Passing Offense

[Seattleapp]

I possibly get hammered for this but this offense is nowhere near as exciting to watch as last year's was. At any point this the game it seemed last years offense had the potential to score on a quick strike. This years lacks imagination and I'm not buying the "we aren't showing our cards yet" theory. Didnt love the Peterson hire when announced and confirming it more and more with each game. Ball control is fine if you are ahead, but doubt we catch up when down multiple scores.

You are not wrong. I find it insane to say as a nationally ranked team we weren’t pulling
Out all the stops to win a nationally televised game against an opponent because they are ooc. As if we don’t want our conference opponents to see our “real” offense. Think about house ridiculous that sounds. We are clearly trying to be Wisconsin. And being Wisconsin is all well and good if we are dominating the line of scrimmage. But we really haven’t. And the danger as you point out is if we fall behind we are going to struggle if our entire offense is predicated on being ahead and bleeding the clock out.

[AtlAppMan]

I don’t know how anybody thinks we don’t use all the playbook we can to win a game, OOC or conf game. As said we aspire to be top 25 program so we should expect to be doing all we can to win.

In three games we are definitely not in sync offensively yet. Is it coaching, practice disruptions, etc? I don’t know. It is expected that we likely would have some ramp up curve based on all the changes in our coaching staff. Can we work kinks out? I hope so quickly as we are getting ready to play probably our most important game of the season in little more than a week.

In my opinion, it is too early to tell if this offensive staff will work out. If they do it may take longer than I want. There is a lot of stuff creating turmoil this year vs a normal year, even a normal year of a coaching staff change.

[InFor6More]

I possibly get hammered for this but this offense is nowhere near as exciting to watch as last year's was. At any point this the game it seemed last years offense had the potential to score on a quick strike. This years lacks imagination and I'm not buying the "we aren't showing our cards yet" theory. Didnt love the Peterson hire when announced and confirming it more and more with each game. Ball control is fine if you are ahead, but doubt we catch up when down multiple scores.

You are not wrong. I find it insane to say as a nationally ranked team we weren’t pulling
Out all the stops to win a nationally televised game against an opponent because they are ooc. As if we don’t want our conference opponents to see our “real” offense. Think about house ridiculous that sounds. We are clearly trying to be Wisconsin. And being Wisconsin is all well and good if we are dominating the line of scrimmage. But we really haven’t. And the danger as you point out is if we fall behind we are going to struggle if our entire offense is predicated on being ahead and bleeding the clock out.

We’ve got some beef coming in on the offensive line in this year’s recruiting class. If that pans out and we become the Wisconsin of the G5, we may not see a lot of sizzle with the offense, but you’ll see a lot of W’s. Personally, I feel like there’s often been times where we’ve been tough physically and mentally over the past few years, but I’d like to get to a point where our opponents know when they play App they’re going to get an attacking, sound defense and a hellacious rushing attack to deal with. If we can do that, put some athletes on the edges and become one of the least penalized teams in CFB, then we’ll REALLY struggle to schedule some decent P5 teams.

[BambooRdApp]

It would be great to be Wisconsin of the G5. However, that typically does not bode well for when a G5 plays a P5. We should pound all we can. However to beat P5 we have to be quick at RB and WR...with a very creative passing game so P5 team has no clue what is coming

[t4pizza]

Zac has been a really successful qb for us in terms of leading the team to wins, conference titles, rankings and bowl victories. That is very impressive from a resume point of view. That being said, I have often questioned if he truly has the arm strength to make all the throws. I say this with the realization that he has had 3 different head coaches, oc and qb coaches during his 3 years as a starter and they all pretty much only had him make safe throws. He rarely is ever asked to hit a receiver in stride across the middle. The slant play that made Dexter Jackson famous is gone from our arsenal of throws. The vast majority of the throws that we ask him to make are either a bubble screen to rb (past years but not so much this year yet) out into the flat to a TE running a short angle or against a sideline and the sideline throws almost always require the receiver to stop and come back to the ball or go up for a contested ball. I really think that if he had a strong enough arm, some of those different coaches would have had him make harder throws. We have a good receiving crop and have recruited some studs, so I really don't buy the company line that only Henni can get open. When I watch Zac play, he doesn't go through progressions but instead locks in on his target. This is not a good trait as a qb, especially one as heralded as Zac is. And it is what led to that costly interception against Marshall in the closing moments of the first half. An experienced qb like Zac should never make that mistake. I hope nobody takes this as me not liking Zac or thinking he is not a good qb because that isn't the case. In fact, I find it all the more impressive that he has been able to lead and accomplish all he has with what I perceive as limited arm strength. He finds a way to play to his strengths and that usually leads to an App victory. I will continue to be happy as long as we keep winning, but everyone has to understand that we aren't going to see an aerial attack out of Zac. If that was in the cards, I think we would have played that hand by now.

[yosef69]

Zac has been a really successful qb for us in terms of leading the team to wins, conference titles, rankings and bowl victories. That is very impressive from a resume point of view. That being said, I have often questioned if he truly has the arm strength to make all the throws. I say this with the realization that he has had 3 different head coaches, oc and qb coaches during his 3 years as a starter and they all pretty much only had him make safe throws. He rarely is ever asked to hit a receiver in stride across the middle. The slant play that made Dexter Jackson famous is gone from our arsenal of throws. The vast majority of the throws that we ask him to make are either a bubble screen to rb (past years but not so much this year yet) out into the flat to a TE running a short angle or against a sideline and the sideline throws almost always require the receiver to stop and come back to the ball or go up for a contested ball. I really think that if he had a strong enough arm, some of those different coaches would have had him make harder throws. We have a good receiving crop and have recruited some studs, so I really don't buy the company line that only Henni can get open. When I watch Zac play, he doesn't go through progressions but instead locks in on his target. This is not a good trait as a qb, especially one as heralded as Zac is. And it is what led to that costly interception against Marshall in the closing moments of the first half. An experienced qb like Zac should never make that mistake. I hope nobody takes this as me not liking Zac or thinking he is not a good qb because that isn't the case. In fact, I find it all the more impressive that he has been able to lead and accomplish all he has with what I perceive as limited arm strength. He finds a way to play to his strengths and that usually leads to an App victory. I will continue to be happy as long as we keep winning, but everyone has to understand that we aren't going to see an aerial attack out of Zac. If that was in the cards, I think we would have played that hand by now.

Zac is, in my opinion, the quintessential game manager archetype. I think his actual ability has gone down hill since his first start. I think he has gotten complacent, and nobody on the bench is really competing with him. I understand he has had 3 coaches, but his reads are slow and his accuracy at times is truly concerning.

People on this board see his record and say that he is the reason we have won. I think the reason we win so much is the defense, followed by NFL caliber running backs, and then Sutton and Hennigan.

[NashvilleNeer]

Could be wrong , but I'm pretty sure Pinckney has to sit this year.

Yes, he has to sit out.

[Stonewall]

There are coaches that don’t show their hand.Perhaps our game plan underestimated MU. We will know soon.

[Rekdiver]

I watched he’s Zac congratulating teammates as the came off the field. I saw him put on the headphones and signal in plays to Huesman and run on the field when he scored. Three schemes in 3 years and reps may be a reason he locks in on receivers. If there is a drop in his performance I lay it at the feet of the coaches.

[Yosef84]

There are coaches that don’t show their hand.Perhaps our game plan underestimated MU. We will know soon.

Just my opinion but I really don't think the game plan was lacking against Marshall. What was lacking was execution. It's hard to evaluate the game plan when play is sloppy. My feeling was, if execution had been there, App would have won by two scores and very few would be complaining.