What I saw and what I think it means for next week - OFFENSE

[UMFarArcher]

We were wound too tight. Way too tight.

Coaches for decades have had the same problem with their teams - too much self-determined pressure to perform, too much thinking instead of playing, straddling the line of near-panic, and not enough loosey-goosey and doing what you have done a thousand times.

I recall a story Bear Bryant told, his team was too wound up and was getting it's *** kicked in the first half - and he was out of ideas. So, on inspiration, he told them in effect, "we're getting our asses kicked by a far superior team, and there's no helping it as you're all trying your best. So what I want you to do in this second half is just go out there and have fun." They relaxed, they came back strong, having fun, doing what they knew to do, and won the game.

While I hate this SOB, in 1977, Holtz was coach at Arkansas, won ten games, and was playing #2 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. He suspended five top players and sent them home, and several of the black players threatened to boycott the game themselves, leaving Holtz to proclaim, "I'm one step short of suicide." Holtz always joked and did his little tricks prior to kick offs, taking the players minds off the building pressure, and just as they were to leave the locker room to run onto the field, he shouted, "Last eleven guys out of here have to start!" Clearly outmanned and out-talented, Arkansas won that game 31-6.

Somebody better do something prior to kickoff next week to calm these guys down. They are so talented, they've worked so hard, and they expect so much out of themselves - a very debilitating state of mind.

 

[fincane]

I have concerns about Morris frankly. Until I see otherwise I'm of the belief that Fisch was a MAJOR part of what we saw last year. He still looks erratic and frantic to me when forced to progress through his targets. I'm not saying this as if to suggest that he's not solid. But, again, we're going to need him to be outstanding. I'm not sure he's there especially without Fisch.

I'm not sure where they go with SColey but it may not be an experiment to run next week. uF looks physical and solid to me and I don't think we can afford to miss opportunities. I'm all for figuring things out but we have other guys and next week may not be the time.

Fisch has become a legend here and I'm not sure why. He was an above average OC. He wasn't a genius. He contributed to our struggles against superior competition as much as Morris. Could he call a couple more fades to Lockhart in the redzone against FSU? At least Morris has the excuse of not practicing that week because of the ankle.

 

[Loafers]

Morris is becoming a concern, one in which I didn't expect. I like many of u watched the practice videos, and he was making the same mistakes. Many on here stated they were happy the d was making plays but it showed up again last night. This can't be dismissed as just.a bad game when it's been happening in practice. I know perryman got one in practice on a real bad decision and I can't remember the other one that went for td. Uf is going to be much tougher than fau. I know it's sort of cliche to say but we must start fast.

 

[SFbayCane]

I have concerns about Morris frankly. Until I see otherwise I'm of the belief that Fisch was a MAJOR part of what we saw last year. He still looks erratic and frantic to me when forced to progress through his targets. I'm not saying this as if to suggest that he's not solid. But, again, we're going to need him to be outstanding. I'm not sure he's there especially without Fisch.

I'm not sure where they go with SColey but it may not be an experiment to run next week. uF looks physical and solid to me and I don't think we can afford to miss opportunities. I'm all for figuring things out but we have other guys and next week may not be the time.

Fisch has become a legend here and I'm not sure why. He was an above average OC. He wasn't a genius. He contributed to our struggles against superior competition as much as Morris. Could he call a couple more fades to Lockhart in the redzone against FSU? At least Morris has the excuse of not practicing that week because of the ankle.

Completely disagree. Fisch was a top shelf offensive coordinator. We were fortunate to have him.

In the macro picture, this will always be a problem for UM because of our pay structures. We seem to be okay paying good money for a head coach but we still under-pay for coordinators. ITs always going to be a 2-3 revolving door for our coordinators.....unless they suck, then we can keep them forever.

 

[skyman]

LAst year first game we had a ton, TON of drops. I remember I think Hurns dropped one on a third down conversion and as they went to sideline Morris was pointing to himself like my bad, my bad...

