This passing attack will become a virtuous cycle

[HRE Otto IV]

Where is Pena going? I love the kid but I don't see the pros lining up for him. Same with Allen. I think he can make a NFL team. But he is right on the line.

They both can Xfer. Can’t ever trust kids will stay. If they don’t think the next QB is sexy on paper, then what?

 

[shu 49]

I know a lot of fans want to see us run the ball better (wouldn't hurt) and personally I think we have a few too many east/west routes in the tree that defenses are figuring out, but this is the passing attack I've always dreamed of for the Dome.

Nixon and McCord are proving right before our eyes that it's possible. That's what we needed, the proof of concept.

I'm almost certain our starting QB next season will come from the portal (cough Angeli cough). McCord was sold on the relationships he had. QB1 next season will be sold on McCord's success. Same with the WR position. Jackson Meeks is a stellar case study in getting the right chance to show what he can do. He's on pace to catch 60 some passes after a career at Georgia where he caught all of 10 over 3 years. Portal WRs with talent that aren't in the right situation are going to notice that.

Sustain it this season, get the right talent next season, and then make it the norm next season.

In this game i didnt see anything truly verticle. A few shots would be good for me.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

In this game i didnt see anything truly verticle. A few shots would be good for me.

I was surprised we didn't try anything with Hatcher. I think it would have been there the way they were playing him.

 

[sufandu]

I really want someone to do a look into how much influence McCord has on the playcalls. How many things he’s checking out of / audibling on. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, but if Nixon is calling 50+ pass plays, that’s certainly something. Especially with Zeed not in the game to take the top off the D.

We’re about to play teams that defend the pass better / some that can get to the quarterback.

No OL wants to have a 2:1 pass to run ratio.

I do think with the emergence of Willis, we will be able to run a bit more since LQA is going to continue to have to be a pass catching option.

I’m fine being unbalanced on O. But there is a limit to it. Especially with no speed to keep the D on its heels. Also, McCord throws 50+ times a game, that means he’s going to take a lot more hits than normal. And if we lose him, we’re toast.

I don't know if it's play calls or audibles, but I think we're just not consistent enough doing it, so we're having to rely on the pass more than we want to. We need to be able to run better. I hope the line starts getting more push but I'm not counting on it.

 

[dasher]

They both can Xfer. Can’t ever trust kids will stay. If they don’t think the next QB is sexy on paper, then what?

Really? You can't live your life that way. Everyone could transfer and we may not have a team next year.

 

[syrBossHogg]

I don't know the true numbers but it seems we've been more pass happy overall and in neutral situations than I executed.

I don't know if it's sustainable in the long run, and we got a taste of the issues in the Stanford game. But it's clear McCord is the engine of the offense.

 

[phil77]

The only question that needs to be answered about our offense is our success due to coaching and scheme and how much of it is having McCord a pro-QB running it.

If it is mostly McCord it will be very interesting to see who we can bring in the portal to match or come close to what McCord has done.

 

[SuFTW]

I think he might. 2020 was the Covid freebie year, right?

2021 freshman year, 2022 sophomore year.

Last season (2023) would be a medical redshirt.

This season (2024) is his redshirt junior year.

Next season redshirt senior year.

Does that work?

As of now 2023 is just a typical redshirt year, albeit necessitated by injury.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Really? You can't live your life that way. Everyone could transfer and we may not have a team next year.

My point was every year is a new year. The HC needs to recruit everyone to come back. It is the sad state of affairs right now. Our BBall program has lost a key player each of the last two seasons. Without a QB with a decent track record, it will be harder to keep our good O players.

 

[Cuseregular]

My point was every year is a new year. The HC needs to recruit everyone to come back. It is the sad state of affairs right now. Our BBall program has lost a key player each of the last two seasons. Without a QB with a decent track record, it will be harder to keep our good O players.

Eggzactly it’s why I’ve been telling all the “casuals”/friends n family to enjoy this Lightning in a bottle year where all the planets are aligning for us to be good.

Going to be difficult to sustain success, going forward, giving all the usual challenges this program faces. That said I’m more optimistic that the bottom won’t fall out to the bottom now that I’ve seen Fran in action.

