Just putting this over here with the hope of achieving a somewhat constructive conversation.
We are lost offensively, and I would argue that we have been since about 2010. With Colter and Siemian we basically had two halves of a whole operating in two different bodies. Now one half of that is gone and we're naturally in a tailspin, which began last year when both of our halves were injured to various degrees.
For years we operated a successful offense with either a dual threat QB or a highly effective (even if not efficient) passer, who developed like fine wines by the time they were seniors. This was almost always complemented by a superb (and/or simply well-coached) running back and above average receivers. I'll refrain from dogging McCall here but we certainly also lived a charmed life with guys like Wilson, Dunbar, and Walker (and even McGhee) designing our offense.
I tend to believe in college football, particularly at a program like Northwestern, we need to score lots of points to stay in games, and we need to be creative about it. By "creative" I mean we'll probably never be able to land a wall of elite o-linemen who give a pro-style passer all day to throw, and the fact that we use a "superback" instead of a true tight end implies we're not interested in that anyway. We could have the best defense in the Big Ten and we'll still lose to Pac-12 and Big XII teams without a high-powered offense. I'd also say there's a business case here that someone like Phillips should be thinking about. Offense sells tickets. Averaging 3-4 yards per play does not.
So now my question becomes...what is our offensive identity, and what is our recruiting strategy to achieve it? Are we just flinging sh*t at the wall and taking the best offensive players we can get, regardless of whether they fit out actual offensive goals? If we asked Fitz, McCall, et al what kind of players we're actually trying to get, what would they tell us besides "good young men?"
We are lost offensively, and I would argue that we have been since about 2010. With Colter and Siemian we basically had two halves of a whole operating in two different bodies. Now one half of that is gone and we're naturally in a tailspin, which began last year when both of our halves were injured to various degrees.
For years we operated a successful offense with either a dual threat QB or a highly effective (even if not efficient) passer, who developed like fine wines by the time they were seniors. This was almost always complemented by a superb (and/or simply well-coached) running back and above average receivers. I'll refrain from dogging McCall here but we certainly also lived a charmed life with guys like Wilson, Dunbar, and Walker (and even McGhee) designing our offense.
I tend to believe in college football, particularly at a program like Northwestern, we need to score lots of points to stay in games, and we need to be creative about it. By "creative" I mean we'll probably never be able to land a wall of elite o-linemen who give a pro-style passer all day to throw, and the fact that we use a "superback" instead of a true tight end implies we're not interested in that anyway. We could have the best defense in the Big Ten and we'll still lose to Pac-12 and Big XII teams without a high-powered offense. I'd also say there's a business case here that someone like Phillips should be thinking about. Offense sells tickets. Averaging 3-4 yards per play does not.
So now my question becomes...what is our offensive identity, and what is our recruiting strategy to achieve it? Are we just flinging sh*t at the wall and taking the best offensive players we can get, regardless of whether they fit out actual offensive goals? If we asked Fitz, McCall, et al what kind of players we're actually trying to get, what would they tell us besides "good young men?"
