Play Design

Watching a lot of college football over the last few years, I've observed the coverage has gotten more in depth with play scheme and design. That, or I'm just now noticing.
TV analysts are constantly pointing out and diagraming great play designs, unique formations, pre-snap movement, or complex WR route trees. All designed to confuse defenses and open running and throwing lanes. I could be mistaken, but I don't know that I've ever seen a Clemson play heralded on a TV broadcast. Even during our championship runs our QBs threw a lot of 50/50 balls. We had the WRs to win the 50/50. I don't see that on this team. I hate Ryan Day, Lane Kiffin, and Steve Sarkisian; but they are all elite play callers that routinely have WRs or TEs running freely down the field. If a Clemson player is wide open it means a DB fell down. In the past our Jimmys beat their Joe's. It's almost as if we look for the pre-snap 1 on 1 match up and that's where we go. Hope for a circus catch or pass interference. Not sure that plan will suffice anymore.

AllOrange247365

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Said it before, and l'll say it again.

Nov 7, 2022, 4:01 PM

Unless you just want a game manager, then any and all teams rely almost fully on the play of their QB.

The last couple games, our starting QB hasn't even been on point enough to be a game manager, so he's surely not able to lead a dynamic offense.

Is the run game failing because of play calls? Nope. We've been creative in the run game and have leaned on it to a huge extent to win games.

Have we tried to be more dynamic in the passing game? Sure have. Our QB is struggling, again. He looks lost in the pocket, indecisive, and simply cannot let the ball go, not only for WRs to be able to battle for the ball, but he's also not seeing the field and where the open guys are. How many times recently have we seen tge QB standing in the pocket like a statue, only to get saturated by the rush? Guys aren't getting separation you say? I say that's bullcrap. We are NOT seeing guys open in the progression (unless its a bail out to an RB), and look, the fact is, at this level it's rare you have guys just running free in the secondary, and as a QB you MUST have utmost confidence to let the ball rip.. sometimes into tight windows and sometimes giving a receiver a chance on a 50/50 ball.

We're not seeing any of that. I know for a fact DJ has been coached to throw more tight window and 50/50 balls. That was emphasized going into this game. What we're seeing is a guy who's regressed into be afraid to let the ball go, and when he does he's pinching it, floating it, and just generally lacking accuracy. How many one on one's did we miss because the receiver had no chance to go get it?

That's why we moved into a short passing game on Saturday. It wasn't because we didn't call some 50/50 balls, etc., it's that the QB held the ball too long, or when he did throw it up it wasn't accurate. That's why we honed in on the short game.. to give us a chance to move the ball. Even then, I saw at least a couple short, simple sideline patterns that were inaccurate.

So I say all that to say, if you want to have a prolific offense, then you need a QB capable of running it. Sorry guys, we don't have that right now.

We're running what we have to, and up to Saturday it won 8 games and lost none. It caught up with us Saturday.

So I'll say again, there are no magic playcalls you can call to make the offense more dynamic. We're doing what we have to do, based on limitations. This is not a playcalling issue.

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Re: Play Design

Re: Play Design

Therein is, BY FAR, the biggest issue facing the program.***

Re: Play Design

Said it before, and l'll say it again.

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