Can Anyone Accurately Explain What We're Trying to Do on Offense?

[ShotgunDawg]

I need some help here.

The effort was better Saturday, the defense is improving, & I believe Shrader is one of those rare QBs, like Dak, that can pretty much excel at whatever type of offense we want to run. Seriously, from the triple option to Mike Leach's system, I think he'd be pretty good.

However, with that being said, does anyone have any clue what we are trying to do on offense?

Seems to me that we just call plays with no real direction or identity.

If someone can accurately identify how this offense will take off without LSU/Bama type WRs, please let me know.

I'm not writing this to be negative & turn this into a "replace Joe" thread. I'm just generally confused about where we are going with this thing.

FWIW, after watching LSU's offense the other day, I didn't think schematically they were awesome. I just think LSU has really really good players & this new offense gives them a better chance of getting those awesome players in space instead of the phone booth they used to play in. LSU did the check with me stuff as well & show many of the same tempo as we do, but with significantly better players

[TrapGame]

[Cooterpoot]

Looks like 17 a football and grab ass. It’s exactly like C34 said. Terrible personnel management, asking kids to do things they can’t, no imagination, get fooled and whipped by SEC DCs.

[Dawgology]

Looks like 17 a football and grab ass. It’s exactly like C34 said. Terrible personnel management, asking kids to do things they can’t, no imagination, get fooled and whipped by SEC DCs.

Yes. Yes. And yes.

[TrapGame]

Bo Bounds asked today where was the innovation from the offensive guru. 94th in total offense is the complete lack of innovation.

[TheLostDawg]

I agree with above. I think a lot of it has to do with personnel. It looks a lot better when they go out there and hustle but when they don't go 100% you see the difference. Look at the Tennessee game. Tennessee might not be well coached but they have athletes. We weren't hustling, the scheme was there but backfired. Unless we can match athletic ability of our opponent and not take plays off, he's going to have to make adjustments to the routes. Seems like we yet again have a coach that can't make game time adjustments.

[TrapGame]

Remember the stories of Urban and Dan changing up the offense when they got into the SEC? The defenses in the SEC were too athletic to run some of the plays from Utah and Bowling Green. They were blowing plays up. So Mullen and Urban adapted like good coaches do.

[Irondawg]

When we hired Joe I went back and watched some Penn State games and talked to a buddy that post on here as well and mentioned how I didn't see a lot of creativity in creating favorable matchups. I saw a lot of plays where PSU just had better players that made great individual plays rather than the scheme making some things happen. I was concerned but hoped my limited technical football knowledge was impairing my judgement.

Apparently it wasn't. Like most on here I really don't like a lot of our run play designs and we don't set up the QB draws as well as Mullen did by spreading out and doing some clear out routes

[RiverCityDawg]

He says we're trying to put defensive players in conflict and take advantage of mismatches. LSU does a lot of what we want to do, they are just better organized and have much much better players.

The problem is we can't count on having better players than we have right now. Sure, we might have a little better talent in certain years, but what we have now is something that the Mississippi State coach has to find a way to win with because most years this is as good as it gets. I'm sure what he wants to do works on paper and/or with better players. But if he can't coach this caliber of player to do what he wants in order to be successful, what good does it do? Then you add bad effort 2 out of every 3 games, double digit penalties and an overall lack of toughness and here we are.

[Liverpooldawg]

I need some help here.

The effort was better Saturday, the defense is improving, & I believe Shrader is one of those rare QBs, like Dak, that can pretty much excel at whatever type of offense we want to run. Seriously, from the triple option to Mike Leach's system, I think he'd be pretty good.

However, with that being said, does anyone have any clue what we are trying to do on offense?

Seems to me that we just call plays with no real direction or identity.

If someone can accurately identify how this offense will take off without LSU/Bama type WRs, please let me know.

I'm not writing this to be negative & turn this into a "replace Joe" thread. I'm just generally confused about where we are going with this thing.

