Mick's offense is predicated upon the QBs making quick reads, getting rid of the ball quickly, and throwing his receivers open. Since TJ went down, no QB had been able to perform those tasks. Marty can. The NU QB has to throw the pass before his receivers are open and fit it into tight spaces where only our guy can catch it. Semien and Thorson excelled at putting the ball in tight spaces and throwing passes before their targets were open. This takes great timing between QB and receiver, but also confidence. Our earlier QBs this year seemed to lack the confidence to let the ball go before their targets were open or to fit it into small windows. The result was sacks and generally ugly play. Marty has the confidence and ability to run this offense. He also is, quite obviously, a team leader. The future looks so much better than it did at 10:00 last Saturday morning.
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Quick reads, getting rid of the ball quickly and throwing a receiver open are the things that even top NFL QB’s struggle with. Asking that from multiple QB’s in your college program is unrealistic.
That’s why McCall’s QB needs to be a great runner. Defenses can’t blitz and play man to man against a great runner. If the QB is a good runner you can have a safety or fast LB shadow him with some success. Great runners with elude the shadow guy. Example - Gator Bowl. Colter ran for about 40 yds when MSU blitzed and played man. The DB’s are not watching the QB and the QB can run forever.
If the defense can’t blitz, the QB will have more time to make quick reads and be able to throw the receiver open. Siemien and Thorsen (NFL level QB’s) repeatedly got sacked or ran for their lives because they were not great runners. Teams continued to blitz and put pressure on them.
That’s why McCall’s QB needs to be a great runner. Defenses can’t blitz and play man to man against a great runner. If the QB is a good runner you can have a safety or fast LB shadow him with some success. Great runners with elude the shadow guy. Example - Gator Bowl. Colter ran for about 40 yds when MSU blitzed and played man. The DB’s are not watching the QB and the QB can run forever.
If the defense can’t blitz, the QB will have more time to make quick reads and be able to throw the receiver open. Siemien and Thorsen (NFL level QB’s) repeatedly got sacked or ran for their lives because they were not great runners. Teams continued to blitz and put pressure on them.
That is exactly what is expected of a Big Ten QB. News flash, playing QB at the P5 level is really, really hard and few people can do it but if you are a scholarship player those skills are absolute musts.
For a while we had some arbitrage opportunities in recruiting where we could get legitimate dual threat guys to run this type of offense. Now that RPO is a big thing it has gotten so much harder to land these guys.
Frankly I’d rather see a return to a more conventional attack. We are already getting running backs who are better suited to run between the tackles (e.g. JJ’s preternatural feet, Bowsers power, Porter too). O-Line recruitment is headed in this direction. Let’s see more traps, counters, and draws!
Frankly I’d rather see a return to a more conventional attack. We are already getting running backs who are better suited to run between the tackles (e.g. JJ’s preternatural feet, Bowsers power, Porter too). O-Line recruitment is headed in this direction. Let’s see more traps, counters, and draws!
We run plenty of traps, counters, and draws. They’re just out of the shotgun or pistol instead of I-formation or single back.
Yet, 129 teams/people did it better than us, until last week, when we were wildly successful and threw for 95 yards.
At some point, someone has to answer (doesn't have to be McCall if you want to continue to shield him) for the fact that we can't pass the ball. You can blame Hunter all you want.
- QB taking too long to release. What about plays where we actually want to, you know, throw a LONG PASS? Presumably the WR will need to disengage, and the line will have to give an extra second to pass. Literally an extra second to run an extra 10 yard before he throws it.
- Why are teams able to press coverage with impunity (see above bullet. Same issue)
- Why was, arguably, the greatest QB in our history the most sacked in history? Further, in ECat's opinion, the second greatest QB in our history, Siemian, had the same problem.
- Even as good as our D was last year, with arguably our best pass rusher ever, teams were somehow able to throw for an average of 260 yards a game against us. Apparently, it's not that "hard" to pass against a really good defense.
I am not a "fire McCall" guy, although I may have said it in frustration before. I simply don't want us to be the worst, embarrassingly bad offense. That's a pretty low bar, perhaps Fitz and Co can step over it, if it isn't "really really hard"
Corbi, you are the Baghdad Bob of NU football.
For McCall’s offense, the QB needs to make quick reads, get rid of the ball quickly and throw the receiver open on almost every downfield pass, usually with someone in his face. That’s the NFL. That’s not power 5 football. Top teams often throw to wide open receivers after the QB had time to scan the field. They do have to have some of those skills, but not at the level McCall’s offense requires. If you think every successful power 5 team has one or more QB’s on scholarship with those skills you believe are a must, you would be a terrible NFL scout.
