Phil Miller blog: Kill's offense leaves decisions to QB

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ever seen this level of "two-play" offensive sophistication from Minny?

Miller Blog re Q, "brains", passing and offensive strategy:

Frequently, the Gophers will call two plays in the huddle, and depend upon the quarterback to choose the best one as the defense lines up. "There's a difference between an audible and a two-play check," Limegrover said. "We know [the defense] will do either A or B. If they do A, we'll switch to B. That's why it's more important to be smart about throwing the ball than having a great arm."

Seems like the old school version of Gopher grinding smash-mouth offense ("Pound the Rock") is experiencing a dramatic, long-overdue makeover!
 

A lot of teams do this type of thing. If you ever hear the term "Check with me," this is what it means. The team either "checks" with the QB or the QB "checks" with the coach on the sideline to determine which play will be run. Once the determiner makes the decision, he will let the rest of the offense know which one they will use and the play is then run.
 

I am surprised the gophers did not already do this. Some High School teams do this.
 



The offense for the school I was working with checked probably 50% of the run game and all non play action passes at the line last year.
 

This was surprising. Anyone heard of this before?

-- One of the strangest and most dangerous-looking drills is the punt-blocking practice, in which walk-on kickers Jordan Wettstein and David Schwerman take a snap, then take their sweet time getting off a punt, so it can be blocked. One after another, the punters endure these loud collisions as they extend their legs.

Is this as awful as it looks? Wettstein's body language said he doesn't enjoy it, but he insisted he's happy to do whatever he's asked.

"You're part of the team, so you do what you've gotta do," said Wettstein, a junior from De Pere, Wis., just south of Green Bay. "You go into it hoping you don't get hurt, but if you take a couple of nicks and bruises, you get up and do it again. The coaches train the guys how to block them so we don't get hurt."

Yeah, but that doesn't mean he doesn't. Wettstein was nailed twice on Saturday, and the result was a pair of deep bone bruises, he said, that required two days of treatment just so he could get blocked again and again on Tuesday. Tough way to earn a spot on the team.
 

Haven't seen that drill live. But from seeing it on film it is no more dangerous for the punter than walking through a crowd to get to class in the morning. Unless the guy trying to block the punt is a complete moron there is a 0% chance of collision related injury.

Complaining about bruises is exactly why punters and kickers get no respect from non kicker/punters.
 

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