Dan Macon Story in Today's PD

[jacojdm]

http://tinyurl.com/s649s

Dan will be making his first start on Saturday.

[MACMAN]

Dan is


Got Gears? Heck ya!!!

[San Diego Falcon]

He says they've made some changes to the offense and he expects 25 carries per game. I guess we will be more balanced this year.

[BGSUFootballFan]

I'm so excited to see him play, I think he could be huge for us this season!

[Rollo83]

25 carries a game won't mean anything if opponents don't respect our passing game. Putting 8 guys in the box to stop our run game will mean they have no faith in Barnes/Turner beating them consistently through the air. PJ Pope had some nice lanes to run through the last couple of years mainly because the defense was so intent on stopping our passing game. I don't think we'll be able to line it up and run it down teams throats without some form of a passing game.

[BGSUFootballFan]

I strongly disagree. West Virgina was 115th in the nation in passing last year, barely 100 yards a game through the air and they had a nice little 11-1 season with a Nokia Sugar Bowl win over Georgia. Of course a balanced offense is the toughest to stop, but if you are going to be better in one area than the other, its better to be good at running the ball than passing. Just my opinion, but I dont think we will be trying to "run it down other teams throats." Especially with a speedster in Barnes or Turner at QB and Macon at RB who is supposedly the fastest person on our entire team!

[Jacobs4Heisman]

I strongly disagree. West Virgina was 115th in the nation in passing last year, barely 100 yards a game through the air and they had a nice little 11-1 season with a Nokia Sugar Bowl win over Georgia. Of course a balanced offense is the toughest to stop, but if you are going to be better in one area than the other, its better to be good at running the ball than passing. Just my opinion, but I dont think we will be trying to "run it down other teams throats." Especially with a speedster in Barnes or Turner at QB and Macon at RB who is supposedly the fastest person on our entire team!

I agree -- I don't see us lining up in the eye and running off tackle all day. I think you'll see a ton more option QB read plays (from the Harris days) and straight up options this year. I like Turner/Barnes in the gun, flanked by Bullock and Macon, with our good OL. I think we need to lean on the running game to be successful, especially when Barnes is the QB.

The more carries Macon gets, the more wins we'll have.

[BGSUVA]

of course WV was playing Big East teams...put them in the MAC and see what happens

[San Diego Falcon]

of course WV was playing Big East teams...put them in the MAC and see what happens

Are you saying the MAC was better than the Big East last year? Please elaborate.

[BGSUFootballFan]

I agree that the Big East is not nearly as good as it used to be, but WVU would have went undefeated in the MAC as well. If you can put 38 on Georgia, then you can put 38 on just about anyone. The point is they were able to win a lot of big games with a kid at QB who couldnt throw a pass more than 15 yards. That is because they successfully ran the option even when teams were crowding the line of scrimmage. I think BG needs to look to do the same this year especially in the 1st game with Barnes at QB, but even after that because we arent going to win games airing it out the way we did when we were spoiled with Omar!

[Rollo83]

It's a whole lot easier to stop a good running team than it is a good passing team. As I said before, just load the line of scrimmage and you can stop a running game...even with the option.

Watch what the Buckeyes do to Wolfe and NIU this weekend. He won't get much unless Horvath can keep the linebackers and the safeties honest with the pass. The spread offense is predicated on a short precision passing game and taking shots down the field as needed. Going four and five wide with receivers means they have no idea where the ball is going. It makes the defense defend the entire field.

I hope we keep the spread offense and run more out of that formation. I don't think we can line up with a fullback and tight end and run the ball right at them. Especially against the better teams...Badgers, Buckeyes, etc. Plus, in the spread you don't need the greatest passer in the world. You need someone who makes good, quick decisions and can hit a receiver who is usally open against a one-on-one defender.

[hammb]

Like somebody else said, you're always better off being able to run the ball, and using that to set up the pass than vice versa. Running is safer, generally more consistent, and allows you to control the clock as well.

We won't line up and pound it at Wisconsin our coaches are not stupid enough to think that will work. That doesn't mean that we cannot run the ball effectively against them, however.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

As I said before, just load the line of scrimmage and you can stop a running game...even with the option.

I wish you would have been calling defensive plays at Camp Randall last year.

[JoeFalcon]

He says they've made some changes to the offense and he expects 25 carries per game. I guess we will be more balanced this year.

The evolution this offense has undergone is interesting.

When we've been Top 5 nationally in passing, the shotgun handoffs worked because teams were backing off enough to defend the pass and seams developed for talented backs like Pope and Lane to exploit.

When the passing game struggled at times last year without (and occasionally with) Omar, those handoffs became wasted downs as the backs were simply engulfed before they had any opportunity to find a hole or generate monentum. It was almost like a run was called just to get it out of the way, something that killed far too many drives with the 2nd and 3rd and long situations it led to.

With the young QB's and WR's and the addition of a fullback, the philosophy seems to be changing, as it needs to. Judging by his remarks ar the press conference, Bret Bielema sees this coming as well and is adjusting his defense accordingly.

[hammb]

When we've been Top 5 nationally in passing, the shotgun handoffs worked because teams were backing off enough to defend the pass and seams developed for talented backs like Pope and Lane to exploit.

When the passing game struggled at times last year without (and occasionally with) Omar, those handoffs became wasted downs as the backs were simply engulfed before they had any opportunity to find a hole or generate monentum. It was almost like a run was called just to get it out of the way, something that killed far too many drives with the 2nd and 3rd and long situations it led to.

Take a look at my post about our offensive philosphy for this season. It includes a statistical look at our offense over the past 5 years:

http://www.ay-ziggy-zoomba.com/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=12333

The trend that I noticed, when looking at that, was that it wasn't our passing game that seemed to make our rushing game click. Instead it was the multiple options on offense, rather than one feature back. From '01-'03 we were balanced passing & rushing with some really good totals on the ground. We did not use to pass to set up the run back then, either, IMO, the difference was that our running plays were all well executed option type plays. In each of those years we had 3 players with 500+ yards on the ground.

That depth and variety made it difficult for the defense to key on who was getting the ball. The real wild card was that the QB could take off on any given play. But Harris didn't run from busted passing plays, no, he ran from our version of the option (hence spread-option offense). Sure we ran some standard speed & triple option type plays, but more notably were the counters. We ran a lot of QB counters where he would fake to the RB, then run the other direction. It was a lot of misdirection, all set up by the running ability of the QB.

Much like Chris Leak in Florida, however, Omar Jacobs was NOT ideally suited to run the spread-option offense. Neither guy can provide that rushing threat that allows the rushing game to tick. Omar's first year as a starter we got away with it by using the pass to set up the run. We still didn't have that diversity in the backfield that had allowed for a real balanced attack the previous years, but we ran enough to keep defenses honest. Last year we couldn't do that however. Once the passing game faltered Lane & Pope struggled mightily. The scheme had changed away from the diverse set of running plays that we had built the run game around.

I'm hoping that with more mobile QBs this year, we will return to those days. It is my opinion that the offense from '01-'03 is much more effective at winning games than what we ran the last 2 years. Judging from the scrimmage the other night we will definitely run more plays from the old playbook than the more recent. I look for the combination of Bullock & Macon to rush for 1200-1500 yards this year, and I fully expect our QBs to chip in 500+ as well. If that happens I think we could return to the offense that we loved a few years ago.