LSU offense '07: A spread/passing oriented attack?

Over the last couple of days when reading about the two new hires, looking over their respective backgrounds, and paying special attention to their tendencies, I've about found myself convinced your offense next year won't be a mirror of what you've seen over the last few years under Fisher. (good or bad, your call...but that's not the purpose of this thread :wink: )

Let's take a couple of things into consideration...

Gary Crowton - OC: If you look at his offensive strategy during his head coaching stints (La. Tech and Brigham Young) you'll notice the staple of his offense has been the spread. As OC at Oregon, while his offense ranked 9th nation wide in total offense, the telling statistic is 12th in passing.

Go to his time at BYU. Again, especially considering his was mentored my none other than Lavell Edwards, it was a pass oriented attack.

While I don't think it applies to a great extent, his time spent with the Chicago Bears was marked by, yes, once again, his passing attack.

Note what word is missing from those first 3 paragraphs?!?

(point to note is his time at La. Tech...should have some good relationships built up with a few high school staff's...although, keep in mind, most OC's don't hit the road recruiting)

Greg Studrawa - OL : Again, someone coming from BYU. Again, an offense that ranked in the top 10 in the nation, in passing. He was nominated for the Asst. Coach of the Year award back in '04.

Do you see the key word used time and time again here?

I'm not taking a thing away from either one of these coaches. Both of them, I consider to be strong in their specialties. A spread, passing oriented attack.

It leaves me drawing my own opinion.

This type of attack is a quick strike, point scoring machine. I'd have to look at the TOP records in the NCAA but I'm fairly comfortable stating that the defenses at these two coaches last stops spent more time on the field than off of it.

Add to that, with the strength's of the defenses around the conference the spread attack can't be stopped, but can be contained.

All of this is going to make the first few games of the '07 season with LSU interesting to watch. My heart tells me, considering the depth Alabama has in the defensive backfield and the fact that both Saban and Smart are defensive back minded coaches, we are going to see a great matchup aside from all of this angst felt

 

One of the things that I think make for a good coach is the ablility to take your system and fit it to the players on your teams abilitiies. I would think that if LSU has a good stable of running backs, or a good stable of running backs, and an o-line with the ablility to run block, then the running game will be o.k. Miles has stated that he would like the pass yardage to be roughly double the running yardage, with close to a 50/50 split pass/rush as far as plays called.

One thing I think Miles has done fairly well is adjust to the what his team does well. An example would be that he leaned more heavily on the pass as the season wore on, when it became apparent that the run was not as reliable.

Why am I not surprised that Terry is already giving the advantage to saban and bama already?

 

Come on! I said it looks to be a great match-up. I never indicated, or hinted, we had an advantage. Please, keep it contextual. :thumb:

It's important to note Oregon had the 14th ranked rushing attack last year...with several teams in the PAC 10 ranking highly in defending the run.

It was mentioned earlier that Miles likes a 50/50 type balance. Oregon ran the ball more than they threw it last year.

I'm just curious how the offense is going to change...and to what degree.

 

Terry's right. LSU/Bama will be a great matchup and interesting game next year. You have to give the edge to Bama for playing at home.

All of Bama's games next season are winnable. There's no reason at all to expect anything less from the 2007 Crimson Tide other than an undefeated season, SECCG appearance, and to compete for the BCS NC title. Anything less would have to be considered underachievement.

LSU! :crystal: :lsup:

 

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I only know a few that would think that...and they say that every year.

8-4. 9-3 seems to be the mark.

 

Hope you're happy with that long term.

 

There is no question that it will be very interesting to see what changes take place in LSU's offense this year. There will very likely be some change, but how much is questionable. I suspect Miles will continue to use the basic offense we used last year as a core around which to build the 2007 offense. Probably we will see a bit of the spread offense. In addition, with Matt Fynn's ability to run the ball, I believe the option will be a bigger part of LSU's offense than it has been in the past. So I would say the 2007 offense will have a strong resemblance to last years' with variations of the spread and option offense thrown into the mix. IMO we can look forward to LSU having an an offense that, with a typically stingy LSU defense, will allow the Tigers to dominate most of our opponents.

 

Avoid Levitra and Schlitz. :yelwink2:

 

Speaking of Russell...do you recall how tall/weight he was his Sr. year in HS...been looking, can't seem to find it. It seems he grew a few inches and put on 30+ lbs.

With the talent on campus at LSU right now, and, given the chance to fully implement the offense, it very well be a scoring machine. Precisely why I brought it up...it's going to be interesting to see what develops.