previous season to give everyone a clean slate. I think this was too his detriment because he was unable to see how some of our players perform in some positions in a live gameday setting.

As he gets to know the players he has inherited better he has put them in better positions.

I think the biggest issue is his trust in Searels to get the right 5 on the field.

What he did with Rosier last year was a huge testament to his ability to adapt to a players talents or lack thereof.

The light kind of turned on for him after the Notre dame game his first season.

I believe he shook a lot of rust off this past season and should have his mojo back.

He better. He has to make something shake this season regarding the offense and QB evaluation/development.

The world saw that we are A QB away from some potential glory. Richt knows he cant awaken the beast that Is CanesFam and give us false hope!

I say he gets it done and continues to innovate.

 

[252cane]

I think a lot has to do with the o-line. Richt wants to have a power running game and that would fit a guy like homer but he doesn't have the o-line to do it.

Richt has that old school approach of you need to line up and beat the man in front of you. Maybe it isn't as flashy as some would like but that's his style.

 

[305to404CANE]

I think the one thing you're going to notice is the change in play calling the moment Herndon got hurt at Pitt. I noticed that **** immediately, and I was going to look at that in detail. We lost a lot of weapons on offense and I agree with you to an extent in regards to the offense being vanilla, but I really think Malik was super limited with his accuracy to even remotely get creative with play calling and routes. We overcame Walton and Richards, but Herndon, that was the final nail in terms of expanding that offense.

Manny address that hole McCloud was presenting in the flats. That was a **** of move, and let's see if it pays dividends. Honestly, you can put Mike on the edge, but who do you put him in front of, Joe, Garvin, and now Rossueau. I think he would get the same snap count, and they blitz him quite a bit last year as well.

 

[OrdunaDrive]

I like the transition to the 4-2-5 defense, I agree with several posters above that a 60%+ completion percentage QB would have had this offense humming. Hopefully Williams surges to the top spot and gives us that. Hopefully Brevin Jordan and Mallory succeed here the way we think they can because it is really vital. I will be concerned if, given our skill and depth at receiver, we spend most of our of time in 21 or 22 personnel. That would be a square peg/round hole situation.

 

[423Hurricane]

On offense, I believe the obvious key is the OL. There's not a team in the country that can match our skill players. It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out with the OL and what adjustments Richt has to make according to that groups progress. And to beat a dead horse - QB. Surely Richt will have contingency plans based on the results of fall camp.

On defense, we got players all over the field. Only real question marks are depth on the DL and experience with the DB's - specifically CB. Looking forward to how the new "striker" position is utilized.

 

[Rellyrell]

I think a lot has to do with the o-line. Richt wants to have a power running game and that would fit a guy like homer but he doesn't have the o-line to do it.

Richt has that old school approach of you need to line up and beat the man in front of you. Maybe it isn't as flashy as some would like but that's his style.

And I agree w/ you, which is why I'm wondering if we're best utilizing what we have. Like I would love to see the slip screen more w/ Homer or DeeJay. We ran it once against VT and we gashed them for a grip...like 15-17 yards. I liked that he incorporated the Wild Cat, but how about letting DeeJay throw the rock once or twice or actually handing it off once in a while to keep defenses honest. I mean, there are so many different things we can do to open up the play book w/o straying too far from Richt's plan.

 

[CFLCane]

It's the off-season, and I always use the off season to watch old games. One thing has me a bit worried this upcoming season, however...it's the utilization of our talent.

Since Schnelly, we always created mismatches on both the defense and offense. Do you think we are, truly, best utilizing the weapons we have? I mean, the offense was vanilla, and not even french vanilla. I see Manny is trying to use the 4-2-5 concept, and I appreciate that, but are we using Mike Smith appropriately based upon his skill set?

One thing we were upset w/ Golden about was trying to force kids in to his system vs. playing to the strength of his roster. In some instances, when I look back at some of our games over the last couple of years, I feel Richt and staff does that as well, just not as egregious, which included some of the running packages.

Just an observation and maybe I'm tripping, but I'm interested to know your thoughts and potential concerns regarding the use of our roster.

