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Luges says that Leach will run the ball vs UK more than he has in his career. He will force UK out of the 3/8 by running Kylin down their throats.
Costello has to make better decisions w/ the ball. Take the underneath throws.
Leach has to add wrinkles to his scheme that involve running the ball more.
I expect this as well. I think he would have done that Saturday against Arkansas had Kylin not gotten hurt.
I'll be pretty surprised if we do
I think our game plan got shot in the foot Saturday night when Kylin went out. I think Leach had planned on running him a lot if Odom pulled out the Washington 3/8 defense. Take the underneath throws and run Kylin. I kinda think that effected Costello too. Kylin took a huge piece of the game plan with him.Quote:
Originally Posted by msstate7
Yeah. I am going to have to see that with my own eyes before I believe it.Quote:
Originally Posted by msstate7
I think he'll do it. I mean, he's not gonna turn us into a ground and pound offense, but if you continue to drop 8, then it's really foolish not to run on that. Especially when you've got a Kylin Hill, which is something Leach has never had. What Arky did really well was have a LB spy in the run game so by the time they read that it was a run, the spy met our RBs at the LOS. We've got to do a better job of run blocking, which is easier said than done when 90% of your reps have you dropping back to pass protect, but the yards are going to be there on running plays. Gotta make em pay for it.
We better find more running plays than the two we've used.
After someone mentioned a 2014 WSU-Cal game as an example of how Leach deals with heavy zone coverage, I randomly skimmed a few games from Minshew's season in 2018. One that I skimmed was against Oregon, which featured a ton of 7- and 8-man zone looks from the defense. The run-to-pass ratio in that game fairly similar to what we saw Saturday. (33% run) And the same went for most games against Washington over the past four years, which of course were all losses against a 7- and 8-man zone look. Other than Minshew's year when WSU went 40% run heavy against Washington, the run percentage was at or below 30%.Quote:
Originally Posted by msstate7
For what it's worth, WSU dominated much of the Oregon game that year. (Oregon was ranked No. 12 at the time.) If you want to see how Leach successfully handled heavy doses of zone in that game and contrast it with what we did against Arkansas (and the duds that Leach usually had against Washington), here you go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkkZ...l=JayGladstone
WSU's offensive numbers that game were actually pretty similar to ours against Arkansas. WSU's RBs combined for a net of 94 yards on 20 carries and ours combined for a net of 83 yards on 20 carries. Minshew went 39 out of 51 for 323 yards and Costello went 43 out of 60 for 314 yards. WSU had 25 first downs, we had 24 first downs. WSU had the ball for 33 minutes, we had the ball for 36 minutes.
Two biggest differences: (1) WSU converted 64% of their 14 3rd downs, we converted 35% of our 17 3rd downs; and (2) Minshew threw for 4 TDs and 2 INTs while Costello threw 1 TD and 3 INTs. (WSU also didn't fumble, and neither of Minshew's INTs was a pick six.)
I don't know how this team will fare against 7- or 8-man zones going forward. But this isn't Leach's first rodeo. He's won and lost against the zone just like he's no doubt won and lost against press man coverage. Like MState7, I'm not sure I expect him to alter the plan much after playing against zones for 20 years. But yeah, mixing in a different run look beyond the delay and the inside zone would be fine by me.
Guys - if we had hired Paul Johnson, I wouldn't be coming on here discussing how he will need to change his offensive system to work in the SEC. I will know on the front end we hired a guy that runs his system and he succeeds or fails with that system.
Leach has been running the same system for 20+ years. We hired him knowing full well what to expect. He is running the offense I expected to see when we hired him. All this talk of adding a read option or power run game to his offense is similar to telling Paul Johnson to incorporate some air raid into his offense. It simply is not going to happen.
We are either going to run the offense more efficiently than we did against Upig or we are going to lose some games. That is really the end of the discussion. Now if y'all want to pretend Leach is going to add different plays to his offense, add a read-option, add tight ends, have at it. Its a waste of time, but have at it.
We run the offense efficiently this weekend, we win the game. The rest is just theater.
