the failure to adjust to the constant blitzing

[Jihme]

agreed

[pops94]

I hate to admit it, but Leavitt got outcoached.

There was the 90 yard drive in the 4th where it looked like the Bulls figured out how to beat the Rutgers blitz and defense.  But after they scored the TD, they went away from it for some reason, and started trying to run with B. Williams and throwing bombs.  some bombs were necessary due to Williams not being able to run unless he's in open space and Grothe running back 15 yards every play and taking a sack instead of throwing the ball away.

Oh well, learning experience for a young team.

I am confused why they went away from what worked in that drive.  Hopefully someone can explain that.

Well, Schiano is one hell of a defensive mind that's why we had trouble with the blitz he mixes them up.  Brings guys from different angles, runs guys up at the last second, and most of these are done after Groethe has surveyed the defense and changed the play.  After that 90 yard drive, which we got because Rutgers only rushed 4 players most of that drive, and they hardly did any blitzing.  They had a spy assigned to Groethe and the guy dropped in coverage which opened things up, hence the reason we drove 90 yards for a score.  But I saw Schiano talking to his "D" after that drive, and when they came back out they switched the defense they were playing, on one play in particular they had about 7 players on the line looking like they were going to blitz.  Groethe called an audible to one of the short passes that had been working against the blitz, but when the ball was snapped all of the defenders except 2 defensive line players dropped into coverage, well Groethe looked for the quick pass but it was congested and he could find anyone open and threw it away.

Rutgers kept us off balance all night, and since the secret has been out a while that our offense is basically Groethe running around, with a few broken plays for big gains sprinkled it we became predictable.  Groethe was confused, did you see he was just throwing the ball up for grabs in the vicinity of a receiver I tip my hat off to Schiano.

Good points on their D mixing it up.  In about the 5 years I have been following the Bulls I have never seen us be more than one dimensional.  Blackwell then Hall now Grothe.    It seems like we have a lot more potential weapons now at the skills positions but we don't seem to fully utilize them or maybe the coaching staff doesn't trust them.

[ITBULL]

Rutgers beat us in the trenches all night long.  When Grothe was contained in the pocket and he couldn't see over the d-line and make a play.  By the end of the game Grothe was just exhausted from having to make play after play to even keep us in the game.

As far as the offensive play calling goes there are two things I didn't understand. 

Why do we almost never have two backs in the backfield with Grothe.  On passing plays two backs would have helped to pick up a blitz and one of them could have gone in the flat for a screen.  On running plays you would have a lead blocker, which it doesn't seem like we ever run our backs that way.  Does Leavitt just not recruit blocking backs.

The second question is do we ever run a screen pass?  With all of those blitzs how do you not set up one designed screen all night.  We have some backs that could do some damage in space.  Also we have receivers that could come back for some balls and do some damage.  Besides the Grothe keepers which had to wear him out there didn't really seem to be much creative play calling. 

pops USF hasn't really used a two back set (tailback and fullback) since the I-AA days from what I remember.  We have changed OC's, and we converted to the spread offense a few years ago.  The whole premise behind the spread offense is, to spread the defense across the field horizontally, so that they can't stack up the box and thin out the three levels of defense.  If you notice when we run Groethe it's with no back in the backfield a lot, or out of the shotgun, and there is no fullback because an extra WR is brought in to force the other team to move a player out of the box to cover him.  That's why Groethe's runs are so successful, but that's all we have.  If we did the 2 back set teams would just stack up the middle, and clog up the whole unless we really got a push up front.

[pops94]

Rutgers beat us in the trenches all night long.  When Grothe was contained in the pocket and he couldn't see over the d-line and make a play.  By the end of the game Grothe was just exhausted from having to make play after play to even keep us in the game.

As far as the offensive play calling goes there are two things I didn't understand. 

