Slapdash August 20, 2012
When you don’t know what to write about, just start writing.
Florida/West Virginia, Eh?
On the BTN Illini preview Saturday night (I can’t be the only one who hurried home on Saturday night to watch it, right?), co-offensive coordinator Chris Beatty (who apparently will be calling the plays from the booth if I heard him right?) said that this offense would be a hybrid between the recent West Virginia offenses and the Urban Meyer Florida offenses (I don’t really have anything for these parenthesis but every point within this sentence was followed by a parenthetical thought which ended with a question mark so I don’t see how I can’t do the same here if that makes sense?).
So… West Virginia/Florida, eh? Let’s see, Beatty was at West Virginia post-Rich Rod, pre-Holgerball, so those teams were your typical spread offense that featured a small, speedy Noel Devine at tailback and a dual threat QB that they were developing into a passer (Geno whatshisname – I’m too deep in this thought to look it up). The Florida offenses under Meyer (and Dan Mullen and Billy Gonzales) were the Tebow/Rainey/Demps offenses, where they tried to get the ball in space (pitches, bubble screens) to the small, speedy Jeff Demps.
What can we take from that? (SMITH – Geno SMITH. Just came to me.) Well, combine that information with the two high school running backs we’ve recruited for the 2013 class (5′-8″ Kendrick Foster and 5′-9″ Miguel Hermosillo), combined with the tailback we added in January for the 2012 class (5′-8″ Devin Church, who is working at slot receiver), and I think it’s pretty clear what we’ll be trying to do with this offense over the next few years. Spread the field, change the tempo, and instead of wearing you out by lining up with twin tight ends and a fullback and running you over, wear you out with speed and tempo going sideline to sideline.
I’m down.
Eggs In One Basket
With Tyler Ennis selecting Syracuse (and let’s face it, Tyler Ennis was always going to pick Syracuse), I believe all of our point guard recruiting eggs are placed in the Demetrius Jackson basket. Which means we probably get our first read on John Groce, recruiter. Some say Jackson will come down to Notre Dame (his home town team), Illinois, and Kansas. Of the Bill Self Kansas’.
Can Groce stare down Self? I’m guessing that’s the storyline in the next few months. According to Paul Klee (and again, if I had more time, I’d totally be linking you to the Klee Chat that discussed all of this, but I’m in a hurry and you should be reading all of the Klee chats anyway), Jackson will visit Illinois in September and then possibly visit Kansas for Midnight Madness. Guh.
Remember what it was like the weekend Sherron Collins was at Kansas? That feeling of not wanting to check the message boards for fear of bad news? Or when Dee was “50/50″ on transferring after Self left? That feeling of opening up your browser and then checking for Illini news between your middle and ring finger? That’s what I’m expecting if Jackson visits Kansas for Midnight Madness.
Jackson is the kind of recruit that would send me into a Future Roster Frenzy. It’s been so long since I let myself get all Future Roster Frenzy. A quick peak of how that would go:
Add Jackson to Malcolm Hill and you have ONE OF THE TOP FIVE BACKCOURTS IN ILLINI HISTORY. Find an athletic four that can stretch the D on a drive-and-kick and BABY WE’VE GOT A STEW GOIN’!
(Future Roster Frenzies always end in all caps. And always, ALWAYS, exaggerate.)
Six Tempos
I really don’t even know what it means. But Tim Beckman said that we’ll be a “tempo team” and that we’ll have “six of them”. On the BTN preview, Beatty said that we’ll be up-tempo sometimes, we’ll have a shift/motion tempo where we’re trying to confuse the D, and we’ll have the look-to-the-sidelines tempo where we get set and then look to the coaching staff for a possible shift/play-call change. Ok, so that’s three of them. What could the other three be? I think we should name them all.
Happy – Oregon-like up-tempo. Wear down the defense until they have to go all Jeff Tedford and fake injuries to slow us down.
Sneezy - This is our shift/motion offense. Set up four wide, and then motion a slot receiver and a tight end into the backfield. Ah-choo.
Grumpy - Look-to-the-sideline, obviously. The offense that every one of your fathers hates.
Bashful – What’s that? We’re just a simple wittle read-option spread offense, running these same four plays over and over and BAMM Matt LaCosse deep down the middle on a seam route.
Sleepy - Slow it down. Make the defense jump offside just because you’ve been up-tempo all day and now you’re taking your time. Brady Hoke is getting verrrry sleeeeeeepy.
Dopey – We inexplicably switch to the Mike Schultz offense/tempo for one series. Can you deal with THAT, Missouri? Oh, right, you can.
Sorry Doc – he said six.
i haven’t seen the preview but will try and watch the replay tonight. WVU-Florida spread? i’m a little bit leary. we don’t have a noel devine or a jeff demps or a percy harvin type. will we be able to make it go without big time playmakers? also, i’m a little nervous about 6 tempos. can you pull off 6 different tempos? that seems like a lot to me – i would prefer 1 tempo that we did really, really, really well to 6 tempos that we do so-so.
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i’ve been nervous about the Offense since last year. i don’t expect us to blow up the scoreboard anytime soon. it will be interesting to see us get very spread-y.
I watched the KFHB again on Saturday night. It tempered my expectations quite a bit. I forgot just how poor our offense looked.