Mike Smith isn't a UM caliber starting LB. You don't tailor your defense for the 2nd team. There are several instances that have bother me though

*Brad Kaaya in the RPO.
*Dayall Harris constantly being used in bubble screens....
*Braxton on the outside....had a lot to do with WR depth i guess.
*Too many draws, not enough power running...could be a personell issue on OL.

I think Malik is what's holding the playbook back. He can't even complete the simplest of passes at a high completion rate.

 

[Cane47]

And I agree w/ you, which is why I'm wondering if we're best utilizing what we have. Like I would love to see the slip screen more w/ Homer or DeeJay. We ran it once against VT and we gashed them for a grip...like 15-17 yards. I liked that he incorporated the Wild Cat, but how about letting DeeJay throw the rock once or twice or actually handing it off once in a while to keep defenses honest. I mean, there are so many different things we can do to open up the play book w/o straying too far from Richt's plan.

Agree 100 % on Deejay and either throwing it or handing it off once in a while.

 

[Rellyrell]

Mike Smith isn't a UM caliber starting LB. You don't tailor your defense for the 2nd team. There are several instances that have bother me though

*Brad Kaaya in the RPO.
*Dayall Harris constantly being used in bubble screens....
*Braxton on the outside....had a lot to do with WR depth i guess.
*Too many draws, not enough power running...could be a personell issue on OL.

I think Malik is what's holding the playbook back. He can't even complete the simplest of passes at a high completion rate.

I agree...I don't think Mike Smith is a Miami caliber LB, but why not use him ONLY as a situational rush end like a Willie Young vs. having him actually playing LB? Like w/ Butch, we squeezed every ounce from our players who had no NFL aspirations. I can't recall a time where we had a player out of place, even in our lean years.

 

[CFLCane]

I agree...I don't think Mike Smith is a Miami caliber LB, but why not use him ONLY as a situational rush end like a Willie Young vs. having him actually playing LB? Like w/ Butch, we squeezed every ounce from our players who had no NFL aspirations. I can't recall a time where we had a player out of place, even in our lean years.

Just not enough depth. Both Perry and Mccloud went down. We were left with Smith , Mccray, and Wilder...and Wilder just wasn't ready for anything more than garbage time reps or special teams. On top of that, Trent Harris would be the better rush end last year even out of the LB spot. It sucks but we still have 3 full recruiting cycles to go before we repair 15+ years of BS.

3 more years sounds like a lot, but for championship level DL and OL depth it's necessary to build depth with seniority not only talent.

 

[CaneSince4Ever]

My issue with Richt is He gets too cute at times.

In the bowl game, we started off runnin' the ball pretty good, defense was already pinnin' their ears back, and for some God forsaken reason, He throws a tunnel screen to Berrios.

In 16' vs UNC, we started that game off runnin' the ball pretty good, get down in the RZ, and He wants to get cute.

Also, when the defense throws a funky coverage at Him, He seems to take too long adjust and exploit the weakness.

I like His play-calling style, doesn't shoot His load too early in the game, but the above are my gripes pretty much.

 

[Loose Cannon]

Not having a true fullback and proven depth at TE really limited what we were able to do last season more than people are willing to admit. Herndon was really good, but after him the depth was MI2 and a converted DE. We didn't even have a FB on scholly.

We had a wildly inaccurate QB attempt 45 passes per game, and despite the lies some would like to peddle, most of the time teams were dropping 6 and 7 into coverage. It infuriated me last season that we weren't running the ball against these 4 man fronts. At first I thought it was because after Walton got injured, we had no proven depth behind him. Then Homer became a pleasant surprise in the monsoon against GaTech, and Dallas became a reliable #2. But we still never attempted to attack those 4 man fronts on the ground. Looking back and re-watching it's crystal clear that we just did not possess the physicality up front to open running lanes with just 5 linemen, and keeping Herndon in as an extra blocker became almost a dead give-away that a run was coming.

 

[ghost2]

So, it occurred to me that I already posted a thread on this a while ago lol - here it is: https://www.canesinsight.com/threads/what-is-the-mark-richt-offense.131084/

"So I've been mulling over the recent discussions/quotes from various sources about "I-formation" vs. "spread" vs. "RPO" vs. "read-option" and how these things might all fit together to form a unified/cohesive offensive philosophy, and I have a few thoughts and ideas I'd like to put forth for discussion.

