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I’m worried about some of you. What will you do without a healthy dose of something to bitch about Wolfpack football?
Back to my concern about Canada though, I think he tries to be too many things, and thus we don’t really end up with a clear identity… What does NC State do well?
Too early to make a judgment. NC State doesn’t do anything well, consistently, not yet. But then, I’m a Canada believer. Time will tell if my faith is misplaced. My biggest concern about Canada is the same concern I have about several members of the staff – losing them.
You site defenses having to spend prep time, but the offense does too.
Righto. Which is why I mentioned that even if it were just one play, I’d still run it. But anyway, I’ll leave it to the coaches to determine the balance.
The most maddening thing to me about Bible’s offense is that we effectively conceded the run
No we didn’t. We always had that 1 yard plunge up the middle. 🙂
My concern is that we should have been able to physically line up and control them, and we just were not.
Ditto. We were able to though, late in both games. But that was most likely more about depth and numbers. But we were supposed to wear them down… but, at least we did one thing we were supposed to. It appeared to me the coaches were aware of this, and it went into their game planning and play calling. If what you thought you had ain’t working, use what you KNOW you got. This staff ain’t stubborn. I love that. So so refreshing. Yes, I know, I’ve said that, repeatedly. I ain’t done saying it either.
I’m afraid we don’t have the Jimmies and Joes on that side of the ball.
I think we do, but as a whole, they are raw. Freshmen used to dominating on pure talent rather than technique going up against 3rd, 4th, 5th year lineman. That, and players such as McKeever, playing a new position, transitioning from WR to DE.
But no denying it, the first part of the ODU game, the front 4 play was atrocious. But if you watched closely, the Wolfpack’s DL often ‘physically’ beat their opponent, but ODU’s OL used the DL’s own physicality against them. For example, letting the DL penetrate but ‘guiding’ them away from the play. Not unlike some tactics in martial arts.
The DL won’t always be raw. Hopefully, like the defense as a whole, there’s a base of a steep learning curve approaching.
And now the University is LOWERING the cost by $19 mil. Something stinks at NC State.
NC State cuts Hofmann Forest sale price by $19M, has 2 potential buyers
^ Oops, yeah, what he said. Georgia Southern I meant. The Georgia boys the Wolfpack faced in game 1.
Georgia State plays at GT this weekend. That gives us two games to learn a little something about the ‘Pack..
Some are run to gain knowledge of what the defense is going to do in various situations.
And also to set up future plays. Show ’em the same play, over and over and over, then hit ’em with the counter for a big play. Bootleg, play action pass, and a reverse are three basic examples of ‘counter’ plays most should be familiar with.
^^ Yeah, that was me, over here. CD’s last post wrapped it all up rather succinctly.
With his efforts, successes, and accomplishments while representing Wolfpack Athletics, and on a larger scale, the university as a whole, imagine how that felt showing up, and not permitted to take snaps. The players saw that… Kinda explains a few things about those final two years of TOB.
Remind me to keep my saliva glands in check around you.
I misremembered. It was 5th grade for me. I used the old “hit em in the nuts then bash ’em in the head when they bend over” trick. Then I jumped on him and started whaling. Dude was more stunned than anything, I think. Luckily for me it was broken up less than a minute in.
it will only be as good as the recruiting DD brings in and it really is hard because you either have to sell N.C. State or win.
Absolutely. And DD’s recruiting has made huge improvements to the talent being brought into the program. But I don’t believe it’s sell “or” win, rather, it is an sell “and” win.
DD is already successfully selling his coaching staff and NC State to recruits. But Chuck did that, early on. I believe the wins will follow, and sustained winning will follow the wins. If they don’t, like what happened to Chuck, we’ll bring in the next guy.
Chuck was more flash and image. DD appears to be more grit and substance.
As I stated in the post game thread of the GSU game, I was against going for it on 4th down (for several reasons) when a short field goal would have made it a one score game.
When they come out in the wildcat I was not happy, but thought:
Ok, they know what they’re doing… Not sure why in the wildcat but I guess we’re about to see something we haven’t see yet, I guess… maybe? But whatever, if you’re gonna go for it, better have something you KNOW will work. Let’s go, show me what you got…
Then they ran THAT?
ick.
If DD and Canada in their playbook have a play while in the wildcat where Thorton or Dayes fake the run and throw it while say for example while in the red zone.
I’m sure they do, but you will never see it before conference play. You may never see it.
