Re: My view exactly

It seems that the similarities between the two offenses goes well beyond my initial oversimplification. It isn't simply a situation of both offenses being a HUNH misdirection based spread.

I appreciate the information, and also the fact that you sent me the link without being argumentative or condescending. As you well know, there are a small number of poster on Tnet who at times it can seem spend their lives just looking for someone to post something incorrect so that they can call them out.

A portion of my original point still stands though. However similar the Gainesville High system is to the Clemson offense under Chad Morris, in general, the size of the playbook of the high school offense would be considerably smaller than the college playbook.

I would also be extremely surprised if the terminology under Coach Morris isn't nearly completely different than Gainesville High School.

However, even with the necessity of learning all new terminology and learning considerably more total plays, the value of playing in an offense that utilizes the same concepts is practically invaluable. Also, his January enrollment gave him a tremendous head start.

Although it has no bearing on what happens at this point and it wouldn't be possible given the private nature of playbooks, it would be interesting to actually compare the two playbooks and see specifically how the P&C journalist defines "nearly identical".

Although this is getting a little long, and I need to get back to watching the collection of former Tigers in Buffalo beat up on the Chicago Bears, I want to make it clear that I am in no way supporting a QB change where Watson supplants Stoudt as the starter.

I've never been a fan of a two QB system, but I think that there's a possibility that it could possibly be beneficial for our offense. At the very least, it forces the opposing defensive coordinators to have to game-plan against two different versions of our offense.

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Good points (long)

Sep 7, 2014, 7:06 PM

I apologize for the length of this response, but my power just went out and during the thunderstorm and I'm limited to my laptop with a tethered connection via my cellphone.

I completely agree that the experience with the first team offense between Stoudt and Watson is much less significant than it would typically be when comparing a true freshman with a senior. I don't think it would be so negligible that it shouldn't be taken into consideration at all however.

Stoudt does have the advantage of having been named the starter in the spring and therefore has been receiving the vast majority of reps with the first team offense for the past six months. While that is a far cry from having an actual season of experience as the starter, I think it's important not to dismiss it altogether.

As far as your point about knowledge of the playbook, I agree that you're spot on about Morris being the only one who is familiar with it entirely. I remember his comments in at least 2 of the past 3 years where he gave an estimate about the percentage of the offense that had actually been installed. I seem to remember being a bit surprised one season where Morris mentioned that even nearing the end of September one season, he estimated that only about 60 percent of the offense had been installed.

Regardless of whether any of the players know the entire playbook or just how much of it they know, it would be extremely hard to believe that Watson has the same amount of familiarity as Stoudt. His early enrollment and ability to learn quickly have given him a huge advantage, but 8 months simply is not enough time to gain the same amount of knowledge as Stoudt has learned in nearly 4 years. Not to mention that learning the plays on paper is a far cry from learning the plays and then practicing them on the field.

While Watson may be able to successfully run enough of the offense to compete with certain opponents, there's simply no way that he would have the same number of plays available to him as Stoudt would have. The fact that Morris had to reduce the size any complexity of the offense last year with a third year starter only provides further evidence that Stoudt would have the clear advantage in understanding and knowing more of the offense than Watson. That is in no way a knock on Watson at all, it's just simply too much to expect. For a true freshman, he's done nothing but show himself to be a very rare talent in terms of physical ability and understanding of the game.

While it's no secret that Morris was initially brought into the college ranks as the OC at Tulsa after a successful career as a high school coach in Texas, it's not as though Morris is using the exact offense he was running during his last year at Lake Travis.

Morris is constantly working on his offense by adding new wrinkles from adjustments in blocking scheme to changes in pre-snap motion. In fact, prior to 2004, Morris had a very successful coaching career using a more old fashioned I-formation offense that was the complete opposite of the spread he uses today. It wasn't until he got hired to replace a coaching legend at Stephensville High School and completely missed the playoffs that he realized he would have to adapt his offense.

As Morris tells it, he simply picked up the phone and called a well-known high school coach from Arkansas who was having unprecedented success with his unique offense. Over the course of several months, this Malzahn guy taught Morris and his assistants his unique version of the HUNH spread that included elements of the old-fashioned wing-T, veer, and triple option, which developed into the Wildcat and a RichRod inspired Zone Read.

After implementing this new offense, Morris won multiple state championships and averaged less than 1 loss per season for the rest of his time as a high school coach. His success using the system he learned from Malzahn ultimately led to his hire as the offensive coordinator at Tulsa after Malzahn himself recommended Morris to the Tulsa AD.

All this to say, it was only 10 years ago when Chad Morris was introduced to the spread HUNH. In the decade since he has undoubtedly became much more efficient and adapted his offense from an exact copy of Malzahn to his own version.

So while it's true that he was a HS coach that brought his offense the Clemson, the current system has undergone significant changes than the one he was running back at Lake Travis.

Considering that Malzahn literally wrote the book on HUNH spread offenses, and hundreds of HS coaches throughout the nation attempted to install the same offense at their own high schools leads me to believe that if the simplified version of the Malzahn offense being run all over the country in high school were so similar to the ones run by Malzahn and Morris, then there would be a whole lot more successful high school coaches being hired by colleges.

I'm interested to look into how closely Gainesville High School's offense is to the Clemson offense under Chad Morris, but I can't help but believe that it would be more likely to resemble the offense run by Morris and Malzahn a decade ago after Malzahn's book than the offense in it's current implementation. Of course this is all just speculation at this point while I wait for my power to come back.

Once again, sorry for the length and getting so far off topic.

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Why there's no QB "controversy"

Those that vehemently want Watson, run along now

Surely no one wants watson to be named the starter right now

You hit the nail on the head!***

I'm a fan of whatever works. Typically, I don't favor a 2 QB

Re: I'm a fan of whatever works. Typically, I don't favor a 2 QB

My view exactly

Re: My view exactly

As the season progresses, I see Watson get an increasing

Re: Why there's no QB "controversy"

That's not true, DW gives DC's more to worry about b/c he is

Re: Why there's no QB "controversy"

Re: Why there's no QB "controversy"

Re: Why there's no QB "controversy"

Re: Why there's no QB "controversy"

Here we go again...

Nailed it

Watson played in the same system in high school...

When the media calls it the "same system" they don't mean

Re: When the media calls it the "same system" they don't mean

Great article. Thanks for the link.

Re: When the media calls it the "same system" they don't mean

Good points (long)

TU, great response.

who said he didn't know the playbook?***

What amazes me is how a lot of our posters obviously know

What about all the QB run plays we could call with Watson???

Cole shoulda easily had 3 picks

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