But it’s gonna be hard to be Uber successful. Once again hope I’m wrong.

 

[goofnoff]

Our drive bIocking seems non-existent. The pass bIocking is better. Short passes is our running game.

 

[Idiocuse22&]

I worry that it is a perfect storm. It will be hard to get a QB anywhere nearly as good a McCord. On top of that Pena and OG have been huge in this O. Will either be back next year? If not, how the heck do we replace them. Meeks has been great but I think that spot is easier to find a guy. Plus what of Allen? His pass catching has been big. Is he back? Not easy to find RBs who can catch like that.

It is a near perfect storm. These days every season is gonna be a storm. Get the best players you can, adjust Off and Def strategies to your talent and weather the storm the best you can.
Having Mccord for coach's first year will prove to be the best year to have him, hes quite the foundation to help us build off of.
Same with those other guys, Im thankful we have them this year. The talent and success we have now will help attract high quality talent in the future. Cant worry about what players will be gone...more like make room for better and better talent.
Thats one thing I love about sports in general, every team we put together will be different and its fun to watch and see what players step up, what strengths the team has and how the coaches bring it all together. Always some surprises.
Notice half of the guys youre bringing up are Babers recruits. Im pretty sure we can all agree our recruiting is now trending upwards. That can only be a positive, we could have OG and Pen̈a talent at every position*or even better. Along with more talented depth.
Reminds me of something my dad would say, "may the best days of your past be the worst of your future"

 

[DomeHolmes]

I think what he's proving is that he can recruit a more complete team, especially on offense, and that he has a better OC. Dual threat doesn't mean a guy can't pass. We just think that because we haven't had a really good passing dual threat since McNabb (I'll accept Dungey but despite his numbers he didn't have elite passing ability). Put McNabb, Bo Nix, Caleb Williams, etc on this team and we would still prove we could throw and draw guys.

Sometimes people get too caught up in what style player a guy is. You see good teams recruit different types of players and adapt all the time. Saban had Greg McElroy and AJ McCarron and eventually went from Jalen Hurts to Tua Tagovailoa to Mac Jones to Bryce Young. If he can't choose a specific style and stay with it, I don't think it's smart for anyone to do that. It's not realistic to think we're going to get McCord clones or that trying to do that will be the key to sustained success. Stringing together winning seasons is what will do that. That was Dino's failure. He had 2018, but, despite the electric offenses the prior two years, they were losing seasons. Then he couldn't put enough of a team around Devito to build on 2018.

Good points. I would say the Dungey 2018 offense was pretty complete, but 1-2 year wonder. Jury out on Frans complete team without Kyle next year too. I also think to your point with Dungey we are still 4-1, maybe 5-0 With him at QB too. Just done a little differently.

 

[DomeHolmes]

To the OPs point, I had this thought recently that maybe we are throwing the ball so much as a showcase. Clearly we will try to do what is needed to win, but the lowest passes attempted by McCord is 39 in week one. If we can show to be competitive in the conference it’s a great recruiting pitch to QBs and WRs, come here and you’ll have ample opportunities in a dome to put up huge numbers. I do suspect we will look to the portal for our starter next year.

If you look at the top teams, they have 4/5 star guys in that second and third string role who may not play where they are. It’s a great opportunity for us to grab talent.

I made this point before Holy Cross too, that McCord would get 350 and a few touchdowns even in a blowout because he is Frans guy and Fran wants big numbers for recruiting and perception. When push came to shove in 2 key moments Friday however, we gave the ball to LQA rather than pass, so as you said, Fran will do the right thing to win first,

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Eggzactly it’s why I’ve been telling all the “casuals”/friends n family to enjoy this Lightning in a bottle year where all the planets are aligning for us to be good.

Going to be difficult to sustain success, going forward, giving all the usual challenges this program faces. That said I’m more optimistic that the bottom won’t fall out to the bottom now that I’ve seen Fran in action.

But it’s gonna be hard to be Uber successful. Once again hope I’m wrong.

Things will be different but we can still have success.

Expecting to have an elite QB, elite big bodied slot WR/TE, very good underneath slot, very good at pass catching RB, good physical SR outside WR, and an outside speedster every year is just not realistic. We will need to adjust the O based on what we have.