But your points are valid, and I don’t necessarily disagree, on the surface, anyway. If I’m reading you right, you’re essentially saying ‘stop trying to be cute and do what we do well, what we know works’. I get it.
But then there are the points I listed in the earlier post. I’ll defer to the coaches as to the value based decisions they’re making regarding time and play investment.
I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if at a crucial time later in the season, in perhaps a big game (I hope we have one), we see something out of the wildcat we have yet to see.
When they line up, I’ll probably be with you in thinking “what?!?!, don’t pull out that wildcat bullsh**t now, are you nuts?”
But again, I’ll defer to the coaches. They know far better than us their personnel and the reasons behind the tactics. Too early for us to make judgments at this point.
Re: Wildcat
The below is far from an all-inclusive review, but it should get you thinking in different ways and from different perspectives.
Anyway, a few thoughts:
There is a point of diminishing returns for the wildcat offense for most teams. As referenced by someone in an earlier post, if the wildcat is a large part of the offense, [what I wrote here kept causing the post to be blocked for some reason, no idea why – essentially, it was saying that you need talented backs and/or a dominant OL].
Without either, as the frequency of the wildcat increases, more is put on tape, more is seen by the opponent, more is learned by the opponent – of the offense, its tendencies, and the strengths of the individual players running it. At a certain point, the tactical benefits of the formation begin to diminish.
However, with that stated….
In no particular order, run the wildcat to:
1) Force the other team to review it.
If I were a coach and never gained a yard with the wildcat offense, I’d still run it at least twice a game. I’d do it if for no other reason than to force my opponent to burn time reviewing it. I’d run it even if I only ran one play out of it. Per NCAA rules, a coach only has so much time with his players during the week. I’d make ’em burn an inordinate amount of time at a poor ROI reviewing the wildcat and all it’s options. Even if I only showed one play on tape, every coach knows there are many options that come with it. If I only showed one play, the opposing coaches would still have to ‘guess’ at what I might also have in my bag and therefore spend more of their time reviewing those options.
At an absolute minimum, the wildcat has value for the above reason.
2) Probe Weaknesses/opportunities of the opposing defense
An offense is successful in two basic ways. 1) Putting hat on hat and out-executing the opponent. 2) Taking advantage of an opponent’s mistakes. Therefore, the goal of an offense can be broken down into two essential components. 1) Minimize its own mistakes in execution, 2) Maximize the likelihood and opportunity for the opponent to make a mistake. This is why there are misdirection plays and every play has at least one counter.
Often, the first time a coach shows the wildcat in a game, it is to have the defense reveal how they plan to attack it. A wildcat play, just like almost every play, does not have only the potential utility of gaining yardage on that particular play, but it also provides information. Information that can be exploited later, during a more pivotal part of the game. So even if the wildcat play gains no yardage, it still could be serving a purpose. If it is run and gains 8 yards, great, we got a 2’fer.
Say the wildcat is run, it gains zero yardage, and the coaches see nothing that can be exploited. So next time they add a variant (for example, add a motion, maybe a trap block, maybe a slightly different formation) to probe for something that does work or can be exploited.
But say the coaches do see something that can be exploited, if a slight variation were added or a counter-play were called. Then the coaches call the original play again, and again, and maybe again, reinforcing the defenses’ read. The coaches file this away for potential exploitation later in the game.
The above are scenarios in which the plays appear to fail to the casual fan, yet are still providing value to the coaches. If the plays are gaining yardage at a successful rate, then hey, no one should have complaints and all this ‘inside baseball’ stuff is irrelevant anyway.
The above is true for any offense, but by having the wildcat in the playbook, with little effort, you’ve exponentially increased options, options that a defense must be prepared to stop, yet can not possibly cover every possible variant.
3) Take advantage of the unprepared or inattentive.
If the defense isn’t paying attention, if the MLB or defensive signal caller isn’t too astute, if the defense is wearing down, a quick no-huddle into the wildcat with the QB spread wide can catch a defense unprepared and a quick gain can be made. This could be a quick call signaled in from the sidelines or maybe even called in the huddle before the previous play.
Or potentially, the defense is so caught up in adjusting to their wildcat responsibilities, they forget the basics. Imagine an OLB or CB quickly going through their mental rolodex of responsibilities as the offense lines up in wildcat. He’s transitioning from base offense to wildcat, and then the ball is snapped… Then the defender is immediately faced with the single back and the motioning slot running an option run right at him… in a fraction a second, he’s thinking “oh @#!$t, do I have the ‘QB’ or pitchman? In base, I’m supposed to have the QB, but this ain’t base and that ain’t their QB… no wait, that’s the slot as the pitchman so that means… oh *@#!, there they go… oops, sorry coach” One mistake -> BOOM, big play.
