(06-15-2020 06:16 PM)Jerry Weaver Wrote: Now that is a spot on post! To be honest, why would Rutgers not employ the offense that the service academies' do? It will not win a National Championship but Rutgers will never do so otherwise and it would make them semi competitive in the Big Ten. Why not a MAC team as well?
You do not need athletic offensive linemen who contain speedy defensive ends, you can recruit on strength alone. Strong armed QB's are not needed, instead recruit hi-po athletes from high schools who may have been forced to change positions in college. Then, you force your opponent to prepare for an offense that they will not see again that season. EMU thankfully finishes its contract with Army this season and I could not be happier, the punishment from that game has been horrific.
Yup, "take what is offered".
If there are an abundance of high school offensive linemen who are effective against the run but tagged as "too light" and "bad pass blocker" to play at the MAC level, there are systems that keep defensive linemen off balance and where the go-to passes are play action counters. And if they are abundant enough you can have a similar quality through your second string and into your third, you can platoon without conceding near as much as most MAC schools.
If everyone is recruiting for a run-pass option QB who can stretch the field, and there are accurate short pass ball handling QB's on offer, there are systems that can make full use of that.
Find the system that uses the skills and athletic abilities the competition is leaving to be recruited for FCS and Division 2, find the FCS or Division 2 coach that excels at using those skills and abilities, give them a three year contract with a two year option to give evidence they can make it work, and put together a program the students want to get out to watch to see what crazy stuff they are going to get up to.
Of course, there is no such thing as a free lunch. One thing the University would have to sign on for would be one P5 body bag guarantee, one FCS buy game and two Go5 OOC H/H contracts ... because for one thing there's only going to be so many P5 schools that are going to want to buy that game, and there's not enough opportunity to build a culture of going to see what crazy stuff the football team is going to get up to if there's only five home games a season, two of them on cold November weeknights.
So even if Lewis has a miracle season next year and is snapped up by some P5 cellar dweller looking for an improvement, Kent State with it's three body bag games a year to reduce the football subsidy isn't in line for that kind of approach.