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My OL opinion


NorthGATiger

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Gus is helping our slightly above average Power 5 OL by making great calls and keeping the defense confused and on their heels.  It also helps having a QB that is executing and making good decisions.  Seems the naysayers are quiet which is also a good thing for morale.. Exciting times for AU football program right now. 

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11 minutes ago, autan said:

Gus is helping our slightly above average Power 5 OL by making great calls and keeping the defense confused and on their heels.

The guys we have right now excel at pulling, cutoffs, angle/positional stalemating, etc.  They don't have the temperament to line up and go BOB (big on big) and mash people off the LOS. I'm very glad that Gus isn't trying to force that type of playcall.  And, I hope these guys continue to improve and gel and maybe get at least a little nastier (e.g. never standing around but looking or someone to hit just for the sheer pleasure of knocking the crap out of someone).

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33 minutes ago, autan said:

Gus is helping our slightly above average Power 5 OL by making great calls and keeping the defense confused and on their heels.  It also helps having a QB that is executing and making good decisions.  Seems the naysayers are quiet which is also a good thing for morale.. Exciting times for AU football program right now. 

Exactly, the scheme is helping the linemen and they are all gaining confidence every week.

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The problem with the analysis is, we're not struggling in short yardage.

Against MSU, with our starting OL on the field, here are all the plays with 2 yards or fewer to gain:

3rd & 2: Whitlow for 8 yards - first down
1st & goal: Whitlow for 3 yards - touchdown
2nd & 2: Nix for 1 yard
3rd & 1: Nix for 30 yards - first down
3rd & 2: Nix to Hastings for 4 yards - first down
1st & goal: Nix incomplete
2nd & goal: Whitlow for 3 yards - touchdown
3rd & 1: Whitlow for no gain (Note: we were up 40 at this point)


Against TAMU, more of the same:

3rd & 2: Stove for 12 yards - first down
2nd & 1: Whitlow for 4 yards - first down
2nd & 1: Nix for 2 yards - first down
2nd & 2: Whitlow for 3 yards - first down


So in SEC play, we've had 12 plays with a distance of 2 yards or fewer (short yardage), and we're converting at a 75% clip. On top of that, I don't see a lot of smoke and mirrors. Our starting RB has six carries in these distances (50% of the plays), and he's converted five of them (83%). In the other half, we've either run the read with Nix keeping it or run a designed QB run three times, converting two of them. We passed for it twice, converting one. Only one time have we run a jet sweep or some exotic play (Stove's play against TAMU). 

For an OL that supposedly can't get movement, that's a lot of running between the tackles for first downs and touchdowns in short yardage.

It's taken a few games, but Gus is starting to identify the bread and butter for our OL. Wanogho and Harrell are monsters on the pull, which is why we're running right more often. Horton and Driscoll are doing a solid job ceiling off the play side, and our athleticism upfront is on display with those GT counters. Nix posing a threat to keep the ball (and convert first downs) has been a HUGE boost to the run game, but I don't call that smoke and mirrors. That's the design of the offense.

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A lot of people have said it already and are spot on. The line is improving leaps and bounds. Still not a dominant straight up pound it out line. It’s the QB decisions and perimeter game that has made it workable for them. It’s fun to watch. 

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2 hours ago, mcgufcm said:

The problem with the analysis is, we're not struggling in short yardage.

Against MSU, with our starting OL on the field, here are all the plays with 2 yards or fewer to gain:

3rd & 2: Whitlow for 8 yards - first down
1st & goal: Whitlow for 3 yards - touchdown
2nd & 2: Nix for 1 yard
3rd & 1: Nix for 30 yards - first down
3rd & 2: Nix to Hastings for 4 yards - first down
1st & goal: Nix incomplete
2nd & goal: Whitlow for 3 yards - touchdown
3rd & 1: Whitlow for no gain (Note: we were up 40 at this point)


Against TAMU, more of the same:

3rd & 2: Stove for 12 yards - first down
2nd & 1: Whitlow for 4 yards - first down
2nd & 1: Nix for 2 yards - first down
2nd & 2: Whitlow for 3 yards - first down


So in SEC play, we've had 12 plays with a distance of 2 yards or fewer (short yardage), and we're converting at a 75% clip. On top of that, I don't see a lot of smoke and mirrors. Our starting RB has six carries in these distances (50% of the plays), and he's converted five of them (83%). In the other half, we've either run the read with Nix keeping it or run a designed QB run three times, converting two of them. We passed for it twice, converting one. Only one time have we run a jet sweep or some exotic play (Stove's play against TAMU). 

For an OL that supposedly can't get movement, that's a lot of running between the tackles for first downs and touchdowns in short yardage.

It's taken a few games, but Gus is starting to identify the bread and butter for our OL. Wanogho and Harrell are monsters on the pull, which is why we're running right more often. Horton and Driscoll are doing a solid job ceiling off the play side, and our athleticism upfront is on display with those GT counters. Nix posing a threat to keep the ball (and convert first downs) has been a HUGE boost to the run game, but I don't call that smoke and mirrors. That's the design of the offense.

My point is or was, that we are not running the same plays we ran against Tulane and Kent State.  If you go back and look we were not pulling or trying to do anything other than move the Dline off of the ball.  That is not what we did against A&M and not what we did against Moo State.  We ran Bo, ran sweeps with Schwartz, and pulled guards in those games and it worked like I said it would. 

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100% true. We've definitely adjusted the types of run plays we're seeing. We've let Bo off the leash as a runner so that changes the inside zone entirely. We've used Flash like the weapon he is. We've added a heavy dose of the counter. We added some stretch plays with a Guard pulling and an HB leading. Completely agree. We're using the superior athleticism we have on the OL as opposed to just lining up and driving people off the ball.

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Piggying back to @oracle79's post, big props to Gus for putting these guys in a position to succeed. He's found out what these kids are good at and using them as such and our O is starting to really find itself as a result. I like how we are trending right now. Going to be a tough test on the road this weekend though. Those throws Bo was hitting down the field at home didn't look so great on the road at TAMU. Let's hope that's more of a matter of experience rather than the environment playing a part.

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On 9/30/2019 at 1:50 PM, Tiger said:

Piggying back to @oracle79's post, big props to Gus for putting these guys in a position to succeed. He's found out what these kids are good at and using them as such and our O is starting to really find itself as a result. I like how we are trending right now. Going to be a tough test on the road this weekend though. Those throws Bo was hitting down the field at home didn't look so great on the road at TAMU. Let's hope that's more of a matter of experience rather than the environment playing a part.

He will be throwing them against a much higher quality defensive backfield at uf. State had one Frosh DB so green, they might as well had been playing with 10.

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