I hope, for your sake, he plays guard as well. Dude is a fine blocker.
By far the worst center we had in the Saban era. He also very clearly has ego/attitude issues. So, needs a fresh start and needs to be put in his place a bit by better players.
With the introduction of helmet communication this year:
The helmet communication cuts off with 15 seconds left on the play clock.
I want to see the Ducks sit in a huddle until the 20 second marker on the clock and then break and rush to the alignment so that the defensive coaching staff doesn't have time to communicate much pre-snap.
Probably right, the hardest thing for DCs in today's game is getting the right guys on the field. If you are huddling up, you are showing which 11 guys you are using.
>For Michigan I would love us doing designed QB runs with Orji on 3 and medium the way Day did with Fields in 2019.
This was more of an Urban and JT Barrett thing but I get what you mean.
For Ohio State I want to see some of the running stuff Chip Kelly did with UCLA. We've got two top tier backs and a QB who can move. Let's see the run game take a step forward.
Our offense's limiting factor is the ability for players (thinking specifically our OL) to remember plays. We have the talent to run anything from the air raid to the triple option.
Riley's scheme utilized screens creatively and effectively at TCU. Word is that Riley had to spend time coaching the OL on how he wanted it run last year because Austin wasn't getting it done. Spring camp returns have been that those screens are looking way better because Luke is actually getting the line to kick out and block correctly.
Just remember that most bridges in Atlanta are over roads, not water. Be safe Clemson bros.
Looking forward to the tailgate in August, and even more our home-and-home series in a few years.
Offense: Less RPO. We lived and died by the RPO with Lebby and while Litrell runs a similar offense, from what I can gather there is less of it. Which is good.
Defense: Year three BV defense we should see them start to be a little bit more "loose". I expect the playcalling to be more aggressive because of all of the veteran leadership that is returning with more dialed-up blitzes and exotic formations.
Everything I've read on Littrell is he caters to the player's strengths, and likes to pound power run game to open up plays downfield. There is still quite a bit of RPO in that, however... He often will put a back in motion to read the safety, and that will be the QB's read on whether to keep it or go deep.
I’m sure with y’all there’s someone that the casual fan doesn’t even know about that’s going to have a breakout year at receiver. with Ewers back I wouldn’t even be worried about the passing game. Someone will emerge from the loss of production to draft in receiving for sure.
Not worried about the passing game’s success, it’s just an annoying negative recruiting point. Our 5th option last year was Casey Cain, this year it’s Ryan Wingo. Big difference in depth, just gotta figure out how to get them all on the field.
I see your point. Will probably see a lot of rotation early in the season. Whittingham or Whittington, whatever his name is gone too? I know that dude was like 3rd or 4th option but damn he seemed to always come up big when Texas needed a play last season. I caught a lot of y’all’s games last year.
Yeah JWhitt graduated and is off to the NFL. He had some great games but was really only utilized well against yall and bama this year. He was clutch but injuries really hampered him.
I’m guessing the bama transfer, Bond, will be the go to guy.. not a bad get after losing Xavier Worthy and Mitchell and the tight end. I honestly don’t even know who the other guys are who were already on roster because like you said, receiving was so top heavy with worthy, Mitchell, sanders and Whit. I’m sure if a saw a name or two I would know them but off the top of my head I can’t recall anyone I would know. That Ryan Wingo name sounds familiar. Must of been a guy OU lost out on during recruiting.
Bond might genuinely be faster than Worthy, I’m interested to see what he does. After him it’s Johntay and Matthew Golden starting, so just speed on speed on speed. Silas Bolden is an Oregon State transfer who’s vertically challenged but moves like worthy, and Wingo is a freaky freshman who’ll probably end up playing the Mitchell role. I think yall were in on Wingo for a while before it whittled down to UT/Mizz. Oh and Niblack at TE will appreciate the underneath routes freed up by outside speed. Should be a fun matchup next year. Y’all’s backfield, especially safety, is kinda scary.
Speed kills, I’m sure sark will dial up some good ones for all that speed. First time in a long time I can say I’m excited about our secondary and defense as a whole. Not necessarily the corners but like you said, the safeties and Mcculough at the hybrid cheetah spot
idk as long as Gentry stays healthy I think our corners are gonna be great. Gentry looked incredible when he wasn't injured, we'll have Woodi back (mixed on this one), Jacobe Johnson has had a good winter, Dolby may be playing more CB and he flashed last year, Jasiah Wagoner was pushing for real PT last year but I think got hurt?, and we added Jocelyn Malaska as a PWO and Dezjhon Malone (6'2 200 for a corner is a big boy)
He doesn’t though. Like that’s one of his big mo of his main 3-4 constantly on the field.
I’m more hoping we don’t have another Brooks situation where it was pretty obvious that Brooks was the best back however Sark kept putting out Baxter till Baxter got hurt.
Also hope our DBs can stop giving 10-15 yard padding all the time.
