Mike Riley’s Run-Pass Splits

Saunders

Saunders

Heisman Trophy Winner
“Fifty-fifty” is a term Tim Beck tossed around a lot at Nebraska and there’s an obvious reason for that: From a modern coach’s perspective, it represents the ideal run-pass split, the point of maximum unpredictability.

In Nebraska’s four years with Beck as its offensive coordinators, the Huskers never really got that close. Between 2011 and 2014, Nebraska’s least run-heavy year was 2013 where the Huskers ran it 60.71 percent of the time. In Beck’s first year calling plays the Huskers ran it more than two-thirds of the time (67.6 percent) and that was actually down from the previous season — Shawn Watson’s last in Lincoln — where the Huskers nearly ran it 70 percent of the time. The last time Nebraska ran it less than 60 percent of the time was in 2009.

http://hailvarsity.com/news/analysis/mike-rileys-run-pass-splits/2015/02/
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You want to be able to run as much as possible.

You want to be able to pass when they stop the run.

You want to be able to change the formula in-game as the other team makes adjustments.

You want to be able to change the formula from game to game, according to the other team's strengths and weaknesses.

There's not a magic number. Just a willingness to use all the weapons at your disposal.

When given a Steven Jackson or Jacquiz Rodgers, Mike Riley ran the ball pretty well.

 
I never understand why people get so wrapped up in the percentages of run/pass ratio. Who gives a sh#t.

It's either working or it isn't.

I never liked the way we ran the ball under Beck. Far too much stretch zone and never enough north and south. We ran a toss play a lot a few years ago that seemed somewhat successful, then that disappeared. We ran the option here or there, Tommy seemed to execute that far too well, so Beck pulled that from the playbook.

Diamond formation? How much time did we spend on that in practice just to use it three times and get rid of it?

A run game that lines the running back up 7 yards deep behind the line of scrimmage, does some sort of waltz with the QB, then hits his gap about 3 seconds after the ball is snapped is not my cup of tea.

I don't give a damn that Beck ran that type of run sixty percent of the time.

I'll take the way Riley's offenses run the ball over all that garbage.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
True2tRA said:
I never understand why people get so wrapped up in the percentages of run/pass ratio. Who gives a sh#t.

It's either working or it isn't.

I never liked the way we ran the ball under Beck. Far too much stretch zone and never enough north and south. We ran a toss play a lot a few years ago that seemed somewhat successful, then that disappeared. We ran the option here or there, Tommy seemed to execute that far too well, so Beck pulled that from the playbook.

Diamond formation? How much time did we spend on that in practice just to use it three times and get rid of it?

A run game that lines the running back up 7 yards deep behind the line of scrimmage, does some sort of waltz with the QB, then hits his gap about 3 seconds after the ball is snapped is not my cup of tea.

I don't give a damn that Beck ran that type of run sixty percent of the time.

I'll take the way Riley's offenses run the ball over all that garbage.
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Stats never told the whole story. Beck refused to use his talent to their strengths. It was never "how much" but when and how he did things.

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
You want to be able to run as much as possible.

You want to be able to pass when they stop the run.

You want to be able to change the formula in-game as the other team makes adjustments.

You want to be able to change the formula from game to game, according to the other team's strengths and weaknesses.

There's not a magic number. Just a willingness to use all the weapons at your disposal.

When given a Steven Jackson or Jacquiz Rodgers, Mike Riley ran the ball pretty well.
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Also, you want to be able to change the formula from season to season, having appraised the talents of each roster.

As much as some posters want to believe otherwise, you can't simply impose your will to run the ball. Not against a good team.

 
True2tRA said:
I never understand why people get so wrapped up in the percentages of run/pass ratio. Who gives a sh#t.

It's either working or it isn't.

I never liked the way we ran the ball under Beck. Far too much stretch zone and never enough north and south. We ran a toss play a lot a few years ago that seemed somewhat successful, then that disappeared. We ran the option here or there, Tommy seemed to execute that far too well, so Beck pulled that from the playbook.

Diamond formation? How much time did we spend on that in practice just to use it three times and get rid of it?

A run game that lines the running back up 7 yards deep behind the line of scrimmage, does some sort of waltz with the QB, then hits his gap about 3 seconds after the ball is snapped is not my cup of tea.

I don't give a damn that Beck ran that type of run sixty percent of the time.

I'll take the way Riley's offenses run the ball over all that garbage.
Click to expand...
Dude... Seriously!! I was so sick of seeing that stretch play by the end of the year.

And yeah! That toss play we ran like 20 times against PSU with more success than not. I don't remember seeing one toss this year at all. I do wonder what the heck the deal is with the "trends" Beck goes through. It's as if he sees a play work and says "well, we ran it for the year, we're good..."

Example: TD run for Ameer vs. Rutgers out of Diamond formation. I never saw it again. If we did run it again, it could not have been more than 2 or 3 times through out the season. WHY NOT?!

rut-aa-bone.gif


We've had some pretty great production out of the diamond ("A" formation to some), and we may have had one of the most capable backfields in the nation to run anything out of it. I don't want to see it every down, but man, to make another team prepare for that from week to week. Especially with Abdullah.