For McCall’s offense, the QB needs to make quick reads, get rid of the ball quickly and throw the receiver open on almost every downfield pass, usually with someone in his face. That’s the NFL. That’s not power 5 football. Top teams often throw to wide open receivers after the QB had time to scan the field. They do have to have some of those skills, but not at the level McCall’s offense requires. If you think every successful power 5 team has one or more QB’s on scholarship with those skills you believe are a must, you would be a terrible NFL scout.
Who the hell is blaming HJ? None of our QBs have shown those skills on a consistent basis. That is the main reason we suck. Don’t take my word for it, just listen to what Fitz has said.
Please don’t make me laugh. For over a decade we have trotted out QB after QB that has demonstrated exactly those abilities to varying degrees. According to you, suddenly it’s not realistic to expect those same skills out of our current QBs? The guys that we have at QB right now have shown those abilities in flashes. The reason they can’t do it consistently is not because they are not physically capable but because they don’t have sufficient experience and have not put in the prep work necessary to recognize defenses and know where the ball needs to go in our offense based on what the defense is doing. It has to be second nature and right now they are thinking and hesitating. Don’t take my word for it, just listen to what Fitz has to say on the subject. If I am Baghdad Bob, what does that make Fitz? Saddam?
Your posts always make me laugh. Enough knowledge to sound like you know something but not enough to be useful. Based on your knowledge, I am not surprised that you can’t figure out who Saddam would be.
You. For all of the Minnesota game.
And then you said Aiden was more equipped, until it was clear he wasn’t. Then you said Green was the only one, too bad he got hurt.
Now it’s Marty. Let’s see how he does with Illinois having a full week to prepare for him.
So saying player X did not play well in one game and saying player Y did play well in the same game can be equated to me saying that we suck because of Player X. Grow up and get real!
Don't forget Drake Anderson. A lot of his yardage was gained running between the tackles.
Disagree - the QB just needs to be mobile (doesn't need to be a running back), being able to use his legs to set up the pass (and run for a decent gain when there's open field).
Disciplined defenses have stopped Colter cold (don't even have to be that physically talented - see Army).
Denard Robinson was a more dynamic runner than Colter and put up even bigger rushing nos. against bad and/or undisciplined defenses (leading to Heisman talk), but that all faded away once UM got into the heart of B1G schedule and started facing some good to very good defenses.
And oh, Colter's sack rate was a good bit higher than Siemian's (don't know about Thorson).
Part of the reason is the scheme/playbook that McCall runs which is a read and react scheme, instead of an attacking one which forces the opposing D to try to make quick decisions/guesses.
This usually requires a QB w/ some experience - which is why the O has usually had to resort to running QBs (w/ a limited passing attack) whenever the experienced starter goes down.
Sure, every QB should be able to read collegiate defenses eventually, but some schemes make it easier on young/inexperienced QBs to make passing plays.
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That's a fair description of the scheme.
By the way, what did you do this early morning, binge read Wildcat Report? Insomnia or are you in a different time zone?
Sounds like we are NOT going there. At the end of the day, Jake appears historically to be a Spread option guy, who used to go 4 wide like we did under Wilson and Dunbar, but had an epiphany while working with Tampa Bay on the value of the TE, and thus will employ TE's heavily also in part to maintain a fast tempo with limited substitutions and to create mismatches on the field. This smells a lot more like Wilson and Dunbar's schemes (welcome), with some tweaks with the jumbo athletes (hopefully in a good way). It sounds like he will go vertically a shit ton more than McCall (thankfully, as McCall's biggest problem in my book aside from his general predictability and lack of imagination was failing to spread the field vertically so defenses would constantly cheat) and he will be multiple formation, with lots of motion, and quite a bit more creative (thankfully again). He was run first and play action at BC and I guess arguably he favored the run throughout his career, but it sounds like his time in the NFL also enabled him to work with QBs that used their arm as a weapon (Tampa Bay averaged 320 yards passing while he coached the QBs) and it sounded like from the BC fans that he was more run heavy due to both personnel and also the head coach's preference to keep with run heavy play action scheme (though we may have the same handcuff at NU in a old school coach who prefers to run) so hopefully this will be less the one dimensional Colter look and more the Dan Persa and Zak Kustok version of the option attack. At the very least, he will use the pass vertically to open up the run, unlike the last OC.
As mentioned earlier, I wasn't wowed by this hire, like I was with Hank's (I wanted to see multiple top 10, top 25 and even #1 ranked offenses with multiple championships) but I think it has a chance to be a decent one and certainly a welcomed and marked improvement over McCall's ineptitude. I'm hopeful.