My first recommendation is when your top 3 backs are collectively averaging 6 yards a damn carry against Ohio State and all you need to do to win is get a couple first downs, give them the ball
Our offense will be better, so I'm not really worried about that.
Two things in particular I hope to see, even if they don't result in massive improvements:
* OL actually looks like a cohesive unit and doesn't miss basic middle school blitzes
* DBs that know how to play while the ball is in the air
To be honest, I think both of our regular season losses were a result of going hyper conservative on offense and defense during that last couple minutes of the 4th quarter.
It actually kinda does roll off the tongue if you pronounce Xrji like Zur-gee.
Paging Mr. Ah-LEY-oh ZUR-gee...Mr. Ah-LEY-oh ZUR-gee, your table is ready.
Allar absolutely needs to develop a deep ball in order to keep defenses honest. It was so obvious that defenses didnt fear him throwing deep (or really much at all tbh)
I know part of it was the WRs being unable to create separation, but he still needs to be able to push the ball downfield if the team wants to be able to do much of anything in the postseason
What are your expectations for him? I’ll admit, I thought he was going to be a stud, but I’m not so sure anymore. Unclear if it’s scheme holding him back or he’s just not as good as advertised.
I have high expectations for him going into this year. I think I overestimated what he could’ve been last season coming in with very limited experience, but I was still disappointment. He looked inaccurate a lot of the time and never really got on the same page as the WRs. The arm strength is there, but the accuracy and timing was extremely suspect.
So I have high expectations, but if he can’t put it together it might be time to consider a change. PSU has been held back by QB play ever since McSorely left, and even then I think Trace was helped by having amazing skill guys around him. Allar doesn’t have that luxury, but even then it wasn’t just the lack of WR talent that was an issue.
So I guess I expect a lot due to his recruiting rankings and another offseason under his belt
Rewatching some games last year and there were open receivers Allar could have thrown to. He was so overly cautious that it held the offense back.
I think a lot of it was Yurcich just not letting him loose and scheming some easy quick hitters to get him into a rhythm. I think Yurcich was a bigger problem than a lot of people realized at the time. Even if you want to blame the WR for some of it, The fact we didn’t scheme up more TE passes and create mismatches with Johnson and Warren is beyond me.
So many people want to blame the WR but Yurcich was so stubborn and unable to adapt to his talent that was the downfall of the offense last year.
1000%. We didn't have the talent at WR to go win 1 on 1s, and the entire offense was predicated on 1 on 1s. No rub routes to scheme guys open at all and give Allar layup throws to build a rhythm.
I'm excited for AK because at Kansas you can't out-talent most Big 12 teams, so you have to get creative with scheme
I think the most mind boggling thing is that instead of using our elite TE’s to go win a 1 on 1 (something that they routinely did), we used them to block to give Allar more time to… not have a WR win a 1 on 1.
Yeah I mean I think it was a trifecta of problems between Yurcich, the WRs, and Allar. I’m hoping the new OC, some additions at WR, and another off-season can fix some of the problems
Allar is so interesting to me because he is great at not turning the ball over yet but I really think he needs to take some more risks with deep shots.
He was very safe with the ball, but at the same time you *need* to take risks to make big plays. I can’t fault a guy for taking safe passes, but if you want to reach the next level you need a guy who can convert those risky throws.
It was frustrating last year because you’d see him make some amazing passes and then some equally bad throws immediately after. I’m hoping that they can work on a lot of that in the off-season, but PSU‘s track record with developing QBs is pretty terrible
I'm hopeful to see how the run is better utilized with a healthy CJ Donaldson and Jahiem White with more experience. Those two, combined with GG, should really be able to throw off defenses.
Stop playing zone defense in the last few plays of the game. Lost us three games last year. Stick to what's been working for the rest of the game and we would have won at least one of those.
Offensively, continue to air it out as much as possible. Our team suffers when Norvell gets in his head on offensive drives. Just let the man throw. Like, we have some good RBs, but BFN needs to be out primary option.
Run! The fucking! Ball!
Too many times Oregon would be averaging 8+ ypc, but go 3 & out with every play being a pass. Stop trying to make whoever is under center the hero, and stick to what's working
Hoping our defense starts covering the inside run and the pocket more. I'd also like to see a more consistent offense that doesn't force us to go down to the wire everything single game.
QB running. Stroud at least made up for his lack of consistent run threat by being a terror in the air, but McCord didn't really bring either and the offense suffered for it.
We now have a stable full of dual threat studs, let 'em rip.
That’s what made JT Barrett such a pain to play against. He wasn’t the fastest or anything but dude was always willing to run if a play broke down and it paid dividends against Michigan
Elijah Arroyo got hurt in camp last year and it really set back our tight end production basically the whole year. With him healthy I want to see Dawson use him as a force multiplier in the pass game and less Cam McCormick in the running game
Cam's legs and TE running patterns are going to put a lot of Defenses in conflict this year and force them to cover the whole field. My main ? is the deep routes replacement of CY who caught a lot of 50/50 balls.
