The run game issues...

[upperdeck]

Im not a person that spends a lot of time on PFF grades but that sounds about right to me. The 33% more tells me the staff feels more comfortable with their zone concepts. We are prpbably having more success on zone plays. Not as much on gap plays. Collectively as a unit we are struggling. Its probably a different player each play. Im not a O line guy so my knowledge is limited

Pretty much what I see, Every play a different person loses the battle. No one guy getting beat every time.

 

[SUDadx2]

No Rhino is the huge issue/difference

The Rhino factor is not the reason our run game is struggling.

Rhino missed 8 games last season and Tucker gained almost 1500 yards and averages more than 6 yds a carry. It should be noted that our passing game was almost non-existent is some of those games.

This year, Tucker is averaging 3.6 yards per carry. Last year he averaged 6.1 yds per carry.

This year his longest run from scrimmage is 13 yards. Last year he had a gain longer than 13 yards in every game but Pitt. His longest gain against Pitt was 10 yards.

What’s the difference? Our offensive line personnel hasn’t changed significantly since last season.

Has Anae ever had a strong running game?

Last year, Coach Schmidt got credit for coordinating the run game. Has the new OC but in a new run game scheme?

The Genius Behind SU's Prolific Running Game

A fresh rendition of Syracuse football is coming up quick folks! Fall camp gets underway in just a few days and from there it’s all downhill to SU’s season opener in the Dome against Louisville. There are a lot of questions (as there usually are with this team) heading into the season. Can...

orangefizz.net

What’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

- Same OL that had 41 starts last year
- Same RB that gained 1496 yds last year
- Same OL coach who was the run game coordinator last year.

We’ve got three weeks to figure this out.

 

[money3189]

The Rhino factor is not the reason our run game is struggling.

Rhino missed 8 games last season and Tucker gained almost 1500 yards and averages more than 6 yds a carry. It should be noted that our passing game was almost non-existent is some of those games.

This year, Tucker is averaging 3.6 yards per carry. Last year he averaged 6.1 yds per carry.

This year his longest run from scrimmage is 13 yards. Last year he had a gain longer than 13 yards in every game but Pitt. His longest gain against Pitt was 10 yards.

What’s the difference? Our offensive line personnel hasn’t changed significantly since last season.

Has Anae ever had a strong running game?

Last year, Coach Schmidt got credit for coordinating the run game. Has the new OC but in a new run game scheme?

The Genius Behind SU's Prolific Running Game

A fresh rendition of Syracuse football is coming up quick folks! Fall camp gets underway in just a few days and from there it’s all downhill to SU’s season opener in the Dome against Louisville. There are a lot of questions (as there usually are with this team) heading into the season. Can...

orangefizz.net

What’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

- Same OL that had 41 starts last year
- Same RB that gained 1496 yds last year
- Same OL coach who was the run game coordinator last year.

We’ve got three weeks to figure this out.

Good observations. As soon as the hires were made I watched a ton a UVA games. I noticed the difference in their run blocking scheme and wondered how it will translate. Anae's offenses had moderate production from the RB's. There best running teams also had a QB that could run. We have one of the best backs in the country. I thought it be a slight drop off but not this much of one.

 

[SWC75]

The run game

I see a lot of people talking on the board about two things that are hurting the run game, and frankly, I'm not convinced either of those things is the issue. Those two things are as follows:

1. Sean Tucker is injured. Sean may be slightly banged up, but when he gets open space he has as much speed as he has ever had. He broke a play outside in the 4th quarter last night and flat-out beat two separate defenders to the corner who had the angle. It would have been somewhere in the range of a six to seven-yard pick-up. The play was called back because of holding. That, along with quite a few other plays shows me he's not injured, or not seriously so.
2. The blocking is horrible. This is partially true, but not for the reasons stated in a lot of threads I've seen. Quite frankly, the run game schemes and planning are so vanilla as to put our OL in really terrible positions to succeed. Yes, some players on the line aren't doing great, but it's the scheme more than the blocking.

