Big C_Cal;842637177 said:
killa22, do you have a response (either way) to those in this thread who wrote that TF wasn't that good an OC at this level? Offense too simplistic? Inherently limited against top, athletic defenses?
(I would tend to disagree, but I'm not sure I know any more about offense than they do, so it might be just my opinion against theirs. As to our limited success against the better defenses, I would counter that it was due to: a) mediocre OL... b) our failure to execute the plays at crucial times (especially throw-and-catch) and... c) doesn't every offense struggle more against top defenses?!?)
berk18, you could weigh in on this, too. Are you out there?
I would strongly disagree w/ the notion that Tony was not a good OC at this level.
The numbers and production speak for themselves. While it would appear to be a somewhat simple system, every component of its design, in terms of personnel grouping, formations, and concepts, all worked well on a complimentary level.
Tony and the offensive staff did a great job in devising a scheme that, while simple in appearance, had a marked level of nuanced conceptual diversity.
When you sit down and compare what Leach runs over at Wazzu, and what Tony ran, its like comparing Checkers (Wazzu) to Chess (Cal).
While Leach would just drop back pass all game long w/ the usual Air-Raid Deal (Mesh, Y-Cross, Streaks, Stick, Shallow, etc.) and then mix in some runs based on a box count (lol Connor Halliday bragging "I can run check w/ me's @ the LOS") Tony would be dialing up a range of drop-back passes, runs, packaged PA/RPO, and varied launch points / protections.
I look at offenses in terms of elements and concepts. Elements being say the quick game (1-3 step drop pass game), the vertical pass, the conventional run game (hand-off runs), play-action/RPO (Run-Pass Option), and constraints (how do they handle the blitz).
Tony's offenses were structured such that they were able to blend the full gamut of these elements into a limited range of personnel groupings and formations.
Primarily, Tony favored a Singleback set, but, depending upon who played @ H/Y (inside receiver), we could seamless transition from a 10 Singleback Personnel, 4 wide formation (either 2x2 or 3x1/4x1), and Empty Set 3x2 or 4x1, or an 11 Personnel 2x2 or 3x1/4x1, and occasionally a 12 Personnel 2x2 Set.
The concepts utilized in the Bear Raid's Pass game are all sound, pro-style concepts the quick game was a lot of Snag/Stick/Outs -- but generally speaking, with Jared, much of the pass game was built around running the Streaks/4-Vert concept.
A lot of posters on this forum knock the vertical set a lot, but truth be told, it was only ever run in full maybe about 20% of the time. In reality, the majority of Cal's offense was basically built around using the run game (and the various concepts therein) to set up downfield play action we would run Inside Zone, Outside Zone, and Power for the most part, and then play action off of those runs. We got a little fancy this year give the experience @ WR and their chemistry w/ Jared to the point at which certain routes essentially became sight adjusted post snap.
In addition, Tony always had a few nifty red-zone specialty plays in hand that were built off of misdirection.
If you looked closely @ each game plan week to week, it really wasn't the same 4-5 plays being called all the time, the offense adapted to the opponent, and staff did a good job at creating and capitalizing on specific matchups.
I could go into more depth & detail into the describing the Cal Offense and its structure & schematic quirks, but that would take quite some time to write out but just summarize, the Bear Raid is much more complex than the Leach Air-Raid and a lot of what the system has asked of Jared will translate to the NFL. In terms of route concepts, Goff has film of reading / throwing the majority of the route concepts employed in Pro-Set schemes.
A lot of the schematic variance between the Bear-Raid and the air-raid is due to Tony, but a lot of it comes from Sonny as well to me, most of the innovation in the modern Air-Raid came from both Sonny and Dana Holgerson, who both @ TTU began to emphasize the vertical pass as the cornerstone of their offensive philosophy Leach was always more of a mesh, shallow cross guy.
Philosophically, I like what Sonny/Tony have done w/ rotating players though it really allows you to build depth and attract the right kind of talent (unselfish) we had multiple 40 catch wrs, and 3 500 yd running backs.
RE: Issues w/ more athletic defenses if you aren't able to run the ball or protect the passer its hard to move the ball it's hard to scheme around athletic mismatches, but for the most part, by alignment/scheme Tony was able to create one on one matchups in the pass game, which we had a shot at executing/winning on which is all you can ask for. Tony was able to creatively protect Jared by moving the pocket, and with a number of varying protection schemes (sometimes by having Jared throw naked which, while unconventional, proved to be an answer at times).
**** I could go on more but I'm out of time.
TL/DR Tfranklin is a legit OC, lol @ those who think the Bear-Raid is "simple" TFranklin/Sonny were able to solve a lot of the problems that most 10 personnel spread pass teams have in protecting the QB, and were able to build a legit scary play-action package. You're not always going to be right as the OC, but TF was able to get production both in terms of yards, and in terms of points.
