Football question

[Eielson]

Again, I just don't care about the injury excuses.

There many things in life I like to bury my head in the sand in regard to. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

But back to what started this convo: I will again ask, in what ways has the offense shown meaningful strides this year? We have better health and a better, more experienced QB, but the results are hardly better. If you had fallen asleep for the past 12 months, would you even know we had a new OC?

If you simply look at one game, where our QB rushed back from surgery and hadn't taken any reps in 3 weeks -- yes, it would appear no different. But that's quite silly to do when you have other data points.

If you look at the season in it's entirety, it's night and day difference. And I'm not even saying Arbuckle is a star. The offense we saw against Michigan and Auburn was solid enough to win, and Texas' defense isn't dramatically better than those two. If we had scored 24 points again, we would still be undefeated.

The gameplay against Michigan was excellent. We were clearly a better team from start to finish, and we were a dropped pass away from scoring 31, which is identical to what your favorite coach at USC put up.

I was frustrated only putting up 24 points against Auburn, but that's more than either of the top 10 teams they faced the following two weeks were able to put up. In hindsight, the fumble was likely broken hand related, and being able to manufacture a drive on the final possession is not something I would have any faith in doing last year. Or quite frankly, even with Lebby, who put up a lot of points but often not late in close games.

Again, a lot of areas we need to see improvement, but Arbuckle has come into games with a clear plan. Every week he's had something up his sleeve that has worked, even if you didn't like the way it was officiated. This past week, the hurry up offense was very deliberate and caught Texas off guard, which was nearly a touchdown if Burks could have made one person miss.

 

[WichitaSooner]

I agree with most of this post.
However the offense, even with the terrible run game, is much better than last year

I am open to hearing your thoughts on how you think it's much better. The run game is worse. The pass game is better, but much better? There was always going to be some improvement based on having a full supply of healthy WRs and a healthier line. The numbers were bound to improve no matter who the QB is. At this point it's hard to compare stats since half our schedule so far has been against bad teams. I just wonder, when the season is over, how much difference there will be, unless Ben and the staff really make some changes.

One thing I found telling is that on their pod, Gabe (who, again, I don't agree with a lot of the time) said he think we should go full air raid and just spread the field and more or less forget about using TEs. His point is that Arbuckle is being too stubborn -- his system has always used TEs and he is doing it this year even though all our TEs are terrible blockers. One thing about old offensive linemen -- they love running the ball and being physical. So for Gabe to basically saying that we should only run the ball out of the spread offense and basically throw the ball around the yard, that says something. And I know a lot of people like to point out that a true air raid offense has never won a national title, but this team is not close to being a title contender. At least do what you can to try to put us in the best position to win enough games to sneak into the playoff. We have to find a way to not put this 100 percent on the defense. Saturday showed that. Our defense played one bad quarter, and it basically meant we had no chance to win.

 

[hoopsaustin]

I am open to hearing your thoughts on how you think it's much better. The run game is worse. The pass game is better, but much better? There was always going to be some improvement based on having a full supply of healthy WRs and a healthier line. The numbers were bound to improve no matter who the QB is. At this point it's hard to compare stats since half our schedule so far has been against bad teams. I just wonder, when the season is over, how much difference there will be, unless Ben and the staff really make some changes.

One thing I found telling is that on their pod, Gabe (who, again, I don't agree with a lot of the time) said he think we should go full air raid and just spread the field and more or less forget about using TEs. His point is that Arbuckle is being too stubborn -- his system has always used TEs and he is doing it this year even though all our TEs are terrible blockers. One thing about old offensive linemen -- they love running the ball and being physical. So for Gabe to basically saying that we should only run the ball out of the spread offense and basically throw the ball around the yard, that says something. And I know a lot of people like to point out that a true air raid offense has never won a national title, but this team is not close to being a title contender. At least do what you can to try to put us in the best position to win enough games to sneak into the playoff. We have to find a way to not put this 100 percent on the defense. Saturday showed that. Our defense played one bad quarter, and it basically meant we had no chance to win.

I think that is the move.

Anytime a TE is on the field for us its a minus in personnel (except if kanak is spread out) and we can't run. So go full tech/oregon and 5 wide every play to spread the field. Run just enough to keep them honest and use the pass even to set up the run (which is backwards, but we can't do it the right way).

Get a HB screen game going, wr screens, fake WR screens after we set up the WR screen game, draw plays after we get the pass going, dink and dunk, and run drags rest of the year imo

 

[WichitaSooner]

I think that is the move.

Anytime a TE is on the field for us its a minus in personnel (except if kanak is spread out) and we can't run. So go full tech/oregon and 5 wide every play to spread the field. Run just enough to keep them honest and use the pass even to set up the run (which is backwards, but we can't do it the right way).

Get a HB screen game going, wr screens, fake WR screens after we set up the WR screen game, draw plays after we get the pass going, dink and dunk, and run drags rest of the year imo

Agree. And I think one thing good coaches always do is adjust to their personnel. You can have a preferred system, but when you don’t have the horses to run that system, you can’t be stubborn.

 

[Eielson]

Our TEs are terrible at blocking, but I fail to see how that's a reflection against Arbuckle. JJF needing to go is a separate issue. BV is loyal to a fault, much like his mentors, but if anything that just makes Arbuckles results more impressive.

I agree that we likely will need to abandon certain run concepts and accept what we have at most positions, but rolling out a complete air raid offense with an injured QB that hasn't taken reps in 3 weeks would have been absurd.

I'm ready to move on from BB and spend big on OL in the portal/retaining guys like Fasusi, but you can't question that our OLs have had inseason improvement. Even last year we were able to establish enough of a run game to beat Alabama.

As of this moment, our offense has never needed to do more than put up 24 points to win the game. We can do that without a full air raid, though I do agree that we should be spreading out more. And should we ever fall behind my 2-3 scores at half, I would fully support TEs not seeing the field for the 2nd half.

It's silly to say that Arbuckle can't make mid-season adjustments when we literally just hit the middle of the season. Relax and keep the panties dry for a couple more weeks.

 

[WichitaSooner]

Our TEs are terrible at blocking, but I fail to see how that's a reflection against Arbuckle. JJF needing to go is a separate issue. BV is loyal to a fault, much like his mentors, but if anything that just makes Arbuckles results more impressive.

I agree that we likely will need to abandon certain run concepts and accept what we have at most positions, but rolling out a complete air raid offense with an injured QB that hasn't taken reps in 3 weeks would have been absurd.

I'm ready to move on from BB and spend big on OL in the portal/retaining guys like Fasusi, but you can't question that our OLs have had inseason improvement. Even last year we were able to establish enough of a run game to beat Alabama.

As of this moment, our offense has never needed to do more than put up 24 points to win the game. We can do that without a full air raid, though I do agree that we should be spreading out more. And should we ever fall behind my 2-3 scores at half, I would fully support TEs not seeing the field for the 2nd half.

It's silly to say that Arbuckle can't make mid-season adjustments when we literally just hit the middle of the season. Relax and keep the panties dry for a couple more weeks.

The TE issue is that he continues to put those guys at the point of attack on critical run plays, even though they get whipped every time. Same thing with the Ott play Saturday. The whole thing with Ott since he signed is that his blocking is awful. So why, on one of his two or three snaps in the entire game, is he the guy who is supposed to set the key block on the reverse with Burks?

He just has to recognize and adapt. If you come in as a coach and have a fast team but no power, you can’t predicate your offense on hitting home runs. You have to wait till you recruit new players to do that. So for this season, he can’t ever have tight ends blocking on the edge, and he shouldn’t have multiple tight ends on the field together.