That is a better reaction than trying to big time on the freshman. From listening to the radio on drive over to stadium they said Morris and Coley had to be separated. Sr qb should be trying to build up the freshman wr. Come on.

 

[Kyle]

I agree that Morris seems to be affected by the hype and so perhaps feels pressure to make big plays all the time. Thus forcing passes and apparently losing his cool when things go wrong. After the 2nd Coley drop he didn't just look angry, he looked like he wanted to kill someone. As with everything, there is a fine line. Here, a line between showing strong leadership and making people around you better, versus making people afraid of you and afraid to do anything which will incur your wrath. And of course that usually leads to making more mistakes, not fewer.

To be fair though it was reported that shortly afterwards he went over to both Dorsett and Coley and gave them some encouragement. That's what i want to see more of.

 

[fincane]

I have concerns about Morris frankly. Until I see otherwise I'm of the belief that Fisch was a MAJOR part of what we saw last year. He still looks erratic and frantic to me when forced to progress through his targets. I'm not saying this as if to suggest that he's not solid. But, again, we're going to need him to be outstanding. I'm not sure he's there especially without Fisch.

I'm not sure where they go with SColey but it may not be an experiment to run next week. uF looks physical and solid to me and I don't think we can afford to miss opportunities. I'm all for figuring things out but we have other guys and next week may not be the time.

Fisch has become a legend here and I'm not sure why. He was an above average OC. He wasn't a genius. He contributed to our struggles against superior competition as much as Morris. Could he call a couple more fades to Lockhart in the redzone against FSU? At least Morris has the excuse of not practicing that week because of the ankle.

Completely disagree. Fisch was a top shelf offensive coordinator. We were fortunate to have him.

In the macro picture, this will always be a problem for UM because of our pay structures. We seem to be okay paying good money for a head coach but we still under-pay for coordinators. ITs always going to be a 2-3 revolving door for our coordinators.....unless they suck, then we can keep them forever.

Forget about winning the games because our defense was bad enough to lose game for us but did Fisch ever outscheme a defense with more talent than us to keep us in a game? Virginia Tech in 2011? Maybe. Even then that offense had Lamar, Benjamin and Streeter. Guys who got drafted. Fall in love with him because he isn't Patrick Nix if you want but its not like he was scheming Wake Forest talent into high point totals.

 

[bobbydigius]

I have concerns about Morris frankly. Until I see otherwise I'm of the belief that Fisch was a MAJOR part of what we saw last year. He still looks erratic and frantic to me when forced to progress through his targets. I'm not saying this as if to suggest that he's not solid. But, again, we're going to need him to be outstanding. I'm not sure he's there especially without Fisch.

I'm not sure where they go with SColey but it may not be an experiment to run next week. uF looks physical and solid to me and I don't think we can afford to miss opportunities. I'm all for figuring things out but we have other guys and next week may not be the time.

Fisch has become a legend here and I'm not sure why. He was an above average OC. He wasn't a genius. He contributed to our struggles against superior competition as much as Morris. Could he call a couple more fades to Lockhart in the redzone against FSU? At least Morris has the excuse of not practicing that week because of the ankle.

Completely disagree. Fisch was a top shelf offensive coordinator. We were fortunate to have him.

In the macro picture, this will always be a problem for UM because of our pay structures. We seem to be okay paying good money for a head coach but we still under-pay for coordinators. ITs always going to be a 2-3 revolving door for our coordinators.....unless they suck, then we can keep them forever.

Forget about winning the games because our defense was bad enough to lose game for us but did Fisch ever outscheme a defense with more talent than us to keep us in a game? Virginia Tech in 2011? Maybe. Even then that offense had Lamar, Benjamin and Streeter. Guys who got drafted. Fall in love with him because he isn't Patrick Nix if you want but its not like he was scheming Wake Forest talent into high point totals.

Couple things, in one year he made Jacory look decent, and did overhaul our offense into something more than a jump ball. Second, he didn't jump ship for another college job, he went to the NFL, and the reports thus far are very positive.

