ESPN article - Ranking the new offenses

[biggie]

https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... u-michigan

"Appalachian State

The change: The immensely successful Scott Satterfield took the Louisville head coaching position and was replaced by former NC State offensive coordinator Eliah Drinkwitz. Drinkwitz elected to serve as his own playcaller in Boone, North Carolina. Nowhere to go but down?

The early returns: App State still looks like App State, only better. The Mountaineers scored 98 points, rushed for an App State-like 553 yards and averaged 7.2 yards per play in wins over East Tennessee State and Charlotte. The defense, which gave up 41 points to Charlotte, is the bigger issue at the moment.

Offensive SP+ ranking: 11th (49th in preseason)

The next big test: After a bye, the Mountaineers head to Chapel Hill to face a rejuvenated North Carolina and its tricky defensive coordinator, Jay Bateman. We'll learn a lot then."

[Black Saturday]

"The defense, which gave up 41 points to a team they shouldn't have, is the bigger issue at the moment."

Kudos to the offense, however it has been 90% plain vanilla.

[Mjohn1988]

https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... u-michigan

"Appalachian State

The change: The immensely successful Scott Satterfield took the Louisville head coaching position and was replaced by former NC State offensive coordinator Eliah Drinkwitz. Drinkwitz elected to serve as his own playcaller in Boone, North Carolina. Nowhere to go but down?

The early returns: App State still looks like App State, only better. The Mountaineers scored 98 points, rushed for an App State-like 553 yards and averaged 7.2 yards per play in wins over East Tennessee State and Charlotte. The defense, which gave up 41 points to Charlotte, is the bigger issue at the moment.

Offensive SP+ ranking: 11th (49th in preseason)

The next big test: After a bye, the Mountaineers head to Chapel Hill to face a rejuvenated North Carolina and its tricky defensive coordinator, Jay Bateman. We'll learn a lot then."

This to me sounds like it was written by someone looking at a stats sheet. I see the numbers but to me our O hasn’t looked good.

[t4pizza]

Yes, vanilla is a good term for what I have seen out of our offense thus far. Not the players, who have been far from vanilla, but the plays that have been called.

[nomadb]

Serious question.....do you guys think we are awarded more points for flashy play calls? If you're able to gash a defense with less complicated play calls, then that's what you call. Keep It Simple Stupid.

Until proven otherwise, I have full confidence that if the simple plays are not working, wrinkles will be inserted.

Now, the defense not making in-game adjustments to vanilla play calling is a totally different story

[hapapp]

In the end results matter. I could care less if we are vanilla or not. You do what works. I'm under the impression some of you think Drink is bringing an Air Raid offense to Boone.

[bigdaddyg]

we scored 56 points Saturday (in regulation). We also scored 42 in week 1 and probably could have had more but what was the point? With a dude like Evans in the backfield you don't have to get crazy with play calls. I would imagine Drink still has a reverse or two with Virgil's name on it. Might even have the old double pass with Williams or Henny.

[Mjohn1988]

For my part I wasn’t talking so much about the play calling, just the overall look of the O. I love being able to run the ball effectively. We just haven’t looked in sink. I fully understand that all TD’s are worth 6 points but I won’t be comfortable until I see us put together some 10 to 12 play drives.

[appchicago]

I was listening to Podcast Ain't Played Nobody's recap show this morning and they were referring to Gus Malzahn's tendency to hide plays for marquee opponents. Eli definitely learned a lot from Gus, so I'd be surprised if he didn't pick up that penchant. Hesitating to crack open the playbook for games that are in-hand (and it seemed like Eli was far from panicking on Saturday) is part of his pedigree.

We'll see how things look in two weeks.

[AppinATL]

Yes, vanilla is a good term for what I have seen out of our offense thus far. Not the players, who have been far from vanilla, but the plays that have been called.

I’d say thats a huge positive, if we’ve put up the numbers we have with vanilla play calling. It’ be interesting to see what happens when we decide its time to get past the introduction pages of the playbook.

[Apple@chin1]

I was listening to Podcast Ain't Played Nobody's recap show this morning and they were referring to Gus Malzahn's tendency to hide plays for marquee opponents. Eli definitely learned a lot from Gus, so I'd be surprised if he didn't pick up that penchant. Hesitating to crack open the playbook for games that are in-hand (and it seemed like Eli was far from panicking on Saturday) is part of his pedigree.

We'll see how things look in two weeks.

That’s my theory as well. I also believe that the lack of defense in the first 2 games was partially scripted (Charlotte is much improved and came to town with something to prove). I think we tried different schemes against what we believed to be inferior opponents to test and tune for later in the season. I could see the defensive efforts from last Saturday being effective against Stink. It also doesn’t seem like they’ve opened the offensive playbook past page 1. Drink is smart enough to know that the 2 P5 teams that we play this year are keeping close tabs on the progress of our new staff and how well our players are picking up new schemes and terminology. Don’t show too much of your hand and then hit them with “shock and awe” is what I believe we’ll see in a few weeks!
I think our season starts 9/21/19 and we’ll be fired up and ready for whatever UNC throws at us. My $.02.