So let's talk about what the main issues really are in regards to the run game. And it's actually pretty simple: the run game coordination is so plain and obvious it's putting a ton of stress on the OL and Tucker. If you look back at Robert Anae's career when he and Beck have been together, this is not altogether shocking. If you look at last year's run game scheme, specifically in the middle portion of the schedule when we were gashing teams, they were running an absolute boatload of misdirection. Counters, traps, RPO's, etc. Those plays gave our OL opportunities to hit the DL and linebackers on angles, and from multiple places.

If you think about how our DL and back 7 are so good at the 3-3-5, and have had success getting home on the quarterback, and getting penetration on run plays, it's because of the way they attack. We have undersized DL, but the stunts and the back 7 zone that they do (and that zone is like an amoeba - it's constantly changing and giving different looks to the QB), they win at the point of attack because we have players who understand their place in the defense and how to do their job to give SU an advantage. Coach White does a great job taking advantage of our defensive strengths to create confusion and mismatches. It stresses the offense in so many different ways.

You're probably asking yourself right now, "Why in the world is ClockworkOrange talking so much about our defense when he's trying to explain why our run game is underachieving?" First, it's because I don't have a word count so I tend to ramble. Secondly though, because everything the defense does to leverage their strengths is missing currently in the run game coordination for the offense.

Anae and Beck are wonderful at leveraging the offense's strengths in the passing game. They know their personnel and how they can get them in positions to succeed. Some of this is philosophical. Coach Anae is an Air Raid proponent and believes fully that the passing attack and the stretch principles of the attack are going to open up running lanes in the center of the field. This has worked in most places, but if you look closely, the run game has always been a secondary plan of attack, and not truly a central component of his offenses.

That's not to say that he isn't really great at drawing up good offenses, it's just that his philosophy tends to believe that passing is what's going to win games in the end. With Beck next to him, the QB Whisperer can make players like Shrader go from looking lost in the passing game, to being proficient in basically six months. When you have a QB coach that can do those things with literally every quarterback he mentors, the passing game is always going to be more attractive.

So part philosophy, part scheme. The Air Raid, in the way it stretches a defense both laterally and vertically, should by rights, create a ton of matchup issues for the defensive line when playing essentially 1 on 1 against its OL counterpart. 1 on 1 is almost always going to go to the offense if LBs are struggling to stretch out laterally to defend passing lanes. The problem is, I don't think our OL or Sean Tucker are really cut out for the up-the-gut, dive-heavy running attack. Our OL isn't overwhelming going straight ahead at the point of attack. They really succeeded last year when they could get out on the edges and move the point of attack to a place where they're hitting the DL and linebackers on the angles. That's really not one of the run principles of an Air Raid offense.

I don't buy that a veteran OL and a nationally renowned running back just take a step backward in all aspects of running football in one off-season. This is a scheme change issue, and in my personal opinion, not using our OL and our OL coach to their best effect. It also fails to take into account that what Sean Tucker is best at is one-cut and find the hole. When you are running dive plays, you aren't cutting until the second level. He needs to be able to hit holes at full speed, where there is a crease (via counter/trap plays).

My hope is Coach Anae is interested in listening to Coach Schmidt, and will add some elements of his running attack from last year. That attack will have to be tweaked a bit because it will be somewhat difficult to disguise those run game principles from Coach Schmidt into an Air Raid-style offense. If they can pull that off, I think the sky is the absolute limit for this team.

Don't blame Robert Anae

There's a growing feeling that the problems with our running game stem from the fact that OC Robert Anae "is a BYU guy" who doesn't know how to run a running offense. I decided to check his resume, which is on Cuse.com: https://cuse.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/robert-anae/5479 He was an...

syracusefan.com

 

[rrlbees]

The Rhino factor is not the reason our run game is struggling.

Rhino missed 8 games last season and Tucker gained almost 1500 yards and averages more than 6 yds a carry. It should be noted that our passing game was almost non-existent is some of those games.

This year, Tucker is averaging 3.6 yards per carry. Last year he averaged 6.1 yds per carry.

This year his longest run from scrimmage is 13 yards. Last year he had a gain longer than 13 yards in every game but Pitt. His longest gain against Pitt was 10 yards.

What’s the difference? Our offensive line personnel hasn’t changed significantly since last season.