 

[KingRon2]

I watched the oline a lot including rewinds on plays where we had no gain or seemed not to get a lot of push. I think some people don't realize that fau often sold out to stop run. They had 7 or even 8 close to the line at the snap. Thats why duke had a lot of runs where he was stuffed. Of course when he broke thru that it put him with the safety's one on one which he wins. My point, the oline missed a few blocks especially when pulling but they were often outnumbered and got good push against those they blocked. We also had some rbs cut into the defenders. The failure to execute on short yardage needs to get fixed but overall they played pretty well.

 

[fincane]

I have concerns about Morris frankly. Until I see otherwise I'm of the belief that Fisch was a MAJOR part of what we saw last year. He still looks erratic and frantic to me when forced to progress through his targets. I'm not saying this as if to suggest that he's not solid. But, again, we're going to need him to be outstanding. I'm not sure he's there especially without Fisch.

I'm not sure where they go with SColey but it may not be an experiment to run next week. uF looks physical and solid to me and I don't think we can afford to miss opportunities. I'm all for figuring things out but we have other guys and next week may not be the time.

Fisch has become a legend here and I'm not sure why. He was an above average OC. He wasn't a genius. He contributed to our struggles against superior competition as much as Morris. Could he call a couple more fades to Lockhart in the redzone against FSU? At least Morris has the excuse of not practicing that week because of the ankle.

Completely disagree. Fisch was a top shelf offensive coordinator. We were fortunate to have him.

In the macro picture, this will always be a problem for UM because of our pay structures. We seem to be okay paying good money for a head coach but we still under-pay for coordinators. ITs always going to be a 2-3 revolving door for our coordinators.....unless they suck, then we can keep them forever.

Forget about winning the games because our defense was bad enough to lose game for us but did Fisch ever outscheme a defense with more talent than us to keep us in a game? Virginia Tech in 2011? Maybe. Even then that offense had Lamar, Benjamin and Streeter. Guys who got drafted. Fall in love with him because he isn't Patrick Nix if you want but its not like he was scheming Wake Forest talent into high point totals.

Couple things, in one year he made Jacory look decent, and did overhaul our offense into something more than a jump ball. Second, he didn't jump ship for another college job, he went to the NFL, and the reports thus far are very positive.

He jumped ship to a job where he had an in with the head coach. They spent time in Seattle together. He is an NFL OC so credit is due to him. Being better than Whipple doesn't make you a genius. It makes you competent. The question still remains. When did he on gameday outscheme a more talented defense in his two years here?

 

[k9cane]

I watched the oline a lot including rewinds on plays where we had no gain or seemed not to get a lot of push. I think some people don't realize that fau often sold out to stop run. They had 7 or even 8 close to the line at the snap. Thats why duke had a lot of runs where he was stuffed. Of course when he broke thru that it put him with the safety's one on one which he wins. My point, the oline missed a few blocks especially when pulling but they were often outnumbered and got good push against those they blocked. We also had some rbs cut into the defenders. The failure to execute on short yardage needs to get fixed but overall they played pretty well.

I expect to see a lot of play-action on early downs vs UF. I don't think they'll be able to run the ball on the Gators all that easily...

 

[Awsi Dooger]

My biggest concern was that we didn't use the middle of the field and to be honest, I don't think we really had to.

That was by far my biggest concern. I mentioned it in a summary post last night, that I expected decisive darts over the middle off play action looks, and there was literally nothing that resembled it. It was as if we self-imposed a ban on the middle 40% of the field. Only outside the hash marks was optional on pass routes.

That's idiotic in college football. College defenses are very vulnerable in the short and middle zones compared to the pros, where they disguise things much better.

I was never a huge Fisch fan primarily because of his reluctance to run the ball the optimal 36 to 42 times per game for a warm weather balanced offense. But we didn't create anything last night close to what Fisch's designs would routinely enable. Lu spotlighted it. There were no clever combination routes...nothing. I was desperately trying to rub some credit to the FAU defensive backs but in retrospect I probably overdid it. They are what they are...defenders on a 33 point underdog.