Why do we almost never have two backs in the backfield with Grothe.  On passing plays two backs would have helped to pick up a blitz and one of them could have gone in the flat for a screen.  On running plays you would have a lead blocker, which it doesn't seem like we ever run our backs that way.  Does Leavitt just not recruit blocking backs.

The second question is do we ever run a screen pass?  With all of those blitzs how do you not set up one designed screen all night.  We have some backs that could do some damage in space.  Also we have receivers that could come back for some balls and do some damage.  Besides the Grothe keepers which had to wear him out there didn't really seem to be much creative play calling. 

pops USF hasn't really used a two back set (tailback and fullback) since the I-AA days from what I remember.  We have changed OC's, and we converted to the spread offense a few years ago.  The whole premise behind the spread offense is, to spread the defense across the field horizontally, so that they can't stack up the box and thin out the three levels of defense.  If you notice when we run Groethe it's with no back in the backfield a lot, or out of the shotgun, and there is no fullback because an extra WR is brought in to force the other team to move a player out of the box to cover him.  That's why Groethe's runs are so successful, but that's all we have.  If we did the 2 back set teams would just stack up the middle, and clog up the whole unless we really got a push up front.

I am not recommending a two back set every down.  It is a lot easier for a defensive to mix it up against a static offensive.  Last night with our "spread offense" they were bringing a lot of guys all night and clogging up the middle.  I am not sure a spread offense with your QB being the leading rusher is really the best implementation.

[SouthFLoridaMike]

Coaches had a lot to do with that loss. They should have made adjustments to that blitzing in the 1st quarter.

[Rocky Style]

I am not recommending a two back set every down.  It is a lot easier for a defensive to mix it up against a static offensive.  Last night with our "spread offense" they were bringing a lot of guys all night and clogging up the middle.  I am not sure a spread offense with your QB being the leading rusher is really the best implementation.

Same here, not recommending it as a main offensive attack but quick three and outs suck.  Ford and Williams make a great combo.

[pops94]

Maybe it is just a perception but I just hate to see Grothe having to carry the whole offensive load every game.  We seem to have two freshman backs with lots of potential and they don't seem to have the opportunity to help share the load.  Hawaii and Texas Tech run the spread and they seem to run screens affectively to alleviate the pressure on the QB and the linemen.   

I don't think with the athletes we have in the backfield at this point running a two back set for runs is a bad idea in certain situations. 

I think it also comes down to making adjustments.  We are a defense driven team and our defense seems to be able to make adjustments but I think our offensive has trouble sometimes.

[Rocky Style]

We seem to have two freshman backs with lots of potential and they don't seem to have the opportunity to help share the load. 

Taylor has gotten a lot of touches lately and they haven't worked out.  I think it is Ford's turn but then again, I thought he should have been getting warmed up in the UCF game.  I guess he is still the dog house.  Oh well, I guess we didn't want to win a national championship.

[ITBULL]

I am not recommending a two back set every down.  It is a lot easier for a defensive to mix it up against a static offensive.  Last night with our "spread offense" they were bringing a lot of guys all night and clogging up the middle.  I am not sure a spread offense with your QB being the leading rusher is really the best implementation.

Same here, not recommending it as a main offensive attack but quick three and outs suck.  Ford and Williams make a great combo.

This may sound crazy, but we may not have any 2 back set formations in the play book.  But, OC's can get creative and make packages like that to fit the offense.  But I think the entire problem is we don't really run a "true" spread offense, it really speaks to a bigger problem we have no identity of offense other than Groethe right and Groethe left.  Since he IS our entire running game we run the spread to open it up for him, when we should be throwing the ball around like the Texas Tech's and Oregon's of the world.  We have gotten to comfortable with Groethe running around and it's the same thing with Florida and Tebow they over run him as well.  Come to think of it our offenses are similar if you think about it, no established tailback, mediocre passing game, and a QB who leads the team in rushing each game.

I wouldn't rush to blame the OC though, our players haven't been executing that well except in the UCF game.