Old Man Mike
Fast as Lightning!
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As far as to whether Coach CAN even do what he wants with the running game: It seems to me that not many have watched [much] of the Cincinnati offense when Coach was there and had a QB who could do the things that he needed done. Obviously Tommy The Good Soldier couldn't do all the things, but Everett cannot do all the things either.
What Coach wants, and what he had at Cincy whether it was a Pike-type QB or a Collaros-type QB, was a QB who could speed up the pace of the play-calling without messing things up himself due to nervousness, confusion on defense reads, lack of full-field vision, or whatever the complexity of factors is that thwarts Everett from competently doing this.
We KNOW that Everett cannot do this [at least yet] because Kelly says that he wants to increase pace all the time in press conferences but in the games we cannot sustain any real pace for more than two or three plays without mucking something up. So, what does this have to do with Coach's running philosophy?
If Kelly can get the offense moving at a fast pace, then the Kelly Air Attack begins to terrorize the opposing DC and, without much time to think, he begins playing Kelly in what amounts to Nickel and Dime principles. THAT's when all of a sudden "Isaiah Pead" is ripping through the front "six" and is rolling towards the goalline. Or that's when Collaros [or even when it presents itself, Pike] takes off through the wide-open unaccounted-for spaces and cruises to a first down.
But it's mainly the pace and the superior design of the passing attack [AND proper pre-snap choices of a limited set of alternative plays] which allows this. Tommy could do the pre-snap stuff and that's why we mostly survived. Everett can't. And Everett isn't relaxed and confident enough [except when he's free-lancing --- then he's great] to competently run the fast pace. Thank Goodness he's such a fabulous athlete.
Coach is trying all manner of gimmicks as games go on to try to cover up this weakness, but he begins each game as if this is the one where Everett gets the Light turned on. UNC wasn't it. What I believe that few remember is that all THREE of our first series were colossal screw-ups. Series one was the pocket fumble-not-quite-a-pass. Series three was the pick six. But series two was a just-about pick six also. It was a terrible read with the corner sitting on the route who was one step from a touchdown. I wonder how we all would have felt down 21 after three series??
Kelly DOES want to pass to set up the run, but to do so the passing game must be consistently run, and the passing game must be properly checked out of when the open spaces are there. We're not doing that yet and it must drive Kelly crazy. See: all the times when we can read his lips when Everett comes to the sidelines and Kelly says: "Why'd you run that play?"
... one other random unrelated thing that I noticed both against UNC and some against Stanford: Coach has apparently told Cam [and maybe the other RBs] NOT to assume that an interior rusher will be sustainably blocked. Early in the year, Cam went immediately to the logical blitzer and stuck him. This last game particularly, he looked hard at the middle of the OLine and stepped forward to help seal it. This left the edge blitzer free, and Everett [who may well have been told of this strategy] would handle the edge blitzer by himself. Not ideal, but telling about the middle of the OLine [I don't think this is Elmer by the way, he seems to be starting to drive opponents' brains out]. I of course don't know if this is correct, but Cam has always been a superior blitz analyst and dependable at sticking his body in there where needed.
What Coach wants, and what he had at Cincy whether it was a Pike-type QB or a Collaros-type QB, was a QB who could speed up the pace of the play-calling without messing things up himself due to nervousness, confusion on defense reads, lack of full-field vision, or whatever the complexity of factors is that thwarts Everett from competently doing this.
We KNOW that Everett cannot do this [at least yet] because Kelly says that he wants to increase pace all the time in press conferences but in the games we cannot sustain any real pace for more than two or three plays without mucking something up. So, what does this have to do with Coach's running philosophy?
If Kelly can get the offense moving at a fast pace, then the Kelly Air Attack begins to terrorize the opposing DC and, without much time to think, he begins playing Kelly in what amounts to Nickel and Dime principles. THAT's when all of a sudden "Isaiah Pead" is ripping through the front "six" and is rolling towards the goalline. Or that's when Collaros [or even when it presents itself, Pike] takes off through the wide-open unaccounted-for spaces and cruises to a first down.
But it's mainly the pace and the superior design of the passing attack [AND proper pre-snap choices of a limited set of alternative plays] which allows this. Tommy could do the pre-snap stuff and that's why we mostly survived. Everett can't. And Everett isn't relaxed and confident enough [except when he's free-lancing --- then he's great] to competently run the fast pace. Thank Goodness he's such a fabulous athlete.
Coach is trying all manner of gimmicks as games go on to try to cover up this weakness, but he begins each game as if this is the one where Everett gets the Light turned on. UNC wasn't it. What I believe that few remember is that all THREE of our first series were colossal screw-ups. Series one was the pocket fumble-not-quite-a-pass. Series three was the pick six. But series two was a just-about pick six also. It was a terrible read with the corner sitting on the route who was one step from a touchdown. I wonder how we all would have felt down 21 after three series??
Kelly DOES want to pass to set up the run, but to do so the passing game must be consistently run, and the passing game must be properly checked out of when the open spaces are there. We're not doing that yet and it must drive Kelly crazy. See: all the times when we can read his lips when Everett comes to the sidelines and Kelly says: "Why'd you run that play?"
... one other random unrelated thing that I noticed both against UNC and some against Stanford: Coach has apparently told Cam [and maybe the other RBs] NOT to assume that an interior rusher will be sustainably blocked. Early in the year, Cam went immediately to the logical blitzer and stuck him. This last game particularly, he looked hard at the middle of the OLine and stepped forward to help seal it. This left the edge blitzer free, and Everett [who may well have been told of this strategy] would handle the edge blitzer by himself. Not ideal, but telling about the middle of the OLine [I don't think this is Elmer by the way, he seems to be starting to drive opponents' brains out]. I of course don't know if this is correct, but Cam has always been a superior blitz analyst and dependable at sticking his body in there where needed.
