What New Wrinkles Can We Expect?

Submitted by Kramer on

So while watching every offensive play of the Notre Dame game on youtube, something hit me.  Rich Rod said awhile back a quote that I've always liked, that this "wasn't his first rodeo."  It's a classic, simple Rich Rod quote, but I think it's pretty telling.  It conveys both experience and confidence, but in the standard "aw shucks" RR way.  The point of my post is as follows:

What new wrinkles has Rich Rod been holding in the bag that can we expect to see soon (possibly against lil brother)?  As we unveil new things, defenses have the ability to study and gameplan against it.  But as RR says, this isn't his first rodeo, and there are lots of things he's done in the past that he's yet to do here.  More specifically, he's brought his offense to the Big East, and then saw how the defenses reacted to this "new" offense, and then obviously (due to his success) gameplanned to beat any and all adjustment.  The Big Ten coaches are seeing for the first time a RR offense at full power due to the Denarding, and will adjust accordingly, but RR has gone through this progression before and will know whats coming, right?  Am I way off on this?  Is there any merit to the thought that he's been there and done that and that for the most part he knows what teams are going to do (at least in the near future) and thus knows what to do to beat it (since he's done it already in the Big East?)?

To the more football savvy MGoUser, what can we expect as we go forward?  

When will we break out deep balls, if ever?  I'm not familiar with what RR did with Chris Henry at WVU, but Stonum has to have the ability to do the same, right?  

When will the slot be motioning into the backfield?  Is there a reason we haven't seen this yet?  

Will I ever run out of questions?  yes.

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um4life

September 16th, 2010 at 10:53 PM ^

A season high in points for starters.  Also, lots of new players getting a chance to play.  I am excited to see Devin in action and see how he looks.  On the same note, I am pretty excited to see Tate in action.  He has gotten a lot of bad publicity (fair or not) but he played well last year so I am excited to see him just get on the field and play.

Joined: 07/01/2009

MGoPoints: 899

wigeon

September 16th, 2010 at 10:54 PM ^

backs (Fitz, Cox, Hopkins) pounding it all day.  I don't foresee anything in the way of an aerial circus, just a solidly major ass-beating of UMass up front, all afternoon.

Let's say Denard's up 21 zip. After that, I wouldn't expect more than 5-10 passes from Gardner/Forcier combined. Boom, boom, boom down your throat all afternoon. 

I hope/expect  to see lots of Lewan, Khoury, Washington in the 2nd half.

 

 

Joined: 07/05/2008

MGoPoints: 7081

bleedzblue

September 16th, 2010 at 11:51 PM ^

I'm pretty sure RR has not gotten that deep into the playbook these first two weeks. So far its been pretty much the zone read, qb draw, and your standard spread passing routes. I'm sure these next two games the playcalling will be as vanilla as it could get. That said, when Big 10 play rolls around you can be certain we will see a lot more of the playbook. I would like to see some motion of the slot coming across as the snap comes or motioning into the backfield. Just some more mixed direction overall, maybe some veer plays like Flordia runs. We shall all see what we have come MSU game.

Joined: 09/03/2009

MGoPoints: 1513

6tyrone6

September 17th, 2010 at 12:07 AM ^

I think at some point as Defenses key on Denard they bring in Tate/Denard to throw deeper routes, run Denard, Pass from and to Denard, the camera men will need faster swivels.

Joined: 02/18/2009

MGoPoints: 2027

Adamantium

September 17th, 2010 at 12:23 AM ^

At some point I'm expecting that edge pitch that we saw late in the year last year. The way our receivers are blocking this season, that could be a very successful play.

Joined: 07/17/2010

MGoPoints: 992

MightAndMainWeCheer

September 17th, 2010 at 12:49 AM ^

Against ND, we started to see tackles pulling on outside runs.  It would be an interesting addition to start incorporated this more into our offense.

Florida runs a lot of "power" runs where they block down and have backside guards pull around.  ND also sometimes pulled their guards and tackles on their running plays against us.

With teams selling out on our zone stretch plays, we could run a counter type play by blocking down and pulling the backside guard.  The RB would cut back as soon as he received the ball from the QB and follow behind the pulling guard.

This was called a "Stretch Counter" in the defensive Upon Further Review.  ND ran it somewhat effectively against us.  If we ran it, it would give opposing defensive coordinators something to think about when slanting to our strong side and possibly help open up our zone stretch plays.

Joined: 09/16/2010

MGoPoints: 688