Perhaps, perhaps Mike had trouble here also, Deleone had said that not only he had the burden to know John's plays but Scott's too, it is a lot to digest.
Hey duncan - my opinion is that there are very few, in any given year, college QB's starting at the 1-A level of competition that can approach scrimmage, and read the defensive front, and find the linebackers, and adjust the blocking schemes up front at the same time as reading the backside of the defense..... on a run play.........as for a pass play? you can count on one hand the number of QB's that can do it on a pass play. To expect a college QB to be able to do what a seasoned pro can do in the NFL is ludicrous. THe amount of time and film study and practice it takes to be able to do it at QB against defenses as well coached and built at the 1-A level is, well more than the vast majority of college QB's have under their belts.
THe QB's have enough to handle, at this level, than to try to put the blockign schemes up front in their lap too.
The blockign scheme adjustments need to happen up front, find the focal point, and communicate up and down the line and matchup head up or space in a zone on their own.
I've been talkign about this a lot since last year. The style of offense we bring is going to involve an entirely different style of offensive line play than we're used to. The concept of beating the snot out of the defensive front doesn't change. How you do it, does. I have a really nice photo from a few years back of the offense being run by Endres at the time, it's an endzone shot, just post snap, all 5 lineman and the TE are raising out of their stances in perfect unison, foot step, arm position, body position, it's like a chorus line dance. It was our bread and butter play. It was not a pass play, and it was not a formation and movement of the offensive line that lent itself to any sort of multiplicity or balance in play calling. That style of offense is old school Vince Lombardi. It's we're going to do our thing, and you're going to have to beat us. The thing about Vince Lombardi's offenses though - running to daylight, is that Lombardi had Bart Starr at QB and Paul Hornung at HB throwing the ball. Anyway...
Identifying the defensive front, and then picking out the "mike" middle linebacker is the key to establishing the blocking pattern up front so that everybody gets a hat on somebody else. The lineman need to do it themselves. In a balanced offense, the lineman need to be able to move and adjust to changing different defensive fronts, and still pick out a focal point for their blocking scheme, and that's what the "Mike" is. The blockign scheme moves out from that focal point. The footwork, stances, and movement patterns up front need to be able to handle both run blocking and pass blocking out the same stance as play calls can have multiple options run or pass coming out the same look. Not what we had on offense for many years. THat photo I"m talking about, maybe if I"m in a good mood I"ll post, it - can't have any sort of multiplicity in offense when your line is moving like that.
We all saw the potential of this offensive system and play calling last year. I'm looking to see the ball put into the endzone a lot more on offense this year.
Hope that helps clear things up a bit.
