Hurry-Up Offense Will Gas Our O-Line

[grizindabox]

 

[AllWeatherFan]

People seem to be assuming Montana's 2014 offense is playing against UNDSU's 2014 defense again this season. And that we're playing in Grand Forks again.

Get your stitt together!

 

[bgbigdog]

Not only will it gas your O line, your defense will be on the field ALL day long and give up tons of yards and points because they too are gassed. Someone once said that about the hurry up style of play! Get ready for a very disappointing defensive year!

Boy that sucks... So now all we have to look forward to is state college's late fall collapse and running up the score on the crooked field in Bozo in November. I guess that will have to do. So how are things by the lake?

 

[UofMGrizFan]

I posed this issue to Coach Stitt during a round of golf and his answer was very informative as to his philosophy. For starters the o-line does not have to chase down a ball carrier - wether it be run or pass -while the d-line does. An o-lineman has to lay down his block and hustle to the next line of scrimmage. A D-lineman has to chase the play till the whistle blows. The o-line coach is tasked with watching his line closely during the game and when they appear to be getting tired he passes that info on to Stitt who said he then will call one of his more than 20 versions of the wide receiver screen. When the wide receiver screen is called the o-line has to hold its block for about two seconds while the d-line has to sprint to the sideline and chase the play..and sprint back to the new line of scrimmage because of the speed of which the next play is called. Stitt expects to have the offense lined up 17-20 seconds after the whistle is blown on the previous play. Basically when a wide receiver screen is called the d-line has to run two 20yd sprints and then be lined up for the next play. Stitt said he will often call the screen to the wide side of the field to make the D run even farther. Part of the reason he goes for it on fourth down is to "mind f&@k" the defense. He loves the look on the defenders' faces when they get all jacked up after stopping the offense on third down and then realize they have to defend a fourth down. Even better, he says, is when a defensive coordinate wants to change personnel on a third down play and the defensive players refuse to do,it because thy are too tired to run to the sideline. He told me he sees that a lot. Coach Stitt has been running this offense a long time and is definitely conscious of its impact on his linemen. They will be well conditioned and ready to run an uptempo offense and execute 90+ plays a game.

:thumb:

 

[Catsrback76]

I posed this issue to Coach Stitt during a round of golf and his answer was very informative as to his philosophy. For starters the o-line does not have to chase down a ball carrier - wether it be run or pass -while the d-line does. An o-lineman has to lay down his block and hustle to the next line of scrimmage. A D-lineman has to chase the play till the whistle blows. The o-line coach is tasked with watching his line closely during the game and when they appear to be getting tired he passes that info on to Stitt who said he then will call one of his more than 20 versions of the wide receiver screen. When the wide receiver screen is called the o-line has to hold its block for about two seconds while the d-line has to sprint to the sideline and chase the play..and sprint back to the new line of scrimmage because of the speed of which the next play is called. Stitt expects to have the offense lined up 17-20 seconds after the whistle is blown on the previous play. Basically when a wide receiver screen is called the d-line has to run two 20yd sprints and then be lined up for the next play. Stitt said he will often call the screen to the wide side of the field to make the D run even farther. Part of the reason he goes for it on fourth down is to "mind f&@k" the defense. He loves the look on the defenders' faces when they get all jacked up after stopping the offense on third down and then realize they have to defend a fourth down. Even better, he says, is when a defensive coordinate wants to change personnel on a third down play and the defensive players refuse to do,it because thy are too tired to run to the sideline. He told me he sees that a lot. Coach Stitt has been running this offense a long time and is definitely conscious of its impact on his linemen. They will be well conditioned and ready to run an uptempo offense and execute 90+ plays a game.

:thumb:

Wow, amazing that NO OTHER COACH knows about this!

Here's your sign...

 

[AllWeatherFan]

I can't wait to see the look on Coach Ron Ash's face.

 

[PlayerRep]

Been lots of talk about who runs a "hurry up" offense, versus who's good on time of possession. Just to insert some real numbers into the (ahem) discussion, here are Big Sky numbers from last year. (Taken from the NCAA statistics site.) The teams are ranked by their plays per game, BTW

Offensive Plays and TOP -- Big Sky Teams
Team, Plays per Game, Time of Possession (min./game)
ISU ..... 82.7 28.3
CP ...... 78.8 31.8
EWU ... 77.1 31.4
MSU ... 73.9 31.8
SacSt .. 73.8 31.1
PSU .... 73.4 28.7
SUU .... 72.8 27.1
NAU ... 72.1 32.1
WSU ... 70.5 28.8
NoCol. 64.5 29.7
UM ..... 63.8 28.1
UND ... 61.1 29.7
UC-D.. 60.0 28.0

Some take-aways.
One: Last year, nobody ran the kind of tempo Stitt is planning for the Griz (90+ per game). ISP, CP and EWU were up there pretty good, but nobody came close to 90. (And, if I recall correctly, 90 was the minimum number of plays Stitt wants to run.)

