OttoinGrotto
2023-24 Iggy Award Most 3 Pointers Made
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I did not attend Fan Fest. This post is a smoke screen for the Northwestern coaches.
So you may have noticed that some posters mentioned a couple of formations that are new that the staff was hoping to keep under wraps, but the guy I sat next to was clearly a Northwestern scout so lets not worry about cloak and dagger crap and just get on to the fun of the new offense.
The first formation that really caught my eye was the use of a full house backfield. We get a lot of size on the field with a two TE set featuring Wales and Thompson and a backfield with Smith, Broyld and AAM in it all at the same time. Now, I've consistently talked about how much I hate bunch formations, and without getting too much into the details this type of formation and personnel allows for what I can best describe as funneling the ball to different parts of the field. The closest thing I can think of to describe it is to think of how rugby players will run east-west, kind of. Anyway, the really cool thing that I saw was that on a handful of plays we ran this formation with an unbalanced line. No joke, from left to right it went Chibane, Macky, Foy, Sweet Lou, Hickey, Wales, Thompson. I pretty much crapped my pants when they ran a naked bootleg for Nassib to the short side of the line, but I guess Coach Marrone is pretty serious about designed runs for the QB.
The other thing I hadn't seen before that was really unique and that I give the staff a lot of credit to for creativity was a 6 wideout set. You read that right. After Loeb's reps he ran off the field and it looked like it was going to be Broyld's turn for some snaps. Well, Broyld stayed on the field and Hackett started yelling something over and over. He kind of put his arms over his head and made them into a circle and shook them back and forth. I couldn't hear very well but I think he was saying "Fuzzy navel orange." Whatever it was the kids knew what was coming. Anyway, from left to right the wideouts were Lemon, West, Broyld, oline, Kobena, Flemming, Sales. Naturally, Broyld would go in motion and end up at QB in the shotgun. A couple of times the split between the receivers had 4 on one side and 2 on the other of the oline. What surprised me was how much they ran out of this formation, with Kobena being the main ball carrier. It made sense though because the defense was stretched out really thin. Kobena didn't break a long one out of this or anything, but there were gaps and with his speed I'd guess that he averaged a good 6 to 8 yards a rush.
One other thing that has bothered me has been how we've used fullbacks under Marrone, but even though they weren't featured prominently in the scrimmaging they were more than just blockers. After getting a first down I think on a pass to Hale the offense ran immediately up to the line, did a quick snap before the defense was set, and ran a dive for Cleveland. As soon as he was tackled (looked like he got a good 5 yards) the offense ran right back up to the line, got off a quick snap and again gave it to Cleveland for the dive. It happened so quickly it was hard to see how much more the offense had to go for the first, but sure enough they ran straight up to the line and I thought there was no way they'd run the Cleveland dive again. Cleveland looked like he got stuffed for a loss, and then I saw the ball zip out to Broyld for a quick slant and promptly bounce off his hands for the drop. Hackett blew a gasket over that one because the safety on that side of the fields (Wilkes maybe?) was not ready at all and it could have been a sure TD, but I was really encouraged by the new mentality I saw on offense to push the tempo. Hopefully that's a preview of good things to come.
Other than that, I'll just echo what some others have said: Sugar Bear is a bad man, Morris might make things interesting, Hunt and Loeb are taking the backup QB and jump start on starting next season battle pretty seriously, and there's definitely a commitment to keep defenses confused and on their toes. I really had low expectations and didn't expect much to change, but what we're doing now is not just radically different from what our program has done, I dare say it's radical for college football as a whole. We're going to have a lot of guys see the field in some really unique capacities.
So you may have noticed that some posters mentioned a couple of formations that are new that the staff was hoping to keep under wraps, but the guy I sat next to was clearly a Northwestern scout so lets not worry about cloak and dagger crap and just get on to the fun of the new offense.
The first formation that really caught my eye was the use of a full house backfield. We get a lot of size on the field with a two TE set featuring Wales and Thompson and a backfield with Smith, Broyld and AAM in it all at the same time. Now, I've consistently talked about how much I hate bunch formations, and without getting too much into the details this type of formation and personnel allows for what I can best describe as funneling the ball to different parts of the field. The closest thing I can think of to describe it is to think of how rugby players will run east-west, kind of. Anyway, the really cool thing that I saw was that on a handful of plays we ran this formation with an unbalanced line. No joke, from left to right it went Chibane, Macky, Foy, Sweet Lou, Hickey, Wales, Thompson. I pretty much crapped my pants when they ran a naked bootleg for Nassib to the short side of the line, but I guess Coach Marrone is pretty serious about designed runs for the QB.
The other thing I hadn't seen before that was really unique and that I give the staff a lot of credit to for creativity was a 6 wideout set. You read that right. After Loeb's reps he ran off the field and it looked like it was going to be Broyld's turn for some snaps. Well, Broyld stayed on the field and Hackett started yelling something over and over. He kind of put his arms over his head and made them into a circle and shook them back and forth. I couldn't hear very well but I think he was saying "Fuzzy navel orange." Whatever it was the kids knew what was coming. Anyway, from left to right the wideouts were Lemon, West, Broyld, oline, Kobena, Flemming, Sales. Naturally, Broyld would go in motion and end up at QB in the shotgun. A couple of times the split between the receivers had 4 on one side and 2 on the other of the oline. What surprised me was how much they ran out of this formation, with Kobena being the main ball carrier. It made sense though because the defense was stretched out really thin. Kobena didn't break a long one out of this or anything, but there were gaps and with his speed I'd guess that he averaged a good 6 to 8 yards a rush.
One other thing that has bothered me has been how we've used fullbacks under Marrone, but even though they weren't featured prominently in the scrimmaging they were more than just blockers. After getting a first down I think on a pass to Hale the offense ran immediately up to the line, did a quick snap before the defense was set, and ran a dive for Cleveland. As soon as he was tackled (looked like he got a good 5 yards) the offense ran right back up to the line, got off a quick snap and again gave it to Cleveland for the dive. It happened so quickly it was hard to see how much more the offense had to go for the first, but sure enough they ran straight up to the line and I thought there was no way they'd run the Cleveland dive again. Cleveland looked like he got stuffed for a loss, and then I saw the ball zip out to Broyld for a quick slant and promptly bounce off his hands for the drop. Hackett blew a gasket over that one because the safety on that side of the fields (Wilkes maybe?) was not ready at all and it could have been a sure TD, but I was really encouraged by the new mentality I saw on offense to push the tempo. Hopefully that's a preview of good things to come.
Other than that, I'll just echo what some others have said: Sugar Bear is a bad man, Morris might make things interesting, Hunt and Loeb are taking the backup QB and jump start on starting next season battle pretty seriously, and there's definitely a commitment to keep defenses confused and on their toes. I really had low expectations and didn't expect much to change, but what we're doing now is not just radically different from what our program has done, I dare say it's radical for college football as a whole. We're going to have a lot of guys see the field in some really unique capacities.
