Brevyn Spann-Ford playing time

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FredCoxRocks

FredCoxRocks

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From all things I've heard about him leading up to the season I thought I would have seen him play a little more. What's the story here?
 

I'm glad you asked this because I meant to do the same. So many off season coach tidbits hinted at him being a major force starting this season. I have seen him out there a bit but he hasn't exactly been the game changer that I had built my opinion up to assume, over the off season.
 

The stats could surely prove me wrong, but it seems that the Gopher offensive brain trust simply does not want to have TEs factoring into the offensive production. It's RBs and WRs, everyone else is a blocker of some kind or a QB.

Witham and Kieft are road-graders. Paulson is a talented TE as well.
 

My guess is that while he has great size and ball skills, he just isn't physical enough/too soft a a blocker. I remember one play in the spring game where he was suppose to seal off an end and pretty much just gave him a love tap.

Maybe with Kieft likely sitting out this game, we see more of him.
 

Interesting Gophs hit the TE twice in that opening drive and then never really went back to it.
 


So far, I’ve been pretty disappointed in our lack of creativity on offense. I get that it’s early and don’t wanna show the whole playbook blah blah blah, but it doesn’t seem like we’ve done enough to switch up looks / get playmakers involved.

I also found TM checking with the sideline until 1 second on the play clock to be frustrating. Seems like we are constantly try to react to what the defense is doing as opposed to making them react to us. Coaches may have a good reason for it, but I anticipated with our talent we’d be taking it to teams more.
 

Speaking of Morgan checking with the sideline, it seems like a well timed hard count could be very effective. I don’t think Morgan had ever tried it.


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BSF is not a timid blocker at least from what I saw in high school. I saw him get personal fouls for blocking too hard (he was big, DBs were small, nothing cheap)

I am surprised he barely plays. Maybe Fleck is too. Maybe the offense hasn't allowed it. But you're not going to get talented TE recruits by throwing to them 10 times per season
 

The trend of not really involving the TE in the offensive production has remained the same for this coaching staff since their start at WMU.
If is wishful thinking that they are going to alter their philosophy at this point.
 



SPEGOPHER said:
So far, I’ve been pretty disappointed in our lack of creativity on offense. I get that it’s early and don’t wanna show the whole playbook blah blah blah, but it doesn’t seem like we’ve done enough to switch up looks / get playmakers involved.

I also found TM checking with the sideline until 1 second on the play clock to be frustrating. Seems like we are constantly try to react to what the defense is doing as opposed to making them react to us. Coaches may have a good reason for it, but I anticipated with our talent we’d be taking it to teams more.
Click to expand...

This is an even bigger problem when you end up taking a delay of game penalty on the first play or a drive.
 

Even though its early and unfair to BSF, it's looking like Spoofin can add "Buy your 88 jerseys now" to his PJ kinda, sorta, but in reality not really true statement signature line.
 

Part of the problem is that we have 3 really good receivers and it puts defenses into a tough spot when we run out 3 of them and a TE.
 

Fresno was double covering both Johnson and Bateman the other night. I figure that will probably continue, so they better figure out how to make them pay. The TE could be effective here.


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SPANN-FORD, TEs

CurveballJesus said:
Even though its early and unfair to BSF, it's looking like Spoofin can add "Buy your 88 jerseys now" to his PJ kinda, sorta, but in reality not really true statement signature line.
Click to expand...

Saw a Fleck quote after Fresno they were staying vanilla again. We were so close to being 0 -2, why wouldn't you open it up more? You want to recruit athletic tight ends and top flight receivers moving forward? That will dry up quickly if they see they will be used as blockers for 25% of the season. (95% if you are a TE) OPEN IT UP; give the Big Ten things to worry about as they game plan for our offense! With Johnson and Bateman doubled at the end of Fresno (and probably going forward), send Spann-Ford on a seam route against a backer. That will open things up for Johnson?Bateman, and get 8+ out of the box for our poor RBs.
 

GoldyMoose said:
Saw a Fleck quote after Fresno they were staying vanilla again. We were so close to being 0 -2, why wouldn't you open it up more? You want to recruit athletic tight ends and top flight receivers moving forward? That will dry up quickly if they see they will be used as blockers for 25% of the season. (95% if you are a TE) OPEN IT UP; give the Big Ten things to worry about as they game plan for our offense! With Johnson and Bateman doubled at the end of Fresno (and probably going forward), send Spann-Ford on a seam route against a backer. That will open things up for Johnson?Bateman, and get 8+ out of the box for our poor RBs.
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That's essentially how CAB got a 1-on-1. It's a question of Spann or CAB because we probably will be keeping our TE's in to block a lot (which makes sense because our receivers are so good).
 

GFBfan said:
The trend of not really involving the TE in the offensive production has remained the same for this coaching staff since their start at WMU.
If is wishful thinking that they are going to alter their philosophy at this point.
Click to expand...

Maybe the thinking is that throwing the ball to the TEs takes targets away from WR, and they want the WR to be the stars of the team and get as many plays as possible. And hence maybe allowing them to recruit some very high level WRs.

I’m grasping at straws.
 
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PitinoFan said:
Fresno was double covering both Johnson and Bateman the other night. I figure that will probably continue, so they better figure out how to make them pay. The TE could be effective here.


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Click to expand...

I guess they’d rather the slot receiver and/or the RB get the plays.
 

