It is a gimmick offense, look up the definition of gimmick. We use one every play. Nothing you say over a message board will hurt my feelings either, feel free to add in what ever insult you originally had. If me talking about our offense makes you angry enough to want to say something personal then I don't know what to tell you. I'm aware that other teams use gimmicks as well, but our offense is built around them. We are the only p5 in the country that runs it for a reason, Syracuse, Boston College and Wake Forrest all won more than us with less talent this year. Yeah Paul has 3 wins over UGA, an ACC title and Orange bowl, but he did that with 2 of the greatest QBs in GT history.
I followed your advice:
Gimmick: a trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or business. (first definition to pop up on google)
I seriously don't follow your logic.
And, here's what I would've typed but decided to delete because it may sound harsh or may get the thread derailed even more:
Every American should have to pass a class in logic in order to graduate high school. Here in the post-modern world, we have gone away from logic due to the failings of modernism, and replaced it almost completely with feelings. There is no truth, or if there is, then logic can't get you there, so whatever feels right to you is right. "Logic" follows feelings rather than feelings following from logic. Non-sequiturs, red-herrings, straw-men ... these are how the marketing and retail industry tick - they rely on the public's inability to identify a logically-flawed argument to get people to trade money for what they're selling. So, let's put a car or clothes or beer or soap or whatever on a commercial with attractive women or a picture of a desirable lifestyle where everybody is smiling. The logic is:
Premise 1: You want this lifestyle (or girl or whatever).
Premise 2: People who use this product have this lifestyle.
Conclusion: Buy this product, and you will also have this lifestyle.
OR
Premise 1: You want to be happy.
Premise 2: People who use this product are happy.
Conclusion: Use this product and you'll be happy.
Why does this argument not lead to truth? Can you spot the flaw? Is it unsound or invalid? Most people rely on feelings to make decisions rather than truth, which is what companies rely on because it drives sales. This is also how politics and campaigns often work and why we're in the polarized mess we're in right now. One side has especially gone away from logic to the route of feelings (although over the last year or so it's sometimes indistinguishable), but both use flawed logic all the time. If every American could become just somewhat appreciative of logic, we would have a better society, though still far from perfect.
In our case it's:
Premise 1: Recruiting is the key to a successful program.
Premise 2: Recruiting rankings are the key to recruiting.
Premise 3: CPJ's system hurts recruiting rankings.
Conclusion: CPJ's system keeps us from having a successful program.
Flaws: 1. Due to inherent academic, cultural, and financial factors we will never win over our rivals by recruiting alone. 2. CPJ's system actually takes advantage of the types of players we can get, which is why we turned QB's who weren't sure-fire successes for other programs into two of the greatest QB's in our history (assuming we're talking about JT and JfN). 3. Recruiting rankings are not the key to recruiting, especially for our offense, although they are unquestionably correlated. 4. CPJ's recruiting has been on par with GT's history, so his offense hurting recruiting is not a proven fact. Therefore, this argument does not lead to truth because it is unsound.
Or worse:
Premise 1: Offenses that work are never stopped.
Premise 2: We were stopped in that game (or on that play, or possibly even we had a bad season, depending on one's attention span)
Conclusion: Our offense doesn't work.
Flaws: Premise 1 is false. Therefore this argument does not lead to truth because it is unsound.
Here's my evaluation of your particular logic with the "gimmick" comment:
Premise 1: A gimmick is a trick intended to attract attention.
Premise 2: Our offense tries to attract attention to 3 different possible ball carriers in order to open up space for the actual ball carrier.
Conclusion: Our offense is a gimmick offense.
So, my 2 responses to you are:
1. OK, so we're a gimmick. Is that supposed to be an insult (like calling someone a nerd)??? I would hope we would be a gimmick. If you don't use every player on the field to open up space for the actual ball carrier, then you're going to be really bad at football. Using this logic, I'd be flattered rather than insulted for you to call what I'm doing a gimmick. I hope to God our defense becomes more of a gimmick defense!!!
OR
2. According to your logic, literally every play in every sport that has an offense and defense is a gimmick (from both the offensive and defensive standpoints).
Here is my logic for CPJ's offense:
Premise 1: A numbers advantage gives a greater probability of success on a given play.
Premise 2: The option is defined by a numbers advantage.
Conclusion: The option gives a generally greater probability of success on a series of plays.
AND
Premise 1: The option utilizes different players in key spots than those who would be successful in more conventional offenses.
Premise 2: We can more easily recruit players that aren't built for success in conventional offenses.
Conclusion: The option better utilizes players we can more easily recruit.
AND
Premise 1: It is likely that offenses that have been very successful in the very recent past can be very successful again, all other factors being equal.
Premise 2: CPJ's offense has been very successful in the very recent past.
Conclusion: If all other factors are equal, it is likely that CPJ's offense will be successful again.