Our offense last year:
Total Offense 11th
Scoring Offense 10th
Rushing Offense 10th
Passing Offense 5th
Passing Efficiency 11th
Red Zone Offense 11th
Tied for last in yards per play (5.2).
In the above what jumps out is we were 5th in passing yards and that was despite being 11th in passing efficiency (and 11th in completion percentage).
Individually, Laird:
Yards per carry: 5th (5.9 ypc)
Rushing yards: 7th
Rushing attempts: 8th
Ranking the teams in order of the ratio of running plays to passing plays (not correcting for sacks):
Arizona 2.1
Oregon 2.0
Washington 1.4
ASU 1.4
Stanford 1.3
Utah 1.2
Colorado 1.2
USC 1.1
OSU 1.1
Cal 0.9
UCLA 0.7
WSU 0.4
Only 3 teams passed more than they ran, Leach's WSU, UCLA with Josh Rosen, and Cal with a RS frosh QB and top two WRs out with injury. Cal was 5th in passing yards but 11th in passing efficiency--we got there by playing spread and putting too much pressure on our young QB. This even after Laird's emergence as a Top 5 running threat (mostly running out of those spread formations).
Going into this season we know we again will be without Robertson and Stoval, our proven deep threats. Our OL is a strength. We need to abandon the spread as our base formation. McMorris needs to be on the field. We have good TEs. Strategically, we need to have Laird's running be the primary focus of the offense. We need McMorris at FB in our base set. Bowers (or McIlwain) can then throw off play action to Laird and on bootlegs allowing receivers and TEs (and Laird) to get open behind the defense, or to take off running themselves.
If we can improve by 50 yards per game that will move us up from 11th to 6th on offense, which combined with further improvement in our #7 defense (in part by having a more effective offense), should put us solidly in the middle of the conference, put us in a bowl game and demonstrate the momentum needed to land more 4 and 5 star players on offense.
Total Offense 11th
Scoring Offense 10th
Rushing Offense 10th
Passing Offense 5th
Passing Efficiency 11th
Red Zone Offense 11th
Tied for last in yards per play (5.2).
In the above what jumps out is we were 5th in passing yards and that was despite being 11th in passing efficiency (and 11th in completion percentage).
Individually, Laird:
Yards per carry: 5th (5.9 ypc)
Rushing yards: 7th
Rushing attempts: 8th
Ranking the teams in order of the ratio of running plays to passing plays (not correcting for sacks):
Arizona 2.1
Oregon 2.0
Washington 1.4
ASU 1.4
Stanford 1.3
Utah 1.2
Colorado 1.2
USC 1.1
OSU 1.1
Cal 0.9
UCLA 0.7
WSU 0.4
Only 3 teams passed more than they ran, Leach's WSU, UCLA with Josh Rosen, and Cal with a RS frosh QB and top two WRs out with injury. Cal was 5th in passing yards but 11th in passing efficiency--we got there by playing spread and putting too much pressure on our young QB. This even after Laird's emergence as a Top 5 running threat (mostly running out of those spread formations).
Going into this season we know we again will be without Robertson and Stoval, our proven deep threats. Our OL is a strength. We need to abandon the spread as our base formation. McMorris needs to be on the field. We have good TEs. Strategically, we need to have Laird's running be the primary focus of the offense. We need McMorris at FB in our base set. Bowers (or McIlwain) can then throw off play action to Laird and on bootlegs allowing receivers and TEs (and Laird) to get open behind the defense, or to take off running themselves.
If we can improve by 50 yards per game that will move us up from 11th to 6th on offense, which combined with further improvement in our #7 defense (in part by having a more effective offense), should put us solidly in the middle of the conference, put us in a bowl game and demonstrate the momentum needed to land more 4 and 5 star players on offense.