Offensive Tempo

Techster

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I'm surprised we haven't talked about increasing tempo more for 2014. I mean, we've beaten going back to our "base offense" to death with JT and Byerly, but we've kinda glossed over the fact that our offense will implement a quicker tempo this year. Our guys have even spoken about how much they're conditioning during the off season for it.

Personally, I've always thought our offense (both passing & running) could be devastating if we implemented the HUNH into what we do. From that link, it's obvious we give the defense too much time to substitute and adjust. Adjustments are what CPJ is known for, and I think you give DC's too much time to counter if you're slowing down the pace. If you give the defense no time to adjust and communicate withe their coaches, good luck.
 

Fatmike91

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Two way street. Can our OL keep up? (I am thinking of a G who was winded in the spring game). If we speed up and go three and out, can the defense stop 'em?

Do our chances of winning increase by going faster? Does CPJ think that?

(I see CPJ's basic strategy as limiting the touches for both teams -- then executing at a higher efficiency). The fact that we are the slowest team in the ACC is evidence of CPJ dictating game tempo. The other side of this data is the number of plays the OTHER TEAM runs against us. I don't have the data, but I suspect that other teams run the fewest plays (or among the fewest) on offense against Tech.

/
 

gtg936g

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I see the advantage to being up tempo if you are Clemson or UNC. They use a lot of formations and looks to catch the D with personnel mismatches. Tempo fits their system. I am not sure it really fits our system. We are not going to go from the flexbone to 5 wide look, so I am not sure we would see the same advantages that our counterparts in the ACC are seeing. I doubt we see a drastic tempo increase because of the attrition on the D line. If we grind it out we may be better off.
 

daBuzz

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I don't care if we go HUNH or speed up the tempo. But I've wondered for a long time why we don't implement some non-verbal, sign method of calling in plays. Whether it's the cue-card system or the backup QB's signing it in method, either way would allow us to do that without having to make substitutions. Because our current method allows defenses to make substitutions as we call in the plays via the substitute.
 

Longestday

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Do we have the depth on defense to run more defense? That was the very reason i posted this article.

I think we should do a change up in tempo when we are having difficulty scoring, behind in the last Q (versus passing), Under 4 minutes in 2nd Q.
 

techman78

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Those numbers show me that even though we have the slowest tempo on O that we are also the most efficient (or close to it) because every season that CPJ has been here we have either led the league or been top 3 or 4 in scoring O. If we could speed up the tempo some and keep the same efficiency we could be very dangerous on the offensive side of the ball.
 

Northeast Stinger

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Two way street. Can our OL keep up? (I am thinking of a G who was winded in the spring game). If we speed up and go three and out, can the defense stop 'em?

Do our chances of winning increase by going faster? Does CPJ think that?

(I see CPJ's basic strategy as limiting the touches for both teams -- then executing at a higher efficiency). The fact that we are the slowest team in the ACC is evidence of CPJ dictating game tempo. The other side of this data is the number of plays the OTHER TEAM runs against us. I don't have the data, but I suspect that other teams run the fewest plays (or among the fewest) on offense against Tech.

/
Yes. This is actually an old conversation. CPJ has addressed it in the past and I recall reading some numbers on it even a couple of years ago. Anyway, the long and short of it is that CPJ would rather his defense face fewer possessions by the opposing team. He clearly does not mind scoring on one play or having an explosive offense but he does not want to give the opposing offense 3 or 4 extra possessions per game because the offense went 3 and out without barely moving the clock.
 

dressedcheeseside

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To me, it's not tempo, but what what you actually do with your possessions. If you score in 1 play or in 12, it makes no difference to me, it still puts pressure on the opposing O to score to keep up.

Now there is a benefit to having longer possessions if you end up not scoring, you still shorten the game and limit possessions for your opponent. Conversely, there's a drastic downside to going up tempo if you don't score beyond not scoring.
 

alaguy

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It will be IMPERATIVE that we keep the ball on O as much as possible his yr.Our Dline is VERY thin and we will be DEAD if teams have the ball a lot.
 

iceeater1969

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It will be IMPERATIVE that we keep the ball on O as much as possible his yr.Our Dline is VERY thin and we will be DEAD if teams have the ball a lot.

I have always said we need to blitz much more often ( I trust the offense to get it right so their defense gets tired) so we either get a break ( big loss, turn over, defensive score) or not BUT the defense is getting off the field.

