I've been meaning to ask this on the board for awhile, and the various discussions we've had over the summer have brought this up a time or two, but I thought I'd go ahead and lay out my thoughts/questions on the subject. Hopefully I'm not repeating what's already been stated, but eh...here it is anyhow.
I remember during the spring that Yurcich arrived (um...maybe early parts of fall practice?!?) how RA and even Dave Hunziker remarked at how fast OSU was at running one play to the next. Although our offense under Holgy & Monken was already designed to "play fast" on drives to prevent defenses from subbing/reacting to what we wanted to dictate offensively, Yurcich thought we could play even faster. Again, the comments by RA & Dave seemed to reinforce not only the belief that we were planning on it but also that we had accomplished it. I remember RA saying something to the effect of "this is the fastest run offense I've ever seen at Oklahoma State."
I know RA is prone to hyperbole, but Dave's comments seemed to validate it. Well, the first game against Miss. State didn't validate those assertions. We came out flat, Chelf was benched, and we ran JW to a low-scoring victory. Then, the following week, we actually did seem to come out firing the way it was forecasted, and Dave even made mention how quickly we were snapping the ball from one play to the next. Granted, we were playing UTSA, Walsh looked like an All-American throwing & catching (made Seales look like a budding Blackmon too), but I don't recall much of a return to that philosophy since that time (probably because we blew away Lamar the next week only to get shut down at WVU the following week). It took awhile to somewhat re-tool the offense in 2013 which leaned more on the running game, but Chelf at times appeared to play faster (certainly helped against Baylor!)
Now that we've got a QB we're all confident in as well as a multitude of WR talent (as well as the Cowboy Backs) and (fingers crossed) a running game with a pulse--will Yurcich return to the idea/notion of playing fast? Speaking of the Cowboy Backs--I wonder if that's one of the features about their multi-faceted role that appeals to Gundy--he mentioned how they can play TE, fullback, or receiver which allows us to keep them in without subbing. Do you think that also means we'll snap the ball faster this year--try to get back to what was supposedly a characteristic of Yurcich that Gundy admired? That certainly seemed the trait of the 2011 team (seemed every game they'd talk about how many scoring drives we had that were under 2 minutes), and Baylor/TCU seem to be operating this way too.
Anyhow--I know there's been somewhat of a disagreement of the "what we saw in the Cactus Bowl is how we're going to run our offense" claim, so I wanted to get the board's take. It appears we have the personnel to do both scenarios when we want. Want to go 4 or 5 wide and sling it down the field? No problem. Want to shift 2 of those guys in the backfield and create some extra blocking opportunities for our backs? No problem. Although I've been holding on to the thought of the 2011 offense being the best format for success, I really do admire the potential mismatches the cowboy backs provide and showed at times at the end of last year. Reminds me a bit of the versatility of New England's offense.
Okay--I've typed WAY more than I wanted. Looking forward to your comments!
I remember during the spring that Yurcich arrived (um...maybe early parts of fall practice?!?) how RA and even Dave Hunziker remarked at how fast OSU was at running one play to the next. Although our offense under Holgy & Monken was already designed to "play fast" on drives to prevent defenses from subbing/reacting to what we wanted to dictate offensively, Yurcich thought we could play even faster. Again, the comments by RA & Dave seemed to reinforce not only the belief that we were planning on it but also that we had accomplished it. I remember RA saying something to the effect of "this is the fastest run offense I've ever seen at Oklahoma State."
I know RA is prone to hyperbole, but Dave's comments seemed to validate it. Well, the first game against Miss. State didn't validate those assertions. We came out flat, Chelf was benched, and we ran JW to a low-scoring victory. Then, the following week, we actually did seem to come out firing the way it was forecasted, and Dave even made mention how quickly we were snapping the ball from one play to the next. Granted, we were playing UTSA, Walsh looked like an All-American throwing & catching (made Seales look like a budding Blackmon too), but I don't recall much of a return to that philosophy since that time (probably because we blew away Lamar the next week only to get shut down at WVU the following week). It took awhile to somewhat re-tool the offense in 2013 which leaned more on the running game, but Chelf at times appeared to play faster (certainly helped against Baylor!)
Now that we've got a QB we're all confident in as well as a multitude of WR talent (as well as the Cowboy Backs) and (fingers crossed) a running game with a pulse--will Yurcich return to the idea/notion of playing fast? Speaking of the Cowboy Backs--I wonder if that's one of the features about their multi-faceted role that appeals to Gundy--he mentioned how they can play TE, fullback, or receiver which allows us to keep them in without subbing. Do you think that also means we'll snap the ball faster this year--try to get back to what was supposedly a characteristic of Yurcich that Gundy admired? That certainly seemed the trait of the 2011 team (seemed every game they'd talk about how many scoring drives we had that were under 2 minutes), and Baylor/TCU seem to be operating this way too.
Anyhow--I know there's been somewhat of a disagreement of the "what we saw in the Cactus Bowl is how we're going to run our offense" claim, so I wanted to get the board's take. It appears we have the personnel to do both scenarios when we want. Want to go 4 or 5 wide and sling it down the field? No problem. Want to shift 2 of those guys in the backfield and create some extra blocking opportunities for our backs? No problem. Although I've been holding on to the thought of the 2011 offense being the best format for success, I really do admire the potential mismatches the cowboy backs provide and showed at times at the end of last year. Reminds me a bit of the versatility of New England's offense.
Okay--I've typed WAY more than I wanted. Looking forward to your comments!
