Agreed- RR said he can adjust his scheme to match his talent. If teams are allowed to pack 8 guys at the line of scrimmage the "O" - line is too inexperienced to handle that. Throwing down field seems to open things up.

RichRod has been pass happy in the past with Shaun King. So he may have just finally decided to go deep in the bag of plays and dust off the pass plays. I'm just glad we stopped being predictable with the spread. Predictability will kill any offense.

getting your ass chewed during halftime to get you to play better in the second half. I would have loved to been in that locker room. I imagine it went something like, "hold on to the $%#^%$# ball!!!!" Repeated about a dozen times.

This game reminded me a lot of the Minnesota game where they fell behind by three touchdowns before finally throwing the ball and winning the game. Can anyone tell me what the difference is between running Mike Hart to the left and that option sweep to the left they tried to do (unsuccessfully) with McGuffie the ENTIRE FIRST HALF? Answer, there was no difference. It was almost shocking when you realized what was going on. This is the problem you have when your QB isn't a threat to run. The offense becomes as predictable as it was under the previous regime. Plus, against physical teams, you're far better off with Minor than McGuffie. Minor had 2 carries. One was the TD. The other was the same sweep play they ran with McGuffie, except instead of losing 3 yards, Minor fought off the first two tacklers and lunged for a 3 yard gain. I'm all for running the ball, but against physical defenses (like Penn State or Ohio State), you're better off with Minor because Threet simply can't run the option. Against more porous defense (like Illinois), then McGuffie can take those handoffs. I think RR has FINALLY understood that PAT WHITE IS NOT ON HIS TEAM. I think if you listened to the presser and him saying Threet was the best guy they had, you'd realize that. Hopefully now he'll use Threet's strength and understand that the option won't work. Running the ball is still fine and a few more looks other than the dangerously familiar run left would help (maybe some more slot guys), but it's clear Threet is a drop back QB, so just use him as such and wait for Beaver or Forcier to develop.

Threet is more comfortable throwing the ball from the shotgun than trying to run the spread option, which by now should be obvious to everyone (even RR), that it simply can't happen. Imagine if you were in Threet's position and you have to try to explode through a hole on your frame and your speed. It just isn't comfortable. But if you're only being asked to throw the ball (something you can actually do), then you get a couple out of the way and develop a rhythm. I just think RR needs to realize (finally), that Threet can't run the spread option. He should run the spread pass and then run Minor over the middle and McGuffie on draw plays. This is precisely how our offense was run last year in the bowl game. It's the closest thing to the spread he can run now with the players we have.

Rich is handcuffed somewhat by the bowl streak. It is one of the things that defines us, and is a beast that needs to be fed.

He needs to do what is necessary to keep it alive with the players he has while mixing in Spread-School where he can. It does slow down the transition to an effective spread-option/zone read team, and probably delays top drawer success for the program.

But it lets him live to fight another day. After the messy buyout situation, the Braylon #1 thing, the perception by many that he does not get the OSU rivalry, his outsider status, etc., he does not need any unnecessary grief from the vultures.

The full glory RR Spread will have to be delayed this year, maybe next.  Rich just won't have the horses to run the WVU/Fiesta Bowl offense effectively.

Interestingly enough with the progress of Threet, he may have the horses to take a creditable shot at the Michigan/Capital One Bowl offense. 

 

 

appeared to stem from the fact that the d-line was getting penetration giving the runner no seams to run through. For the zone stretch to work (whether off a read option or not), the o-line must at the very least hold the point of attack at the los. In the second half, the o-line was actually able to fire off the los at times, giving a little more running room. Further, to suggest that Threet was not running a read option in the second half is ludicrous. Did you notice the play where he ran for 50 yards? I completely agree with Gsimmons (and am glad I actually understood what he was talking about). The offense was the same in the second half, it just performed better. Yes, there were some good play calls and good reads by Threet, but that is what was intended in the first half. It seems that the offensive team was a little intimidated at first and Wisconsin D line was aggressive. The line lost confidence (also note that Ferrara was starting in the first half as well which probably disrupted things too.) McAvoy did a better job. Overall the team cannot afford to spot teams this many points. They need to take care of the football, and the O-line has to play like it did in the second half for this team to have a chance, but if it does that, it is no worse than a middle of the pack B10 team, on par with MSU, Wisconsin, Purdue, NW and Illinois. I think PSU and OSU are still a lot better than M, but the other teamas are not so much better that we should think we will lose every game. We will lose some of them and the other teams mentioned are capable of playing well also. We could lose to all of them, but the gap is not terribly wide.