Baylor has gone to this philosophy.

We have weak d line depth so expect 5,6,7 coming on run defense blitz and hope the db meet their high expectations!
 

GT Man

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I like the grind it out/clock running type offense we "had". If we can get back to that, that's what I prefer, but I don't care as long as there's a W at the end of the day.

This. I relish the look on the faces of the opposing team when we get the ball late in the 4th. Could be 3 minutes left on the clock but they know the game is probably over :)
 

GTNavyNuke

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The object of the game is to score more points than the other team; not just to score a lot of points. You have to score more points per possession than the other team. So we need to do what we can to maximize our points per possession and minimize the other teams points per possession. Our O is pretty good through out the game; it's our D that seems to get worn down and become less effective. So I like to see fewer times our D is on the field.

I like the idea of no huddle if it keeps the other team from substituting. But CPJ's basic philosophy is to be methodical and effective on O. I love death matches (only where we score) since it tends to freak the other team out and make them hurry. And most importantly it keeps our D off the field. The other team can't score if they don't have the ball.

I can see running a hurry up in special situations to keep the other team off balance, but not for entire drives.

The worst thing we can do is get into a track meet with Clemson or UGAg since they are bigger, stronger and faster and will wear us down. It's what we do to similarly inferior teams to us; wear them down and open it up in the 4th qtr.
 

daBuzz

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I like the idea of no huddle if it keeps the other team from substituting.

Just for the record, you don't have to go no huddle to stop the other team from substituting. You just can't make substitutes yourself. The other team can still attempt to make substitutes if you don't, but all you have to do in that case is snap the ball before that player gets off the field and you get a free 5 yards.

That's why I was saying that I would like to see us go to some method of signing in plays. You can still play at whatever tempo you wish but you can also stop the other guys from sending in fresh players, pass rush specialists, pure run stoppers, etc.
 

bravejason

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Some of these teams are using up tempo offense to try to exploit personnel mismatches or achieve a schematic advantage by lining up in a different formation and not letting the other team have enough time to adjust. For GT, these don't apply. GT doesn't have a talent advantage, so there is no sense in trying to get a particular personnel match-up. GT has a very small set of formations so it's going to be hard to show the opponent something that they're going to have difficulty reacting to.

The offense itself inherently creates numbers mismatches anyway due to the (un)blocking schemes so there isn't necessarily a need to try to create those mismatches via quickly lining up and snapping the ball. Also, I think any advantage that would be gained by GT going up tempo on offense would be offset by the extra possessions that have to be defended by the defense.

On top of all that, the offense needs to be running like a well oiled machine. GT will be breaking in new starters a both QB and C. Asking those two players to run the offense on a quick pace seems like asking for trouble.

If the defense was better and if we had an experienced QB and C, then maybe up-tempo would be worth experimenting with.
 

Boomergump

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If you are ahead, take every second possible off the clock and make sure you score at the end of the drive. That is the best formula in football. If you are behind, run some hurry up, and once again, make sure you score.

If the presumption is that you can only be truly and consistently effective with ONE of those offensive tempos, and we were forced to choose, I think the choice is obvious. Go SLOW. If we had a top 10 defense with a ton of depth, then by all means, speed things up.

I don't think there is any doubt that fast play makes things more difficult for the opposing defense. But, like anything, there are drawbacks as well. As has been previously stated, getting lined up against our offense is not the same challenge as it is against more diversified attacks.
 

daBuzz

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Some of these teams are using up tempo offense to try to exploit personnel mismatches or achieve a schematic advantage by lining up in a different formation and not letting the other team have enough time to adjust. For GT, these don't apply.

You don't think the defense gains an advantage when it's 3rd and 15 and they are allowed to bring in 2 pass rushers and swap out a LB for an extra defensive back?
 

AE 87

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Fwiw, they apparently calculated tempo ny top/plays. Running plays take more time so that skews it a bit. I still think we take more time between plays but this data doesn't prove it, iiuc.
 

Northeast Stinger

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You don't think the defense gains an advantage when it's 3rd and 15 and they are allowed to bring in 2 pass rushers and swap out a LB for an extra defensive back?
Yes, but they are going to do that on 3rd and 15 with any team, even against Oregon. The refs will not signal ready and start the clock if substitutions are being made between downs.
 
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