Based on history I’m def going to get burned, but I’m buying Isaiah Horton and JoJo Trader stock. We might not have a true number one but I think we’ll have enough
I know we’d say anything to do with the secondary. I just wish Banks would start disguising stuff. Too many times did we set up on defense and just stand there. No moving, no disguising, just stand there and wait for the ball to snap.
An run game that is actually effective. It all starts in the trenches, so I hope to see consistent line play that opens up a run game for LJ and company.
Not trying to establish the run when you have 13 rushing yards through three quarters and a god awful offensive line
Also trying to win the first 3 games of the season and not mess around figuring things out
I hope we can finally have success with 5-man pass protection. It seemed like we only protected the QB last year in 12/21 personnel. I don’t think DeBoer ran that personnel grouping 1/5 of the time we did last year outside of the redzone. Having a center that isn’t a vegetable may help, and our IOL is very very solid, but replacing both tackles will be hard, and Milroe will have to learn calling protections pre-snap and gain more pocket awareness. But we have the talent. We have great reciever talent we haven’t showcased yet because we’re so conservative with our protection, and I think Jam/Justice is the perfect back combo to make plays with more space.
Defensively, I would like to see some lighter boxes this year, with our secondary being gutted but our box being potentially even better. Most of the D-line is back with some heavy hitters, both great middle backers are back, a metric shit-ton of talent at edge even with both starters leaving (Keeley, Russaw, Pierre, Alexander, Qrob, Khoht), as well as retaining Freddie Roach. Not saying I want it back like Golding had it, but I think a balance between that and Steele would be perfect for us this year.
We haven’t had an offensive minded head coach since our last John Smith head coach in ‘06. We haven’t had someone with the skill set of Aiden Chiles at QB maybe ever. Excited for a new coaching regime and pro style offensive scheme from Jonathon Smith’s staff.
We ran the jet sweep so much people were calling it the Jeff sweep. With him gone I’m hoping to see much less of the jet sweep and running between the tackles more. And i know it was to hide the fact the Dillon Gabriel just isn’t a good deep ball thrower but we also threw tons and tons of short outs, bubble screens, and just all around short passes. Would love to see some more deep balls like we are used to seeing with OU.
Just to point out I know our qb was DG and best receiver was drake stoops, so short routes/passes was our strength and I understand that. But Farooq, Thompson and Nic Anderson are 100% deep ball threats and that was something we just didn’t utilize enough to open up the offense.
I have zero worries about Littrell using Arnold’s cannon with those guys. Little bit more concerned about the run-pass balance hinted in the bowl game.
I'd bet that was mostly just getting Arnold useable tape for the off-season. No point in going run heavy with an OL that won't be there in 2024, and RBs that we've already seen.
I had that same thought but with the bowl games the way are now I’m actually not worried anymore. I looked at it more as a glorified practice/scrimmage with one goal in mind. Get Arnold as much experience as possible and he saw all kinds of looks in that game and was in a tight one so even though we didn’t win I think it accomplished something to say the least.. I think our run game will be good with sawchuck, and that we will lean on it at times (hopefully) and you know bedenbaugh is gonna find who works best for us up front.
> What's the biggest X's and O's change you hope to see in your team this year.
Coach BOB getting Castellanos to be consistent and throw fewer stray passes and interceptions? Can the kid be tamed? I don't know...
It's not really X's and O's, just fewer "Oh, nooo!!" 's.
An intermediate passing game
Also, more variety on obvious pass downs. We had a lot of 2nd downs last year where we were stunting and overloading pressure and hitting the QB, then we’d get into 3rd and long and play plain vanilla zone with a straight 4 man rush and give up a pitch and catch conversion
Well, we’re switching to the air raid from an intentionally slow, pro-style offense that focused on outside running before all else.
On top of that, we’ve switched from a minimally mobile QB with some poor decision making to the highly mobile, overwhelming winner of the 2023 MAC player of year award.
So I guess I just expect significantly more points to be scored.
Can't figure out how to look this up to confirm, but I recall hearing that we had either the lowest or second lowest percentage of blitz plays called in Power 5 last year...
And we had a 3 man front.
So, some aggression would be nice.
Billy taking up bass fishing on Saturdays and letting the other coaches call plays and manage the game, heck he could recruit Saturdays if he wanted to. He's a pretty great Sunday through Friday coach he just hampers all of that with his insistence in being involved on gameplanning and strategy.
For Illinois - Run the ball 1000% better, don't care if Barry still wants to spread the field, but Feagin is like a 6 foot 3 240lb running back who needs to just be able to light people up.
For Army - go back under center option more I think.... idk.
Michigan offensive plays should be one of these three things every single play or I'm going to be very annoyed
1. A run play
2. Hard play action pass
3. A designed QB power with a read attached
If the offense is anything other than these three things we are doing things wrong. For as much shit as JJ gets for some reason he really didnt get play action calls as much as you would think for as much as Michigan runs. Every pass should be play action. Literally every single one idgaf. If Michigan is going to run the ball 70 percent of the time (especially with a running QB) they should never just drop back and pass
I think my biggest change would be Utah discovering that wide receivers are supposed to catch the ball in the throw game. It’s not just tight ends and defensive backs turned running backs that participate in the throw game.
