Recent Comments

i think he will go up if he has a decent year. there was just so much promise going into last year for him a disappointing season dropped him more than it really should have. he has the potential and skill, weve all seen it, hopefully he'll have a great year

This is a great read for someone who's never played organized football besides intramural flag.

I am in complete agreement with not having Logan in the top 5. I would argue if he was in the top 5 after the season that he put up last year. He definitely has plenty to prove, with lots of upside. The sky is the limit, let's see if he is ready to take advantage.

http://www.ehow.com/list_6728395_nfl-draft-rules-underclassmen.html

This turned out a lot longer then I expected. Sorry, I just love the mechanics of football. If playbook construction interests you, go read playbooks. You can find many different types online. Here is an example http://www.centuryinter.net/midway/chris/westcoast/wco.pdf

Oh god, this is my favorite topic about offensive football and Imma have to take this opportunity to educate. Why is the first 25 percent of a playbook so much slower to install then the last 75 percent? VERBAGE.

Think about a game situation. You have 11 men on the field, you have "x" amount of time to call a play before getting assessed a penalty. You have to figure that "Y" amount of time will run off as players get to the huddle, "Z" amount of time will run off as players hear the play in the huddle, "W" amount of time will run off as players run into formation. That doesn't even factor in making package substitutions (gotta run in that fourth receiver and run off your slow Tight End for your 3rd and long play!)

That only leaves you with "X - (Y+Z+W)" amount of time for the coordinator to figure out what play he wants to call, get the right players on the field, get the play call to the QB, have the QB relay the call to the players, and have the players understand what is going to happen.

This means that on gameday, there is VERY little time for any actual coaching. The players need to know EXACTLY what they need to do when they hear a play call. Loeffler didn't spend this spring just teaching his players how to run a zone stretch, a bootleg, and some passing plays...

He spent this offseason teaching them the structure of his play-calling terms. He spent this offseason teaching them how to learn new things. Now the offense knows what a running play sounds like, which hole the RB will try to run through, how to line up based on the play call, when to come in motion, what routes to run, when the offensive linemen should pull or trap block, etc. Now that they know these things, Loeffler can easily build on this foundation.

For example, Loeffler already has a name for the five wide formation we saw in the spring game (Let’s call that formation Hand, “five fingers=five wide”). Now I don’t recall Loeffler running any Jet Sweep with JC Coleman in the slot out of the “Hand” formation, but let’s say he wants to add a bunch of plays as easily as possible. It’s quite simple. Loeffler can just attach a word like “Jet” to the formation to highlight the pre-snap motion, and then a number to signify who’s getting the ball and where they are carrying it.

Hand, Jet 56. Short and sweet, easy to remember. It tells the offensive players EXACTLY whose getting the ball, how their getting it, and where they are going. (The first number is JC’s position number, and the second is the “hole” he’d be aiming for. Most modern rushing offenses use some form of a numbering system). Voila, we’ve added a Jet sweep! But let’s not stop there, let’s create a whole package!

Hand, Jet 56, Cat 13 (cat=counter… want to stick to 1 syllable words, remember, very little time for extra syllables in the huddle. Also it’s easy to remember, Cats love hanging out on counters!). That could be a fake hand off to JC on a sweep, with a QB keeper (the QB’s number is 1 of course) into the 3 hole.

Hand, Jet 56, Rev 37. That could be a reverse where JC get’s the sweep hand-off and gives it on a reverse to another receiver, like Knowles.

Hand, Jet-80. This could be a play-action off of the jet-sweep motion, to punish those Safeties who overreact to seeing JC in motion. (Some teams will use a number like 8 to signify all of their play-action passes. This allows them to play-action off of any run they have. Even though the offense is using the same routes, which keeps it simple for the offensive players, they are doing it out of different formations and different backfield action, making it complicated for the defense. Really efficient way to coach)

BAM! Just like that we’ve added a significant number of plays to the “five wide” formation (obviously these play calls are oversimplified, but I think they prove my point as to how relatively easy it is to build your playbook if you have the play calling structure in place).

Most importantly, the players only have to remember a few key words (Jet, Cat, Rev) and they’ll be able to use those principles in ANY formation! Want to Jet sweep with Knowles from under center with two TE’s and Edmunds in the backfield? Just call out “Ace, Jet 38” and we’ll see the Knowles come into Jet motion pre-snap and get a hand-off heading for the 8 hole (Ace is a common name for the 1x2 personnel grouping, all you Madden players know this though)

Now we’ve more then doubled the number of plays we’ve had without adding much verbage for the players to remember. They can now run a counter, a reverse, jet-sweep, and play-action out of any formation. Loeffler can “build” virtually any common run from scratch by calling out the formation, the action, the player, and what hole to run for.

The hard work (getting the players to learn the play-calling formula) is over, now comes the hardest work. Teaching the nuances of each players position. Blocking a Jet sweep for a Tackle in five wide is a lot different from blocking a Jet sweep from Ace formation.

Except it wasn't the only time Pickle got used in those situations. He would have gotten the PT regardless.

Pickle was definitely the two-minute offense RB. Hite didn't trust Evans to know the 2minute offense play calls, since it was a different system used to call plays then normal. If you rewatch a lot of those games from that season Pickle got plenty of non-garbage time PT.

Got that right.

youtube videos.

No kidding, I don't think any of those teams they play will ever be in the top 25 all season, with the exception of maybe Rutgers

Sounds about right for the results of the last season. Plenty of room to grow for sure.

Point #4 is the scariest part of this whole scheme as there's nothing that makes a QB's butthole tighter than turning his back on a very fast, probably pissed off OLB coming clean off the edge. And, to your point, proper setup and execution of the inside zone will ultimately determine this play's overall effectiveness throughout the game/season. Hopefully we can sort it all out before August.

As always, great write up, French!

"Obviously this number for Tech would have been higher had the Stick It In chant been in effect." Genius. It's so clear now. It wasn't the coaches at all....