Has Anae ever had a strong running game?

Last year, Coach Schmidt got credit for coordinating the run game. Has the new OC but in a new run game scheme?

The Genius Behind SU's Prolific Running Game

A fresh rendition of Syracuse football is coming up quick folks! Fall camp gets underway in just a few days and from there it’s all downhill to SU’s season opener in the Dome against Louisville. There are a lot of questions (as there usually are with this team) heading into the season. Can...

orangefizz.net

What’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

- Same OL that had 41 starts last year
- Same RB that gained 1496 yds last year
- Same OL coach who was the run game coordinator last year.

We’ve got three weeks to figure this out.

If it’s system, and it might be, you can’t compare only having Elmore for 4 games last year to him not being a big impact on this years run game.

 

[SUDadx2]

If it’s system, and it might be, you can’t compare only having Elmore for 4 games last year to him not being a big impact on this years run game.

The point is Elmore is not a factor. The post I was responding to claimed Rhino’s absence was a possible reason for our current struggles. He wasn’t a significant factor last year when Tucker gained 1496 yards and he’s not a factor this year.

The COE needs to get the OC and the OL/RC together to fix this.

What we are doing is not working well enough.

Implement some of the run schemes from last season. Use Wagner as a scrimmage to feel some things out. Then we have a bye week to keep implementing and refining the run game. Week 3 is game week where everything is fine tunes for NC State.

If we don’t fix the run game, October is going to be a long month and November isn’t going to be much better.

NC State
@ Clemson
Notre Dame
@ Pitt
Florida State
@ Wake

Six physical opponents in a row. We can’t be one-dimensional and expect to be competitive.

Adjust to your players and do what they can do well.

 

[djorange1989]

FAU only lost by 2 pts to Purdue. They ran for 189 yards.

The quarterback had 93.
The 3 running backs had 29 carries for 89 yards.
3.0 ypc for the running backs. Tucker 2.3

4.4 ypc overall

As a team they had 419 yards of offense.

Eh Georgia struggled against The Tall Man and Kent State yesterday but annihilated Oregon, doesn’t mean Oregon is crap because of that.

No question we have to improve the run game, however, not arguing that

 

[money3189]

Eh Georgia struggled against The Tall Man and Kent State yesterday but annihilated Oregon, doesn’t mean Oregon is crap because of that.

No question we have to improve the run game, however, not arguing that

Plus O'Connell didnt play. Offensive efficency/time possession factors into the performance of Purdue's defense.

 

[A Clockwork Orange]

Don't blame Robert Anae

There's a growing feeling that the problems with our running game stem from the fact that OC Robert Anae "is a BYU guy" who doesn't know how to run a running offense. I decided to check his resume, which is on Cuse.com: https://cuse.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/robert-anae/5479 He was an...

syracusefan.com

I'm not looking at anything before 2013 because that's when Jason Beck became the QB Coach for Anae.

Here's a look at what they have done since they've been together.

YEARS​	RUSH YPG​	NATIONAL RANKS​
2021 (UVA)​	123​	105​
2020 (UVA)​	162.7​	68​
2019 (UVA)​	122.5​	117​
2018 (UVA)​	173.6​	61​
2017 (UVA)​	93.5​	128​
2016 (UVA)​	113.6​	121​
2015 (BYU)​	128.3​	112​
2014 (BYU)​	181.8​	48​
2013 (BYU)​	254.5​	13​

So the first year Beck was with Anae they had the 13th best rush offense in the country. They also had one of the most dynamic running quarterbacks in recent memory in Taysom Hill. Shrader is a great runner, but he is not Taysom Hill.

After that, they have had mixed success, but in the past seven years, they have been in the lower 50th percentile in the country in running the ball. In five of those years, they were bottom 5th percentile. That's not good.

This year we are 87th in YPG, at 141 ypg. Last year we were 17th at 214.3 ypg. Now I would expect the running game to regress a bit when a dynamic passing offense is installed, so that's not entirely surprising, but the dramatic drop is. We're averaging roughly 71 yards less per game thus far, with a dynamic running QB and an All-American RB.

This is a scheme issue, and nothing in your post dissuades me from that.

