CSNbbs

Two weeks ago against CMU, the main running play was Wolfe to the outside with Van Acker pulling at center and leading the way. We ran that over and over with much success.

Last week against WMU, even with them having 9 in the box, we ran the ball almost always between the tackles - still with good success (Wolfe had 100+ yards even without the big 78 yarder, and AJ ran for 60+ yards). I would have thought that outside running play would have been even more successful with only two DB's on the corner.

Do you think we did not run that play to the outside last week at all, so we do not show it too much on game film?

For those that have coached or played before, how much is the coaching staff usually concerned with hiding things from future opponents on game film?

Well I haven't played in college, so I don't know how they do it, but in high school there was certain "wrinkles" that the coaches would save for a certain oppenent/rival. There are two ways to look at it.....don't show Tole o everything and hope you can get by the rest of the games without those plays, or just do what you do and say "here it is, stop it if you can".

I know what does happen is that the coaches will run something that they really don't plan on using that often, just so their next opponent has to prepare for it. Think about it, the more a team has to prepare for, the less prepared they will be.

We don't run a lot of different running plays. What we do is run the same few out of many different formations, with different motions and different responsibilities. Watch for the old counter trey play - the one the old Joe Gibbs Redskins made famous. We'll run it with the OT and OG pulling, with the OT and TE, and I've even see the TE and the wingback in motion pull as the lead blockers. It's a lot to practice for, and is hard for an opponent to get a read on our tendencies when we run a lot of different formations and motions and specifically the plays from many different combinations.

The coaches are always coming up with new wrinkles for any opponents, though they certainly may save some for big games. Two years ago against Toledo we busted out a new formation and the first time it was used was early in the game on the UT 5 and we ran the ball for a TD. The second time was later in the game and it was a play-action pass the was wide open, but the OLB leaped to knock the ball down and save their butts (one of the second half FGs that needed to be TDs in order to beat UT).