And Marks and Johnson have to do a better job at breaking tackles. Arky had too many "shoestring" tackles that KH would've broke.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cooterpoot
I'm with C34 in asking where the hell was Witherspoon? Neither back overly impressed me, especially Marks.Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
Yep, that's pretty much it. Every offense, every defense all boils down to execution. If you execute efficiently you have a great chance to win. We executed horribly last Saturday. Pats could've beat the Chiefs with backup qbs playing but 5 turnover, a pick 6 and 4 empty trips into the red zone, cost them a chance for a big win. It's the way all sports work.Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
I think Leach's offense adapts to a type of offense that's primarily Air Raid concept that has a more advanced run component than up the middle handoff.
He's going to have to adapt his offense so that SEC defenses can't just do one thing to stop him. Keep the base Air Raid, but there has to be a run component that is well thought out, not just a small change of pace.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prediction? Pain.
Both of these. Leach isn't changing- at least not the way people think he "should". Instead of putting in some running plays for Shrader (like that's not going to be predictable) it's going to be change in the for of KJ figuring out to hit the check down or we'll see if Will Rogers can run the offense better.Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
As long as he has Kylin, he won?t have to adapt anything. Kylin is a game changer in this offense and he?s going to make Leach look like a genius this year. Last weekend was painfully obvious that after Kylin leaves we have work to do at that position. You simply can’t go down on first contact as a tailback in this conference. It has to be second and 5 and not 2nd and 7 in this offense. That will get teams out of this look or make them look like idiots for giving up that many yards/TOP/points. It was also obvious that if we try to push the ball downfield in this drop 8 look we are going to have a lot of interceptions. That may work against big 12 and pac 12 defenses but you can’t consistently thread the needle all day down the field with multiple SEC athletes surrounding one receiver. You have to win up front and make them pay with the running game/short Crossing routes/swing passes in stride. KJ has to not be hesitant. That will force people to stop playing this Mickey Mouse defense against us.
Here's another example from an Oregon game, this time in 2015:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwfybapLJxM&ab_channel=MonsterLlama
Both Oregon and WSU ended up being 9-4 teams that year, and, as they would do a few years later, Oregon played defense predominantly out of 7- or 8-man zone. WSU won 45 - 38 in double overtime. Even though it was raining for over half the game, Leach stuck with the standard run-to-pass ratio -- just a shade under 30% runs.
Now, unlike in the '18 Oregon game (or our Arkansas game), Leach's team had some explosive runs this time. Their three running backs combined for a net 177 yards rushing on only 18 carries and each of the three had long runs of between 19 and 32 yards. Also unique to this one among the other games I've mentioned is the absence of any INTs -- Luke Falk threw for 505 yards and 5 TDs on 50 of 75 passes. Yes, dude threw 75 times. Damn. (WSU also fumbled twice, both inside the Oregon 30 yard line.)
One other thing of note: WSU's QB lined up under center at least twice that game. Once on a 4th and short and once on a 2 pt. conversion. Both were successful QB sneaks.
All this just to reiterate: Several teams (maybe most of them, based on how Leach has talked about it this week) have played 7- and 8-man zone against Leach's offenses every year for a while. He's going to run his offense like he always does. Attack space as he thinks best, which means mostly through the air.
(Oh, and for those interested in the talent disparities in this debate about man- or zone-coverage vs. the air raid -- not that a talent disparity was an issue against Arkansas on Saturday, of course -- that WSU team you see in the 2015 Oregon game had one four-star player on it and was dead last in the PAC 12 in total roster talent per 24/7, while Oregon's team that year had the 4th most talent in the PAC 12 (20th most nationally) and had 24 four-star players.)
Exactly!! Outstanding post! I don’t want leach to change a thing. We hired him to do a job who are we to question the way by which he does it. People are so insane to think that Washington and UPig are the only two places that have ever run a 8 man zone against the air raid. Good grief. We just didn’t execute wellQuote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
If you establish the run, Kentucky will creep in and then go over the top with our big recievers.Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapGame
Did we make a few changes in offensive line, like center position?
With weather being iffy I sure hope our O Line comes to play such as short yardage situations and red zone play.
I'm hoping for a dry field Saturday night.
HancockCountyDog summed it up pretty succinctly.