Who here has read "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu?

[Smashmouth Football Baby]

..because it is obvious our O.C. has not, or he didn't "get" it.

Others have summed it up perfectly. We are a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. Allowing another team to dictate your whole offensive game plan is ludicrous. Bringing a game plan that worked against someone last week just means they have had time to ponder their mistakes and grow from it. Abandoning what is working the minute it begins to work is like shooting your own horse. Being "multiple" is overrated, and not realistic unless you can draw elite talent to your program year after year..

I'm not trying to be the 8 billionth person to write a post bagging on ole' Shawn. Kinda like the guy really. Just feel like he has served his purpose in smoothing out the coaching transition. Perhaps it is time for him to spread his wings and take over a program where he gets to call all of the shots.

There is a major disconnect between our offensive and defensive philosophies. The O and the D see each other all of the time. They take on the characteristics of each other. The elite teams each season find a complimentary balance between the two. Ours are polar opposites.

We are faced with a situation where is a DB makes a play, his coaches (and head coach) are waiting at the sideline to bolster his confidence. If an offensive player makes a great play, he is greeted by his teammates. Cotton is the only O coach I can remember slapping helmets this season, and that is normally "his" guys. These are young kids, they want to know they have done a good job. They WANT/NEED to be validated. If you were on our O, wouldn't you be a bit envious of the attention the defensive play makers are getting?

Yes, we are cursed with RB injuries right now. Yes we have young talent cutting their teeth. All expectations need to be tempered. We will be lucky to win two more in the regular season IMO.

I do not believe that Bo will make any changes mid-season, but I do think he will identify a need to make a change faster than Frank did.

Thoughts?

 

[Never Skerd']

Since Callahan and Pelini I have always felt we have played at our opponents level, that means up or down.

Take for instance, Vtech... a great team we played up but didnt quite get it done. ISU, we played down and didnt quite get it done. Texas a few years ago... we played up... didn't quite get it done. TT last year, played up... didn't quite get it done.. Baylor this week... Played down... Got it done, though not to the thanks of our team but perhaps to the luck of their injuries/dropped passes.

"Allowing another team to dictate your whole offensive game plan is ludicrous. Bringing a game plan that worked against someone last week just means they have had time to ponder their mistakes and grow from it. Abandoning what is working the minute it begins to work is like shooting your own horse. Being "multiple" is overrated, and not realistic unless you can draw elite talent to your program year after year.."

I agree with this... I feel like we should have an offense that the Defense has to adjust to. Not an offense that has to adjust to the defense. We need to scare people, just for once. We need to take them out of their comfort zone. We need to find ourselves, stick with it, and make that team adjust to what we do, not put in new formations to adjust to them.