 

[dasher]

No Rhino is the huge issue/difference

But we ran the ball well without him last year. Rhino is a great blocker. But we did run without him.

 

[rrlbees]

The point is Elmore is not a factor. The post I was responding to claimed Rhino’s absence was a possible reason for our current struggles. He wasn’t a significant factor last year when Tucker gained 1496 yards and he’s not a factor this year.

The COE needs to get the OC and the OL/RC together to fix this.

What we are doing is not working well enough.

Implement some of the run schemes from last season. Use Wagner as a scrimmage to feel some things out. Then we have a bye week to keep implementing and refining the run game. Week 3 is game week where everything is fine tunes for NC State.

If we don’t fix the run game, October is going to be a long month and November isn’t going to be much better.

NC State
@ Clemson
Notre Dame
@ Pitt
Florida State
@ Wake

Six physical opponents in a row. We can’t be one-dimensional and expect to be competitive.

Adjust to your players and do what they can do well.

My point is that if it is the system, then Rhino very well may be a big loss. Last years system was different. The system this year may very well have depended on Rhino more as a blocker. You may be comparing apples and oranges. He only played 15 snaps so it’s too small a sample size but he graded as our best run blocker.

 

[The Viking]

I'm not looking at anything before 2013 because that's when Jason Beck became the QB Coach for Anae.

Here's a look at what they have done since they've been together.

YEARS​	RUSH YPG​	NATIONAL RANKS​
2021 (UVA)​	123​	105​
2020 (UVA)​	162.7​	68​
2019 (UVA)​	122.5​	117​
2018 (UVA)​	173.6​	61​
2017 (UVA)​	93.5​	128​
2016 (UVA)​	113.6​	121​
2015 (BYU)​	128.3​	112​
2014 (BYU)​	181.8​	48​
2013 (BYU)​	254.5​	13​

So the first year Beck was with Anae they had the 13th best rush offense in the country. They also had one of the most dynamic running quarterbacks in recent memory in Taysom Hill. Shrader is a great runner, but he is not Taysom Hill.

After that, they have had mixed success, but in the past seven years, they have been in the lower 50th percentile in the country in running the ball. In five of those years, they were bottom 5th percentile. That's not good.

This year we are 87th in YPG, at 141 ypg. Last year we were 17th at 214.3 ypg. Now I would expect the running game to regress a bit when a dynamic passing offense is installed, so that's not entirely surprising, but the dramatic drop is. We're averaging roughly 71 yards less per game thus far, with a dynamic running QB and an All-American RB.

This is a scheme issue, and nothing in your post dissuades me from that.

This intelligent thread has been a pleasure to read. If you're right Clockwork, I hope the OC and O-line coach get on the same page sooner rather than later. Yet, despite not interacting like "clockwork," the team just pulled out two 1-score wins they likely would have lost in 2021. I'm still feeling good and hope we can develop some depth against Wagner.

 

[baggerbob]

The Rhino factor is not the reason our run game is struggling.

Rhino missed 8 games last season and Tucker gained almost 1500 yards and averages more than 6 yds a carry. It should be noted that our passing game was almost non-existent is some of those games.

This year, Tucker is averaging 3.6 yards per carry. Last year he averaged 6.1 yds per carry.

This year his longest run from scrimmage is 13 yards. Last year he had a gain longer than 13 yards in every game but Pitt. His longest gain against Pitt was 10 yards.

What’s the difference? Our offensive line personnel hasn’t changed significantly since last season.

Has Anae ever had a strong running game?

Last year, Coach Schmidt got credit for coordinating the run game. Has the new OC but in a new run game scheme?

The Genius Behind SU's Prolific Running Game

A fresh rendition of Syracuse football is coming up quick folks! Fall camp gets underway in just a few days and from there it’s all downhill to SU’s season opener in the Dome against Louisville. There are a lot of questions (as there usually are with this team) heading into the season. Can...

orangefizz.net

What’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

- Same OL that had 41 starts last year
- Same RB that gained 1496 yds last year
- Same OL coach who was the run game coordinator last year.

We’ve got three weeks to figure this out.

Missing the Center and moving the RT to center and playing a guard at RT.