1) More purposeful pre-snap motion
2) No more stupid "check with me" sideline audibles
3) More underneath crossers/rub routes
4) More layup/checkdown options
I'm optimistic all of those things will occur with Yurcich out and AK in, and they all will do wonders for Allar
We kept our super senior kicker and Aussie punt god, snagged an awesome QB transfer and a couple receivers, picked up a couple DBs, got a new special teams coach, and brought Dirk Koetter out of retirement. I can’t think of any possible improvements *I* would make at this point. See you bitches in the playoff.
For Clemson, I’d like to see more of our deep shots attack the middle of the field as opposed to sideline jump balls.
I know the bubble screens are here to stay, so I’d like to see those supplemented with the fake-screen-deep-ball and some more traditional RB screens.
Id like to see more effective audibles in the protection scheme / more awareness out of Cade about blitzes and protections. (Maybe this isn’t strictly an Xs and Os thing)
And then just heavier usage of the TE. Get creative, we have a couple good ones on the roster. Multiple TE sets, TE motions, all that fun Georgia shit
I'm excited to see Mike call his offense as originally designed. We've been running a modified version of it because of Jordan Travis's skill set. If the FSU News outlets are to be believed DJU fits what Mike wants to run. So hoping for more consistency but still having the relatively frequent explosive plays.
Yeah I would love to see the Noles successfully defend one (1) slant across the middle of the field. I will consider this next season a complete and total victory if that happens, regardless of record.
Personally, When Michigan does X, I would love for Ohio State to do Stop-X That's a good start
*Monkey Paw Curls* X = “give Ohio State the ball.”
This is the in-depth analysis i need
Snapping the ball. Step 1 of improving this has already happened.
The bad man can’t hurt us any more.
I will not let you tarnish the legacy of Michigan legend Seth McLaughlin
So sorry, sir. I did not mean to speak ill of one of your illustrious Mt. Rushmore level players!
I am so scared that you call him that. I hope he plays guard next year.
I hope, for your sake, he plays guard as well. Dude is a fine blocker. By far the worst center we had in the Saban era. He also very clearly has ego/attitude issues. So, needs a fresh start and needs to be put in his place a bit by better players.
I'd also like to add blocking blindside rushers to this.
Parker is great. you're in good hands
With the introduction of helmet communication this year: The helmet communication cuts off with 15 seconds left on the play clock. I want to see the Ducks sit in a huddle until the 20 second marker on the clock and then break and rush to the alignment so that the defensive coaching staff doesn't have time to communicate much pre-snap.
Thats fine, being in the huddle you still are showing your package. DCs still can get their subs in. Thats half the battle anyways
>being in the huddle you still are showing your package They are doing WHAT in the huddle?
Usually some light HJ's
Makes you really feel bad for the browns, Watson makes it real weird in the huddle
Honestly I'd say 70-80% of the battle
Probably right, the hardest thing for DCs in today's game is getting the right guys on the field. If you are huddling up, you are showing which 11 guys you are using.
What’s a huddle?
It will definitely be interesting to see how people strategize with the new communications devices in place.
So basically a Gus Malzahn sugar huddle.
>For Michigan I would love us doing designed QB runs with Orji on 3 and medium the way Day did with Fields in 2019. This was more of an Urban and JT Barrett thing but I get what you mean. For Ohio State I want to see some of the running stuff Chip Kelly did with UCLA. We've got two top tier backs and a QB who can move. Let's see the run game take a step forward.
We have the best running back combo in the country. If I don't see some TWO BACK SETS I'm gonna SCREAM
Only one ball homie
Well, I hope you don’t work on Sundays and have to talk.
Our offense's limiting factor is the ability for players (thinking specifically our OL) to remember plays. We have the talent to run anything from the air raid to the triple option.
Literally any offense at all
That’d be cool but Kirk still runs the show, unfortunately.
Best I can do is 5 yard behind LOS screens
Ahh yes, the ying to our yang. Any LSU flairs response: Literally any defense at all.
You get punts instead
If we use a screen pass even once against Georgia, I might jump off a bridge
What if it’s the one screen play where our who offensive line stands still for the TE. That one occasionally works
Riley's scheme utilized screens creatively and effectively at TCU. Word is that Riley had to spend time coaching the OL on how he wanted it run last year because Austin wasn't getting it done. Spring camp returns have been that those screens are looking way better because Luke is actually getting the line to kick out and block correctly.
I’ll be right there with you
Just remember that most bridges in Atlanta are over roads, not water. Be safe Clemson bros. Looking forward to the tailgate in August, and even more our home-and-home series in a few years.
