We kept telling him to run the touchdown play. He finally did it!
Jake finally listened to us!
- Thread starter TheC
- Start date
Possibly, that has been speculated for a long time. I wouldn't doubt it at all to be honest. The ypg Bajakian had at BC was pretty good, very good in NU terms. Fitz was old school, which went out of style in the early 90's.
Good Lord. Are we going to blame everything that goes sideways from now until eternity on Fitz!
I really don't think it's worth going there after a game like this.
Things just clicked in the 2nd half for a desperate team, that's football; these things just happen at times.
The Bryant to Kirtz connection exploded in this game, OL bought extra time, and then good things happened. Hopefully this is the start of something and Bryant and the receivers have the confidence to execute like this in the future.
Our QBs the past 2 years just weren't regularly playing at the level that Bryant played yesterday other than Ramsey's year (but Ramsey was a special situation obviously) and maybe a Hilinski game here or there.
It's hard not to go there after this game. NU never looked this wide open and explosive with Fitz in charge...even with Thorsen at QB.
Austin Carr most recently. Before that, his first few years where we had CJ, Kafka and Persa, and, to a lesser extent, Siemian. He really went old-school when we nabbed JJTBC
LOL.... he also listened to the three play drive for a TD too! We should call the O the sky team!!!
The best part about this conversation is that none of our opinions really matter
Not hard to imagine Braun having a meeting with Jake at some point where they both acknowledged they are coaching for their next jobs this season so might as well go for broke, and Braun fundamentally being so overwhelmed with his new defense and head coaching responsibilities that he just stays out of the O.
Also not hard to imagine Fitz putting some limits on whatever Jake ever wanted to do. Even the Fitz faithful have to acknowledge that he favored a more conservative offensive game plan.
But really I think we need to acknowledge that Ben Bryant, straight up, is a very good QB, and we all know how important a QB is to making everything click. Fitz did what he could bringing in Johnson, Hilinski, and Ramsey, who all looked like they had potential to be elite, but the results just never came with two of them. This is the part where we could blame the coaches for poor QB development...shrug.
Not hard to imagine Braun having a meeting with Jake at some point where they both acknowledged they are coaching for their next jobs this season so might as well go for broke, and Braun fundamentally being so overwhelmed with his new defense and head coaching responsibilities that he just stays out of the O.
Also not hard to imagine Fitz putting some limits on whatever Jake ever wanted to do. Even the Fitz faithful have to acknowledge that he favored a more conservative offensive game plan.
But really I think we need to acknowledge that Ben Bryant, straight up, is a very good QB, and we all know how important a QB is to making everything click. Fitz did what he could bringing in Johnson, Hilinski, and Ramsey, who all looked like they had potential to be elite, but the results just never came with two of them. This is the part where we could blame the coaches for poor QB development...shrug.
This seems pretty similar to Bajakian’s offense when we had Ramsey, Raine, RCB and Porter. Maybe a little more creative now. I suspect it would have looked similar with or without Fitz as it was implied that Bajakian was coaching for his job this year even with Fitz (when Fitz said the only reason he didn’t fire him was because it was more important to fire JON and he didn’t want to replace both coordinators).
The question is why Bajakian would coach differently when “coaching for his job” when nothing was working before that? Maybe he was trying to implement things but we just did not have the personnel to execute it.
The question is why Bajakian would coach differently when “coaching for his job” when nothing was working before that? Maybe he was trying to implement things but we just did not have the personnel to execute it.
I don't think there was a change in strategy really. We've been throwing the ball plenty this year, and throwing it downfield or at 1v1 fade routes along the sidelines quite a bit. We just weren't connecting when we took those chances. Bryant's accuracy had been inconsistent at best I would say, he missed multiple chances and also we didn't have WRs that were getting much separation to take advantage of the opposition stacking the box and beat them downfield, which has been a chronic challenge in recent years as teams have dared us to beat them over the top and we haven't been able to (watch games against Duke, Rutgers).The best part about this conversation is that none of our opinions really matter
Not hard to imagine Braun having a meeting with Jake at some point where they both acknowledged they are coaching for their next jobs this season so might as well go for broke, and Braun fundamentally being so overwhelmed with his new defense and head coaching responsibilities that he just stays out of the O.
Also not hard to imagine Fitz putting some limits on whatever Jake ever wanted to do. Even the Fitz faithful have to acknowledge that he favored a more conservative offensive game plan.
But really I think we need to acknowledge that Ben Bryant, straight up, is a very good QB, and we all know how important a QB is to making everything click. Fitz did what he could bringing in Johnson, Hilinski, and Ramsey, who all looked like they had potential to be elite, but the results just never came with two of them. This is the part where we could blame the coaches for poor QB development...shrug.
What changed late in the game is Ben Bryant started executing things to perfect. He found the right WRs and hit them in stride for good completions that allowed for RAC as well. Plus, starting with the 80 yard TD in Q2 but also continuing in the second half, Bryce Kirtz repeatedly beat his guy or found openings in the zone, and Henning + Cam Johnson also found some open space. Bryant also did a great job of moving around in the pocket to create enough time for him to make a throw. It's worth noting that the last TD in OT was a great schemed play call by the OC where Mangieri slipped through the wash of play-action and across the formation to get wide open.
So I think it's a combination of different things. Overall I think we have thrown more and thrown deep more steadily throughout this season than we did in recent years (potentially a reflection of having a new HC replacing Fitz). But what really changed in the last 17 minutes wasn't the play calling so much as it was the execution by the players. Bryant raised his level of play significantly and Kirtz emerged as a potential star, with other WRs also playing well. Let's hope that can continue. That finish was incredibly fun.
Go Cats!
Last year vs Duke we threw for 494 in a comeback effort. Hilinski looked great, then we went back to smash mouth to prove our physical superiority to SIU and Miami. Huge mistake and destroyed Hilinski's confidence. Should have rolled with the modern approach to offense.
