N.C. St's Schedule & other obvious rants

[Joe]

I'm not blaming it on any coach, I just don't think we have the players to execute perfectly yet.

Our players looked tired and beat as the season went on. Give it a year our two.

[fbdo79]

    I agree with you Joe, the players are responsible to execute, but as a former player, I look for my offensive coordinator to put me in the best position to be successful.  This is something that Coach Smith did not do.  Yes, you can easily say that our offensive linemen didn't block good enough against UConn and WVU, but as an OC, if you see that happening then you must be able to adapt your play calling around it through formation changes, motioning, and creativity in your play calling.  Coach Smith did none of these.  Unfortunately, we do not have the talent yet to be able to call any play and just say "Ok guys, just execute."  We must be able to scheme properly to exploit our strength, hide our weakness, and attack the defense.  This is another problem with Coach Smith.

    The difference between our offense and our defense is not in talent, it is in philosophy.  Our defensive coordinators use a very aggressive attacking style of defense.  They are creative in their play calling and always apply pressure to the opposition.  Our OC is more of a "let's not lose the game" kind of philosophy.  He never really puts pressure on defenses.  He likes to wait for opportunities instead of making them.

    Again, I agree with you that the players are responsible for execution, but the OC can help his players out by putting them in their best position to be successful.

[MikeG]

Isn't some of that conservative offensive approach by design? If you have a dominating defense, you try not to shoot yourself in the foot. If you over extend and try to do things that are risky, you run into turnovers that put your defense on the field too long.

Sure-- we could be more creative -- I agree with that. I'm not talking pure trickeration here-- just formation changes and not being too predictable. But also not overthinking a situation. You need 1 or 2 yards on third down-- run the ball or play action/option. It's not time for a 20 yard pass attempt.

As we've no doubt seen over the years, a defensive centric coach like a Tony Dungy tends to put the OC on a short leash. It's more about letting the defense dictate the game. I found that approach off-base in the face of a great ball-control type player like Andre Hall in our backfield.

The other problem with the conservative-win-with-defense approach is that if you should fall behind, you are not geared towards pushing the ball the way you need to. That reflects poorly on the coaching preparation.

Is it all Rod Smith's fault? Not in my book-- but ultimately he and CJL are the ones calling the shots out there. Like fbdo79 said-- you have to adapt the game plan continually to give your players any advantage and to cover up the weak points.

[MikeG]

PS-- 3 of their 5 losses were at home this season. They will have home field from a fan base perspective, but I don't know if it is a huge advantage.

[fbdo79]

I agree with what you said MikeG.  The only thing I will say is that Coach Leavitt is a little more flexible with his offense.  He understands that the less his defense is on the field the better they are, so for him, its all about maintaining drives.  That is why he let the offensive coaches run the style of offense they did when Marquel Blackwell was a senior.  Trust me, Coach Leavitt wasn't exactly thrilled about throwing it 65 times a game, but the offense moved the ball, didn't commit many turnovers, and were able to keep his defense rested.  Yes, Coach Leavitt, if given the option, would like to run the ball, but he doesn't like having his defense out on the field for 45 mins a game either.

[MikeG]

yep-- and it kind of comes full circle to finding the right guy to fit in at QB. I'm hoping that is CHill or maybe Grothe or someone else we are overlooking like Gregory etc etc.

I was convinced this year would be more about runningthe ball and it has been. The thing that bothers me is running so often on first down and then NOT running on 3rd and short yardage. That confuses me to no end. Sometimes you simply have to resort to smash mouth football and go with your power back.

[smazza]

nc state has the qb and coaching advantage which is more valuable than the home field advantage