OD (Off Dorsey) Zone Read Implementation
February 5th, 2010 at 9:37 PM ^
I was also surprised at how ineffective it was this year.
I remember Threet was actually able to run it pretty well, or at least better than either forcier or robinson.
February 5th, 2010 at 10:39 PM ^
I disagree. I think Threet did a better job running out of the look than we expected, but I think he made a lot of mistakes too and it hurt our run game. I think the expectations were higher on the 09 freshman and perhaps even the amount of complexity they were exposed to was greater.
But maybe that is the Pacifico talkin'.
February 5th, 2010 at 9:40 PM ^
Runs this almost to perfection and I'm pretty sure they've never had a freshman QB run it. Being able to run it in practice and at game-speed are completely different. Hopefully with a year of experience and (cross fingers) no injuries it will work better.
February 6th, 2010 at 1:25 PM ^
We better run it at something higher than perfection then, b/c Oregon didnt do much to pOSU and the thought of losing another one to them really doesnt sit well. I get your experience point, I just hope that we have a higher level of performance than a team like Oregon, so our ceiling is higher when the offense starts running more efficiently.
February 5th, 2010 at 10:10 PM ^
I don't know about zone reads, but I mentioned this in another post. RR said that the slots and the RB's will be "overlapping" in the spring. That should mean we'll see the slots (Odoms, Gallon?) getting the ball on reverses and pitches and handoffs more often. Which could be huge.
February 5th, 2010 at 10:16 PM ^
We ran plays like that a decent amount earlier this last season then completely stopped. I'm thinking it was simultaneous with Molk's injury due to it taking a while to develop but I could be completely wrong.
February 5th, 2010 at 10:52 PM ^
While not wanting to blame all our woes last year on Molk's injury; the athletic, technical blocking required in RR's zone read scheme certainly requires more skill and consistency than we had last year. It's most definitely not ALL on the Quarterbacks.
February 5th, 2010 at 10:58 PM ^
I would agree with that. The loss of Molk, as much as it is already pointed at, is still underrated in terms of how much it hurt the team. Next to Brandon Graham, who was on a shitty defense and could only make so much of a difference, Molk was probably the most important player on the team. Without Graham, a bad defense is still bad. Without a Molk, an average to good offense become average to bad.
February 6th, 2010 at 4:32 AM ^
Sheridan had a killer zone read too bad he didnt have the arm tate did or we would have been bowling the last two years
February 6th, 2010 at 9:22 AM ^
The QB has to process so much information in such a short time and then make a decision based on that information. Tate seemed to rely on his athleticism and keep the ball more than he should have last year. The zone read is designed to be handed off the majority of the time and the keeper is more of a counter to a defense that over plays.
We should see a significant upgrade in Tate's and Denard's decision making during the read option.
February 6th, 2010 at 9:22 AM ^
I'm hoping Denard picks this up in the off season. Imagine the fits Denard and Vincent could put opposing defenses into ...
February 6th, 2010 at 12:53 PM ^
Rich Leach started as a true freshman running Bo's option offense, and running any sort of option offense required the QB to make split decisions on whether to keep the ball or pitch it based on what the defense was doing. I don't have any detailed information on how well he did it as a freshman, but he did it well enough for us to finish 8-2-1 in the reg. season and play eventual NC Oklahoma very close in the Orange Bowl.
What I don't know is whether the responsibilities of an option QB differ dramatically in kind or difficulty from what a zone-read QB has.