The concern is that college teams generally don't conceal tendencies as well as the pros. As a long time bettor I quickly learned that NFL offenses can look dramatically different in the opener than during preseason. Miami at Washington in 1984 was the gulp example. Marino unleashed plays to Duper and Clayton that were never hinted at in preseason. NFL opening Sundays often can be very high scoring, after the doldrums of August. Defenses are shocked at the transition. Totals are in the high 30s or low 40s and some of them can threaten to go over by halftime. In college it's more a case of you see what you are.

The greatest positive I took from last night was our defense looked bigger and more rugged. In recent years, even against teams of that caliber, too often it looked like 9 defenders instead of 11, and wide open spaces.

 

[bigpurk45]

I just think we didnt show much... and wanted to keep things simple... we will show a lot next week..

 

[Ibisuponatime]

Fisch is now an NFL offensive coordinator ... There's a reason for that.

Back to Lu's original post. I'll echo the concerns over Coley's simplicity. Obviously I hope this is a situation where he called a game with an eye on the UF game, as it almost seemed too obvious that we were ignoring the middle of the field. But it's my understanding that even the verbage used in the office is much more simple. May not mean much, and I think we'll know 100x more after next week.

Loved the fact that it already seems as though we'll have a more clear focus on maintaining a ground game.

 

[fincane]

Fisch is now an NFL offensive coordinator ... There's a reason for that.

Back to Lu's original post. I'll echo the concerns over Coley's simplicity. Obviously I hope this is a situation where he called a game with an eye on the UF game, as it almost seemed too obvious that we were ignoring the middle of the field. But it's my understanding that even the verbage used in the office is much more simple. May not mean much, and I think we'll know 100x more after next week.

Loved the fact that it already seems as though we'll have a more clear focus on maintaining a ground game.

Whipple is back to be an NFL QB coach. After Jacory's degeneration whats the reason for that? Kiffin has failed upward plenty. Bad hires can be made.

 

[Ibisuponatime]

Fisch has become a legend here and I'm not sure why. He was an above average OC. He wasn't a genius. He contributed to our struggles against superior competition as much as Morris. Could he call a couple more fades to Lockhart in the redzone against FSU? At least Morris has the excuse of not practicing that week because of the ankle.

Completely disagree. Fisch was a top shelf offensive coordinator. We were fortunate to have him.

In the macro picture, this will always be a problem for UM because of our pay structures. We seem to be okay paying good money for a head coach but we still under-pay for coordinators. ITs always going to be a 2-3 revolving door for our coordinators.....unless they suck, then we can keep them forever.

Forget about winning the games because our defense was bad enough to lose game for us but did Fisch ever outscheme a defense with more talent than us to keep us in a game? Virginia Tech in 2011? Maybe. Even then that offense had Lamar, Benjamin and Streeter. Guys who got drafted. Fall in love with him because he isn't Patrick Nix if you want but its not like he was scheming Wake Forest talent into high point totals.

Couple things, in one year he made Jacory look decent, and did overhaul our offense into something more than a jump ball. Second, he didn't jump ship for another college job, he went to the NFL, and the reports thus far are very positive.

He jumped ship to a job where he had an in with the head coach. They spent time in Seattle together. He is an NFL OC so credit is due to him. Being better than Whipple doesn't make you a genius. It makes you competent. The question still remains. When did he on gameday outscheme a more talented defense in his two years here?

Fisch's stuff was top notch. In terms of design and preparation they don't do it any better at the college level.

Execution plays into everything. Easy example is ND game. We execute early and the offense drops 21 in a heartbeat on the ND defense.

 

[SFbayCane]

Forget about winning the games because our defense was bad enough to lose game for us but did Fisch ever outscheme a defense with more talent than us to keep us in a game? Virginia Tech in 2011? Maybe. Even then that offense had Lamar, Benjamin and Streeter. Guys who got drafted. Fall in love with him because he isn't Patrick Nix if you want but its not like he was scheming Wake Forest talent into high point totals.