Two: The correlation between the number of plays the offense ran and what their TOP ended up to be is only weakly correlated. ISU, the team that ran the most plays per game, had one of the lowest TOP. Granted, EWU and CP had both high plays per game and TOP. But NAU, which was well back in the pack in plays run, had the highest TOP.

Three: The Griz, with the third-lowest plays per game, and a crappy TOP, still went 6-2 in conference, tied with MSU and ISU.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Thanks for doing this. Interesting. Well-done.

 

[blackfootipa]

If the Griz offense gets going like we hope it will, how long until we see opposing Defenses faking injuries in order to slow things down? That has been a thing right?

 

[Alaska Griz]

I can't wait to see the look on Coach Ron Ash's face.

Ditto. And if there's any year for him to snag a victory, by all means it should be this year, and yet I really don't think it's gonna happen. As much as I like a home game, watching the Griz in the Litter Box is always fun. Absolute deflation. The Trail of Tears (pick one) might be the most lasting image of the Rob Ash era when all is said and done.

 

[poorgriz]

Griz fans should be more concerned about their D line holding up to NDSU's big nasty O line. Starters from left to right weigh in at 310, 326, 301, 300 and 300

Wow. That's almost as big as MSU's O Line!

 

[Grisly Fan]

Yes of course this will be a huge problem. Only Griz players get tired. The Griz are doomed. I mean, look at other up tempo teams like the Oregon Ducks for example. They suck. To me the question is not whether the Griz can succeed at this but more of can they succeed this year. If changing systems was easy then all losing teams would do it every year to find something better. I do believe if anyone can make a quick change it is Stitt. He knows this stuff cold. But still, how quick?

Particular system aside, I love his "chess player" mentality. I have seen way to much pig-headed persistence and slow in-game adjustments. His comments suggest he is always scheming and looking to exploit the chinks in the opponents game plan. It will be refreshing to watch.

 

[poorgriz]

TOP for CSM last season 31:44 to 28:16. So even with the hurry up Stitt offense, CSM had the ball more than the opponent. Also, as many possessions does not mean the same TOP or number of plays.
The season prior CSM had TOP of 32:53.

I'm pretty sure MSU's TOP stats looked like that too, but the DL was gassed every game.

You'll see.

Hell, the Griz TOP last season was 28:09. MSU was 31:46. I think you are trying to make generalized assumptions just because of what you believe hurry up means.

I think you're grasping at straws because you've clearly never played the game at a high level.

Neither have I, but I do know what hurry up means and have seen the consequences of running such an offense to both sides of the ball.

Don't bother LTCF, I tried to point this exact thing out to them when Stitt announced he wanted to run 100 plays a game, but they truly don't get it. All I heard was how much better UM's D was than MSU's and that this new offense was actually going to HELP the UM D. As you've said, they will find out. It's goingto be comical watching the implosion on this sight when the UM defensive stats start getting skewed and all the posters jum on here and start asking "HOW IN THE HELL IS OUR DEFENSE WORSE THAN LAST YEAR!!!!". In fact I'm guessing we will see that exact sentence as the title of a thread on here sometime throughout the season. I've already placed several wagers with my griz fan buddies about what the UM defensive stats will look like at the end of the year. (Hint - the will be worse in probably every category).

 

[poorgriz]

I posed this issue to Coach Stitt during a round of golf and his answer was very informative as to his philosophy. For starters the o-line does not have to chase down a ball carrier - wether it be run or pass -while the d-line does. An o-lineman has to lay down his block and hustle to the next line of scrimmage. A D-lineman has to chase the play till the whistle blows. The o-line coach is tasked with watching his line closely during the game and when they appear to be getting tired he passes that info on to Stitt who said he then will call one of his more than 20 versions of the wide receiver screen. When the wide receiver screen is called the o-line has to hold its block for about two seconds while the d-line has to sprint to the sideline and chase the play..and sprint back to the new line of scrimmage because of the speed of which the next play is called. Stitt expects to have the offense lined up 17-20 seconds after the whistle is blown on the previous play. Basically when a wide receiver screen is called the d-line has to run two 20yd sprints and then be lined up for the next play. Stitt said he will often call the screen to the wide side of the field to make the D run even farther. Part of the reason he goes for it on fourth down is to "mind f&@k" the defense. He loves the look on the defenders' faces when they get all jacked up after stopping the offense on third down and then realize they have to defend a fourth down. Even better, he says, is when a defensive coordinate wants to change personnel on a third down play and the defensive players refuse to do,it because thy are too tired to run to the sideline. He told me he sees that a lot. Coach Stitt has been running this offense a long time and is definitely conscious of its impact on his linemen. They will be well conditioned and ready to run an uptempo offense and execute 90+ plays a game.

This is a great post, very informative. In fact maybe someone should share this with some of the other Big Sky coaches (Not MSU because Ash already knows all this) but maybe it would help some of the less experienced coaches prepare for this impending offensive juggernaut!

The only part I disagree with however, is the bolded above. No way in hell that happens at this level. You can bet that no Ash coached team, or probably any other Big Sky coaches are going to tolerate that shiznit. That sounds like something that's probably only going to happen at a lower division, which again points to the fact that Stitt may be in way over his head here.

