If Rettig didn't transfer in,how would Chris look after 4 games to you?

[lighty]

So... a 70% chance of handing the ball off?

Yeah, I was TOTALLY off with my estimation of 80% LOL.

BTW, the announcers on tv generally mentioned Laviano passed up the chance to hit an open receiver on most of his scrambles, so they count as running plays imo.

RU4REAL -- did you ever get the feeling yesterday that Kansas knew we would be running the ball but just couldn't stop us? I did for most of the game and especially the entire 2nd half. I think we had one passing play in the 2nd half which took me by surprise. Will that kind of gameplan work against a decent team? Norfolk could probably beat Kansas for God's sake.

 

[RU4Real]

Yeah, I was TOTALLY off with my estimation of 80% LOL.

BTW, the announcers on tv generally mentioned Laviano passed up the chance to hit an open receiver on most of his scrambles, so they count as running plays imo.

RU4REAL -- did you ever get the feeling yesterday that Kansas knew we would be running the ball but just couldn't stop us? I did for most of the game and especially the entire 2nd half. I think we had one passing play in the 2nd half which took me by surprise. Will that kind of gameplan work against a decent team? Norfolk could probably beat Kansas for God's sake.

Dude... I get the feeling that everybody we line up against knows that we're going to be running the ball.

It's a function of our offense. I don't necessarily agree with it - in fact, it puzzles me a little when Flood (and to be fair, Schiano before him) gets in front of a microphone and tells the whole world "our plan is always to run the ball, first".

Back when we were in the Big East, WVU was my second favorite team. I used to LOVE watching the Mountaineers offense. I always wanted us to be able to play like that. But we've never had that coach, we've never had that personnel. We are a classic "run off-tackle" team.

 

[Hap129]

Get a staff that knows the spread. We will NEVER be able to line up talent wise, recruiting wise with the teams in the Big Ten East, NEVER. Look through your Scarlet colored glasses all you want,it ain't happening. We need to continue to build a strong defense with a lot of depth,since the spread scores pretty fast and doesn't give your defense a lot of rest. Now if you can recruit high end talent in just a few key positions on offense, and continue to get what we're getting at the rest of the offensive spots, we become a force to be reckoned with. The pro set, requires Top 25 recruiting classes, every year, and don't ever seem to be in the running for that. I'm from the old school when the biggest change in offense was a mobile QB like Roger Staubach, or Terry Bradshaw, and people said that will never work because of injuries. We saw how that turned out. Faster is better, and the spread can help you beat teams that have more overall talent than you.

Plus 1000

 

[RUMBA-JK]

I haven't attended any practices this year, nor have I sat in on any meetings. I was told this yesterday by somebody connected with the team.

Not challenging your info at all - and I recall Flood tap-dancing & double talking around questions regarding QB differences back when he announced Laviano.
just find it interesting troubling on different levels -
but most specifically - reality is - one explosive bell-ringer of a sack could put Rettig in the game at any moment - so what happens then ? do you hand cuff him with some mundane "See-Spot-Run" basic game plan? - is the entire staff going to say 'Oh crap, we should have gotten him some more game reps before this happened"

No matter what - we are but spectators - and will have to sit back and watch this unfold

 

[ScarletDave]

"2nd string QBs are the fan's favorite" Actually, Rettig was my favorite when he was the starting QB. Then he got benched.

 

[RU4Real]

Not challenging your info at all - and I recall Flood tap-dancing & double talking around questions regarding QB differences back when he announced Laviano.
just find it interesting troubling on different levels -
but most specifically - reality is - one explosive bell-ringer of a sack could put Rettig in the game at any moment - so what happens then ? do you hand cuff him with some mundane "See-Spot-Run" basic game plan? - is the entire staff going to say 'Oh crap, we should have gotten him some more game reps before this happened"

No matter what - we are but spectators - and will have to sit back and watch this unfold

There's a big part of me that feels like Job 1 of whoever winds up being the head coach of this team after the season will be "make sure that Anthony Russo signs his LOI, no matter what".

 

[RUChoppin]

I think it's a number of things. First, I think you're right - they're giving him high-percentage plays. Unless he's the second coming of Tom Brady, his completion percentage would seem to bear that out. But the other issue is definitely protection. I thought it was bizarre that people were complaining during / after the PSU game about not taking any shots down the field when Laviano was sacked 5 times and was running for his life the entire game.

The pass protection yesterday was definitely better. And if you listened to Wilson's post-game, he did say that they had to take more shots downfield. I think we'll see some more of that in upcoming games, but I wouldn't expect to see us going yard on many plays. Laviano doesn't have the arm.

So within the context of the current discussion, I think it's a definite conundrum. It's a quandary. On the one hand, we have a guy who's starting who is by all accounts highly accurate on short passes, but doesn't have the arm to get the ball 30 or 40 yards down the field. On the other hand, we have a guy who has that arm strength, but doesn't have the accuracy and who (by some accounts) seems to have trouble at the LOS.

So what do you do? Me personally, I'm willing to let the guys who actually get paid for this stuff figure it out. The flip side to what somebody said a few posts back is that we're not in a situation with Laviano where everybody is saying "He sucks, get him off the field." He clearly doesn't suck.

Which goes back to McDaniels, in my mind, too.

Against TTFP, why weren't we moving the point of release to mitigate their pass rush? Why weren't we continuing the pitch-outs to the RB that we used ad nauseum against WSU, rather than running up the gut into the teeth of their defense? If we're trying to protect Laviano from throwing deep, where are *our* WR screen plays?

If we're protecting against Laviano's arm strength, we need to be more creative with it, which falls on McDaniels. And we have to take a few shots downfield anyway, just to keep defenses honest. And if it's just Rettig's "at the line" issues, we need to really be working on those as well (which means getting him some game reps at some point) - because once his head is right in that aspect, he's seems to have a higher ceiling in my mind. Laviano also needs to remove 2 bad decisions per game, it seems - not saying Rettig wouldn't make the same. They're both newer QBs without a lot of FBS experience.

 

[RU4Real]

Which goes back to McDaniels, in my mind, too.

Against TTFP, why weren't we moving the point of release to mitigate their pass rush? Why weren't we continuing the pitch-outs to the RB that we used ad nauseum against WSU, rather than running up the gut into the teeth of their defense? If we're trying to protect Laviano from throwing deep, where are *our* WR screen plays?

If we're protecting against Laviano's arm strength, we need to be more creative with it, which falls on McDaniels. And we have to take a few shots downfield anyway, just to keep defenses honest. And if it's just Rettig's "at the line" issues, we need to really be working on those as well (which means getting him some game reps at some point) - because once his head is right in that aspect, he's seems to have a higher ceiling in my mind. Laviano also needs to remove 2 bad decisions per game, it seems - not saying Rettig wouldn't make the same. They're both newer QBs without a lot of FBS experience.

I agree that you have to stretch the field. There are two ways to do that - vertically and horizontally.

How about the old flanker screen? Get the ball across the LOS to Grant and have him beat the first guy, in space. And guess what - when the defender takes away that cushion after getting beat a couple of times, then Grant blows by him on the sideline, you hit him 20 yards deep and he's off for a big gain.

Yeah, I don't get it. I watch our offense and, in my own head, there's all kinds of stuff we could do that we don't.

But then, nobody's paying me half a million a year to call the plays, so...