What happened...

Rollo83 · Post by **Rollo83** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:12 am

...to our offense?

Greg Brandon was supposed to be this "offensive guru" under Urban Meyer. I realize you have to tailor your offense around your talent somewhat, but Brandon pulled a 180 this year. I don't see other programs known for their offensive system, like BYU or Boise State, change their offensive philosophy so drastically from year to year.

These programs recrruit for their systems and plug in new players each year. Of cousre it takes time for the underclassmen to be able to execute like the veterans, but at least they are running the system and getting experience with it.

I didn't see Greg Brandon run "his" offense all year! I saw a coach with a young and mobile quarterback try to call plays that give him the best chance not to make mistakes. To me, that's playing to lose...not to win. Sure, you don't want to hurt a kids confidence, but you got to let him play.

Now next year, Brandon willl try to ask Turner to run more of the wide open offense and Turner will be learning on the job again because he ran mostly QB draws the previous year.

What did Brandon have to lose by letting Turner run the "Omar" offense? What, we goiing to only win three games instead of four? We wasted a entire year on the young people we have on the offensive side of the ball. Did any of our young wiide receivers get any real experience running the spread offense so they can step up next year and be our next Sharon or Sanders? Hardly!

I blame all this on the head coach. Is he so worried about an extra win or two to keep his job? That reminds my of the Knute Cooper years in Columbus.

A couple more thoughts...

Punting Formation - Enough is enough! Even when the kid gets off a punt he has at least one or two defenders bearing down on him. He hasn't had a kick this year where he didn't have some pressure on him from a rush. Its a bad sign when a coach is so stubborn that he won't change something that is clearly broken. Even if you feel that formation is effective, you have to admit that we don't have the players to execute it properly.

Kick-off Return Team - Why does our kickoff return team always have to struggle to get the ball out to the 20 yard line. Our runner has to start dodging tacklers around the ten or fifteen yard line. Is the problem with our return men or the blocking...or coaching?

Kick-off Coverage Team - Why do we kick it short and give opponents the ball at the 35 yard line on average? I guess we are admitting that Big Bird can't reach the end zone and our coverage team can't tackle. We lose at least 15 yards of field position when we start our offense inside our 20 and opponents start at their 35.

Defense - Yes, the defense played better in stretches this year and we do have a core of young players to work with on that side of the ball. But basically, I saw the same poor tackling defense that we have always had under Brandon. A conservative offense and suspect defense is a bad combination.

kdog27 · Post by **kdog27** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:29 am

Kick-off Return Team - Why does our kickoff return team always have to struggle to get the ball out to the 20 yard line. Our runner has to start dodging tacklers around the ten or fifteen yard line. Is the problem with our return men or the blocking...or coaching?

This has bothered me for about 4 years now. In addition to all the other special teams problems we have, here is one that does not get much attention.

I can't remember us having a good kickoff return since before Urban Meyer arrived. I'm sure we have had a few past the 50 and there are some that escape me, but we consistently start every drive inside our own 20. I can remember a fluke TD return in 2001 when an onsides kick was was returned for a TD but that is it. Even Cole Magner never did much on KO returns. Same crap every season and we don't change a thing.

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:32 am

We wasted the opportunity of this season in every way. We're somehow worse off than we were at the beginning of the year. We didn't grow, we didn't improve, we didn't find a QB. All we did was find a good freshman RB, and we've horribly underutilized him in favor of QB draw after QB draw.

I used to give Brandon a lot of credit for our offensive success under Meyer. Not anymore. I'm passed the point of even thinking he'd be much of an OC anymore. Totally incompetent.

Bleeding Orange · Post by **Bleeding Orange** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:36 am

Jacobs4Heisman wrote:

I used to give Brandon a lot of credit for our offensive success under Meyer. Not anymore. I'm passed the point of even thinking he'd be much of an OC anymore. Totally incompetent.

Personally, the judgement is still out on Brandon and the offense. I really feel like his biggest transgression has been placing so much faith in Stud (God bless his soul). If Stud is not summarily demoted within the next week, then I will forever and completely doutbt GB's judgement, but until then, GB's biggest mistake has been allowing a position coach to take the reigns of one of the most potent offenses in the nation. Does anyone really wonder why it has been destroyed so quickly? If you don't know by now, you never will...

kdog27 · Post by **kdog27** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:42 am

Jacobs4Heisman wrote:We wasted the opportunity of this season in every way. We're somehow worse off than we were at the beginning of the year. We didn't grow, we didn't improve, we didn't find a QB. All we did was find a good freshman RB, and we've horribly underutilized him in favor of QB draw after QB draw.

Yeah it sure feels like we are a worse team now then in September. It looked like the defense was improving in sept/oct but they were back to their old ways at the end of the season.

I used to give Brandon a lot of credit for our offensive success under Meyer. Not anymore. I'm passed the point of even thinking he'd be much of an OC anymore. Totally incompetent.

The only thing that makes sense to me anymore is that Meyer was completely behind our offense. Our offense is so predictable. Multiple QB draws aside, watch games from this season. (don't really watch games from this season, that's torture). Whenever a play works well he comes right back to it the next play. He did it tonight on that screen pass to Barnes. Me and the UT defense knew what was coming on fourth down.

Spart43 · Post by **Spart43** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 2:30 pm

There was multiple series were we ran the same play 2 times in a row. Not very creative.

There was one series were we ran 4 plays. We ran the same off tackle run to the right with Macon, he got about 15 yards, so we follow that up with the exact same play that got maybe 1 yard or even a loss. So then we throw a pass over the middle incomplete and come back on 3rd and long with the same off tackle run to Macon to the left side. Then we punted. 3 out of 4 plays, basically the exact same play.

We do have some offensive talent, but just seem afraid to use it or give it a chance. Many of the short 8-10 yard passes that are fairly easy to complete and that our competition runs successfully against us all the time, we don't even seem to have in our play book.

Warthog · Post by **Warthog** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 2:45 pm

Spart43 wrote:We do have some offensive talent, but just seem afraid to use it or give it a chance.

Spart, I couldn't agree more. I know early in the season the coaches used the excuse that were were still young. But by the 12th game of the season, you need to be using the entire playbook. There is no excuse for running the same six plays for an entire game. How many times all season did we even attempt a pass more than 20 yards down the field?

And tell Corey congratulations on the great game last night. Hopefully this won't be the last time he puts his name in the BG record books. (And heres hoping the next time comes in a victory!)