Not trying to balk at your question but, Im not really into breaking stuff down into the micro aspects. It may be a little beyond by capabilities.

That said, Im a big fan of using the marketplace as the best gage of talent. Fisch was an in-demand coordinator who took a promotional job in the NFL. The Cokers, Nix's, Shannon's, et al have yet to find work at the same level as they had at UM.

For me, just watching games it was clear to see that our offense under coach Fisch seemed more productive than before he was here. Any now in one game since, I and some others here are seeing things that concern us.

One man's opinion.

 

[fincane]

Completely disagree. Fisch was a top shelf offensive coordinator. We were fortunate to have him.

In the macro picture, this will always be a problem for UM because of our pay structures. We seem to be okay paying good money for a head coach but we still under-pay for coordinators. ITs always going to be a 2-3 revolving door for our coordinators.....unless they suck, then we can keep them forever.

Forget about winning the games because our defense was bad enough to lose game for us but did Fisch ever outscheme a defense with more talent than us to keep us in a game? Virginia Tech in 2011? Maybe. Even then that offense had Lamar, Benjamin and Streeter. Guys who got drafted. Fall in love with him because he isn't Patrick Nix if you want but its not like he was scheming Wake Forest talent into high point totals.

Couple things, in one year he made Jacory look decent, and did overhaul our offense into something more than a jump ball. Second, he didn't jump ship for another college job, he went to the NFL, and the reports thus far are very positive.

He jumped ship to a job where he had an in with the head coach. They spent time in Seattle together. He is an NFL OC so credit is due to him. Being better than Whipple doesn't make you a genius. It makes you competent. The question still remains. When did he on gameday outscheme a more talented defense in his two years here?

Fisch's stuff was top notch. In terms of design and preparation they don't do it any better at the college level.

Execution plays into everything. Easy example is ND game. We execute early and the offense drops 21 in a heartbeat on the ND defense.

It was would've been 14 pts. Not 21. He is responsible for execution as well. You can't account for drops though. The stats prove there are plenty of guys who do it better.

 

[LuCane]

Forget about winning the games because our defense was bad enough to lose game for us but did Fisch ever outscheme a defense with more talent than us to keep us in a game? Virginia Tech in 2011? Maybe. Even then that offense had Lamar, Benjamin and Streeter. Guys who got drafted. Fall in love with him because he isn't Patrick Nix if you want but its not like he was scheming Wake Forest talent into high point totals.

Not trying to balk at your question but, Im not really into breaking stuff down into the micro aspects. It may be a little beyond by capabilities.

That said, Im a big fan of using the marketplace as the best gage of talent. Fisch was an in-demand coordinator who took a promotional job in the NFL. The Cokers, Nix's, Shannon's, et al have yet to find work at the same level as they had at UM.

For me, just watching games it was clear to see that our offense under coach Fisch seemed more productive than before he was here. Any now in one game since, I and some others here are seeing things that concern us.

One man's opinion.

I actually think Fisch is better suited for the NFL than the college game.

 

[fincane]

Forget about winning the games because our defense was bad enough to lose game for us but did Fisch ever outscheme a defense with more talent than us to keep us in a game? Virginia Tech in 2011? Maybe. Even then that offense had Lamar, Benjamin and Streeter. Guys who got drafted. Fall in love with him because he isn't Patrick Nix if you want but its not like he was scheming Wake Forest talent into high point totals.

Not trying to balk at your question but, Im not really into breaking stuff down into the micro aspects. It may be a little beyond by capabilities.

That said, Im a big fan of using the marketplace as the best gage of talent. Fisch was an in-demand coordinator who took a promotional job in the NFL. The Cokers, Nix's, Shannon's, et al have yet to find work at the same level as they had at UM.

For me, just watching games it was clear to see that our offense under coach Fisch seemed more productive than before he was here. Any now in one game since, I and some others here are seeing things that concern us.

One man's opinion.

Lu had concerns about Fisch's offense after the game against BC too. He questioned the perimeter approach to the passing game. Not challenging the middle of field. His criticisms aren't all that different.