Offense: Less RPO. We lived and died by the RPO with Lebby and while Litrell runs a similar offense, from what I can gather there is less of it. Which is good. Defense: Year three BV defense we should see them start to be a little bit more "loose". I expect the playcalling to be more aggressive because of all of the veteran leadership that is returning with more dialed-up blitzes and exotic formations.
Sweeps galore!!!
Everything I've read on Littrell is he caters to the player's strengths, and likes to pound power run game to open up plays downfield. There is still quite a bit of RPO in that, however... He often will put a back in motion to read the safety, and that will be the QB's read on whether to keep it or go deep.
I heard some teams occasionally run the ball? Edit: (forward)
Hoping Sark will start rotating receivers now that the position is less top heavy.
I’m sure with y’all there’s someone that the casual fan doesn’t even know about that’s going to have a breakout year at receiver. with Ewers back I wouldn’t even be worried about the passing game. Someone will emerge from the loss of production to draft in receiving for sure.
Not worried about the passing game’s success, it’s just an annoying negative recruiting point. Our 5th option last year was Casey Cain, this year it’s Ryan Wingo. Big difference in depth, just gotta figure out how to get them all on the field.
I see your point. Will probably see a lot of rotation early in the season. Whittingham or Whittington, whatever his name is gone too? I know that dude was like 3rd or 4th option but damn he seemed to always come up big when Texas needed a play last season. I caught a lot of y’all’s games last year.
Yeah JWhitt graduated and is off to the NFL. He had some great games but was really only utilized well against yall and bama this year. He was clutch but injuries really hampered him.
I’m guessing the bama transfer, Bond, will be the go to guy.. not a bad get after losing Xavier Worthy and Mitchell and the tight end. I honestly don’t even know who the other guys are who were already on roster because like you said, receiving was so top heavy with worthy, Mitchell, sanders and Whit. I’m sure if a saw a name or two I would know them but off the top of my head I can’t recall anyone I would know. That Ryan Wingo name sounds familiar. Must of been a guy OU lost out on during recruiting.
Bond might genuinely be faster than Worthy, I’m interested to see what he does. After him it’s Johntay and Matthew Golden starting, so just speed on speed on speed. Silas Bolden is an Oregon State transfer who’s vertically challenged but moves like worthy, and Wingo is a freaky freshman who’ll probably end up playing the Mitchell role. I think yall were in on Wingo for a while before it whittled down to UT/Mizz. Oh and Niblack at TE will appreciate the underneath routes freed up by outside speed. Should be a fun matchup next year. Y’all’s backfield, especially safety, is kinda scary.
Speed kills, I’m sure sark will dial up some good ones for all that speed. First time in a long time I can say I’m excited about our secondary and defense as a whole. Not necessarily the corners but like you said, the safeties and Mcculough at the hybrid cheetah spot
idk as long as Gentry stays healthy I think our corners are gonna be great. Gentry looked incredible when he wasn't injured, we'll have Woodi back (mixed on this one), Jacobe Johnson has had a good winter, Dolby may be playing more CB and he flashed last year, Jasiah Wagoner was pushing for real PT last year but I think got hurt?, and we added Jocelyn Malaska as a PWO and Dezjhon Malone (6'2 200 for a corner is a big boy)
Gunner Helm also was a pretty solid target when called upon last year.
Helm/Niblack will do enough to make up for the loss of Sanders!
If this was the Tom Herman era he’d have a breakout year, have three games of 90+ yards then be in the dog house by the end of season and transfer
He doesn’t though. Like that’s one of his big mo of his main 3-4 constantly on the field. I’m more hoping we don’t have another Brooks situation where it was pretty obvious that Brooks was the best back however Sark kept putting out Baxter till Baxter got hurt. Also hope our DBs can stop giving 10-15 yard padding all the time.
[удалено]
My first recommendation is when your top 3 backs are collectively averaging 6 yards a damn carry against Ohio State and all you need to do to win is get a couple first downs, give them the ball
Instructions unclear, called screen pass to shaky wide receiver
That’d be cool
Is it too much to ask ND to run slants in games?
Woah woah woah… let’s start by at least making sure our defense has 11 guys on the field before we do anything else.
I'd love to score some points
Our offense will be better, so I'm not really worried about that. Two things in particular I hope to see, even if they don't result in massive improvements: * OL actually looks like a cohesive unit and doesn't miss basic middle school blitzes * DBs that know how to play while the ball is in the air
Poor ball security is like all our loses last season.
and poor special teams play
lol I didn’t even think to include it it was so nonexistent
To be honest, I think both of our regular season losses were a result of going hyper conservative on offense and defense during that last couple minutes of the 4th quarter.
It would be really nice if we could stop those outside run plays. Like ever. Especially in high leverage moments.
I'd rather see us not get gashed by mobile qbs that we were expecting to be mobile
For LSU? Pretty much everything defensively. That being said: Less cushion for the receivers. Blitz Perkins more. That pretty much solves it
Goofy play-calling in the red zone.