The only one of the above that will 100% be gone is the SR outside WR, but likely we are going to lose the QB and big slot as well. Hopefully that is all.

 

[JustPherU]

I made this point before Holy Cross too, that McCord would get 350 and a few touchdowns even in a blowout because he is Frans guy and Fran wants big numbers for recruiting and perception. When push came to shove in 2 key moments Friday however, we gave the ball to LQA rather than pass, so as you said, Fran will do the right thing to win first,

You think Fran is calling the game to impress recruits and then in crunch time he goes with what he thinks will win the game?

 

[Cusefan69]

The thing different this go around is we're doing it with a drop back passer.

Dungey was a really good college QB, but McCord is preparing for the level beyond that. I think that matters.

Which will make it interesting to see how he looks to reload once McCord moves on. My guess would be his goal will be to show how McCord had an insane season and pitch that to high end transfer QBs. There is some importance in McCord getting us to a bowl and I think downstream being drafted. I don't think our current #2 QB will be the one starting next season.

 

[sufandu]

I made this point before Holy Cross too, that McCord would get 350 and a few touchdowns even in a blowout because he is Frans guy and Fran wants big numbers for recruiting and perception. When push came to shove in 2 key moments Friday however, we gave the ball to LQA rather than pass, so as you said, Fran will do the right thing to win first,

I don't think Fran is having McCord pass a lot to impress anyone. He's doing it because we don't have a good running game. We have running backs that can be productive, we just don't block well for them. I think Fran would love to have more balance. And I think that balance would actually lead to more big plays in the passing game, but it's not happening this year.

 

[elimunelson]

Does McCord have one more covid year too? I figure he's leaving for the NFL but is that confirmed?

 

[SoBristol]

I don't think Fran is having McCord pass a lot to impress anyone. He's doing it because we don't have a good running game. We have running backs that can be productive, we just don't block well for them. I think Fran would love to have more balance. And I think that balance would actually lead to more big plays in the passing game, but it's not happening this year.

Agree - Fran and Nixon are going with our current strengths. McCord is an accurate passer; he has OG, Pena, Meeks and Allen to provide receiving weapons. Next year he may have better run blocking - will certainly look to the portal for OGs and C. Fran has said several times he wants to run the ball and stop the run. This year our OC has McCord and passing as his primary weapons.

 

[Jcuse_44]

Im in love with this pass attack. My opinion though, is that there are no qbs that we can expect to come in and produce like McCord has without a few years under their belt. His qb IQ is through the roof, and there are not many with the mechanics and effortless throwing ability that he possesses. I hope im wrong but that's my thought.

 

[upperdeck]

Hard to know how much of this success is how well Kyle is reading the play pre-snap post snap. He is making so many good quick reads and we haven't seen that in a long time. Dungey made a ton of plays with quick throws too, but so many times we completed the pass with the wrong read and lost the better play.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Does McCord have one more covid year too? I figure he's leaving for the NFL but is that confirmed?

No he was a Frosh in 2021. The only way he could come back is if the rules change between now and next season where you get 5 years to play 5. There is an outside chance of that, but even then he might not chose to come back. IMO there is a 99.9999% chance he is gone. But as Lloyd Christmas once said...

 

[All4SU]

I have not been a big proponent of unrestricted transfers through the portal. But there is no doubt it has distributed the QB talent in CFB up and down the list of schools. It’s kind of funny that our biggest problem post McNabb was finding a talented replacement at QB. We were looking for the next great dual-threat QB - after our great string of them - and it seemed like it would be easy. But everyone was starting to go to dual threat QBs then, and we had a hard time recruiting to our system.

If the portal was around then, I have no doubt that coach P would have found that guy and our program might not have tanked when it did.

 

[Chip]

No he was a Frosh in 2021. The only way he could come back is if the rules change between now and next season where you get 5 years to play 5. There is an outside chance of that, but even then he might not chose to come back. IMO there is a 99.9999% chance he is gone. But as Lloyd Christmas once said...

Yeah, appeared in 5 games in 2021, one start, and then 4 garbage times. That last one on November 20 killed the redshirt.

His stock may not be higher than after this season anyway, but would be nice to have that option.