Play Calling?

#76
#76
temptn said:
Why do we throw the ball around the field well for several plays and then run it up the middle 15 times in a row. It looks like Nico would be good at the option or get the ball in the hands of our "fast" receivers and RB to to the outside.
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you need to remember, Nico is a true freshman who started his first game yesterday. His game plan was very vanilla. They executed the plays necessary to win the ball game and didn't try to do things he has not had an opportunity to try to execute in real time. September will allow him games to execute more things.
 
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#77
#77
temptn said:
Why do we throw the ball around the field well for several plays and then run it up the middle 15 times in a row. It looks like Nico would be good at the option or get the ball in the hands of our "fast" receivers and RB to to the outside.
Click to expand...
Volador said:
All season long our play calling has been at best, suspect. A month ago I asked VN who at UT calls the plays, and the consensus was/is that nobody really knows. We'd have two more wins if our play calling was up to snuff.
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Okay, so allow me to explain how football works in a way I'm hoping you guys can understand:

a. College coaches spend the off-season figuring out who the best players are. Come the season, they put those players on the field. Then, the coaches (at least, this is true of the best coaches) call plays that they know those players can execute successfully. That means they're not using the entire playbook, just the parts that fit the lads and the opponent. Therefore, this year's play calling will look different than last year's play calling, because this year's starters are different than last year's.

b. Regardless of what Volador might think he read on these boards, pretty much everyone here knows who's running our offense: it's Josh Heupel. He's on the intercom, and at times where he's not calling the plays himself, he listens to his OC dial up each play, and he interjects if he thinks some other play would work better. On top of that, he's guiding the OC and DC with his strategic direction, before and throughout the game. So whether Joey Halzle or Josh Heupel speaks the words, it is Josh's show. 100%.

c. In Josh Heupel's offense, spread formations and the passing game exist to set up conditions for the run. We are a running team, somewhat more than a passing team. That was true last year with Hendon Hooker at QB, it was true this season with Joe Milton at QB, and it will be true next year with Nico Iamaleava at QB. The specific plays called reflect the abilities of each of those players, as well as the other fellas on the field, but we will remain a team where the pass (and spread) sets up the run.

So I hope that soothes all your confusion. It all makes perfect sense once you know these things.

Go Vols!
 
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#78
#78
LWSVOL said:
you need to remember, Nico is a true freshman who started his first game yesterday. His game plan was very vanilla. They executed the plays necessary to win the ball game and didn't try to do things he has not had an opportunity to try to execute in real time. September will allow him games to execute more things.
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I also suspect that some of his worst looking plays, the sacks, were the result of him executing as directed which I think in this game was to only throw where the windows were wide, not to fit it in to tight windows with increased risk. That is my guess and I am sticking to it.
 
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#81
#81
temptn said:
Why do we throw the ball around the field well for several plays and then run it up the middle 15 times in a row. It looks like Nico would be good at the option or get the ball in the hands of our "fast" receivers and RB to to the outside.
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Good Lord. Sampson has 130 yards, Selden has over 50, we win by 35 and you gotta find something to bother you. Enjoy life rather than look for something to complain about.
 
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#82
#82
VFL-82-JP said:
Okay, so allow me to explain how football works in a way I'm hoping you guys can understand:

a. College coaches spend the off-season figuring out who the best players are. Come the season, they put those players on the field. Then, the coaches (at least, this is true of the best coaches) call plays that they know those players can execute successfully. That means they're not using the entire playbook, just the parts that fit the lads and the opponent. Therefore, this year's play calling will look different than last year's play calling, because this year's starters are different than last year's.

b. Regardless of what Volador might think he read on these boards, pretty much everyone here knows who's running our offense: it's Josh Heupel. He's on the intercom, and at times where he's not calling the plays himself, he listens to his OC dial up each play, and he interjects if he thinks some other play would work better. On top of that, he's guiding the OC and DC with his strategic direction, before and throughout the game. So whether Joey Halzle or Josh Heupel speaks the words, it is Josh's show. 100%.

c. In Josh Heupel's offense, spread formations and the passing game exist to set up conditions for the run. We are a running team, somewhat more than a passing team. That was true last year with Hendon Hooker at QB, it was true this season with Joe Milton at QB, and it will be true next year with Nico Iamaleava at QB. The specific plays called reflect the abilities of each of those players, as well as the other fellas on the field, but we will remain a team where the pass (and spread) sets up the run.

So I hope that soothes all your confusion. It all makes perfect sense once you know these things.

Go Vols!
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I appreciate this explanation of the "who" part. It's Football 101. Was surprised that on former posts, that no VN fan provided it.

So to be fair to your football acumen, were you pleased with the play calling this year?
 
#84
#84
Volinnooga said:
Good Lord. Sampson has 130 yards, Selden has over 50, we win by 35 and you gotta find something to bother you. Enjoy life rather than look for something to complain about.
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I am not against the run, just running the same play every time. By the way there were a lot of other people who felt the same way during the game, even posting on this board about it.



Boy we are hellbent on running it up the middle

Run up the middle has gotten old and predictable....

Get to second down and it’s run up the middle. Good lord Pruitt ball never dies.

We havent spread the field well...just bunched up in the middle playing to Iowas strength

Three straight runs up the middle.

