Hoke against zone blocking and the spread
Hoke has said that he is against zone blocking being an offenses main blocking scheme. I hope he realizes that that you can run power football out of spread formations. Nevada does it out of the pistol and Auburns base running plays are the power and counter, which are used by all pro style teams.
Here is a link on Auburns offense http://offensivebreakdown.blogspot.com/search/label/Gus%20Malzahn
I hope that Hoke and Borges decide to incorperate some spread power running game into their offense, so we can increase our chances of keeping Denard.
January 12th, 2011 at 8:44 PM ^
agreed
January 12th, 2011 at 7:47 PM ^
Hoke likes to run the spread offense, which his teams has seen success with. In the past 5-years, his teams has run the ball 49.5% of the time, while passing the ball 50.5% of the time. In the 2008 undefeated regular season, the Cardinals outscored opponents 14 ppg and ran the ball 56% of the time.
http://thecapitalsportsreport.com/2010/11/29/brady-hoke-to-accept-the-m…
January 12th, 2011 at 8:02 PM ^
has come from his quarterback:
2010 Ryan Lindley, SDSU: 19 rushes, -31 yards net
2009 Ryan Lindley, SDSU: 22 rushes, -131 yards net
Brady Hoke is a defensive specialist. He relies on his OC for handling the offense almost completely. Checking Al Borges' past, none of his quarterbacks have ever been runners. They nearly always have net negative rushing yards because their only "rushes" are sacks.
"Spread offense" does not equal a running quarterback. Al Borges is going to expect Denard to stand in a pocket and throw.
January 12th, 2011 at 8:17 PM ^
I don't think Borges wants to force Denard to stay in the pocket just because he told guys who didn't have any rushing ability to do so. I'm sure he's capable of constructing an offense that allows the leading rusher in the Big Ten plenty of opportunities to run with the football.
January 12th, 2011 at 8:19 PM ^
When has Borges ever had an athlete like Denard? He coached guys like Jason Campbell and Kyle Boller, neither of whom would be guaranteed to win a footrace against John Navarre, let alone sniff Denard.
Hell, even if Gardner ends up starting that's still a more athletic option than he's probably ever had.
Even the oldest of old school OCs run rollouts, sprint outs and waggles. Nobody is all straight dropback. If Borges is a smart guy - and nobody here really knows him - he'll take at least SOME advantage of Denard's unique gifts.
So maybe Denard is more Charlie Ward in this offense than Pat White. Is that so terrible? Ward did manage to win a Heisman after all.
January 12th, 2011 at 8:21 PM ^
Wouldn't the best offense for Denard be a Troy Smith 2006 type thing? Where he passes or hands off most of the time and has a sprinkling of 4-5 zone read or QB-iso plays a game? And takes off to scramble on a more regular basis? Reducing his carries from 15-25 down to 5-12 would probably make those runs far more effective too as they would be harder to predict. And of course, he wouldn't get beat up as much.
January 12th, 2011 at 9:24 PM ^
I would love to see Denard handing off to Cox or Hopkins and then being the change of pace himself on occasion. I know the data from some of this site's diarists has suggested running quarterbacks don't get injured as much but it feels like Denard got knocked out for at least one series every game last year. Lightening his burden would be great for his development as a quarterback.
January 12th, 2011 at 11:05 PM ^
a little bit faster than Smith there . Smith was athletic, but he was not nearly the burner that Denard is. Personally I think Denard should still get 10 to 15 carries a game. Giving Denard 5 carries or so carries, just does not seem like enough oppurtunities to me. Of course his number of carries would also depend on RB production as well, which was a factor this year.
January 12th, 2011 at 8:34 PM ^
I'll repeat this for those who need it. If Denard has aspirations beyond having a great college career, maybe even heisman, and then spending the rest of his life droning on about his glory days as the new car sales manager at whatever Dodge Nissan. He'd be advised to open himself up to learning the trade of a QB, which does NOT include(nessecarily) being a great runner.
He needs to look to the likes of QB's like Steve Young, Troy Smith and Micheal Vick as his targets, not Pat White.
I wonder if RRod ever bothered to explain to him that NO quarterback is EVER going to be playing at the next level coming out of his system? I would think that an athlete of Denards abilities might actually want to have a chance at the big money and with our "old" coach that was simply never going to happen.
The same could be said for the offensive linemen. The venerable "zone read" in it highest form(W. Virginia) produced one great O-lineman that went on to sundays(pretty sure it was a center if I remember) while Michigan has literally PAINTED the NFL with O-linemen for 40 years. Without a religious dedication to "zone blocking".
January 12th, 2011 at 8:37 PM ^
Shaun King was a second round pick and took Tampa Bay to the NFC title game. Pat White got drafted in the second round as well. He didn't work out in the pros because he wasn't good at throwing a football and was an overrated athlete, not because he ran Rich Rodriguez's offense.
Stop being a dumbass who doesn't understand talent > scheme.
January 12th, 2011 at 11:49 PM ^
Shaun KIng was a flash in the pan who only saw time when whats his face(Dilfer?) was injured. Plus it was Tampa's D that got them there not KIng. Pull up his career numbers and tell Denard thats your template for his NFL career. Pat White was the FAR more accurate comparison to Denard and to say that spending 4yrs of his football education being directed into a read & run scheme was the best thing he could have been doing to prepare him for the NFL?? Yeah, I'm the dumbass? Can I borrow your sunglasses?
Denard as a run first QB wont even get looked at by the NFL and you KNOW it. His speed is his, everyone knows he's got it in spades and it doesnt need development or improvement, The only way he becomes a truely unique and special, possibly dominating presence beyond college is to master the tools that a big time QB needs, mostly mental, some throwing mechanics/accuracy. His running will just be the bonus ala Steve Young.
Or become a reciever/returner/situational player.
January 12th, 2011 at 9:48 PM ^
denard is a running QB. we don't need another pryor situation, its a waste of talent and if thats what it turns into in spring ball, denard will be gone. he knows what he can do but hoke and co. have no idea.
January 12th, 2011 at 9:59 PM ^
new-fangled film stuff, and football is kind of new to them, so they couldn't recognize talent. You have become your avatar.
January 12th, 2011 at 11:43 PM ^
Denard threw for 2,500 yards in his first season as a starter. He's not just a runner.
As for the "Pryor situation," if we can go 10-3, 11-2 and 12-1 in our next three seasons, I'll take that "waste of talent" any day.
January 13th, 2011 at 7:53 AM ^
"Michigan has literally PAINTED the NFL with O-linemen for 40 years."
I literally shit my pants when I read this.
January 12th, 2011 at 8:49 PM ^
If you have ESPN3, you can still watch a replay of SDSU in the Pointsettia Bowl.
I'm watching it right now.
January 12th, 2011 at 9:01 PM ^
If Hoke (and his OC) can turn Denard into a Heisman winner then I will drive the Hoke bandwagon myself. Sadly, Denard snagging that award at Michigan seems like less of a possibility than it ever was.
January 12th, 2011 at 9:13 PM ^
Two drives into the bowl game so far:
Drive 1: Every play run from the shotgun spread with 1 back, 1 TE and 3 WRs. All passes except for one run which looked an awful lot like the read option.
Drive 2: Every play run from under center. A mix of formations, with pro set split backs, I formation, 1 back w/ 3 WRs all used. TD scored on a 22 yard run out of the I in a tight formation on 3rd and short.
Oh, and the SDSU 3-3-5 looks nothing like the Michigan 3-3-5.
January 12th, 2011 at 10:05 PM ^
They make tackles?
January 13th, 2011 at 1:57 AM ^
They're not predominantly true or redshirt freshmen?