FWIW, after watching LSU's offense the other day, I didn't think schematically they were awesome. I just think LSU has really really good players & this new offense gives them a better chance of getting those awesome players in space instead of the phone booth they used to play in. LSU did the check with me stuff as well & show many of the same tempo as we do, but with significantly better players

Having those type of WRs would mean that they would be open more often, catch the ball better, and do more with it once they catch it. To me the biggest thing that is wrong with us is we lack team speed, esp on offense.

[ShotgunDawg]

Here's a research project that someone in the athletic department at MSU needs to do.

Go through the last 30 years of MSU football, look at NFL drafted MSU, & look at our best seasons. Figure out what positions we overwhelmingly usually have our best players at & go hire a coach that highlights those positions in his offense & has had success.

Build the offense around what we can consistently recruit

[Lord McBuckethead]

I watched the Cowboys last night, and the mix of plays they were running was fantastic. Like seriously, if you take a breakdown of the Rams, Cheifs, and Cowboys and just implement their plays regardless of personnel, we would be better. They all masterfully get players in space through understanding spacing and how to run routes with timing.

I think one thing we could do to simplify everything, is to have set running plays where we are going to hand the ball off and run to a specific area with set blocking schemes. This would allow our OL to get downhill knowing that a run play is happening and where it is going. Seems like the zone read slows us down and makes the line block with two possible circumstances. Making the QB have to make two people miss by themselves. And shit, throw to Hill outside for Pete's sake. If he cannot get going, let him run some routes out of the backfield with quick throws. If nothing else, it lets Shrader do a pump fake and take it himself with a couple less Lbers in the middle.

Simply put. If we cannot use tempo and our play calling to keep the defense guessing and off balance, we might as well punt on 3rd down. We cannot consistently rely on our players to out hustle and play above their ability against equal or better defenses.

[BrunswickDawg]

Our off-season workouts:



This is our offense:



And this is our Special Teams:



And our coaching staff should be doing this:



So that we do more of this:

[Lord McBuckethead]

Here's a research project that someone in the athletic department at MSU needs to do.

Go through the last 30 years of MSU football, look at NFL drafted MSU, & look at our best seasons. Figure out what positions we overwhelmingly usually have our best players at & go hire a coach that highlights those positions in his offense & has had success.

Build the offense around what we can consistently recruit

30 years history has nothing to do with today's game. Unless you want to run the ball like Nebraska and Wisconsin in the early 90s.

[ShotgunDawg]

Having those type of WRs would mean that they would be open more often, catch the ball better, and do more with it once they catch it. To me the biggest thing that is wrong with us is we lack team speed, esp on offense.

our offensive speed is awful, but that makes you wonder why we don't do more things on offense, especially in the passing game, that don't require great speed.

That being said, even when we do execute, it's a 14 yard play. We create absolutely ZERO explosive plays.

[ShotgunDawg]

Why is it that in the NFL you see tons of screen passes but very rarely see them in college football?

What stops college coaches from implementing them?

[Liverpooldawg]

our offensive speed is awful, but that makes you wonder why we don't do more things on offense, especially in the passing game, that don't require great speed.

That being said, even when we do execute, it's a 14 yard play. We create absolutely ZERO explosive plays.

There really are no explosive plays. There are explosive players.

[Bothrops]

our offensive speed is awful, but that makes you wonder why we don't do more things on offense, especially in the passing game, that don't require great speed.

That being said, even when we do execute, it's a 14 yard play. We create absolutely ZERO explosive plays.

I did like Deddrick Thomas running the ball in that sweep. He's been an underutilized player for a long time.

[ShotgunDawg]

There really are no explosive plays. There are explosive players.

Agree. It's really the largest single problem that we have on offense.

I do think JoMo deserved a ton of blame, but, if we're being honest, when you don't have explosive players, you've got a thread a needle on offense to score real points.

Then Joe dials up a great call on the post route to Osiris & just like he did vs Florida last year, he drops it. Not that it is good, but should've scored 21 points vs LSU

[ShotgunDawg]

I did like Deddrick Thomas running the ball in that sweep. He's been an underutilized player for a long time.

Agree, but there is only so much you can do.

Our offensive skill players, except Shrader, are really bland & lack any explosiveness.