FanPost

Screw This, I'm Fixing KU's Offense

Our coaches are helpless so here I go, I’m fixing our crappy offense. If you don’t like it you can go to hell (sorry, haven't had my cwoffee today). What are my credentials? Well I played sparingly on offense in high school and I’m average at football video games. Sound good? Here we go.

Get the ball to playmakers out in space

Calling a halfback dive every single play is stupid. Our offense looked like the Dillon Panthers’ offense at the beginning of season two in which they ran Smash Williams up the gut for two yards every play. Our offense needs to utilize HB screens. Our offensive line is small and athletic, not big and brutish. We saw that this past week when a 1-AA team was able to bull rush our kids right up the line.

So lets play to our line’s strength. A HB screen is a great way to do this. The line doesn’t have to hold as long and we can get them in space.

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Another way to use screens is a jailbreak screen. Have one WR come back and let the Olineman get downfield. Once again, this allows our big boys to get in space and take the war from the trenches to the open field. Grind em up!

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Get creative with what we do now

Ah, the bubble screen. A staple of the Mangino offense. Looks like Gill likes to use it too. Hey, we got speed at WR and I'm all for getting the ball to our playmakers any way possible. It is also a good way for a young QB to get comfortable and move the chains. So lets take the little things we do and do often, like the bubble screen, and get creative all up in herr. Like...fake bubble screen runs:

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Pick could run this well with his running ability (more on this in a second). Basically the defense smells screen, plus to do a hard fake to the tailback to draw the linebackers and safeties even more. Another play that requires the line to pull and uses mis-direction. And if we contine to use WR screens and quick hitch passes, this play could be effective for a nice 8 yard gain or a home run on the ground.

Use our athletic quarterback
Good gravy. If you wanna start Webb fine, but when Pick is/was in there, use his speed! We saw the kid run last year, he was fast and effecient. So why are we dropping him back in the pocket like Peyton Manning? Our strait-ahead, traditional running game wasn't working at all against the mighty Bison, so lets get creative(r).Bootleg_4_medium
The bootleg is a great way to force the defense into a no-win situation. Here, the QB fakes a handoff to the RB, then rolls the opposite way. The defense is likely already biting hard towards the RB (especially after a few early runs to set this up) and the QB has options: someone short, someone about 10 yards downfield, and two deep options. The beauty of this play is that if no one is immediately open short, the QB can take a shot at a one-on-one coverage situation downfield, or run the ball himself for yards. We could also just instruct the WRs to block and make this a strait run. I'm all about bootleggin baby!

Remember when we kept running the option last year with a QB not really suited to running it? Yeah I wasn't a fan either. We got the personnel to do it now though. I saw we make this a staple of the offense if the traditional running game fails:

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Beautiful. But you are saying, KU Grad 08, remember when we got the ball to Patterson how deadly he looked? How can we use guys like him, Beshears, etc more involved without chucking it downfield? Well, why don't we use the option with them? Fake a running back dive, look around a slot WR and then go that way. Again, make the defense bite on a fake and get fast guys into open space. Or actually hand the ball off to the running back a few times. Just confuse the defense. TRICK EM

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Basically, I am advocating our offense use more open field. A few pounds up the middle is ok, and I'm fine with some of our pass plays. But man, we just looked downright VANILLA all night. Boring. Predictable. I was really dissapointed in Chuck Long. We have skilled guys. Lets use them. Using misdirection and getting creative might be the spark our offense needs to start moving the chains more and not relying on the big play (and also avoiding the dreaded 3rd and 8 we kept seeing). Time to start driving, get your keys out.

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