(06-03-2021 04:30 PM)Alanda Wrote:  

(06-03-2021 12:52 PM)Stammers Wrote:  

(06-03-2021 03:25 AM)Alanda Wrote:  

(06-02-2021 06:50 PM)MvETigers Wrote:  2. Offense - While we had the same OC, anybody that knows the program knows that Norvell called 99% of the plays and it was 100% his offense. Once again, even with Brady White, we installed a new offense in EIGHT practices. That new offense was centered around Gainwell and Coxie, who played in a combined total of TWO games. While we returned starters on the OL, it was a new blocking scheme with new assignments all installed... well, you get the point.

Reminds me of this thread and what some of us were saying there. I didn't like what I was seeing from the Penn St. game on, but I'm willing to be more forgiving with this added perspective.

We scored more points and gained more yards on Penn State than anyone else had; including Ohio State and all of the Big Ten. An interception at the goal line prevented us from scoring 46 points. Our defense getting lit up prevented us from scoring even more.

Orona-Lopez got destroyed after replacing Dill and Magnifico out also hurt us big time. Right now, IMO, it is all about not having the same players. Gibson, Coxie, Gainwell, Jones, and no practice time for the kids.

Last but not least, a little perspective is in order...

NCAA TOTAL OFFENSE
2020 - 22
2019 - 10
2018 - 4
2017 - 4
2016 - 28
2015 - 19
2014 - 49
2013 - 118

Look at that 2014 team. Hayes was our leading rusher with 949 yards, and we had one run from scrimmage longer than 40 yards all season. Our leading receiver was Malone with 555 yards, and we had one reception over 50 yards the entire season. That was a good offense that was #49 in the country. Last year we were #22 in total offense.

You can't compare last year and this year with the 3 years before it, the same way you can't compare any basketball team with 2008. You have to appreciate that the 3 years for the offense in football and 2008 in basketball, were so special, that it might not be reasonable to expect that type of excellence more than once in a blue moon.

You hope you can come close to duplicating it, and you hope that the defense can pick up the slack. It should be much easier for the defense to make big improvements (which it did the last half of last year) than it is to expect to have a top 5 offense every year.

So maybe we were lucky to win a high percentage of close games last year. So in a normal year, maybe we lose one of those games, but we beat SMU, beat UTSA and UT Martin, and Purdue is a toss up. We end up 11-3 or 10-4, or maybe we have average luck and go 9-5.

That is no reason to think that teams worse than us will beat us and we will go 6-6 this year.

Oh yeah I think the majority knows what we did to PSU yardage-wise compared to other teams they played. And yeah once PSU finally realized what they could do with their run game made things worse. But I still feel we got away from what got us there in the first place like I mentioned in that thread.

Also when it comes to the yardage ranks I still feel the same way as I did here when we talked about it. Looking back and comparing 2014 and 2020 you referenced, they were pretty much the same rank in efficiency. This shows they had to do a lot of work to achieve those numbers you listed last season.

My view is still play-calling was the bigger issue than talent. And with MvE pointing out the lack of time to install the changes they wanted, I'm willing to give the OC an opportunity to show how well his system works next season.

In a nutshell, The 78 yard TD run by Gibson against SMU, would have been a 4 yard run by any of our backs last year, and half of Gibson, Henderson and Gainwell's big plays would have been 5-10 yard gains. If we had players of that caliber, our offense would have been really good, despite the poor line play.

If we had last year's running backs and receivers in 2019, we would have lost 3-5 games.