UM offensive coordinator Dan Enos said Wednesday that Tate Martell is being given a fresh look in the quarterback competition, made clear the QB job will be open next spring, and showed no inclination to switch exclusively to a spread offense to try to boost a unit that finished 73rd in scoring, 120th in rushing and 130th in third down conversions.
Asked whether he would consider going primarily to a spread, Enos said: “What is the spread offense? I don’t know what it is. Is it shotgun? Is it quarterback run? We do all that; we run RPOs [run/pass options]. We’re in 11 personnel most of time, which is three wide receivers, one back. We’re in shotgun or pistol most of the time. People define spread offense; it’s a very ambiguous term. I don’t really understand it because systems don’t win championships. Players and coaches do.”
He said UM’s offense is “on the cutting edge of everything we’re doing from a schematic standpoint.”
He also said he has adapted plenty this season.
“We’ve changed; I’ve adapted more this year than I’ve ever adapted as a coach,” he said. “I’m not hard headed to say ‘no this, no that.’ We’ve gone to a lot of pistol stuff because Jarren Williams is more comfortable with that. I’ve not been a big pistol guy over the years. We’ve adapted quite a bit of the things we’ve done.
“We’ve RPOed more [run/pass option], thrown screens, run the ball. We’re trying to do a lot of different things to get him comfortable and to play well. We are not ram rodding a system down anybody’s throat. We are going to constantly try to make the system have adjustments. We’ve adapted our scheme.”
So how should the offense be fixed? “We’ve got to coach better, block better, run routes better, be more consistent, catch the ball when we need to, got to do a better job navigating the pocket [and] keeping our eyes down field and as coaches, do a better job of putting these guys in better situations.”
Asked whether it would be a good idea to go to a no-huddle offense more, he said: “We tried to go no huddle a few times and we weren’t very successful at it. So we stayed away from it. We’re not very successful at it right now but we’re so young.”
Meanwhile, UM practiced for the fourth time on Tuesday in advance of the Dec. 26 Independence Bowl against Louisiana Tech, and Enos said Martell is being given a fresh look in the starting battle, and that repetitions in practice are being shared among Martell, Jarren Williams and N’Kosi Perry.
“He has to do it on the field and it’s been very inconsistent,” Enos said of Martell. “He hasn’t done anything to have earned a chance to do that yet. He’s been really good [in four practices]. And he’s done a nice job. I don’t know where it will end up. He’s in the right frame of mind, and we would like to see the best version of him.”