From the editing room floor
Some more thoughts regarding UH football’s quarterback change that didn’t make today’s column due to space considerations.
Regarding the issue of the seven sacks against Rice: Those who have watched the game tape closely say most of them, if not all, were not the fault of the offensive line. Regardless of who is to blame it’s obvious that can’t happen again against Wyoming
“It doesn’t matter who the quarterback is, we’re gonna block our asses off,” center Kody Afusia said. “If he needs seven seconds, we’re gonna block for eight.”
Maybe it will be easier to block for a quarterback who isn’t running around so much. And, as I’ve said many times before, Taylor Graham is underrated as a guy who can pick up yards with his feet. Remember the play when he got injured against Nevada last year? It was the end of a 20-yard run for a first down. Graham was tentative early in the season last year, but was beginning to play at a good tempo when he got hurt. It may take him some time to shake off the rust again.
“There’s no difference,” offensive coordinator Jordan Wynn said, doing his best to say something but say nothing. “We want to run the football and we want to throw it around.”
As for head coach Norm Chow, he’s got some experience with switching gears with quarterbacks with varying styles.
“We went from Marc Wilson to Jim McMahon,” he said.
Liked your comments about slowing down the offense and reducing the number of plays. There has been too much pressure on our defense.
I think now more than anytime this season the Warriors need to believe that their season is 0-0. It is their first game in the MWC. A win on Saturday will give them confidence and hopefully propel them to a 6 win MWC record. A loss and it could send them into a descent.
Perhaps Graham can do what schroeder did. With a better defense maybe UH has a chance to make things right and start winning games.
“If he needs seven seconds, we’re gonna block for eight.”
Interesting comment. I think UH’s QB’s have been given time. Accuracy an untimely drops were critical factors to UH not scoring in their 4 losses. The o-line has done a great job.
UH Warriors will win because they have a no quit attitude. If the QB does well, UH will surprise some teams in the MWC.
Well Dave who did those watching the game tape lay the blame on? The QB? The RB or H-Back for missing their blocks? How many were coverage sacks when no one was open? Your statement that most,if not all the sacks. were not the fault of the O line may lead many to believe the sacks must be on the QB.
“If he needs seven seconds, we’re gonna block for eight.”
Not sure if he meant anything when he said it, there’s definitely room for interpretation in that quote.
coco…
Bobby Curran reported that:
Of the 7 sacks…
4 attributed to Woosley
2 attributed to RBs missing blitz pickup
1 attributed to OL getting beat
I also kind of agree with the “slowing down” of the offense. Not sure why we need to go fast for….especially with a inexperience qb like Woolsey. Looking back, maybe Chow/Wynn made a mistake in trying to push the pace when the smarter thing to do is to go “slow and let Woolsey catch his breath in between plays and survey the situation before the next play is to begin.
Last year, Schroeder was a experience qb with qb smarts. He was able to work faster. This year with an inexperience qb, Chow should have been smart enough to know that Woolsey did not have the same football IQ as Schroeder and should not have anticipated that Woolsey could have done what SS did last season.
Hope for this week forward, we play smart. Just make the simple play and not worry about having to run up tempo. I also notice that UH does not change the receivers very much so what you have is the receivers running down field and then hustled back to run the next play and they probably dang tired to run full blast on the next play. If UH going run up tempo, maybe a smart thing to do is alternate WRs on every play so they can run at their full capacity on every play.
I agree that UH needs to slow the pace because the offense isn’t sustaining drives to give the defense a rest.
Looking at the box scores, here’s what they show:
UH vs UW
Plays: UH 97 – UW 74; Total = 171 plays
TOP: UH 34:11 – UW 25:49
UH vs OSU
Plays: UH 84 – OSU 73; Total = 157 plays
TOP: UH 24:20 – OSU 35:40
UH vs UNI
Plays: UH 86 – UNI 78; Total = 164 plays
TOP: UH 29:17 – UNI 30:43
UH vs CU
Plays: UH 78 – CU 81; Total = 159 plays
TOP: UH 27:34 – CU 32:26
UH vs Rice
Plays: UH 72 – Rice 67; Total = 139 plays
TOP: UH 30:04 – Rice 29:56
2014 opponents average plays per game = 74.60 (Total ppg = 158.00)
2013 opponents average plays per game = 82.83 (Total ppg = 161.75)
The pace of the offense did slow down considerably vs Rice so I think Chow & Wynn have already implemented this idea. There were a bunch of 3 & outs vs UNI, but the play count was significantly higher than the Rice game, which also had a bunch of 3 & outs (but took more time per drive).
