Menelik Holt

captain obvious said:
junior4949 said:
captain obvious said:
Throw the ball more.

It's our only weapon. Ganz in the shotgun, Swift, Pederson, Holt, McNeill and Paul being the main options. Lucky out of the backfield as last resort.
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Wow, I hope you're kidding. If not, it will be interesting to see whether OU's offense or defense scores more points against us.
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Why would I be kidding?

What have you seen work so far this year? Misc. passes, mostly out of play action. Well, you need a running game for play action to keep working, and that doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon. So why not put Ganz in the shotgun and have him start throwing some more medium routes? I'm not saying go deep.

We're going to turn the ball over and struggle no matter what we f'ing do, so we might as well play to the strengths of our players. Something's got to be done. What does your brilliant football mind have to offer, chief?
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Considering we have a QB that throws almost as many INT's as he does TD's, I don't like this philosiphy at all. How about we line up in the bone or the Maryland I. Get Castille in there as a FB. Quick hit it with the FB, or stretch it out with an option right or left. There have been times we could run the football. Maybe we could try the Vblocking like Oregon State did against USC. Throw little Mendoza in there and have him run right up the V. No matter what we do, our offensive success from here on out is entirely dependant upon the running game. Even Leach knows this. I believe they still have more rushing TD than passing TD. All of the highly ranked teams have a running game. Considering our OL isn't very good, we need to run running plays that are quick where the OL doesn't have to hold blocks for very long. We need quick hitting 3 and 4 yarders.

 
junior4949 said:
captain obvious said:
junior4949 said:
captain obvious said:
Throw the ball more.

It's our only weapon. Ganz in the shotgun, Swift, Pederson, Holt, McNeill and Paul being the main options. Lucky out of the backfield as last resort.
Click to expand...

Wow, I hope you're kidding. If not, it will be interesting to see whether OU's offense or defense scores more points against us.
Click to expand...
Why would I be kidding?

What have you seen work so far this year? Misc. passes, mostly out of play action. Well, you need a running game for play action to keep working, and that doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon. So why not put Ganz in the shotgun and have him start throwing some more medium routes? I'm not saying go deep.

We're going to turn the ball over and struggle no matter what we f'ing do, so we might as well play to the strengths of our players. Something's got to be done. What does your brilliant football mind have to offer, chief?
Click to expand...
Considering we have a QB that throws almost as many INT's as he does TD's, I don't like this philosiphy at all. How about we line up in the bone or the Maryland I. Get Castille in there as a FB. Quick hit it with the FB, or stretch it out with an option right or left. There have been times we could run the football. Maybe we could try the Vblocking like Oregon State did against USC. Throw little Mendoza in there and have him run right up the V. No matter what we do, our offensive success from here on out is entirely dependant upon the running game. Even Leach knows this. I believe they still have more rushing TD than passing TD. All of the highly ranked teams have a running game. Considering our OL isn't very good, we need to run running plays that are quick where the OL doesn't have to hold blocks for very long. We need quick hitting 3 and 4 yarders.
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Short runs. Sounds good if they can pull it off.

But Castille fumbles about once every 7-8 carries. I consider him to be almost as much of a liability as Ganz going long.

Is Mendoza red shirting? Has he played at all this year?

 
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Yeah, the short runs should work. This way the OL just needs to shield block because that's about all they're doing now. It would work well with the zone blocking scheme we're running. Most of the time our running plays get stuffed is the longer developing ones. We've got 4 backs and apparenty it's the thing to do to rotate them. Keep running the short burts between the tackles with the occasional toss sweep and option to keep the D honest.

 
junior4949 said:
Yeah, the short runs should work. This way the OL just needs to shield block because that's about all they're doing now. It would work well with the zone blocking scheme we're running. Most of the time our running plays get stuffed is the longer developing ones. We've got 4 backs and apparenty it's the thing to do to rotate them. Keep running the short burts between the tackles with the occasional toss sweep and option to keep the D honest.
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Well, if they are going to do it, they need to get mean and stick with it. If it doesn't produce touchdowns, though, I think we'll end up throwing the ball as we get behind. There's no way our D holds TTech in check, even if we are eating up clock.

 
Holy crap...Lucky has a pass efficiency rating of 598? Let's put him in as QB!!
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This has been the problem all season long. We don't stick with the running game. First 2 possessions against VT, we were running decent getting us into 3rd and short yardage. Then we throw some DA pass and punt. There's only been one game this year we've even remotely stuck to the running game. If we can't keep TT off the field and keep their offense out of rhythm, then we'll get torched.

 
junior4949 said:
This has been the problem all season long. We don't stick with the running game. First 2 possessions against VT, we were running decent getting us into 3rd and short yardage. Then we throw some DA pass and punt. There's only been one game this year we've even remotely stuck to the running game. If we can't keep TT off the field and keep their offense out of rhythm, then we'll get torched.
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So what happens if we come out and can't run on the first two possessions and get into a 14 pt hole before the first quarter is even halfway expired?

 
Yes. We did it in the NC game in 94' and look how that turned out. Whether we get stuffed or not at least time will run off the clock. Throwing every down and not competing them will leave time on the clock and make the game longer and give TT the ball more meaning they score more on us. I never thought I'd ever be saying this about NU football, but we really just need to try and "survive" this one without complete humiliation.

 
junior4949 said:
Yes. We did it in the NC game in 94' and look how that turned out. Whether we get stuffed or not at least time will run off the clock. Throwing every down and not competing them will leave time on the clock and make the game longer and give TT the ball more meaning they score more on us. I never thought I'd ever be saying this about NU football, but we really just need to try and "survive" this one without complete humiliation.
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Just curious, but what was your reaction to the '06 USC game?

And to be fair, I think TO had much more reason to be confident in his defensive unit against Miami than Bo has this year against Tech. Tech is going to score regardless of how much time we leave on the clock for them. The only way to avoid humiliation is to actually put up points this time.

 
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I thought we should have tried a few different wrinkles. I thought we should have stretched the field occasionally. It was pretty much the same as it was against OU in the Big 12 Championship game. OU had the #1 run D and a somewhat questionable passing D so we run the entire game. I'm not saying we have to go out and run 100% of the time against TT. We do have to take what they give us. However if they're not putting 8 in the box, then we have to try and establish a running game.

Let me ask you something: How did you feel a few years back when we got totally embarrassed by TT? If we heave up bombs each and every down like we did then, I think we can expect similar results.

 
junior4949 said:
Let me ask you something: How did you feel a few years back when we got totally embarrassed by TT? If we heave up bombs each and every down like we did then, I think we can expect similar results.
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Well, if I recall, we started out the game with Joe Dailey trying to run a WCO, which led to entirely predictable disaster #1. We got behind, and then we switched QBs. I don't remember who it was, because I was in a stupor by that point. Then by the end of the game, we had a true freshman heaving up bombs, which led to entirely predictable disaster #2.

At least we are starting this game out with a reasonably capable QB and some good receiving targets. I don't think we need to throw bombs, either. How about using McNeill to make the LBs play off the line? I guess this might sound dumb to you, but I think we are in a position where we need to establish a passing threat in order to open up the running game. Teams come out determined to stop us from running until we prove that they can't afford to commit to it.

 
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The problem is we haven't stayed committed to anything offensively. Ganz standing back there just scares the hell out of me. He's made some very questionable throws, and well even last year was very INT prone. At least if Castille is running and fumbles, the ball normally is on the turf and there's a pile. When Ganz throws an INT, the defender usually gets a pretty big gain out of it. I wouldn't mind a little option football and then see Ganz roll out in some playaction.

 
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