UCF Snowflakes: The Offense

Submitted by LSAClassOf2000 on

This thread will be the repository for any thoughts and hot takes on the offense and the offensive playcalling. 

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SAMgO

September 10th, 2016 at 3:46 PM ^

Speight is exceeding expectations, but it'd be hard to see us imposing out will in the run game against top opponents. If you run for fewer yards you win less than a third of the time, so this is an issue.



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Blue Ballin'

September 10th, 2016 at 3:46 PM ^

Given our experience on the OL and how Kalis was saying earlier how the light has really come on for them, it was really disappointing. Speight took way too many hits and we had eight or nine TFLs, so that sucks. Harbaugh is saying on the radio right now that he's happy with the line play today on both sides, so what do I know?

Joined: 03/08/2016

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bacon

September 10th, 2016 at 7:27 PM ^

Smith had some very impressive runs today. He can deal with contact in a way that we haven't seen from a Michigan back in a while. I'd say UCF sold out to stop the run and he never really had a chance on some of the runs. I was surprised there wasn't more WR sweeps and outside runs because they were very effective. That said, once we went up 21-0, I thought they kind of took the foot off the gas and kept the offense very predictable. Maybe they were just hoping to out execute UCF.

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Joby

September 10th, 2016 at 9:22 PM ^

On at least half of Smith's runs today, there was an unblocked defender meeting him in the backfield as soon has he received the handoff. Since that has been the case for so much of his career, he has learned to make the first move available rather than wait for the right move. It looks like poor vision, but I think it's just an antsy learned survival reaction.

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The Dreaded Re…

September 10th, 2016 at 3:46 PM ^

I mean, you take what they give you.  Load up 9 men in the box every play? Then kill em with passing, which is what we did.  I'll take 119 yards rushing if we outscore the opposition by what, 37 points.  Obv the pass-blocking can't have been that bad.

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lhglrkwg

September 10th, 2016 at 3:52 PM ^

all you need in a championship team as long as he has the right tools around him. Having said that, today makes me wonder about the OL again and our ability to contain a spread offense.

You could also wonder if the uniqueness of the 3-4 in college football contributed to the confusion and if Don Brown was hiding the playbook against an overmatched opponent. Time will tell

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Hardware Sushi

September 10th, 2016 at 4:05 PM ^

I'm not happy with the run game either but it was clear what UCF's game plan as on defense.

Today we did as much generic passing as possible and Speight was smart with the ball. I hope we can develop to run on anyone but a lot of what we were running against was 8 and 9 man fronts.

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Sten Carlson

September 10th, 2016 at 4:13 PM ^

UCF sold out on the run, all game long.  Should we be able to run into a stacked box, I don't know -- that's a question for coach -- but some in here seem to think that it shouldn't matter.  Its obvious by the play calling going almost all passing, that Harbaugh and Drevno pretty much used the run to keep UCF honest.  

I am not as concerned as I think that Frost knew the deal: the only chance he had was to make Speight beat him with his arm.  He did that, and then some.  Nobody really knew what to expect from Speight.  Was he going to be able to carry the team with his arm?  Well, I think that today gave us (and, more importantly, opposing DC's) a much better glimpse of what we have in Wilton.

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jdizzle

September 10th, 2016 at 4:47 PM ^

They sold out to stop the run, yes. BUT that doesn't absolve our OL for not blocking the guys right in front of them. My frustrations have nothing to do with LBs or safety's stacking the box and making a tackle. Instead, it's solely aimed at the OL not picking up their assignments and/or not shedding and getting to the second level.

Joined: 10/30/2009

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Chi-City Wolverine

September 10th, 2016 at 5:10 PM ^

Nah. Apparently from some people on this site, we should continue to run into nine man fronts and be content with negative yardage(sound familiar?), or maybe we should just call our defense and o-line garbage and just stop playing games for the rest of the season because reasons...



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stephenrjking

September 10th, 2016 at 4:15 PM ^

Speight's postgame comments seem to echo the thought that UCF was selling out against the run, thus the passing success. So there's that.

Still, though: The time will come, if this team is good, that the team will have the ball with a 3 or a 5 or a 7 point lead late in a rivalry game on the road and need to be able to run the football to salt the game away. If they cannot, this team is vulnerable.

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Michology 101

September 10th, 2016 at 4:16 PM ^

The season is still early and our OL may surprise us with some great improvements. Though many of the guys starting on our OL have been with the program for four or five years now. We may have to come to the realization that these guys just aren't talented enough to dominate. I mean, sometimes you either got it or you don't. We may have to wait for more new faces to start appearing in the starting O Line before we see a consistent dominate run game again.

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Sten Carlson

September 10th, 2016 at 4:32 PM ^

It looked to me that Harbaugh and Drevno call much in the way of deceptive/creative running.  I'm sure they wanted to see, given the stacked box, if their OL could control the LOS.  They say that they couldn't, and adjusted approriately.  That's a luxury that you have when your offense is simply shredding the opposing defense through the air.  If, that passing game wasn't working well, I am sure that Harbaugh would have gone to his running bag-o- tricks to loosen the UCF defense up a bit.

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UMinSF

September 10th, 2016 at 4:41 PM ^

Sure, the OL didn't look impressive, but my god, we beat the crap out of our opponent today.

Think how great it is to once again be able to complain about the details of a dominating win.  It's been awhile.

It's early season, they stacked the box, and we are keeping things pretty vanilla. 

This isn't gonna be a great running team, but we don't need to be - only adequate. We've got weapons all over the place.

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Whine and Cheese

September 10th, 2016 at 4:41 PM ^

Is woefuflly bad, weak, slow, and fundamentally unsound.

This is not good, because better teams and defenses are headed to town. I did not watch the second half, but I was hoping Harbaugh would just tell the offensive line to man up, we're gonna run run run til you show you can block.

With all due respect, a guy with one hand amputated was tearing it up out there.

When larger, faster, better coached teams pop up on the schedule (luckily this year there aren't that many)--this team will suffer.

I know, I know, 51-14, the referees were terrible, the announcers sucked, and all that, but this team ain't going near a playoff anytime soon with this OL.

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Sten Carlson

September 10th, 2016 at 4:52 PM ^

I guess I'll keep repeating this until the Debby Downers listen.

Harbaugh's running game is renowned for it's creativitiy.  Did we see anything creative today?  Last year we marveled at some of the unique formations, counters, and shifts in the running game.  All of these are designed to punish the ooposing defense for being overly aggressive.  Today we saw absolutely NONE of that.  This game turned into a varitable passing practice for Speight and the receivers.

I don't think too much can be gleaned from what we saw today, except for the fact that Speight is looking pretty good, and could, if needed, lead the team with his arm.

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