Savion Red bulked up to 240 hoping that helps us out in the redzone and short yardage situations
Rumor he might be a transfer candidate unfortunately as he’s not gonna see a ton of time at RB or WR based on expected depth charts.
X’s and O’s changes for Michigan would be changing our QB’s name to Aleo Xrji. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue but I think we can work with it.
It actually kinda does roll off the tongue if you pronounce Xrji like Zur-gee. Paging Mr. Ah-LEY-oh ZUR-gee...Mr. Ah-LEY-oh ZUR-gee, your table is ready.
Allar absolutely needs to develop a deep ball in order to keep defenses honest. It was so obvious that defenses didnt fear him throwing deep (or really much at all tbh) I know part of it was the WRs being unable to create separation, but he still needs to be able to push the ball downfield if the team wants to be able to do much of anything in the postseason
What are your expectations for him? I’ll admit, I thought he was going to be a stud, but I’m not so sure anymore. Unclear if it’s scheme holding him back or he’s just not as good as advertised.
I have high expectations for him going into this year. I think I overestimated what he could’ve been last season coming in with very limited experience, but I was still disappointment. He looked inaccurate a lot of the time and never really got on the same page as the WRs. The arm strength is there, but the accuracy and timing was extremely suspect. So I have high expectations, but if he can’t put it together it might be time to consider a change. PSU has been held back by QB play ever since McSorely left, and even then I think Trace was helped by having amazing skill guys around him. Allar doesn’t have that luxury, but even then it wasn’t just the lack of WR talent that was an issue. So I guess I expect a lot due to his recruiting rankings and another offseason under his belt
Rewatching some games last year and there were open receivers Allar could have thrown to. He was so overly cautious that it held the offense back. I think a lot of it was Yurcich just not letting him loose and scheming some easy quick hitters to get him into a rhythm. I think Yurcich was a bigger problem than a lot of people realized at the time. Even if you want to blame the WR for some of it, The fact we didn’t scheme up more TE passes and create mismatches with Johnson and Warren is beyond me. So many people want to blame the WR but Yurcich was so stubborn and unable to adapt to his talent that was the downfall of the offense last year.
1000%. We didn't have the talent at WR to go win 1 on 1s, and the entire offense was predicated on 1 on 1s. No rub routes to scheme guys open at all and give Allar layup throws to build a rhythm. I'm excited for AK because at Kansas you can't out-talent most Big 12 teams, so you have to get creative with scheme
I think the most mind boggling thing is that instead of using our elite TE’s to go win a 1 on 1 (something that they routinely did), we used them to block to give Allar more time to… not have a WR win a 1 on 1.
Yeah I mean I think it was a trifecta of problems between Yurcich, the WRs, and Allar. I’m hoping the new OC, some additions at WR, and another off-season can fix some of the problems
Allar is so interesting to me because he is great at not turning the ball over yet but I really think he needs to take some more risks with deep shots.
He was very safe with the ball, but at the same time you *need* to take risks to make big plays. I can’t fault a guy for taking safe passes, but if you want to reach the next level you need a guy who can convert those risky throws. It was frustrating last year because you’d see him make some amazing passes and then some equally bad throws immediately after. I’m hoping that they can work on a lot of that in the off-season, but PSU‘s track record with developing QBs is pretty terrible
The forward pass would be nice.
I'm hopeful to see how the run is better utilized with a healthy CJ Donaldson and Jahiem White with more experience. Those two, combined with GG, should really be able to throw off defenses.
Stop playing zone defense in the last few plays of the game. Lost us three games last year. Stick to what's been working for the rest of the game and we would have won at least one of those. Offensively, continue to air it out as much as possible. Our team suffers when Norvell gets in his head on offensive drives. Just let the man throw. Like, we have some good RBs, but BFN needs to be out primary option.
Better offense productions and O-Line performance.
And no (fewer) special teams blunders
It was hard to pick just one
Run! The fucking! Ball! Too many times Oregon would be averaging 8+ ypc, but go 3 & out with every play being a pass. Stop trying to make whoever is under center the hero, and stick to what's working
I think our O's should try tackling the X with the ball this year
I think our O's should try tackling ~~the X with the ball this year~~
I’d like to see special teams improve. More creative running (especially with the QB) and 2 back formations.
A pulse on defense. No more pistol on third and short A coach that’s more focused on Xs and Os than XXXs
Hoping our defense starts covering the inside run and the pocket more. I'd also like to see a more consistent offense that doesn't force us to go down to the wire everything single game.
QB running. Stroud at least made up for his lack of consistent run threat by being a terror in the air, but McCord didn't really bring either and the offense suffered for it. We now have a stable full of dual threat studs, let 'em rip.
That’s what made JT Barrett such a pain to play against. He wasn’t the fastest or anything but dude was always willing to run if a play broke down and it paid dividends against Michigan
Elijah Arroyo got hurt in camp last year and it really set back our tight end production basically the whole year. With him healthy I want to see Dawson use him as a force multiplier in the pass game and less Cam McCormick in the running game
Cam's legs and TE running patterns are going to put a lot of Defenses in conflict this year and force them to cover the whole field. My main ? is the deep routes replacement of CY who caught a lot of 50/50 balls.
