Jeremy
Starter
Paul Johnson and Georgia Tech won the ACC TWICE, and won the Orange Bowl against Mississippi State, Dak Prescott, and all that $EC speed. That's pretty 'uber successful.' They didn't just beat them, they set the Orange Bowl RUSHING RECORD against all that speed. Georgia Tech and their high admission standards make their recruiting challenging, and yet, they still competed very well most years. Since Johnson retired, the Yellow Jackets have stunk it up trying to run spread stuff that everyone else is doing. Like us.I know I have stated that I don't believe that switching to an offense like the flex bone and running a ton of triple option would be successful and I stand by that. I feel like the proof is in the pudding so to speak. There is a reason why no team in a P5 conference runs it. Georgia Tech with Paul Johnson was the last to do so, and he was never uber successful in the ACC with it. It is a great offense in it's own right, however it is typically used when you are going to be out athleted against just about every team you face, so you hope that you can take advantage of teams potential lack of discipline on defense, and cause them trouble.
And guess what....it works every once in awhile. BUT when you play in a conference like the BIG or SEC where pretty much every team has lots of speed on defense, and are typically coached extremely well it doesn't work. When is the last time Navy beat Notre Dame? It was 2016, before that it was 2010. The service academies are currently 0-3 against P5 conference opponents.
Now I know the argument against what I am saying is that we have better athletes than the schools who currently run that particular offense. And yes you are right, so I can't say for sure that we wouldn't have more success against P5 schools than them. Again I have to continue to go back to there is a reason no P5 schools run it. The offensive scheme Frost has been using isn't terrible, however I agree with the fact that we do indeed need to have more of a power rushing element to what we have been doing, because too many of our drives have stalled out because we can't get 1 or 2 yards when we need it. I am hoping that a new OC, OL Coach and RB coach can remedy that issue.
Thank you for bringing up Navy. Navy won 11 games 2 years ago, so it doesn't work 'every once in a while.' Guess what kind of offense we ran the last time we won 11 games? How many games have we won trying what we're doing now? The fact that Navy could EVER beat a WAY more talented program like Notre Dame is a real testament to the Middies as a program, and I think this offense contributes a lot to that. They beat Kansas State and all their Big 12 speed, too. Navy is definitely rebuilding this year, but they did beat a very talented UCF squad.
Army won 9 games last year. Air Force ALSO won 11 games in 2019. Don't TELL me it doesn't work. Every team the service academies play are way more talented than they are.
I would argue that Frost's offensive scheme HAS been terrible. Sure it gained some yards, but we don't win with the most yards. We win with the most points. Frost has averaged a whopping 26 points per game against P5 competition. That's not nearly enough when our defense is out on the field for WAY more than half the game.
Nebraska never won anything by caring what everyone else was doing. When the rest of the country started going to passing attacks, Osborne stuck to his guns and ran the ball even more. We've tried nearly every offense besides this for the last 18 years, and we have NOTHING to show for it. Literally, what do we have to lose?