Mcknight/passing game in new offense

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Gophface Killah

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It was obvious this year that Mcknight is one of, if not the most athletic players on the team. From the sound of it, the new offense that Kill uses is a run heavy one(65% runs iirc). When you have a player like Mcknight you must give him chances to make plays and get the ball in his hands often. And I remember Gray saying he still wants to be able to pass the ball in his new offense. How will Kill incorporate the passing game into this offense when you have playmakers like Mcknight and Lair on the receiving end?
 

Let's see, he runs 65% of the time, so that means he throws 35% of the time. That's still plenty of throwing. Plus, Kill's offense was very efficient with its passing at NIU.

I don't think he'll be disappointed in any way.
 


the only thing that is unfortunate with McKnight is that Brewster didn't redshirt him as a Freshman who had only played one year of football prior to stepping on campus. Would be real nice to have him with 2 more years of eligibility.
 



Kill isn't bound to anything either, by the way. He said he's flexible in how the offense operates. I think if he finds that Gray to McKnight could be a damaging combo, he'll utilize that. I think his preference is to control the game by running the ball though.
 

Northern Illinois threw the ball 300 times in 2010 and average 180 yards a game through the air in 2010. Most of those balls went to the WRs as the TE is primarily a blocker in Kill's offense. My guess is Kill will get the most out of McKnight's pass-catching ability that he can within the framework of the offense.
 

Kill used a lot of higher % type routes and threw a lot of short under routes if I recall our two games against them. Their QB completed 64% of his tosses 191/302 compared to our 55% 209/378 and NIU receivers caught just 18 fewer passes than MN>
 

I would suspect you'll see the % of run vs. pass skew down slightly from 65 to maybe 60. I think this will be a result of Kill moving to the BigTen, not some sort of change in style. This is one of the top conferences in college football, defenses will need to be kept honest to have success. Plus we saw the good and bad of light and fast offensive lineman, they can put up great stats and are very effective but also wear down towards the end of games making it more difficult to run out the clock (think Mason teams).
 



Gophface Killah said:
Maybe what I wanted to know is how Kill uses the wr's and te's in his offense?
Click to expand...

They block when it's a running play, but when we pass, they run routes and try to get open.

Kill's offense is probably run heavy when they have a lot of success with it, but something tells me he's willing to pass the ball, too.

This is Chandler Harnish's stat line from this season:

2010 172 266 2230 64.7 8.38 69 20 5 12 156.13

The offense will be hard pressed to match the same rushing numbers in the Big Ten that they had in the MAC, so the Gophers will need to throw more than NIU next year. McKnight will have plenty of chances.
 

And learning to block consistently and catch balls over the middle--which are required of WRs in what appears to be Kill's offense--are things that will help McKnight a ton as he aspires to play at the next level.
 

A run-heavy offense can be a huge benefit to an athletic reciever. He will be in favorable matchups in most sets and his natural ability can create more big plays.
 

Not only that, but look at some of these games NIU played: 50-14 over Akron, 45-14 over Buffalo, 33-7 over CMU, 65-30 over Toledo, 59-21 over Ball State, and 71-3 over EMU. I'm sure there were a lot of run-heavy 2nd halves played. I guarantee you we won't be doing that often in the Big Ten, so expect more of a mix.

Also looking at that, he beat the crap out of teams he outmatched while we struggled with the Dakotas and other lower tiered teams at the same level. Could we FINALLY see a true blowout game for the first time since FAU in 2008?
 



I actually think McKnight will benefit from this offense. Run-heavy but with lots of play action. McKnight could kill teams off play-action.

Oh yeah, and don't forget about stroking the post.
 

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