EvanstonCat said:

Looks like we got a couple of good ones so far. I don’t know if we are done already with classes starting but, last Jackrabbit follows on the NU General Manager of Roster Development and Retention from oldest to newest: Wilde, Beernsten, Clayborne, Hawthorne, Stoffel, Large, Tucker.

Tucker just added this weekend.

We got the first two. I have no idea who the others are.

Click to expand...

GatoLouco said:

I did not see a whole lot of Purdue specific tactics. I did not see the help defenders do anything different when Smith had the ball. I saw mistakes like going under the pick and roll on Smith.

On the other hand I did see the "Purdue is guarding Barnelli with 3 players". They executed this very well. Their players were very aware of what they had to do. Rarely we made them pay. Leach did briefly in the beginning of the game. The first or second posession of the second half exemplified this very well: the Purdue players were sagging and Leach (I believe) hits a wide open 3 pt shot.

I am not saying with all this we did not prep the game. Just, like you say, that the execution was atrocious. Players looked confused, lacking confidence. It's easy to see good prep and execution on the Purdue side when they are killing us and not seeing it on our when we are stinking so badly.

Click to expand...

Smolmania said:

Are you sure that the visit was to Clemson? I thought they went to see Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia to learn about that spread offense?

Click to expand...

GatoLouco said:

I did not see a whole lot of Purdue specific tactics. I did not see the help defenders do anything different when Smith had the ball. I saw mistakes like going under the pick and roll on Smith.

On the other hand I did see the "Purdue is guarding Barnelli with 3 players". They executed this very well. Their players were very aware of what they had to do. Rarely we made them pay. Leach did briefly in the beginning of the game. The first or second posession of the second half exemplified this very well: the Purdue players were sagging and Leach (I believe) hits a wide open 3 pt shot.

I am not saying with all this we did not prep the game. Just, like you say, that the execution was atrocious. Players looked confused, lacking confidence. It's easy to see good prep and execution on the Purdue side when they are killing us and not seeing it on our when we are stinking so badly.

Click to expand...

mountaindrew said:

Slight correction, Ohiovalleycat, if you don't mind. It didn't take a year for Kevin Wilson's spread offense to catch on. It happened immediately. That spread offense was brand new for NU in 2000.

In '99, his first year at NU, Walker ran his stone age power running game (I say that with full love and respect as an old OL coach who believed in a VERY boring between the tackles running game when I called plays in youth football a few centuries back), and it was an absolute garbage offense. That was with Nick Kreinbrink & Zak Kustok sharing QB, and an injury plagued OL. Not only was it awful and unable to score points or get first downs, it was SOOOOOO freakin boring and miserable to watch. Can I get an Amen from Coral, Hungry Jack and Corbi?

I would love to get the back story on this, because I have no idea how it happened..... but somehow during the winter offseason of 2000, Walk was persuaded to make the radical (for him) decision to switch from his beloved Big Ten power football offense to a spread passing game. Truth be told, even though we lined up four wide receivers the majority of the time, and threw the ball more than usual, it was still a run first offense. The purpose was to spread out the defense by forcing wider gaps between the DLinemen and linebackers, and get all the DBs (and sometimes LBs) out of the box, and create bigger run lanes for Damien Anderson. It worked fabulously. That 2000 team RAN for 3000 yards.

Hello? THREE THOUSAND rushing yards by an NU offense. Per game, it was 255 rushing yards, and 220 passing. Yes, I looked it up. What a fun year that was to watch offense at NU.

And the point is, that happened in the first year of that offense at NU. Walker and Kevin Wilson traveled to Clemson that winter to hang out with their coaches and basically copy/steal their spread offense. I sure would love to hear from some insiders or old players on this board more about how that process happened that winter and during spring ball, because it was such a radical transformation, and so shocking (to me) that Randy Walker agreed to it.

Click to expand...

JournCat said:

Your analysis is spot-on ... which is why I think CC needs to try Angelo a lot more, see if he can keep shooting threes in the high-30s (currently 46.7% with very low attempts), and live with the growing pains on defense.

Click to expand...