NOLA Wolverine

December 6th, 2009 at 9:29 PM ^

Illinois has done it for years. I wouldn't expect anyone to remember this, but during the UM-Illinois night game Brent Musburger spent basically an entire drive diagraming Illinois running that play with the yellow marker, being flabergasted by it. Although, I love the article, always like seeing in depth X's and O's, thanks for the post.

iawolve

December 6th, 2009 at 9:37 PM ^

That we are not doing this already? Chip does it, Urban has been doing it, I am not sure why we would be talking about a wrinkle that we "could" use to neutralize a strong DT. I mean really, it begs the question considering we have over 70% of the offense installed (that is the last number I heard mid-season from RR).

NOLA Wolverine

December 6th, 2009 at 9:44 PM ^

Urban doesn't do it, he runs a true-er midline option dive out of this. This isn't a make or break play, Rod has never run this at WVU, and there's no real reason we need it. They basically stopped running read plays because Tate can't do it well enough yet, so even if he did decide to add this, it won't be run until Tate is good at reads. Rich doesn't have a whole ton of plays, he's more of a "We're coming at you" (Couldn't find a good way to put it, like Bo, doesn't run a bunch of plays, just wants to get off the ball and attack) coach than people give him credit for.

mstier

December 6th, 2009 at 10:50 PM ^

I think what the quote says is that Tate knows 70% of the offense, not that we run that much of it.

WVU has always been my number two team, as I'm from southern Ohio. This team looks NOTHING like WVU, and I don't think we'll see what this team can truly do until someone (anyone?) can run the zone read effectively. I know Tate has been bestowed as the savior of the program, but if he can't do the zone read and Gardner can...watch out. Once you have a solid option running game, you don't need too much of a passing threat to keep the offense moving. See: Georgia Tech.

NOLA Wolverine

December 6th, 2009 at 10:55 PM ^

Yeah, Tate is a scrambler, he's not a runner. It depends what Rodriguez wants to run, right now his offense looks like his Clemson book (and looks like Tulane a bit, but he didnt have his Tulane book stolen and put online), and that may be what he wants. I want to see the WVU offense implemented, but I dont want to see Gardner touch the field next year, he needs some QB coaching before he gets out there. He's a Vince Young-like project (Nothing wrong with that, that's just how it is).

jsquigg

December 7th, 2009 at 10:38 AM ^

The fact that we don't adjust more to what Tate's strengths are is concerning to me. He missed a read in every game I watched, so why not run more of a Missouri type spread? Put Tate in empty sets and call more straight running plays to the RBs out of the gun. Don't mistake this as me thinking Michigan won't eventually become a power again with Rod as coach, but he needs to form his system around the talents his players have rather than enforcing the system on the players IMO. FWIW I think he will adjust or he won't be around long.

Clarence Beeks

December 7th, 2009 at 10:48 AM ^

"so why not run more of a Missouri type spread?"

Maybe because (1) if Tate doesn't run the zone read option, and miss the reads as a freshman, he's not going to get any better and (2) that's a completely different type of offense than Rodriguez runs? This is really, essentially, the same argument that people made last year about why Rodriguez didn't run a pro-style offense since he had players suited to a pro-style offense.

Clarence Beeks

December 7th, 2009 at 10:46 AM ^

Yeah, I saw this diagrammed during the Oregon game on Thursday. It would be a great addition. The other great addition that I saw during the weekend is the play (I think it was in the Florida game, but it might have been the Oregon game) where they ran an outside option and instead of the receiver in the direction of the play blocking the corner he released the corner and slipped in the soft zone between the corner (who had gone for the ball carrier) and the safety. It was a nice little wrinkle that added a pass option to the normal pitch option on the play.