 

[A Clockwork Orange]

My point is that if it is the system, then Rhino very well may be a big loss. Last years system was different. The system this year may very well have depended on Rhino more as a blocker. You may be comparing apples and oranges. He only played 15 snaps so it’s too small a sample size but he graded as our best run blocker.

I agree with this. He played so little, it's all just conjecture but I think with the run scheme this season, he would have played a big role in clearing out gap cloggers.

 

[SWC75]

I'm not looking at anything before 2013 because that's when Jason Beck became the QB Coach for Anae.

Here's a look at what they have done since they've been together.

YEARS​	RUSH YPG​	NATIONAL RANKS​
2021 (UVA)​	123​	105​
2020 (UVA)​	162.7​	68​
2019 (UVA)​	122.5​	117​
2018 (UVA)​	173.6​	61​
2017 (UVA)​	93.5​	128​
2016 (UVA)​	113.6​	121​
2015 (BYU)​	128.3​	112​
2014 (BYU)​	181.8​	48​
2013 (BYU)​	254.5​	13​

So the first year Beck was with Anae they had the 13th best rush offense in the country. They also had one of the most dynamic running quarterbacks in recent memory in Taysom Hill. Shrader is a great runner, but he is not Taysom Hill.

After that, they have had mixed success, but in the past seven years, they have been in the lower 50th percentile in the country in running the ball. In five of those years, they were bottom 5th percentile. That's not good.

This year we are 87th in YPG, at 141 ypg. Last year we were 17th at 214.3 ypg. Now I would expect the running game to regress a bit when a dynamic passing offense is installed, so that's not entirely surprising, but the dramatic drop is. We're averaging roughly 71 yards less per game thus far, with a dynamic running QB and an All-American RB.

This is a scheme issue, and nothing in your post dissuades me from that.

Look at the yards per carry. Every one of the teams I listed had their top two running backs gain at least 4 yards a carry except 2017 when Jordan Ellis averaged 3.9. The next year Ellis averaged 4.8 and totaled 1,036.

And Hill wasn't the only reason the 2013 BYU team ran the ball so well: "BYU was a powerful rushing team in 2013 with Tayson Hill running for 1,344 at 5.5 per carry and Jamall Williams 1,233 at 5.7. Two other running backs averaged 5.9 and another 4.9."

Sean Tucker is averaging 3.6 yards per carry this year and in the last two games that's 2.6.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Look at the yards per carry. Every one of the teams I listed had their top two running backs gain at least 4 yards a carry except 2017 when Jordan Ellis averaged 3.9. The next year Ellis averaged 4.8 and totaled 1,036.

And Hill wasn't the only reason the 2013 BYU team ran the ball so well: "BYU was a powerful rushing team in 2013 with Tayson Hill running for 1,344 at 5.5 per carry and Jamall Williams 1,233 at 5.7. Two other running backs averaged 5.9 and another 4.9."

Sean Tucker is averaging 3.6 yards per carry this year and in the last two games that's 2.6.

CFB 4.8 isn't very good.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

excellent write-up. I’ve felt they are not playing to their strengths on O and it’s going to cost them starting in 3 weeks. Our best players are a big running Qb and a powerful one-cut RB. Our weakness is WR. So what do we do? We go air raid. SMH

We're not air raid.

 

[kcsu]

The run game

I see a lot of people talking on the board about two things that are hurting the run game, and frankly, I'm not convinced either of those things is the issue. Those two things are as follows:

1. Sean Tucker is injured. Sean may be slightly banged up, but when he gets open space he has as much speed as he has ever had. He broke a play outside in the 4th quarter last night and flat-out beat two separate defenders to the corner who had the angle. It would have been somewhere in the range of a six to seven-yard pick-up. The play was called back because of holding. That, along with quite a few other plays shows me he's not injured, or not seriously so.
2. The blocking is horrible. This is partially true, but not for the reasons stated in a lot of threads I've seen. Quite frankly, the run game schemes and planning are so vanilla as to put our OL in really terrible positions to succeed. Yes, some players on the line aren't doing great, but it's the scheme more than the blocking.

