2013 Texas Bowl: Gophers v Syracuse

DoubleAlum

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When I watch the Gopher offense this year, I keep thinking back to the 2013 Texas Bowl and the interesting formations, shifts and motion we saw in the backfield with the tight ends, the full backs and the wide receiver. If I recall, these were new wrinkles inserted for the bowl game. What seemed effective was bringing the wide out in motion and regularly faking the hand off to him or even just bringing him in motion before a hand-off to Cobb.

If you have some time and want to re-watch the game, you can find it on ESPN. I created this thread to find out from the GH crew why we stopped using these formations. It seems to me that these maneuvers create at least a little confusion for a defense. Does anyone know why we don't use these wrinkles any longer?
 

I've been asking myself this question since the second qtr vs TCU....
I'm going to be told our offense is young, inexperienced, injured, no chemistry and we need to keep it simple. But I've seen JR high teams run this simple. Not one jet sweep, very little shifts, schemes or off setting movement. Perhaps the conspiracies are true, and were trying to hide or 4 yr old playbook for B1G play, but I bet that's hardly the case..
 

I've been asking myself this question since the second qtr vs TCU....
I'm going to be told our offense is young, inexperienced, injured, no chemistry and we need to keep it simple. But I've seen JR high teams run this simple. Not one jet sweep, very little shifts, schemes or off setting movement. Perhaps the conspiracies are true, and were trying to hide or 4 yr old playbook for B1G play, but I bet that's hardly the case..

Couldn't it be a little of both? You're not suggesting it, Gopher028, but are there critics that simply think Limegrover forgot about the wrinkles (e.g. jet sweeps)?
 

I've been asking myself this question since the second qtr vs TCU....
I'm going to be told our offense is young, inexperienced, injured, no chemistry and we need to keep it simple. But I've seen JR high teams run this simple. Not one jet sweep, very little shifts, schemes or off setting movement. Perhaps the conspiracies are true, and were trying to hide or 4 yr old playbook for B1G play, but I bet that's hardly the case..

Interesting. Are the defenses we are playing against JR high level? If an opposing D continually penetrates the OL is the jet sweep a good play call?

If Reusse wrote this, would people here be whining about how hates the Gophers? What's the difference?
 

We are saving them for the bowl game again. :cool:
 




You can't do crazy formations and shifts and etc if your guys aren't blocking the right guys on just a basic formation.
 

Oh I get it, so when your o-line is young, inexperienced or injured (which seems to be every year expect perhaps last year) the answer is to run every play between the tackles or throw it on single WR routes down the sideline , because the jet sweep, rb and wr screen passes and outside runs with a pulling guard didn't. Copy, im dumb then.
 



Oh I get it, so when your o-line is young, inexperienced or injured (which seems to be every year expect perhaps last year) the answer is to run every play between the tackles or throw it on single WR routes down the sideline , because the jet sweep, rb and wr screen passes and outside runs with a pulling guard didn't. Copy, im dumb then.

Takes a big man to admit that. Most on here wouldn't. Kudos.
 

Oh I get it, so when your o-line is young, inexperienced or injured (which seems to be every year expect perhaps last year) the answer is to run every play between the tackles or throw it on single WR routes down the sideline , because the jet sweep, rb and wr screen passes and outside runs with a pulling guard didn't. Copy, im dumb then.

The realty of the situation is that the team misses OG Zac Epping. The guy was durable, had a big mean streak and played filled a hole for a long time on the OLine. The only guy they have now that is Epping like is #65 Campion.

If Epping had another year I think things would be a lot better, but lacking a presence like that, the (lack of)cohesion and resiliency of the line is causing big problems. I find it alarming that an unheralded guy like Epping is missed so much, and the higher rated recruits we heard about have been unimpressive or non-entities at this point. I am sure the offense and O line will improve a great deal this year, since they are starting at a such a low point.
 




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