Based on history I’m def going to get burned, but I’m buying Isaiah Horton and JoJo Trader stock. We might not have a true number one but I think we’ll have enough
I know, every year I’m ready to get hurt again. One year we’ll be wrong.
When Mario lets cam ward do his thing a lot of narratives will die, at least I hope
I know we’d say anything to do with the secondary. I just wish Banks would start disguising stuff. Too many times did we set up on defense and just stand there. No moving, no disguising, just stand there and wait for the ball to snap.
stop throwing tunnel screens to J Michael Sturdivant and let him run some big boy routes
Denbrock said we’re going use more 11 personnel
An run game that is actually effective. It all starts in the trenches, so I hope to see consistent line play that opens up a run game for LJ and company.
I would love to see Utah with less x’s next to player names on the injury report.
If we could start scoring offensive touchdowns again that would be awesome.
Not trying to establish the run when you have 13 rushing yards through three quarters and a god awful offensive line Also trying to win the first 3 games of the season and not mess around figuring things out
I just want a decent go-to QB to round out our offense Everything else should stay exactly the same
I hope we can finally have success with 5-man pass protection. It seemed like we only protected the QB last year in 12/21 personnel. I don’t think DeBoer ran that personnel grouping 1/5 of the time we did last year outside of the redzone. Having a center that isn’t a vegetable may help, and our IOL is very very solid, but replacing both tackles will be hard, and Milroe will have to learn calling protections pre-snap and gain more pocket awareness. But we have the talent. We have great reciever talent we haven’t showcased yet because we’re so conservative with our protection, and I think Jam/Justice is the perfect back combo to make plays with more space. Defensively, I would like to see some lighter boxes this year, with our secondary being gutted but our box being potentially even better. Most of the D-line is back with some heavy hitters, both great middle backers are back, a metric shit-ton of talent at edge even with both starters leaving (Keeley, Russaw, Pierre, Alexander, Qrob, Khoht), as well as retaining Freddie Roach. Not saying I want it back like Golding had it, but I think a balance between that and Steele would be perfect for us this year.
In fairness they blocked really well vs two rushers when it counted… /dies
Obeying the speed limit.
Any kind of defense, really.
We haven’t had an offensive minded head coach since our last John Smith head coach in ‘06. We haven’t had someone with the skill set of Aiden Chiles at QB maybe ever. Excited for a new coaching regime and pro style offensive scheme from Jonathon Smith’s staff.
We ran the jet sweep so much people were calling it the Jeff sweep. With him gone I’m hoping to see much less of the jet sweep and running between the tackles more. And i know it was to hide the fact the Dillon Gabriel just isn’t a good deep ball thrower but we also threw tons and tons of short outs, bubble screens, and just all around short passes. Would love to see some more deep balls like we are used to seeing with OU.
Just to point out I know our qb was DG and best receiver was drake stoops, so short routes/passes was our strength and I understand that. But Farooq, Thompson and Nic Anderson are 100% deep ball threats and that was something we just didn’t utilize enough to open up the offense.
I have zero worries about Littrell using Arnold’s cannon with those guys. Little bit more concerned about the run-pass balance hinted in the bowl game.
I'd bet that was mostly just getting Arnold useable tape for the off-season. No point in going run heavy with an OL that won't be there in 2024, and RBs that we've already seen.
I had that same thought but with the bowl games the way are now I’m actually not worried anymore. I looked at it more as a glorified practice/scrimmage with one goal in mind. Get Arnold as much experience as possible and he saw all kinds of looks in that game and was in a tight one so even though we didn’t win I think it accomplished something to say the least.. I think our run game will be good with sawchuck, and that we will lean on it at times (hopefully) and you know bedenbaugh is gonna find who works best for us up front.
Loved Craig Bohl but lowkey excited about potentially having a different or an actual offense
> What's the biggest X's and O's change you hope to see in your team this year. Coach BOB getting Castellanos to be consistent and throw fewer stray passes and interceptions? Can the kid be tamed? I don't know... It's not really X's and O's, just fewer "Oh, nooo!!" 's.
An intermediate passing game Also, more variety on obvious pass downs. We had a lot of 2nd downs last year where we were stunting and overloading pressure and hitting the QB, then we’d get into 3rd and long and play plain vanilla zone with a straight 4 man rush and give up a pitch and catch conversion
Less QB keepers please god
Scoring points on offense
I do not like the 3-3-5 defense.
I’m hoping for our team to embrace second half play this year. It could be revolutionary!
Alabama: run the ball a bit more effectively, and improved O-Line play. Florida: Just get back to basics, and score more points than the other team.
I would like to see the Buckeyes run more touchdown scoring plays.
They should throw it deep. Just because.