So let's talk about what the main issues really are in regards to the run game. And it's actually pretty simple: the run game coordination is so plain and obvious it's putting a ton of stress on the OL and Tucker. If you look back at Robert Anae's career when he and Beck have been together, this is not altogether shocking. If you look at last year's run game scheme, specifically in the middle portion of the schedule when we were gashing teams, they were running an absolute boatload of misdirection. Counters, traps, RPO's, etc. Those plays gave our OL opportunities to hit the DL and linebackers on angles, and from multiple places.

If you think about how our DL and back 7 are so good at the 3-3-5, and have had success getting home on the quarterback, and getting penetration on run plays, it's because of the way they attack. We have undersized DL, but the stunts and the back 7 zone that they do (and that zone is like an amoeba - it's constantly changing and giving different looks to the QB), they win at the point of attack because we have players who understand their place in the defense and how to do their job to give SU an advantage. Coach White does a great job taking advantage of our defensive strengths to create confusion and mismatches. It stresses the offense in so many different ways.

You're probably asking yourself right now, "Why in the world is ClockworkOrange talking so much about our defense when he's trying to explain why our run game is underachieving?" First, it's because I don't have a word count so I tend to ramble. Secondly though, because everything the defense does to leverage their strengths is missing currently in the run game coordination for the offense.

Anae and Beck are wonderful at leveraging the offense's strengths in the passing game. They know their personnel and how they can get them in positions to succeed. Some of this is philosophical. Coach Anae is an Air Raid proponent and believes fully that the passing attack and the stretch principles of the attack are going to open up running lanes in the center of the field. This has worked in most places, but if you look closely, the run game has always been a secondary plan of attack, and not truly a central component of his offenses.

That's not to say that he isn't really great at drawing up good offenses, it's just that his philosophy tends to believe that passing is what's going to win games in the end. With Beck next to him, the QB Whisperer can make players like Shrader go from looking lost in the passing game, to being proficient in basically six months. When you have a QB coach that can do those things with literally every quarterback he mentors, the passing game is always going to be more attractive.

So part philosophy, part scheme. The Air Raid, in the way it stretches a defense both laterally and vertically, should by rights, create a ton of matchup issues for the defensive line when playing essentially 1 on 1 against its OL counterpart. 1 on 1 is almost always going to go to the offense if LBs are struggling to stretch out laterally to defend passing lanes. The problem is, I don't think our OL or Sean Tucker are really cut out for the up-the-gut, dive-heavy running attack. Our OL isn't overwhelming going straight ahead at the point of attack. They really succeeded last year when they could get out on the edges and move the point of attack to a place where they're hitting the DL and linebackers on the angles. That's really not one of the run principles of an Air Raid offense.

I don't buy that a veteran OL and a nationally renowned running back just take a step backward in all aspects of running football in one off-season. This is a scheme change issue, and in my personal opinion, not using our OL and our OL coach to their best effect. It also fails to take into account that what Sean Tucker is best at is one-cut and find the hole. When you are running dive plays, you aren't cutting until the second level. He needs to be able to hit holes at full speed, where there is a crease (via counter/trap plays).

My hope is Coach Anae is interested in listening to Coach Schmidt, and will add some elements of his running attack from last year. That attack will have to be tweaked a bit because it will be somewhat difficult to disguise those run game principles from Coach Schmidt into an Air Raid-style offense. If they can pull that off, I think the sky is the absolute limit for this team.

Great post

 

[money3189]

Look at the yards per carry. Every one of the teams I listed had their top two running backs gain at least 4 yards a carry except 2017 when Jordan Ellis averaged 3.9. The next year Ellis averaged 4.8 and totaled 1,036.

And Hill wasn't the only reason the 2013 BYU team ran the ball so well: "BYU was a powerful rushing team in 2013 with Tayson Hill running for 1,344 at 5.5 per carry and Jamall Williams 1,233 at 5.7. Two other running backs averaged 5.9 and another 4.9."

Sean Tucker is averaging 3.6 yards per carry this year and in the last two games that's 2.6.

Good data

 

[A Clockwork Orange]

Look at the yards per carry. Every one of the teams I listed had their top two running backs gain at least 4 yards a carry except 2017 when Jordan Ellis averaged 3.9. The next year Ellis averaged 4.8 and totaled 1,036.

