I apologize if this is already a hot topic in another thread, if so please point me towards it. I only have like 15 minutes time vent my frustrations.
Don't get me wrong, I am happy with the win. Good teams do find a way to win these games and even the best teams have letdown games so I am not in any way focusing on the UMass game at all.
Having said that, I am deeply concerned with the offense. I am seeing the exact same non-rhythmic offense that I saw last year. The difference? I actually think we have the talent this year to have a pretty decent offense. PJ has his limitations obviously but a good coaching staff knows how to work around them. Dating back to last year, there is not one offensive staple that I can point to and say "that is what Temple likes to do on offense". They have no identity. Im sure there are some rare instances, but I challenge you to come up with a time where we scored points and it didn't involve a trick play (double reverse pass to PJ, the old roll out and throw back to opposite field for Jahad or Jamie Gilmore running the wheel route) or didn't involve Jahad Thomas juking out the entire defense. If these two things don't happen, we have nothing. As an offensive coordinator and play caller you have to find something that your players do well and capitalize on it, you have to find a way to establish a rhythm for them. And right now, if Jahad doesn't juke out the entire defense or we cant hit one of our go to trick plays, we have nothing. What is our offensive identity? All good teams have one, west coast coaches have the short passing game, rex ryan is ground and pound, how many great spread offenses do you see across college football that spread out a defense and impose their will? Its not even just the good teams, even SMU and Tulsa do damage on offense. As much as we hated it, even Daz had an identity. What is our identity? Trick Plays? Screen play to Jahad and hope he performs another miracle? I don't want to be a downer but this scares me. I think its a shame b/c I think we have the talent on this team to be special, and the defense certainly has it together. But IMO, the offense looks like an unorganized mess going into year 3 with PJ and Satterfield. Based on the offensive talent we have, it really shouldn't be, but most likely will be our downfall.
Don't get me wrong, I am happy with the win. Good teams do find a way to win these games and even the best teams have letdown games so I am not in any way focusing on the UMass game at all.
Having said that, I am deeply concerned with the offense. I am seeing the exact same non-rhythmic offense that I saw last year. The difference? I actually think we have the talent this year to have a pretty decent offense. PJ has his limitations obviously but a good coaching staff knows how to work around them. Dating back to last year, there is not one offensive staple that I can point to and say "that is what Temple likes to do on offense". They have no identity. Im sure there are some rare instances, but I challenge you to come up with a time where we scored points and it didn't involve a trick play (double reverse pass to PJ, the old roll out and throw back to opposite field for Jahad or Jamie Gilmore running the wheel route) or didn't involve Jahad Thomas juking out the entire defense. If these two things don't happen, we have nothing. As an offensive coordinator and play caller you have to find something that your players do well and capitalize on it, you have to find a way to establish a rhythm for them. And right now, if Jahad doesn't juke out the entire defense or we cant hit one of our go to trick plays, we have nothing. What is our offensive identity? All good teams have one, west coast coaches have the short passing game, rex ryan is ground and pound, how many great spread offenses do you see across college football that spread out a defense and impose their will? Its not even just the good teams, even SMU and Tulsa do damage on offense. As much as we hated it, even Daz had an identity. What is our identity? Trick Plays? Screen play to Jahad and hope he performs another miracle? I don't want to be a downer but this scares me. I think its a shame b/c I think we have the talent on this team to be special, and the defense certainly has it together. But IMO, the offense looks like an unorganized mess going into year 3 with PJ and Satterfield. Based on the offensive talent we have, it really shouldn't be, but most likely will be our downfall.
