Keeping it vanilla.

[KiYi-Ute]

So, like many of you, I’m already thinking ahead to the beginning of the football season. One thing that came to mind this morning was the notion of our “vanilla” offenses/defenses during OOC play. Basically coordinators not wanting to show their hand and open the playbook before entering conference play.

I wanted to focus on the offense specifically. Do you think that Troy Taylor keeps it simple against our OOC slate? Or, because it’s an entirely new system, do you have to open it up a bit to get the core of your offensive philosophy some game reps and see what you really have to work with?

I honestly don’t know the answers. My prediction is that we keep it simple at the beginning of the season and open it up more and more as conference play ramps up. Then again, it all depends on how our players respond to the system and if they’re capable of building and adapting as the season goes on. I suppose that’s why we brought Taylor in in the first place, because the offense was so stagnant by season’s end.

I’m very excited for this season (I guess I say that every year), but I really can’t wait to get a look at how well we can make Taylor’s system work.

[Utah]

I say yes and no.

Many offense has a core 10-15 plays. I say you have to be perfect at those. So, game one is those 15 plays over and over and over. So, it may be vanilla, but there should be some explosive plays (I’d say 5-8) that you run a couple times each. So, it’s vanilla but feels big.

Then, vs FBYU-P you throw in another 10 plays that you run 1-2 times each. If you figure 75-85 plays, that’s 20 plays plus your original 15 run 4-5 times.

Then, vs Fresno St, you go back to the core plays and perfect, perfect, perfect. Then vs Arizona, the 15 core plays, plus the BYU, plus another 10-15 for Arizona and just build from there.

I guess what I’m saying is our offense sucks. If our goal is 7 wins, then go “vanilla”. If our goal is to win the south, we need all the explosive reps we can get. We can’t be vanilla vs anyone. We would need to throw the ball 40-50 times every game vs ND and BYU and FSU.

[UteThunder]

psst…We don’t play Fresno this year. It’s San Jose.

[Utah]

Good call. It’s tough to care about s**tty MWC games. 

[UteThunder]

Given the circumstances, I don’t think Utah can afford to be intentionally vanilla in the first 3 games with a slight exception against North Dakota. Taylor needs to get this offense developed quick and you don’t do that by holding everything back in the first 3 games of the season. Plus, BYU is too good for us to think we can play vanilla against them and still win.

 

[KiYi-Ute]

My biggest hope for the offense is that we haven’t seen the last of Riverboat Kyle.

[ironman1315]

Riverboat Kyle is my favorite Kyle next to Sugar Kyle and Angry Kyle.

[jamarcus24]

I’m sure he’ll withold a section of the playbook but he has to get his QB reps.  I hope we’re not in a position going into the fall where there’s a question as to who the starting QB is going to be.  With a new offense and a new coach I’d hate to have to see Troy Taylor use most of the OOC schedule experimenting with signal callers.

[Utah]

Coach Taylor said he would name a QB when ready and had no qualms with playing two guys. 

So…. lol. 

[Tony (admin)]

Vanilla play calling at the beginning of the season may not be because of strategy, but because it’s a new offense to learn.