And Hill wasn't the only reason the 2013 BYU team ran the ball so well: "BYU was a powerful rushing team in 2013 with Tayson Hill running for 1,344 at 5.5 per carry and Jamall Williams 1,233 at 5.7. Two other running backs averaged 5.9 and another 4.9."

Sean Tucker is averaging 3.6 yards per carry this year and in the last two games that's 2.6.

And they also spread the ball around to a lot of different backs. Very rarely was there a bell cow. And I'm not going to get into it, but I have no idea what the make-up of those OLs was. Further - I would say the main reason they ran so well in 2013 was that they basically had two NFL-caliber RBs who are still RBs in the league (well, who knows what Hill is - a little bit of everything I guess).

And if you look at the YPC average and where that stands across the country, your argument just doesn't stand up. These days a 4.4 YPC average isn't elite, it's a lower tier. This isn't our dad's ground-and-pound football anymore.

Let's take another look at the spreadsheet, except using average YPC and national average. Hint - it's not very good when compared to the rest of college football.

YEARS​	YPC​	NATIONAL RANK​
2021 (UVA)​	4.4​	105​
2020 (UVA)​	4.4​	65​
2019 (UVA)​	3.9​	96​
2018 (UVA)​	4.5​	58​
2017 (UVA)​	3.1​	126​
2016 (UVA)​	3.5​	114​
2015 (BYU)​	4.0​	86​
2014 (BYU)​	4.2​	72​
2013 (BYU)​	4.9​	30​

So while the stats are very slightly better when broken out to YPC, it's nothing earth-shattering. They only have three years in the 5th percentile and seven years where they are 50th percentile or below. The outlier is Hill and Williams in 2013.

And listen, I'm not saying this isn't fine for an offense that is dynamic in the passing game. It is what it is - none of those teams had a Sean Tucker, and we're losing out on having an offense that is even more dynamic if some of the run schemes aren't tweaked to play to our OL and RBs strength. They aren't doing that. That has worked thus far and it will work next week. Right now though, I'm looking at an all-time team, not one that fades down the stretch because the offensive scheme isn't able to adjust to the realities of this team.

 

[A Clockwork Orange]

We're not air raid.

It's certainly not an air raid in the traditional sense, but it has some air raid principles while taking into account Anae's history and his ability to create a hybrid that fits what he likes to do most.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

It's certainly not an air raid in the traditional sense, but it has some air raid principles while taking into account Anae's history and his ability to create a hybrid that fits what he likes to do most.

I'm aware.

But what we're doing now isn't air raid. The play call ratio shows that pretty clearly.

Given our relative success passing the ball vs running the ball, one could make the argument that we should call more passing plays than we do.

People are frustrated because Tucker was a bona fide star last season, and this season looks pedestrian.

But given the Dome, I'd argue the more we lean into the passing game as a program, the better.

And with QBs like CD-RW, Lamson, and Sellers in the wings, well...

 

[kcsu]

The bye is coming at a good time. I believe that we will see a better healthier Tucker and i also think that Dr. Bob is going to use him better

 

[A Clockwork Orange]

I'm aware.

But what we're doing now isn't air raid. The play call ratio shows that pretty clearly.

Given our relative success passing the ball vs running the ball, one could make the argument that we should call more passing plays than we do.

People are frustrated because Tucker was a bona fide star last season, and this season looks pedestrian.

But given the Dome, I'd argue the more we lean into the passing game as a program, the better.

And with QBs like CD-RW, Lamson, and Sellers in the wings, well...

That's true. I would be 100% on board with full-on Air Raid sling it all over the place if only we didn't have Tucker. But we do, and he's the best back SU has had in a long time. We're only four games in and I have faith in our coaches to get the run game going, especially since we are essentially in for a two-week bye.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

That's true. I would be 100% on board with full-on Air Raid sling it all over the place if only we didn't have Tucker. But we do, and he's the best back SU has had in a long time. We're only four games in and I have faith in our coaches to get the run game going, especially since we are essentially in for a two-week bye.

I agree with all of that.