re: The play from Kiffin's Vols tnat stands out in my mind.

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If he would have showed up at 250 it would have been a problem. He isn't a blocking TE who is gonna run people over when he does catch it. He's basically a bigger WR. 250 his Junior year would be great, but as an 18 or 19 year old kid? I disagree.

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All TE's have to be blockers and receivers. 250 is only 13 pounds above his playing weight. If he couldn't show up with 13 more pounds of good weight on a 6'6" frame then that speaks to a lack of want to.

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In our system, we run the H/Y together on mirrored patterns in the Red Zone precisely so if you jam one of them the other breaks free. An injured Fowler was able to beat jams so why was OJ not?

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Ok now I know you're talking out of your arse. On each of Fowler's 5 TDs he was lined up as fullback in goal line and slipped out into the flat. He never had to get off a jam.

I think you've just convinced yourself that his lack of production is due to the fact that he's light for a TE. If it didn't keep him from blocking DEs I doubt it prevented him from getting off the LOS

Like I said in the other thread, the kid has arms like TRich. He's got broad shoulders too so I could definitely see him getting up to 250/260 as he matures but it looks to me like he's been spending plenty of time in the weight room.

His production was about the same (less catches more yards) than the Y has been throughout the offense it was touchdowns from the Y that went way down.

We've ran that Goal line, PA High/Low play in the red zone at least once a game every year since 2008. We run it where the Low is the H or a WR, (usually a crossing route) but the High is always the Y after they set the edge with the tackle. This year because of Fowler's limited mobility we ran it almost exclusively with a WR. White was the guy on the field when we ran it. In the past, Williams had gotten so wide open (see Michigan and Notre Dame) that we never went to the WR/H on the play. But there were several times this year White caught a TD pass in the jumbo package because the primary read or Y wasn't open.

There was at least one of Fowler's touchdowns he was the H (H/F are the same position) because he was on the backside of a bootleg. May have been against ATM.

Less talented guys (Williams, Smelley, Dial, McCall, Vogler and Walker) have been able to handle the duties of our H/Y position. For whatever reason he didn't get open in the red zone. It certainly isn't because we weren't targeting him or any of the TE's. Vogler caught his TD pass on the play (as the H/2nd TE) after the guy covering him fell down.

Why would we not target the best Y we've had when threw it to those lesser talented guys?

LINK

An AJ highlight video, any play with Howard on it I didn't see him getting jammed or not getting open. And in the redzone he got open everytime I saw him go out on a pattern. There was on where he was clearly blocking for Fowler before the pass was thrown that some may say he was on a route trying to get open, but it was an obvious block.

May be on AJ then, for what ever reason AJ seemed different this year almost never hit his check downs. Granted sometimes that was a good thing because more often than not the primary was open for a good game. That and Fowler catching 5 TD's from the H meant that there were less touches to go around.

Kiffin will definitely throw it to him more (especially as he gets better and he is probably one of the best overall athletes on the team now) but we didn't necessarily throw it to him less than average for the Y/H formation normally gets in our offense.

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His production was about the same (less catches more yards) than the Y has been throughout the offense

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Agreed. I said as much in my above post before reading yours.

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Why would we not target the best Y we've had when threw it to those lesser talented guys?

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Doing things a certain way because that's the way it's always been done?
If it ain't broke don't fix it mentality?
Reluctance to modify existing philosophies?

I don't know the answer but those are my best guesses. Our coaches are great, but they're not perfect. It's also possible that OJ is just not the special talent that we fans think and hope he is.

Hate to say it because I defended him for the longest but I think the talent made Nussmeier seem much better than he was.

I think it was probably a combination of everything:

AJ's over confidence
Nuss not being a great fit as a playcaller
OJ being young
Us having too high of expectations
Fowler taking the red zone H/Y touches
The simple fact we had less goal to go situations this year because we scored from further out on average.

CSC has to be careful how he adds weight to OJ. OJ's build is more like a basketball wing player or a WR (Split End). He is long with narrow hips. If he puts on weight too quickly or in the wrong places, it will impact his speed and mobility a great deal. If he has trouble getting off of jams at the LOS then he needs to be used as a motion H-back rather than on the line. It still comes down to a coach knowing his weapons and how best to use them.

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CSC has to be careful how he adds weight to OJ. OJ's build is more like a basketball wing player or a WR (Split End). He is long with narrow hips. If he puts on weight too quickly or in the wrong places, it will impact his speed and mobility a great deal. If he has trouble getting off of jams at the LOS then he needs to be used as a motion H-back rather than on the line. It still comes down to a coach knowing his weapons and how best to use them.

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While him being 6'6" is going to effect his ability to play true HB (we prefer our HBs to be 6'3" or shorter for leverage) if Brandon Greene can grow into the Yackle role then it would be the perfect home. Actually using him everywhere would be the best. He would be great as the "2nd" TE in two TE sets. And still keep him flexed out at times.

Especially since we have no heir apparent to Fowler at the F/H role. Lots of bodies, no proven guys. Tyren Jones may be the best fit in a crowded backfield for the Fullback role, and Faciane Freitag for H.