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Illinois total yards in our final seven games:
Ohio State – 285
Purdue – 245
Penn St. – 286
Michigan – 214
Wisconsin – 301
Minnesota – 160
UCLA – 326
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That’s an average of 259 yards per game. Where would 259 yards per game rank if it was the season average? 118th out of 120 teams.
Robert,
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I think there are just some huge question marks on offense. I’m not necessarily against being a “spread” team – i just don’t think we have the horses to make it go this year. That’s what makes me nervous about the WMU and LaTech games. Even if our defense plays really, really well we will still give up about 21 points to both teams. What if we give up say 28 points? Can we score 29?
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I guess the good news is that it really can’t get worse then it did during our 7 game offensive swoon last year. I expect us to do better than that, but I don’t think we are going to be breaking off 40+ points against anybody except for Charleston Southern and maybe Indiana. With a great defense and an average (at best) offense I think every game is going to be a dogfight this year.
What makes me nervous is the fact that no one on the team, players or staff, can seem to pinpoint what went wrong with the offense last year. On the BTN preview show, Scheelhaase said something along the lines of, “Well, really it was just the difference between a play or two here or there that made the difference.” I’m no football expert, but to me it seems like it’d be something bigger than that that could cause an offense that was racking up huge yardage and points to just collapse and fall flat on its face. If they had said, “Yeah, our line was having issues blocking,” or, “I didn’t read pass coverage properly,” or, “We didn’t play with enough speed or power,” or etc. etc., I’d be a bit more optimistic about the offense actually CORRECTING their problems. Otherwise, how can you fix what’s broken if you don’t know what indeed is broken??
Or maybe it’s all a ploy and they’re just not trying to show their hand yet.
Is it just me, or does any else find that attitude and viewpoint a bit disconcerting?
Where you been, Robert? I’ve missed your writing. Glad you’re back.
Oz,
What the heck do you mean, where have you been Robert? He’s been posting twice a day for three months…
Talked to a guy on the team today who said practices are more fun then they have ever been and the coaches are way more precise and focused on details than the previous regime. BTW why can’t Ferguson be that guy? Why can’t Milines? Milines is an incredible athlete that will show you what he can do once the ball is in his hands this year.
Duece,
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If anyone breaks out offensively this year it might be Ferguson. I have replayed his move on Justin Green that resulted in a 20 yd gain many times on my DVR. He could set himself apart. As far as Milines… I don’t know. Seems like one of those guys that just can’t get healthy. I hope he does stay healthy, but I don’t realy want to see him taking hand offs, returning kicks, etc.
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I think the X factor is Jon Davis. He could be absolutely bananas if we use him right.
with that said, i see us REALLY struggling to score north of 28 points against damn near everyone with Charleston Southern and Indiana excepted.
LongLiveTheChief, nice screen name. As far as finding out what was wrong last year, I think I would be much more discouraged having Nate come out and say, “Our line didn’t block well and our running backs didn’t do well.” A leader isn’t going to come out and call out his teammates like that. He has said he didn’t play as well in the second half, but I think they are all trying to put the past behind them, maybe downplay it a bit, and move on so they don’t have to keep answering questions about it.
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The main difference I think you will see this year, is discipline. Zook’s teams here didn’t have it. They didn’t have fight. They seemed to always know, if I don’t go hard enough and get beat, coach will still hug me when I get to the side line. That is not how Beckman seems to me. Beckman, according to him and his players, has competition at the forefront of just about everything they do. If you don’t go hard, and you lose, you’re not going to play. I think that discipline alone, is going to be good for at least 50 yards a game, probably more. Maybe it comes from penaltys that don’t occur, not giving up an extra first down on defense and forcing a 3 and out rather than a 7-8 play drive then punt, SPECIAL TEAMS, or just better offensive plays. Discipline is huge in football. It is the difference of extremely talented teams that go 3-9, and teams may not be as talented, but play the right way, and compete for conference championships. For me, that is the biggest difference I think we will see on the field this year. (At least I hope so)
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Long live the Chief.
I would add to the excellent post above that other teams also realized that if they shifted to cover AJ, we didn’t have other weapons. I think that this year we will be more balanced, but O-line remains the massive question mark.
So if I am following this correctly, we have possible break-it-open playmakers in:
Ferguson
Millines
Jon Davis
We have the rest of the skill-position depth chart to keep defenses honest, and might sprinkle in some Black Cat and Green to add uncertainty.
We have OC’s with a mandate to find the right scheme to meet the talent, and call the corresponding plays.
We start the season with a team we out-talent, and who has no idea what to prepare for. Even a sloppy win should add confidence.
We should benefit from at least 40 yards of better field position per game by not being completely unworthy on special teams.
And players are having fun, and learning, during practice. (I cannot overstate how important I think this is…high-performing teams do this, not underperforming ones.)
Add them up, and I feel justified in expecting an offense that performs middle-of-the-pack or better. Match it to a top-quartile defense, and we get a winning season,plus a little extra.
That’s all I’ve ever really hoped for going into seasons as an Illinois fan. If Beckman and Co. deliver that for a few years, the fans will forget the years of dashed expectations and where-did-that-come-from winning seasons, and get on board in droves.
Go Illini!