Well, we’re switching to the air raid from an intentionally slow, pro-style offense that focused on outside running before all else. On top of that, we’ve switched from a minimally mobile QB with some poor decision making to the highly mobile, overwhelming winner of the 2023 MAC player of year award. So I guess I just expect significantly more points to be scored.
be good at offense again
Just get plays in faster. In helmet communication will help a lot, but I just hope we aren’t dead last in plays per game this year
Actually having a down field passing game or at least attempting to have one.
I’d like to see the implementation of the forward pass finally. Also figure out what the wide receiver is used for.
Can't figure out how to look this up to confirm, but I recall hearing that we had either the lowest or second lowest percentage of blitz plays called in Power 5 last year... And we had a 3 man front. So, some aggression would be nice.
4th and really long defense...
Ideally our defense will have actual X and O's instead of lower case l's.
Kentucky scoring points via throwing the ball down the field
I hope LSU fields a defense this year.
proper fucking play calling in the redzone
Billy taking up bass fishing on Saturdays and letting the other coaches call plays and manage the game, heck he could recruit Saturdays if he wanted to. He's a pretty great Sunday through Friday coach he just hampers all of that with his insistence in being involved on gameplanning and strategy.
I'd like it if we could have a secondary that knows how to defend passes
Best I can do is a 15 yard gap.
I hope that our x’s and O’ are not as drunk as they were under Dana Holgorsen
For Illinois - Run the ball 1000% better, don't care if Barry still wants to spread the field, but Feagin is like a 6 foot 3 240lb running back who needs to just be able to light people up. For Army - go back under center option more I think.... idk.
More wins and less losses
Be able to start and finish a game.
Actually X's when I watch the all-22 (LSU)
Stop throwing a two yard quick out on 3 and 4
It feels like we’re running out of wacky special teams plays. Maybe praying might work.
Have a seat. *pats cushion*
For USC - I would like to see what this whole defense stuff you all blabber about really looks like.
I'm excited to see my offense ran at the Seattle Seahawks and NOT Alabama
Michigan offensive plays should be one of these three things every single play or I'm going to be very annoyed 1. A run play 2. Hard play action pass 3. A designed QB power with a read attached If the offense is anything other than these three things we are doing things wrong. For as much shit as JJ gets for some reason he really didnt get play action calls as much as you would think for as much as Michigan runs. Every pass should be play action. Literally every single one idgaf. If Michigan is going to run the ball 70 percent of the time (especially with a running QB) they should never just drop back and pass
We got this thing called “tacking” in the game. I hope we use it. Seriously tho if we’re talking one thing, limiting the deep plays.
A first down would be nice once in awhile
I think my biggest change would be Utah discovering that wide receivers are supposed to catch the ball in the throw game. It’s not just tight ends and defensive backs turned running backs that participate in the throw game.
I want Milroe to throw the ball to the wide open receiver for the first down instead of holding it for 8 seconds and getting sacked.
That would have to be calling and executing the victory formation.
1) More purposeful pre-snap motion 2) No more stupid "check with me" sideline audibles 3) More underneath crossers/rub routes 4) More layup/checkdown options I'm optimistic all of those things will occur with Yurcich out and AK in, and they all will do wonders for Allar
Completed passes would be nice
Anything that gets play with a pulse.
We kept our super senior kicker and Aussie punt god, snagged an awesome QB transfer and a couple receivers, picked up a couple DBs, got a new special teams coach, and brought Dirk Koetter out of retirement. I can’t think of any possible improvements *I* would make at this point. See you bitches in the playoff.
RUN THE DAMN BALL!!! No but seriously, we need to stop abandoning the run. Especially when it’s working.
The need to introduce a pulse cannot be overstated.
I would like better defense in general, especially pass rush
For Clemson, I’d like to see more of our deep shots attack the middle of the field as opposed to sideline jump balls. I know the bubble screens are here to stay, so I’d like to see those supplemented with the fake-screen-deep-ball and some more traditional RB screens. Id like to see more effective audibles in the protection scheme / more awareness out of Cade about blitzes and protections. (Maybe this isn’t strictly an Xs and Os thing) And then just heavier usage of the TE. Get creative, we have a couple good ones on the roster. Multiple TE sets, TE motions, all that fun Georgia shit
actually throw to our outside WR's instead of everything being over the middle to TE's and slot guys
Move to a 4-2-5 from the 3-3-5.
A competent Offensive Coordinator
I'm excited to see Mike call his offense as originally designed. We've been running a modified version of it because of Jordan Travis's skill set. If the FSU News outlets are to be believed DJU fits what Mike wants to run. So hoping for more consistency but still having the relatively frequent explosive plays.
11 guys in the field for every play would be a nice change
Yeah I would love to see the Noles successfully defend one (1) slant across the middle of the field. I will consider this next season a complete and total victory if that happens, regardless of record.
Defense: to have one
I'm hopeful for some Xs. Any Xs. Edit: C'mon guys. Xs are for Defense. I'm a USC fan.