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Message: [QUOTE="Crusty, post: 880846, member: 2265"] Here's the deal - identity schmenity. What is identity - an oversimplified overused label for idiot sportscasters. What does it really mean? It simply means that you do one thing more than the other. BTW for the entire season we ran 3 times more per game than we passed 35-32 - hardly an overwhelming "identity". {EDIT: We actually ran 12 times more per game.] Anyway, our "identity" hasn't done much for us in the last five years. We were 32-31. This year our rushing offense was 37th in the nation. We scored fewer points than our opponents for the entire season. Top 25 teams averaged 37.5 PPG and we averaged 22.7 PPG or 99th!! Our offense identity is that we can't score points. This year was a cut and paste year for the staff and they did a great job getting the most with what they had at hand. They ran the ball because they had no other choice - not because they preferred to run. When the Drew Allen experiment failed (we actually passed the ball more than ran in the first two games) they went into the win ugly mode - run the ball, run the clock, take care of the ball and play good D. They got us 7 wins and a bowl victory. I venture to say you won't see that again next year. McDonald wants to throw the ball and score points. We're going to see a fast paced pistol offense. Let's be clear, I am not advocating sitting Broyld and Estime, quite the opposite. However, West has hit his ceiling and is what he is so I would rather see his PT reduced in favor of frosh who be able to contribute more at the end of the season than West will. I think that is exactly what McDonald will do. He will also want to give PT to a couple of frosh ASAP for recruiting purposes, after all they are selling PT. We are 113th in the nation in yards per attempt. How good could our WR blocking be? In fact it is really very poor. Kobena and West simply never proved themselves as good blockers. I do understand your broader point of playing the best players however, there is the also the issue of experienced player that have hit their ceiling that lose PT to younger players with more upside. In order for a program to move forward hard decisions have to be made and sometime that means leaving players behind. I think that is why Jerome is leaving early (because he doesn't fit the plan) and why Kobena lost PT. I remain optimistic about next year because we will be able to open up the offense with a few fresh faces playing a role. We'll see. [/QUOTE]

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