As I've mentioned in other threads, it concerns me that in the first two years of Richt's tenure, we haven't really been able to commit to an identity on offense - primarily due to our wildly different starting QB skillsets over that time. Initially, it seemed like Richt wanted to rely heavily on RPO with Kaaya and Co. with elements of both spread and pro-style offenses. With Rosier last year, we ran a very limited read-option spread offense, cutting the reads down to "one-and-done". So it begs the question, where do we go from here?

For the last two years and now again in 2019, Richt is recruiting QBs that can move - both taking off running and extending plays with their legs to open up the pass. Most recently, he was quoted telling Rosier to "get ready" because we're going to use more I-Formation with a FB and multiple TEs. We're finally getting to the point where we will have the skill players to run pretty much whatever we feel like...

Just opining freely here, but I'm going to *guess* that what Richt ultimately would like to run is something similar to what Bama runs under Daboll, but with a more effective passing attack. Here's an article that speaks to Daboll's philosophy: https://www.tidesports.com/brian-daboll-alabama-offense-analysis/

I'd love to see Richt also adopt some of Lincoln Riley's concepts with our athletes - https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/8/2/15986274/lincoln-riley-oklahoma-sooners-offense

Riley really knows how to mix power run concepts with a FB and TEs to maximize damage in both the passing and run game. It's a beautiful blend of spread and power. RPO elements are still there, read-option elements are there, smashmouth concepts are there."

 

[biggee04]

I agree...I don't think Mike Smith is a Miami caliber LB, but why not use him ONLY as a situational rush end like a Willie Young vs. having him actually playing LB? Like w/ Butch, we squeezed every ounce from our players who had no NFL aspirations. I can't recall a time where we had a player out of place, even in our lean years.

Mike Smith did that in Highschool, its a big difference trying to beat NFL tackles vs. The kids he played against in high school

 

[g8rh8rMD]

I like the transition to the 4-2-5 defense, I agree with several posters above that a 60%+ completion percentage QB would have had this offense humming. Hopefully Williams surges to the top spot and gives us that. Hopefully Brevin Jordan and Mallory succeed here the way we think they can because it is really vital. I will be concerned if, given our skill and depth at receiver, we spend most of our of time in 21 or 22 personnel. That would be a square peg/round hole situation.

We haven't seen anything at all that would indicate this as even a possibility for a base offense. I do think we will see more of that type of formation in short yardage and goal line situations, and that is clearly a response to a glaring weakness we saw last season. But you're not going to see our offense line up often with just one or two WR's on the field unless it's third and short or we're killing clock at the end of the game.

The rest of your post is dead on the money.

 

[BWCD]

We haven't seen anything at all that would indicate this as even a possibility for a base offense. I do think we will see more of that type of formation in short yardage and goal line situations, and that is clearly a response to a glaring weakness we saw last season.

Ever since the Super Bowl, I've had visions of running a short yardage/goal line play like the Philly Special, only with Deejay tossing it to the QB for the score. It would be stealing, but it would be more inventive than what we've been doing on short yardage/goal line.

 

[The Franchise]

If we had Kendall Briles running the offense with these same players we’d be unstoppable. I don’t hate Rick as a playcaller, but he’s not in the Briles realm either. Rick needs more dominance across the board to be successful against good teams. The Briles spread run scheme is unrivaled in college football and would destroy here.

Our run game has been up and down and overall mediocre since Rick got here. We can keep blaming players and blaming Rosier’s unwavering innaccuracy. But it’s year 3 now.

At some point, and I think that point is this season, Rick either needs to get it done with Rosier and stop using him as an excuse, or he needs to get another QB ready. Year 3 is fix it time.

 

[ghost2]

If we had Kendall Briles running the offense with these same players we’d be unstoppable. I don’t hate Rick as a playcaller, but he’s not in the Briles realm either. Rick needs more dominance across the board to be successful against good teams. The Briles spread run scheme is unrivaled in college football and would destroy here.

Our run game has been up and down and overall mediocre since Rick got here. We can keep blaming players and blaming Rosier’s unwavering innaccuracy. But it’s year 3 now.

At some point, and I think that point is this season, Rick either needs to get it done with Rosier and stop using him as an excuse, or he needs to get another QB ready. Year 3 is fix it time.

This is pretty much where I'm at.