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Question: Question: Why do Off. Coordinators go away from success?

bamacon

bamacon

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Apr 11, 2008
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I know it all drives us crazy but why do they insist on fixing stuff that is NOT broken until it is? I'm watching this horrible bowl game between two 6-6 teams and they've both done this. Both teams are running the ball with ease and success and scoring. Then 3 straight passes and a punt for one squad. The other comes out pass-incomplete, pass-incomplete, pass intercepted. MINDLESS STUPIDITY! Why do head coaches not have more butt chewings like Saban had earlier? I'd just have to make it clear to the OC to NEVER go away from plays that are working!


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I think many times OC's get too caught up in the mental aspect of things resulting in paralysis by analysis. My dad calls it "trying to out think the other coach" syndrome. I've watched Alabama do it, as well as many, many other teams. There's something to "keep running it until they show they can stop it." But they don't pay me millions of dollars for offensive advise. So, my phone hasn't rang in a while asking me my thoughts.
 
Can't speak for others, but I would say it is a cat and mouse game with the opposing defensive coordinator. We all know the strategy of pound it up the middle, pound it, pound, it, (safeties creep up a bit, determined to stop the next run) then play-action pass deep. If you keep running the ball, especially up the middle, until the defense puts eight, nine or even ten in the box. If you go back to the pass too late, you risk surrendering the initiative to the defense. If you go to the pass too earlier, you get the "Run the dadgum ball, Lane!"

But, I'm with you, I'd rather run the ball up the opponent's nose until the beg for mercy.
 
Most of the time the success of a play depends on the formation, personnel, alignment etc of the defense. So a team may have success running against a certain alignment or personnel. The defense may change the personnel to better defend the run. Then, the OC counters by throwing the ball vs what appears to be a more advantageous defense to throw against. It's not as easy as keep calling the same play until the stop it. There's a lot of moving parts on both sides of the ball that dictate the success of a play..
 
I think it's a trust issue with personnel. With the new trend of 3 years and out, experience is not always there. Yeah we all want the Brady-McDaniels system in which there is an effective cautious aggressive approach, but we usually have to deal with a Haley-roetlisberger system in which you are usually satisfied with results but you wonder more of what could be.

Sorry to use NFL examples but Haley and Kiffin are the same brilliant coordinator but with the opposite type of problems. Haley takes the ball out of Ben's hands when he shouldn't like Kiffin takes the ball out of the running backs when he shouldn't
 
Tidewater said:
Can't speak for others, but I would say it is a cat and mouse game with the opposing defensive coordinator. We all know the strategy of pound it up the middle, pound it, pound, it, (safeties creep up a bit, determined to stop the next run) then play-action pass deep. If you keep running the ball, especially up the middle, until the defense puts eight, nine or even ten in the box. If you go back to the pass too late, you risk surrendering the initiative to the defense. If you go to the pass too earlier, you get the "Run the dadgum ball, Lane!"

But, I'm with you, I'd rather run the ball up the opponent's nose until the beg for mercy.
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Coach Bryant used to say "those 180 lb safeties hate seeing those big backs in the 4th quarter". He is right now as much as ever.


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In this day and age with sophisticated computer programming and offensive analysts; OCs have relied too much on situational trends, expected personnel groupings, etc., as buzz said, paralysis by analysis. I doubt there are few, if any OCs any more, who call the offense by feel, momentum, and game flow.
 
Relayer said:
Sometimes they can't resist showing how smart they are.
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I think there's a lot of truth in that statement. A lot of OC's must feel they're not going to impress anyone by continually running the ball, even if it's working. They feel that designing a play to get a man open on a pass play requires much more skill. OC's are dreaming of a HC job and feel they're not going to get noticed if their team scores 40 points by just pounding the ball.
 
I think of it the old saying "go with what they're not expecting." After numerous successful run or passing plays, the OC begins to think the defense expects it and decides to go with the play call he thinks they shouldn't be expecting.


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TIDE-HSV said:
I think you've hit something. Saban once said something to the effect that every play would be a TD, if executed perfectly...
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I think that's really interesting that Coach Saban feels that way. Being such a defensive minded coach I thought he might feel that a perfect defense would be able to totally neutralize a perfect offense and thus the game would end in a 0-0 tie. Coach Saban must think then that the rules and officiating are tilted way too heavily in favor of the offense to make such an outcome possible.
 
How many teams use audibles now when the QB takes a peek and changes the original play call? So many teams are calling plays after the teams are lined up and the coaches call the play based on what they see unless it is a hurry up.
 
PA Tide Fan said:
I think that's really interesting that Coach Saban feels that way. Being such a defensive minded coach I thought he might feel that a perfect defense would be able to totally neutralize a perfect offense and thus the game would end in a 0-0 tie. Coach Saban must think then that the rules and officiating are tilted way too heavily in favor of the offense to make such an outcome possible.
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No, I don't think so. If the question had been asked from the opposite side, he would have said that a defense, perfectly executed, could neutralize any offensive play. I think his point was that plays are almost never perfectly executed from either side...
 
My high school coach used to say as tempting it was to run the same play over and over because the other team is not stopping it doesnt necessarily mean they cant stop it. Sooner or later the other team will wise up and stop the bread butter play(s). But the reason for balance is if you spend the majority of the time running off left tackle in the first half to the exclusion of working on your rhythm in the passing game, in the second half they may make an adjustment to take that run away but you have trouble getting your passing game going then you might find yourself in a tight game.

Besides, all the guys on the team practice hard every week and ought to have an opportunity to have an impact on the game. WRs dont like blocking or running long on every play to just clear out for the RBs. The balance in playcalling is probably more designed for the benefit of keeping all of our players plugged into the game than it is for keeping the defense off-balance. I am willing to bet as much as we want run-pass balance we also probably want to get a certain number of touches/looks to our RBs and WRs.
 
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