Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com

Nice article form Hustlebelt on BG offensive linemen. It's the only question on this offense.

http://www.hustlebelt.com/mac-football/ ... get-winded

I like the sound of the conditioning workouts. The cardio will definitely help.

GO BG!!!!!!!!!!

Phil Steele's magazine had a stat that placed us #117 in the nation in sacks allowed/attempted passes formula. That weird slow-motion catch/set feet/square shoulders move when taking shotgun snaps is hopefully out this year. The offense is supposedly based on quick reads and decision making so the QB won't be sitting in the pocket for too long.

This was my concern after watching the spring game. Granted, that was then and I haven't seen us in camp now, but our OL looked very out of sync then. And it wasn't in terms of OL guys not getting to the line of scrimmage fast enough. I thought they did a good job doing that even in the spring. It was once there, they were jumping early with false starts and had a few other penalties. I remember thinking at the time how Babers talked prior to the spring game about why he runs this offense and how speeding up the pace like that caused confusion (he was referring to the opposing defenses), but at that time it looked to be backfiring on us ourselves with penalties. I'm sure the OL is in a much better grove now but if we plan to run as fast as we tried to go in the spring, these guys need to be in good shape or else things aren't going to run like we want and need them to.

The importance of the OL seemed to have been shown when Babers named Matt Mattox co-offensive coordinator along with Gilbert. Mattox was only the OL coach at Eastern Illinois and had only been there for one year. The title bump was either to keep him from being poached by another school and/or a reflection of the impact he made. (They did jump from 7 to 12 wins in the second year)

Oddly enough, the original OL coach at EIU is now coaching the same position at Western Michigan under Fleck and they run an atrociously bad pro-style system.

Babers scheme is actually a benefit to offensive linemen. Quick passes, quick handoffs, just establish your blocks, rinse and repeat. His scheme will tire out defensive linemen much faster.