4) The obvious: Gain an ‘extra’ blocker, quicken the play
In a ‘normal’ offense, the QB receives the ball from the center, hands the ball to the RB, then removes himself from the play. In the wildcat, the QB-to-RB exchanged is removed, the QB is spread wide and occupies a DB, and NO player is removed from the play. The offense now has an extra blocker. These are obvious advantages. To determine how, where, and when to utilize these advantages is why coaches study film and probe their opponent.
So, to summarize, there’s a lot more going on in there than you might think. It’s a relatively cheap arrow to add to the quiver, yet exponentially more costly for the defense underwrite.
Give the coaches the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.
Re: Wildcat
The below is far from an all-inclusive review, but it should get you thinking in different ways and from different perspectives.
Anyway, a few thoughts:
[some stuff here that won’t post]
There is a point of diminishing returns for the wildcat offense for most teams. As referenced by someone in an earlier post, if the wildcat is a large part of the offense, a team needs specialists with exceptionalWithout either, as the frequency of the wildcat increases, more is put on tape, more is seen by the opponent, more is learned by the opponent – of the offense, its tendencies, and the strengths of the individual players running it. At a certain point, the tactical benefits of the formation begin to diminish.
Also, in no particular order, run the wildcat to:1) Force the other team to review it.
If I were a coach and never gained a yard with the wildcat offense, I’d still run it at least twice a game. I’d do it if for no other reason than to force my opponent to burn time reviewing it. I’d run it even if I only ran one play out of it. Per NCAA rules, a coach only has so much time with his players during the week. I’d make ’em burn an inordinate amount of time at a poor ROI reviewing the wildcat and all it’s options. Even if I only showed one play on tape, every coach knows there are many options that come with it. If I only showed one play, the opposing coaches would still have to ‘guess’ at what I might also have in my bag and therefore spend more of their time reviewing those options.
At an absolute minimum, the wildcat has value for the above reason.2) Probe Weaknesses/opportunities of the opposing defense
An offense is successful in two basic ways. 1) Putting hat on hat and out-executing the opponent. 2) Taking advantage of an opponent’s mistakes. Therefore, the goal of an offense can be broken down into two essential components. 1) Minimize its own mistakes in execution, 2) Maximize the likelihood and opportunity for the opponent to make a mistake. This is why there are misdirection plays and every play has at least one counter.
Often, the first time a coach shows the wildcat in a game, it is to have the defense reveal how they plan to attack it. A wildcat play, just like almost every play, does not have only the potential utility of gaining yardage on that particular play, but it also provides information. Information that can be exploited later, during a more pivotal part of the game. So even if the wildcat play gains no yardage, it still could be serving a purpose. If it is run and gains 8 yards, great, we got a 2’fer.Say the wildcat is run, it gains zero yardage, and the coaches see nothing that can be exploited. So next time they add a variant (for example, add a motion, maybe a trap block, maybe a slightly different formation) to probe for something that does work or can be exploited.
But say the coaches do see something that can be exploited, if a slight variation were added or a counter-play were called. Then the coaches call the original play again, and again, and maybe again, reinforcing the defenses’ read. The coaches file this away for potential exploitation later in the game.
The above are scenarios in which the plays appear to fail to the casual fan, yet are still providing value to the coaches. If the plays are gaining yardage at a successful rate, then hey, no one should have complaints and all this ‘inside baseball’ stuff is irrelevant anyway.
The above is true for any offense, but by having the wildcat in the playbook, with little effort, you’ve potentially exponentially increased options, options that a defense must be prepared to stop.
3) Take advantage of the unprepared or inattentive.
If the defense isn’t paying attention, if the MLB or defensive signal caller isn’t too astute, if the defense is wearing down, a quick no-huddle into the wildcat with the QB spread wide can catch a defense unprepared and a quick gain can be made. This could be a quick call signaled in from the sidelines or maybe even called in the huddle before the previous play.