Omaha “Hurry” “Hurry”. Just Sling It. UH’s pass attempts have gone down since the beginning of the season. 42,50, 30, 24, 27… I think there is a correlation with pass attempts to passing yardage. Mike Leach (funny was at BYU and watched Chow) believes in wide offensive line splits and pass attempts. WSU QB Halliday has thrown 56, 57, 62, 63, 61 and 70 passing attempts with 532, 389, 544, 436,417, and 734 yards in their games. Cal Bears offense has also increased in yardage and scoring with pass attempts over the last three games – 30, 42, 53 for 380 , 458 and 527 yards. NC State QB Briskett was effective versus Florida State slinging it 48 times and completing 32 and torching FSU for 359 yards. UH has to just sling it. Find a QB that can sling it and just sling it!! I rather see a QB complete 30 passes with 2 interceptions than 10 completions with no interceptions.
I think in light of how things have worked out in the last 2.5 years, everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. The 2 interceptions could be pick 6’s for the other team.
It seems conservative play is their choice of path. I hope this next game UH’s QB’s will be more accurate and the receivers will hold onto to the ball. I’ll take an ugly win over a record breaking total offensive output in yardage but with a loss anyday. UH has the defense to place themselves in a position to win late in the 4th quarter. The last play of the game I want to see is Hawaii in the victory formation.
The defense has been spectacular considering where the team was last year. However, you cannot expect every game they are going to have that same success. Some games they may not stop the scoring, then what happens? A conservative no lose offense has no hope. I rather have a quick strike offense that can operate on a passing game and supplement that with strong balanced running (Unless you are Auburn). I think Mariota’s numbers are down because they kind of held him back on his throwing and rely on their running game to much. His attempts are in the high 20’s this year. Mike Leach has always been a winner wherever he has been and has more bowl wins than UH has in history. He is competitive with non blue chip second tier players. If he tried to go OSU/Stanford West Coast or Michigan type pro set WSU would be way worse. At least their offense is exciting and a great brand to watch.
“It seems conservative play is their choice of path.”
Coach Chow has chosen the type of offense UH runs. Perhaps, UH could run more of a spread where players are given the ball in open space and let them run in space. Maybe something like a Arizona type offense. But, Chow is the HC and it is his call. With this team (Chow era ), I would rather see an ugly win than a impressive offensive performance (example: Washington game) where they out do their opponent in every statistical category except the score.
At the start of his tenure as coach I believe he even alluded to the score won’t be as high as previous coaches. Thus is the way this team is built. Field position, defense, and the opportunity to win in the 4th quarter is what this team is looking like.
I agree it would be more excited if the ball was thrown all over the field. Maybe the coaches feel a subpar 45% QB completion rate will not give them the best chance to win. If they proceed with their current starting QB, throwing it 50-60 times a game, is a sure way to guaranty a UH loss. I hope Graham can do better at the QB position against Wyoming.
…exciting…
i understand that bringing back the 80’s is a good thing to most people but these numbers aren’t good enough.
maybe, just maybe norm chow is a good recruiter or coordinator. this is probably why he never got the head coaching jobs at utah or byu or usc.
how about the idea that norm has never found his qb yet, and ikaika woosley just can’t make the throws or the reads that he needs to. look at jordan wynn, he wasn’t going to be an NFL qb, but he was effective in norm’s offense.
we haven’t found our quarterback yet. that is all. once we find that things will fall more into place because a good qb will make others around him better.
I remember even under JJ’s tenure there were lopsided losses to teams in their own conference. I believe there was the 69-3 loss to Boise State on National TV in 2004.
I really don’t want to see the triple option back. It was a nice time in UH history. The 1992 team showed that UH could win. That team was a special team and it deserves a place in the UH’s circle of honor.
But this is 2014. UH finally has the defense to compete. If UH can find a QB to run the offense, this team can surprise a lot of teams in the MWC. I know it looks bleak right now. But, UH is still not mathematically out of it yet. I hope the players believe it because they can make it happen and it starts with Wyoming on Saturday. Let’s go Warriors!