3 straight runs up the middle

Yeah, I’m surprised we haven’t gotten in wide splits to throw the ball downfield. We’ve gotta get the LBs/ safetys away from the LOS on 3rd and medium/ long

Heup only runs up the middle and passes to the outside

Hopefully they’re over there drawing up a play instead of conceding another run up the middle

run it up the middle three times kick a fg

I'm having up the middle Johnny flashbacks

Or 3 runs up the middle and a punt.

Quit running up the middle every play!!!

Keeping it awfully vanilla, no slants, screens or runs outside.
etc. etc.....
 
#85
#85
Hendon had full control to pull the ball and throw rpo. So did Gabriel when Huep was at UCF. For what ever reason Milton and Nico do not. I would guess it is because Joe is bad a reading defense and Nico is inexperienced. This offense really gets to humming when the qb has multiple options on ever play.
 
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#86
#86
Volador said:
I appreciate this explanation of the "who" part. It's Football 101. Was surprised that on former posts, that no VN fan provided it.

So to be fair to your football acumen, were you pleased with the play calling this year?
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"Pleased" is a difficult word to define.

Instead, I'll put it this way: I was confident that, generally speaking, the most productive plays were called that our lads were capable of successfully executing.

That's a mouthful. Here's what I mean by it:

(a) Every coach makes mistakes. Josh Heupel, Joey Halzle, and Tim Banks are human. Of course they made mistakes calling plays from time to time over the course of the season. Every coach does. But I'm pretty comfortable that they only err at about the championship-caliber rate. In other words, when we have a championship caliber roster, I think our coaches are more than capable of calling plays that result in a championship caliber result. So that explains the "generally speaking" caveat.

(b) The best plays for each situation weren't always called, no. Because our lads were not capable of executing those plays. So the "next best" (or "next next best") plays were called instead. No fault on the coaches for sticking with what the players can do.

(c) Even then, the players didn't always execute. Hard to succeed when a lineman false starts before the play even begins. Hard to succeed when the QB misses his target, or the receiver drops the ball that hits him in the hands.

It's easy to blame everything on the coaches. To just unilaterally declare that this play call or that one was bad. And you might even be right about that, from time to time.

But our #1 problem in 2023 was clean, crisp execution, not play calling. We needed more of the former.

So yep, with that as background I was generally pleased with our play calling this year, and look forward to more of it next year, when I think we will be much better at execution.

Go Vols!
 
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#88
#88
Pretty good offense performance against a top 5 defense, especially with a first time starting freshman QB.
Iowa didn’t get to 10 wins with their anemic offense. Their defense ain’t bad…..
 
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#90
#90
Alto1 said:
Pretty good offense performance against a top 5 defense, especially with a first time starting freshman QB.
Iowa didn’t get to 10 wins with their anemic offense. Their defense ain’t bad…..
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Agree with you, 10 wins is nothing to sneeze at
 
#92
#92
Once the game got into the 2nd half and the outcome was decided, they may have approached it more as a practice. Also probably wanted to limit the chance of Nico getting hurt especially with the number of sacks that had been allowed.
 
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#94
#94
Volador said:
You must be a UT Engineering grad??
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That is funny!!! UT grad? Yes. Engineering? No.

I try really hard to avoid criticism of the play calling. There's just no way to have any kind of meaningful discussion about it without a lot more insider access than I will ever have.
 
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#95
#95
Volador said:
All season long our play calling has been at best, suspect. A month ago I asked VN who at UT calls the plays, and the consensus was/is that nobody really knows. We'd have two more wins if our play calling was up to snuff.
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CJH has always called the plays.
 
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#96
#96
temptn said:
Why do we throw the ball around the field well for several plays and then run it up the middle 15 times in a row. It looks like Nico would be good at the option or get the ball in the hands of our "fast" receivers and RB to to the outside.
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If we never run up the middle, how do you think the defense will adjust to our other offensive options? You have got to keep those linebackers and safeties honest. College football is a game of strategy , not backyard stuff drawn up in the dirt.
 
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#98
#98
K-town Vol Fan said:
What exactly do we miss? He didn't call plays and this is CJH's offensive scheme. What we have missed is a good QB. The offense looked night and day better with Nico in there, actually reading the defense and going through progression.
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Exactly. But you have to remember, the average ignorant fan reflexively blames coaching/playcalling for everything. So expecting any nuanced thinking to prevail here is insane on your part.

Who are you to say people are wrong for saying Halzle does a poor job of doing a thing that he doesn’t do?
 
#99
#99
My only concern with play calling was the games we got behind in early. It seems like we were still trying to slow things down, shorten the game, and cut our losses without any urgency. In those games it seemed like we continued to run the ball up the middle when our opponent was waiting for it instead of urgently throwing the ball down the field to try and get back in the game. I mean what did we have to lose by at least “trying” to throw the ball down the field? Our chances of coming back were slim anyway. Seems like we were afraid of failing so why even bother trying. I’m mostly thinking of Florida and Missouri. Seems like the play calls suggested that we had given up. I never saw that last year. And it can’t just be about Joe and his ability. He certainly could have at least tried to sling it.
 
#100
#100
Bottom line - Josh saw what kind of game it was going to be and adjusted the play calling accordingly, and with the success we were having in the run game, there was no point in changing that.

The plan was to give Iowa nothing but long fields, play field position and let Ross be the weapon he is. To me, it's great that Josh isn't stuck on one plan and will tailor his scheme to the opponent and conditions.

Oh, and we won 35-0.
 
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