[yosef69]

I was listening to Podcast Ain't Played Nobody's recap show this morning and they were referring to Gus Malzahn's tendency to hide plays for marquee opponents. Eli definitely learned a lot from Gus, so I'd be surprised if he didn't pick up that penchant. Hesitating to crack open the playbook for games that are in-hand (and it seemed like Eli was far from panicking on Saturday) is part of his pedigree.

We'll see how things look in two weeks.

That’s my theory as well. I also believe that the lack of defense in the first 2 games was partially scripted (Charlotte is much improved and came to town with something to prove). I think we tried different schemes against what we believed to be inferior opponents to test and tune for later in the season. I could see the defensive efforts from last Saturday being effective against Stink. It also doesn’t seem like they’ve opened the offensive playbook past page 1. Drink is smart enough to know that the 2 P5 teams that we play this year are keeping close tabs on the progress of our new staff and how well our players are picking up new schemes and terminology. Don’t show too much of your hand and then hit them with “shock and awe” is what I believe we’ll see in a few weeks!
I think our season starts 9/21/19 and we’ll be fired up and ready for whatever UNC throws at us. My $.02.

I agree 100% that the offense is holding back and I am happy for that. I would like to believe this about the defense but I can't bring myself to it. However, at least if were gonna have a shootout with the tar holes, drink is a great person to have calling it, and we have the firepower for a shootout. Would rather dominate both sides obviously.

[BeauFoster]

I was listening to Podcast Ain't Played Nobody's recap show this morning and they were referring to Gus Malzahn's tendency to hide plays for marquee opponents. Eli definitely learned a lot from Gus, so I'd be surprised if he didn't pick up that penchant. Hesitating to crack open the playbook for games that are in-hand (and it seemed like Eli was far from panicking on Saturday) is part of his pedigree.

We'll see how things look in two weeks.

That’s my theory as well. I also believe that the lack of defense in the first 2 games was partially scripted (Charlotte is much improved and came to town with something to prove). I think we tried different schemes against what we believed to be inferior opponents to test and tune for later in the season. I could see the defensive efforts from last Saturday being effective against Stink. It also doesn’t seem like they’ve opened the offensive playbook past page 1. Drink is smart enough to know that the 2 P5 teams that we play this year are keeping close tabs on the progress of our new staff and how well our players are picking up new schemes and terminology. Don’t show too much of your hand and then hit them with “shock and awe” is what I believe we’ll see in a few weeks!
I think our season starts 9/21/19 and we’ll be fired up and ready for whatever UNC throws at us. My $.02.

You could almost see him trying to say as much during his press conference today. Was asked why we haven't spread the ball around laterally and to TEs. He basically said "we've run 80 plays over 2 games". You could almost see it in his face - he's holding a lot back. It could be because he doesn't want to tip his hand, or it could be we're still adjusting to the offense. Hell, it took a full season to incorporate the whole playbook with AE, so why do we expect that we'd be able to do it in 2 games with ZT?

[asu7]

There is no need for the O to show their hand. None. On O we have done exactly what we needed to do nothing more nothing less. Drink knows the importance of the UNC game.

The defense has issues for sure. I have a feeling that changes are a coming. UNC will not have seen most of our playbook. I think Drink wanted it that way. He’s probably drinking a diet Dew right now grinning thinking about what the O has done with a limited playbook. I hope at the same time he’s whipping the D into shape.

[bigdaddyg]

We as fans typically want to see some wide open pull out all of the stops score 100 points a game offense. it simply doesn't work that way. For one, the other team actually shows up to play and more often than not tries to not only score and stop us from scoring but also tries to win. Imagine that! We have some really arrogant fans on this site who think we have this juggernaut team that should just steamroll every opponent 100-0. I was disappointed as well Saturday with the defense but I also saw what I think is a vastly improved UNCC team. They came to play, are well coached and have some talented players. I hope they go on to win their conference in order to help validate their effort.

I say again, we scored 56 points Saturday. If Alabama does the exact same thing with the exact same play calling I doubt that their fans are all up in arms because Saban didn't try flea flickers, double reverses and bombs all day. I have faith that our coaches will do what they are paid to do and will have the team prepared going forward.

[biggie]

We did have one problem for a while on the O Line with the pressure/sacks. Appeared to be corrected, especially when Vic got in the game.

[AtlAppMan]

Remember the S&P is a statistical analysis not opinion so it doesn’t care about how you get it done or style , just results. This article was focused on “offense” S&P not defense numbers. Although the comment about defense hints the defense S&P probably stinks.