Or potentially, the defense is so caught up in adjusting to their wildcat responsibilities, they forget the basics. Imagine an OLB or CB quickly going through their mental rolodex of responsibilities as the offense lines up in wildcat. He’s transitioning from base offense to wildcat, and then the ball is snapped… Then the defender is immediately faced with the single back and the motioning slot running an option run right at him… in a fraction a second, he’s thinking “oh @#!$t, do I have the ‘QB’ or pitchman? In base, I’m supposed to have the QB, but this ain’t base and that ain’t their QB… no wait, that’s the slot as the pitchman so that means… oh *@#!, there they go… oops, sorry coach” One mistake -> BOOM, big play.
4) The obvious: Gain an ‘extra’ blocker, quicken the play
In a ‘normal’ offense, the QB receives the ball from the center, hands the ball to the RB, then removes himself from the play. In the wildcat, the QB-to-RB exchanged is removed, the QB is spread wide and occupies a DB, and NO player is removed from the play. The offense now has an extra blocker. These are obvious advantages. To determine how, where, and when to utilize these advantages is why coaches study film and probe their opponent.So, to summarize, there’s a lot more going on in there than you might think. Give the coaches the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.
Re: Wildcat
The below is far from an all-inclusive review, but it should get you thinking in different ways and from different perspectives.
Anyway, a few thoughts:
There is a point of diminishing returns for the wildcat offense for most teams. As referenced by someone in an earlier post, if the wildcat is a major cog of an offense, a team needs specialists with exceptional/unique talent, and/or an OL that can obliterate the DL.
Re: Wildcat
The below is far from an all-inclusive review, but it should get you thinking in different ways and from different perspectives.
Anyway, a few thoughts:
There is a point of diminishing returns for the wildcat offense for most teams. As referenced by someone in an earlier post, if the wildcat is a major cog of an offense, a team needs specialists with exceptional/unique talent, and/or an OL that can obliterate the DL.
I am not in favor of any formation that takes the only passing threat (QB) away.
Brissett is not the ONLY passing THREAT. He’s the only we’ve shown in 2014, thus far. Rashard Smith and Bryant Shirreffs both had passing TD’s last year.
If you do it a lot, it ain’t a surprise when you do.
A naked bootleg is naked.
Per ODU and blitzes… What CD said. The boys are still learning the 42 basics. Not a good idea to throw in the exotic now, especially against that offense. It’s not like we have veterans all around with a few freshmen and sophomores sprinkled in.
A lil more detail: The defense wasn’t ready. Young D, inexperienced secondary, DL not getting pressure… all against a spread offense run by a smart, experienced Sr QB who is the reigning Walter Payton award winner.
Any defense has holes. Any blitzing defense has bigger holes. Any blitzing defense with an inexperienced secondary has even bigger holes. A smart, experienced Sr QB who is the reigning Walter Payton award winner running a spread offense can easily find holes. Such a QB will find those holes well before the blitz reaches him. Against our boys, probably before the ball is even snapped.
I saw one blitz I explicitly remember. It was a 3rd and short, late in the first half I believe. From the situation and their play calling, I knew it was a run up the middle, so I assume the coaches did too. I said at the time we should blitz here. We did, defense held. I don’t think I remember another play where I thought we should blitz, but I think there was one other in which we did. I was only half engaged at the time though, as I was munch’n down my Chik-Fil-A and slurp’n down my Mello Yello
Blitzing ODU any more than the 1 or 2 (maybe 3?) times we did would have been disastrous. Blitzing was absolutely NOT the way to go.
It’s a refreshing change to watch a coaching staff
that doesn’t refuse to acknowledge the obvious.-
Clarification on my previous post. I did not see the video. I was relaying what was written in an account of it I read.
There’s another video out, more complete and with audio. They were yelling at each other, then the fiance spits on Rice immediately prior to the punch. Class all around.
Doesnt excuse it, but explains it, a little. I can remember twice in my life when I was spit on. I “lost it” both times, visceral reaction, no thinking. Once as 3rd grader against an 8th grader. I got in my licks on the SOB before it was broken up.
Per the long snaps, yep. The holder bailed out the snapper several times. Very unusual though. The snapper is solid. Almost always dead on. Wouldn’t be surprised to hear he had something physical going on per injury or illness.
…against very marginal competition…
I’d argue that while the programs may be ‘marginal’, the offenses certainly are not. I think they’ll prove me right as the season plays out.
Also, I think facing two such diametrically opposed offenses in the first two games, while not good for esthetics, will pay dividends as the season progresses.
But if the front 4 plays like it did last week, forget it. All bets are off. We beat Presbyterian n and that’s it.