 

[grizindabox]

The entire argument that LTCF and poorgriz want to bang on has much more to do with converting 3rd downs than playing an uptempo offense. If the Griz are good at converting 3rd downs and sustaining drives their argument is really moot, but if the Griz are poor on third down, and become a 3-and-out machine, then it could be a huge problem for the defense. But of course, we could say that for any defense that has an offense that is horrible on third down.

 

[Htowngriz]

I'm pretty sure MSU's TOP stats looked like that too, but the DL was gassed every game.

You'll see.

Hell, the Griz TOP last season was 28:09. MSU was 31:46. I think you are trying to make generalized assumptions just because of what you believe hurry up means.

I think you're grasping at straws because you've clearly never played the game at a high level.

Neither have I, but I do know what hurry up means and have seen the consequences of running such an offense to both sides of the ball.

Don't bother LTCF, I tried to point this exact thing out to them when Stitt announced he wanted to run 100 plays a game, but they truly don't get it. All I heard was how much better UM's D was than MSU's and that this new offense was actually going to HELP the UM D. As you've said, they will find out. It's goingto be comical watching the implosion on this sight when the UM defensive stats start getting skewed and all the posters jum on here and start asking "HOW IN THE HELL IS OUR DEFENSE WORSE THAN LAST YEAR!!!!". In fact I'm guessing we will see that exact sentence as the title of a thread on here sometime throughout the season. I've already placed several wagers with my griz fan buddies about what the UM defensive stats will look like at the end of the year. (Hint - the will be worse in probably every category).

You guys try entirely too hard, especially considering the results.

 

[Alaska Griz]

Don't bother LTCF, I tried to point this exact thing out to them when Stitt announced he wanted to run 100 plays a game, but they truly don't get it. All I heard was how much better UM's D was than MSU's and that this new offense was actually going to HELP the UM D. As you've said, they will find out. It's goingto be comical watching the implosion on this sight when the UM defensive stats start getting skewed and all the posters jum on here and start asking "HOW IN THE HELL IS OUR DEFENSE WORSE THAN LAST YEAR!!!!". In fact I'm guessing we will see that exact sentence as the title of a thread on here sometime throughout the season. I've already placed several wagers with my griz fan buddies about what the UM defensive stats will look like at the end of the year. (Hint - the will be worse in probably every category).[/quote]

Dude, the Griz defense IS much deeper and flat out more talented than the Cats D. You place bets with several people on where a team will statistically finish within a conference on Defense? Good stuff. The Griz D is loaded with talent, the Cats D is not, it seems pretty simple to me. We don't run the same offense as you and we don't have the same team makeup. You are trying way too hard to assure everyone that the Griz will mirror the Cats of last year, but defense is almost half the game and the two teams couldn't be more different from that standpoint. We don't know what will happen because we haven't even seen the entire team play a game yet, so give it up. And yes, NDSU will move the ball on us and likely beat us so no need for you to come on here and troll after that game. Of course if we win, maybe you can make yourself scarce until next year when the cats win their 6th consecuituve preseason championship under Ash.

What we do know is that the Griz D is likely superior to the Cat D at almost every position. I'd go as far as saying that Sheridan is the only player on the Cats D that would start on the Griz D this year. Any others that I'm missing?

 

[LongTimeCatFan]

The entire argument that LTCF and poorgriz want to bang on has much more to do with converting 3rd downs than playing an uptempo offense. If the Griz are good at converting 3rd downs and sustaining drives their argument is really moot, but if the Griz are poor on third down, and become a 3-and-out machine, then it could be a huge problem for the defense. But of course, we could say that for any defense that has an offense that is horrible on third down.

Or if you score in 4-6 plays

 

[poorgriz]

No, not the point at all realy but I'm glad you got all that off your chest. Your D will suffer because of the new O you are installing, PERIOD. That is the one and only point that LTCF and I have been trying to make from the beginning. You'll find out. LTCF had an excellent idea for you guys, you should ask Stitt that question directly and see what his response is.

 

[grizindabox]

The entire argument that LTCF and poorgriz want to bang on has much more to do with converting 3rd downs than playing an uptempo offense. If the Griz are good at converting 3rd downs and sustaining drives their argument is really moot, but if the Griz are poor on third down, and become a 3-and-out machine, then it could be a huge problem for the defense. But of course, we could say that for any defense that has an offense that is horrible on third down.

Or if you score in 4-6 plays

But wouldn't that be the case no matter the offense. Stitt's offense isn't necessarily designed to score quick touchdowns, it is designed to be 10-12 play drives with controlled passing and running.

 

[Umista]

Slinking on EGriz the scat fans are back biting coach Stitt and all the time they slide away in shame after all recent football beatings but act like toughs on our board.

Some of us tolerate slinkers trolling along like they are not cowards of the state insofar as football is concerned.

Truth of the topic at hand is none (zero) of these characters have talked with Stitt and they are simply blowing hot gas into cold water. They think they are pulling our chains but again what they are really pulling is their xxxs.

Meanwhile we have a great coach with a great plan, great fans and we continue to lead the state of MONTANA with class!