The option failed on a couple occasions. One was when MSU ran their double A gap blitz and we lost yardage. That was just perfect timing for them to run that blitz and for the LB to immediately be smart enough to run straight to the pitch man knowing the other gap blitz man was going to take Tommy. After that instance, the option was a rarity this year until USC, which Tommy ran for a TD on a 4th down conversion.

Anyway, I have to watch more Oregon State stuff during the Danny L as OC era. From what I can tell, it looks like they utilized the RB screen with consistent success.

 
cg_8 said:
True2tRA said:
I never understand why people get so wrapped up in the percentages of run/pass ratio. Who gives a sh#t.

It's either working or it isn't.

I never liked the way we ran the ball under Beck. Far too much stretch zone and never enough north and south. We ran a toss play a lot a few years ago that seemed somewhat successful, then that disappeared. We ran the option here or there, Tommy seemed to execute that far too well, so Beck pulled that from the playbook.

Diamond formation? How much time did we spend on that in practice just to use it three times and get rid of it?

A run game that lines the running back up 7 yards deep behind the line of scrimmage, does some sort of waltz with the QB, then hits his gap about 3 seconds after the ball is snapped is not my cup of tea.

I don't give a damn that Beck ran that type of run sixty percent of the time.

I'll take the way Riley's offenses run the ball over all that garbage.
Click to expand...
Dude... Seriously!! I was so sick of seeing that stretch play by the end of the year.

And yeah! That toss play we ran like 20 times against PSU with more success than not. I don't remember seeing one toss this year at all. I do wonder what the heck the deal is with the "trends" Beck goes through. It's as if he sees a play work and says "well, we ran it for the year, we're good..."

Example: TD run for Ameer vs. Rutgers out of Diamond formation. I never saw it again. If we did run it again, it could not have been more than 2 or 3 times through out the season. WHY NOT?!

rut-aa-bone.gif


We've had some pretty great production out of the diamond ("A" formation to some), and we may have had one of the most capable backfields in the nation to run anything out of it. I don't want to see it every down, but man, to make another team prepare for that from week to week. Especially with Abdullah.

The option failed on a couple occasions. One was when MSU ran their double A gap blitz and we lost yardage. That was just perfect timing for them to run that blitz and for the LB to immediately be smart enough to run straight to the pitch man knowing the other gap blitz man was going to take Tommy. After that instance, the option was a rarity this year until USC, which Tommy ran for a TD on a 4th down conversion.

Anyway, I have to watch more Oregon State stuff during the Danny L as OC era. From what I can tell, it looks like they utilized the RB screen with consistent success.
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That is something that always baffled me. Last year, we had a stable full of good backs in AA, Cross, Newby, Nelson...etc. I don't ever remember that formation resulting in negative yards. But, we literally would never see it. It's like Beck thought it was a trick play that you could only run a few times. Gee...I wish Wisconsin would have thought the jet sweep was a trick play they could only run a few times.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
True2tRA said:
I never understand why people get so wrapped up in the percentages of run/pass ratio. Who gives a sh#t.

It's either working or it isn't.

I never liked the way we ran the ball under Beck. Far too much stretch zone and never enough north and south. We ran a toss play a lot a few years ago that seemed somewhat successful, then that disappeared. We ran the option here or there, Tommy seemed to execute that far too well, so Beck pulled that from the playbook.

Diamond formation? How much time did we spend on that in practice just to use it three times and get rid of it?

A run game that lines the running back up 7 yards deep behind the line of scrimmage, does some sort of waltz with the QB, then hits his gap about 3 seconds after the ball is snapped is not my cup of tea.

I don't give a damn that Beck ran that type of run sixty percent of the time.

I'll take the way Riley's offenses run the ball over all that garbage.
Click to expand...
This biggest flaw when we ran the stretch play is that we never threw to our tight ends and didn't use our WRs correctly. Shotgun runs get the linebackers going side to side, doesn't have as big of an impact on safties coming down hill...Of course we were stupid enough to think so as we threw bombs down field instead of getting those intermediate crossing routes. Tommy has to work on that throw which didn't help, but I couldn't help but notice how terrible we were trying to attack the defenses when we would PA out of it.

 
I just want to see Nebraska have an identity on offense. Pick a style and run it well if that means being more pass happy so be it just pick an identity and stick to it. Beck just never seemed to know what he wanted to do, he wanted to be a 50/50 offense but recruited run first QBs then failed to develop them, would throw it deep on 2 and 1 and so on. Recruit and coach to one style of play and master it.

 
How many plays per game? 70-85 ballpark?

I love a good passing game when it's effective. I just don't see TA consistently throwing it 32 times or more. But I would like to see our QB with less running plays and leave the ground yards among the backs. I don't want our QB needing breathers in the huddle after several hits with expectation that he'll focus on the reads and throw accurately.

 
I always looked at passing and rushing yards. If they were close to equal I considered it a balanced offense. I never look at the number of plays for each. Particularly I've noticed tOSU usually has equal passing and rushing yards. Randomly picking their last game as an example the passing/rushing was 23 attempts for 242 yards/ 61 rushes for 296 yards making it 10.5/4.9 yards per play. Since I only look at yardage I'd have to investigate but would probably conclude that if the "modern coach" is trying to have equal run and pass plays then Urb isn't very modern.

 
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