SPEGOPHER said:
So far, I’ve been pretty disappointed in our lack of creativity on offense. I get that it’s early and don’t wanna show the whole playbook blah blah blah, but it doesn’t seem like we’ve done enough to switch up looks / get playmakers involved.

I also found TM checking with the sideline until 1 second on the play clock to be frustrating. Seems like we are constantly try to react to what the defense is doing as opposed to making them react to us. Coaches may have a good reason for it, but I anticipated with our talent we’d be taking it to teams more.
Click to expand...

It has been pretty bland so far. I felt like we could have taken advantage of our WRs a lot more in the first two games. It was obvious early on South Dakota St couldn't cover them. And against Fresno St, we ran the ball almost every time on first down.
 

I do not want to 2nd guess Coach Ciarrocca as I was really glad he stayed and did not go out East, but I find it hard to understand why the TE is not used in his or Coach Fleck repertoire of plays in their system. It has been said how many times how Johnson and Bateman are both being doubled up a lot. What would happen with a tight end running straight down the seam like they ran in the spring game for a touchdown? What would the strong safety or LB do then? Put BSF, Paulson, or Seth in the slot as all 3 can run and see what safety, slot corner, or LB could cover them. We started out the game Saturday with two quicks to Paulson for positive yardage and that was it.
Tedford the FSU coach, is noted for his offensive mind and without question is looked up to by a lot of coaches including coach Fleck. Go back to the last two games we played against them and look at how many times they went to the TE. In both games the game ending plays were passes to the TE. They were targets through out the game Saturday night.
Several years back Wisc. had a QB like Seth Green and moved him to Tight End by the name of Owen Daniels not a great blocker but got the job done but created match up problems in the passing game all the time. He ended up playing 9 years in the NFL and Seth is a better athlete than Daniels. I strongly feel the 3 TE I mentioned above could do the same or more if given the opportunity. It will be interesting to see what happens as the season goes on.
 

GophersInIowa said:
It has been pretty bland so far. I felt like we could have taken advantage of our WRs a lot more in the first two games. It was obvious early on South Dakota St couldn't cover them. And against Fresno St, we ran the ball almost every time on first down.
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Yeah, would've liked to have seen few first down passes instead of running into 8-9 man fronts
 

They're saving the TE pass patterns for the last four games of the season, so they don't lose a year of eligibility.
 

"As we keep going, we are going to get Brevyn Spann-Ford more involved but again, guys have to be able to earn that part and be more physical, be able to do the whole thing and not just go out there to be a specialized person in something. So we want to make sure when you go out there it doesn't matter who's on the field, we can run our offense."

PJ at the presser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkpIuKfOeSw

So sounds like he needs to get better at blocking before they play him.
 

PitinoFan said:
Speaking of Morgan checking with the sideline, it seems like a well timed hard count could be very effective. I don’t think Morgan had ever tried it.


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Click to expand...

I think they almost exclusively use a silent count.
 

die hard gopher said:
"As we keep going, we are going to get Brevyn Spann-Ford more involved but again, guys have to be able to earn that part and be more physical, be able to do the whole thing and not just go out there to be a specialized person in something. So we want to make sure when you go out there it doesn't matter who's on the field, we can run our offense."

PJ at the presser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkpIuKfOeSw

So sounds like he needs to get better at blocking before they play him.
Click to expand...

He is athletic for a tight end, but if he's not good at blocking, that would make him a glorified wide receiver. He would not be considered nearly as athletic at that position.
 


WMU under Ciarrocca and Fleck used a single TE formation.

They must have something in the repertoire and will be inserted later in the season. He is a Red Shirt Freshman and has been said maybe this is to preserve his RS until the end of the season.
 

hungan1 said:
WMU under Ciarrocca and Fleck used a single TE formation.

They must have something in the repertoire and will be inserted later in the season. He is a Red Shirt Freshman and has been said maybe this is to preserve his RS until the end of the season.
Click to expand...

He's already a redshirt freshman, so there's no redshirt left to preserve.
 

CurveballJesus said:
Even though its early and unfair to BSF, it's looking like Spoofin can add "Buy your 88 jerseys now" to his PJ kinda, sorta, but in reality not really true statement signature line.
Click to expand...

I limit that list to things PJ knows aren’t true when he says it. Far as I know, he did and/or does believe that statement about BSF. I always give Pj the benefit of any (reasonable) doubt.


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This has surprised me as well, but I wouldn't say I'm disappointed. If he's not ready to block or handle pass pro, he's not ready to play in the vanilla offense we've seen thus far. Plus, there's plenty of weapons out there on O. I'm way more concerned about the OL gelling. That said:

1) I'd bet large amounts that the offense looks much more diverse on 9/28 than we've seen so far.
2) Good chance for the coaches to motivate BSF to perform better during the week without truly costing the team. I'm quite sure that if they think he's needed to win a game, you'll see him out there.
 

I watch a lot of what PJ says, and what I'm getting is that they are starting vanilla and will elaborate by game.

Last week, nothing TE.
This week a couple tosses to the TE.
Either this week or likely after the bye, Shannon Brooks will probably be added to the mix.

CAB's TD was something new.

It appears Kirk and PJ have a plan to keep evolving the offense week by week and that may already be planned out on what pieces will be added against which teams at certain points in the season.

If this is the case, I think it's a good plan, as long as you still win your early games with your simplified playbook.
It would make sense though to play it safe early on if they are working with a bunch of young kids who are still gaining experience.
 

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