Life after Paul Johnson.... hypothetical question

stech81

Helluva Engineer
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Any of us who lived thru Bill Curry's first two seasons (1-10, 1-9-1) are grateful beyond belief whenever we win 8 games.

Good grief. Eight wins for one of the top academic schools in the world? I'll take it!
My first year for season tickets was 1981, beer was cheaper back then and it was a good thing. :)
 

GTHomer

Ramblin' Wreck
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898
Any of us who lived thru Bill Curry's first two seasons (1-10, 1-9-1) are grateful beyond belief whenever we win 8 games.

Good grief. Eight wins for one of the top academic schools in the world? I'll take it!

At the same time this was the end of the Dwayne Morrison BBall era and beginning of the Bobby Cremins era. Football and Basketball were both at the bottom of the league.
 

Boomergump

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First, a down period is not mandatory. Second, recruiting for CPJ's offense does not automatically mean the roster cannot run a different offense well. Third, the defense is not precluded from playing well and winning games if the offense has growing pains. Fourth, given the volatility of the annual win-loss record under CPJ, it's possible that a year 1 down year under the new coach would have been a year x down year under CPJ (not that we could ever know, but down years or sub-par years have been common under CPJ).
Of course a down period isn't mandatory. It is just highly likely. For sake of argument, if we hired a coach who ran a pro style system, how likely would it be that we compete right away with our roster? Our OL are great in our system, but if you take their hand off the ground and ask them to fall back and pass block half the time, how competitive do you think they would be? Devine might thrive, but the rest would face major adjustments. If you took our current group of WRs, who never see anything but single coverage from isolated CBs with their eyes in the backfield and safeties rolled up to support the run, how well would they get separation against double coverage? Who would play TE from our roster? At this point, I really don't know much about our young QBs so commenting on their readiness for a pro system would be baseless. We'd probably be fine at RB, but I hope you get my point. I agree totally with you about defense, no argument there.
 

bravejason

Jolly Good Fellow
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307
For sake of argument, if we hired a coach who ran a pro style system, how likely would it be that we compete right away with our roster? Our OL are great in our system, but if you take their hand off the ground and ask them to fall back and pass block half the time, how competitive do you think they would be?

I think they would be fine. Remember, if we're going to pass half the time, the practice will include tons of pass blocking drills and reps and the scout teams will be simulating lots of different types of pass rushes for the OL to learn to defend against. Also, the new OL and TE coaches (we'll likely have a new coaching staff in addition to the new HC) may be better at teaching pass blocking. Additionally, the passing game can be structured around a quick passes so the OL doesn't have to pass block for very long.

If you took our current group of WRs, who never see anything but single coverage from isolated CBs with their eyes in the backfield and safeties rolled up to support the run, how well would they get separation against double coverage?

Again, the coaching will change accordingly if passing will constitute about half of the offense. Receivers will be spending time learning to how play against double coverage instead of learning how to block for a myriad of run plays. There might be an issue if the receiving corp is filled with slot receiver types, but I don't think that will be case as CPJ likes to play big tall fast receivers, who will work well in any offense. So the AB can fill the slot receiver role and the big guys fill the wideout role. Finally, just because the new offense will pass much more often doesn't mean that play action is no longer effective.

Who would play TE from our roster?
I'm sure someone on the O-line played TE in high school or there is a lineman who has the speed to do so if he lost some weight. Potentially, the first year or two the TE will primarily be a blocker with limited action in the passing game. Possibly, a linebacker could be converted to TE.

At this point, I really don't know much about our young QBs so commenting on their readiness for a pro system would be baseless. We'd probably be fine at RB, but I hope you get my point. I agree totally with you about defense, no argument there.

The QB situation is unknowable given all of the different types of players that could be playing QB at the time the coaching staff changes. We've seen how a good passer can make a lot of difference to the effectiveness of CPJ's offense, so likely the QB would be able to transition to a new offense without great difficulty. Of course, if all the QB's are lousy passers (which would be bad even under CPJ, IMO) then there will be issues if they need to pass half the time.

I think the difference of opinion is that I see the players as being much more able to adapt to a different scheme than you do.
 
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