OOC Over - End of Vanilla?

so we will start the vanilla-XL offense now?

We'll see some wrinkles. However the biggest question to me is how much will we see Peppers on offense the rest of the way

This is a weird post

Are we talking about classic vanilla, vanilla bean or french vanilla?

 

We saw one interesting play - the Morris pitch to Peppers - which was due to the fact Speight was dinged, not a desire to be unique.

 

If that were the case, O'Korn would have come in.

for the return of the transcontinental.

It seems to me that against Colorado, M saw that the WRs were not getting open against CU's outstanding corners and that the edges were more vulnerable in the run game than the middle against CU's fireplug DTs. So we threw to Butt and ran sweeps & end-arounds. If that's "vanilla," fine, but I think that's basically the kind of playcalling we can expect to see from here on out: identify the areas where M is at an advantage or disadvantage, run plays that capitalize on the advantages and minimize the disadvantages. I am not convinced we have some Porsche 911 offense sitting in the garage and that we are out driving our stationwagon around because the competition level isn't strong enough yet.

I don't think coaches keep stuff in the garage as much as they have certain plays that they think will work against certain opponents based on tendencies. So when new stuff comes out every week, it's not that they've been saving it necessarily, but more that it hasn't been appropriate for the opponents thus far. Maybe with the truly exotic gadget plays, they'll keep stuff under wraps until they're in a tough spot. 

As long as I get to continue to enjoy vanilla bean.

I think we mix in some looks - but only for the purpose of giving Chryst and others something to think about. We'll stay rather vanilla this week. And if you see something interesting on offense or defense, and it doesn't work, I don't think we'd call it a failure as long as it's on film to set up the wrinkle we want to use against Wisco or MSU. I expect to win handily. PSU people expect it too. Maybe close through a quarter but physically we pull away late. And I also expect to get a heavy dose of running game rammed down PSUs throats to try and solve some of our issues before Wisconsin.

then vanilla would seem to be the kind of thing we don't ever want to end.

for the cookies - staying for the negbang

I bet we see Peppers get 5-10 offensive snaps this week unless we run out to an early lead like 2015-Northwestern.

I also just realized Peppers already has 278 all-purpose yards this season. He has yet to tally any INT-Ret or receiving yards and he still has 49% of the 568 he had all of last season.  He's currently on pace to have over 1000 all-purpose yards and he's had two snaps on offense so far.

The more you break it down, the more fun it is.

Beat penn state?

Vanilla is also common in early season games. We've been playing a lot of freshmen and they're not always ready for more sophisticated stuff. You get your "vanilla" packages down and then move on to more complicated play calling as the season progresses. 

 

Has Wheatley, Jr.  played much?  

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The best way to get MSU to "chase their tail" is not to give them anything for the film room. It's to confuse them during the game - ala Peppers last year causing them to burn 2 timeouts in quick succession. You run the game plan you need to win the game. I would not anticipate much trickery for PSU, Wisconsin, Rutgers, or Illinois. We have distinct talent advantages over all of those teams. And besides, execution is what really matters more than interesting plays. Reps at running inside the tackles and running PA are far more important. Prove to MSU and OSU that we can impose our will and that has much more of an effect than preparing for 2-3 plays a game.

Personally, I would rather stay vanilla for as long as possible, unless certain wrinkles are a set up for bigger wrinkles against our best opponets.  I personally don't like the idea of putting weird things on film to make someone prepare unless it's truly a 'gimmick'.  I think it's better to surprise a good opponet with unexpected playcalls and tendancy breakers much like MSU seems to do against us every year.

How are WR sweeps and reverses and deep post routes vanilla? Of course they have not run everything, we hope, so they can set up different plays in future games, but the offense is as we see it. I don't think they're going to set up a bunch of dread options. We are going to continue to see Hill in short yardage/ goal line get carries, and we'll see them use that to fake and pitch outside when they see a stacked front. I don't think Harbaugh holds back plays, but he does use them only when needed, as we saw against Colorado. Adjustments when straight up manball isn't enough.

I hope you're right about the O line but I don't think that's entirely the case. I do think defensively we haven't seen anything yet. I also don't think Penn State will draw out the big guns.

coaches are going to coach as the game goes and run just what they need to, to win the game. Colorado is a better team then PSU so I wouldn't expect to see a lot more. We did run in three different QB's last week to give teams something to think about.

Want to give future tough opponents something to think about without showing your entire hand yet.

You might see some for PSU and Wisconsin, but I don't think you're going to see a whole lot that's out of the ordinary until we go to MSU.