TAMU - I heard your coach on SECN sometime recently discussing the run game...

We brought in Dave Christensen as the OL coach, who was the OC at Mizzou back in the mid-late 2000s. I think going forward we want to incorporate the TE much more, both as a receiver and as a blocker. If you look at our recruiting you see us targeting several of them when this wasn't the case in the past.

Blocking scheme wise I don't honestly know what will change if anything, but I do think they want to have a two RB rotation and stick to it instead of the inconsistent carries guys got last year. I think we will see Carson featured a lot next year similar to the bowl game where we ran in between the tackles much more (and pretty effectively). I also think we may slow the pace down some on offense (something else we did more of late in the year)

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I'm interested if any of you are aware of the specifics about what they'll try to do differently this year? If they can find any semblance of an effective run game, it could be a panacea to their team as a whole in terms of the ability to possess the ball and keep the defense fresh.

Anyone wanna talk some honest to goodness football today?

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Look no further than the fact that Dave Christensen (former Missouri O/C, Wyoming HC, and Utah O/C) is now the offensive line coach.

-You'll see the interior linemen far more in a 3 point stance this year as opposed to back on their heels like tackles usually are.

-You'll also see more of an emphasis on running the ball right at a box even when the defense knows it's coming.

One major difference you'll see is the type of running back focus.

In 2014, there was no true starting running back. There were three distinct types of runners and no one style worked.

Power (Carson, White)
Pure Speed (Trey Williams)
"Balance" (Brandon Williams)

Only one of the running backs (Carson) even topped the 500 yard mark, and it took him getting 130+ in the bowl to top that.

Compare that to 2015, when Carson (all 6'0 240 lbs of him) is the clear-cut starter, with White (6'1 225) as the backup. Trey Williams left for the draft, Brandon Williams (6'0, 205) was moved to cornerback, Kendall Bussey (5'9 205 lb FR) is the change of pace and it appears that Jay Bradford may have a medical condition that will force him to redshirt. (he is the fastest player on the team by far) Keith Ford (5-star transfer from Oklahoma) isn't eligible to play this year.

What this means is that instead of a "running back by committee", you have a clear #1, clear #2, and a "change of pace" back in the rotation.

The Tight End factor was also mentioned. Last year, there wasn't a player you could truly consider a tight end:

-You had Cameron Clear who was big but poorly skilled
-You had Brandon Alexander who was a converted DL
-You had Ben Compton who was the backup center
-You had Ricky Seals-Jones who, despite being 6'5 250, isn't very physical off the ball

This year, there's Jordan Davis (6'4 255) who is a tight end through and through and can line up at WR but can also block. While it's encouraging that Alexander has dropped from 266 to 238 (at 6'5), I'm not expecting much out of him. I'm not convinced that Seals-Jones can block anywhere near as effectively as Mike Evans either. Frank Iheanacho (at 6'7 230) has the potential, but is still raw.

Yeah moving Williams and having White as the primary backup def tells me we want to run the ball in a much more physical way between the tackles

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Yeah moving Williams and having White as the primary backup def tells me we want to run the ball in a much more physical way between the tackles

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I'm not saying it can't be done but it is hard to establish a physical run game in a spread offense.
aTm will have to be more committed to the run earlier in games. IMO

I wouldn't call our run game in 2012 physical. It was very effective but it's not like we were pounding the ball between the tackles early in the game

Having linemen left over from a pro style offense and excellent blocking WRs also helped a ton

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It was very effective but it's not like we were pounding the ball between the tackles early in the game

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In almost every game in 2012, the FIRST play was a QB tackle run up the left side.

Once that play happened, we'd run Malena inside before some quick hit pass plays.

Near the goal-line, most of the rushing TDs were either a Michael center dive or a Malena inside sweep.

Awesome responses without a single flame in the thread. This has to be some type of record. At any rate, I'll play a bit of the Devil's Advocate here...

In a gap-run system mixed with Spread Sets on the Offensive Line, it seems that you'd signal your run/pass playcall intent much more often than what you've been doing before now in the run game.

What I mean by this is the 3 point stance being used by the interior on these plays much more often. Using that technique in run situations will make the presnap read significantly more consistently accurate on the part of the DC in the Box and the Mike on the Field. I'm really interested to see how you adjust the play of the line and the fundamentals of the spread sets the line uses when passing to stance used in gap runs.

On paper its intriguing. In the real world, I want to see it work. It seems to me that once you're about a quarter of the way into the schedule, there may be some dropoff once there's enough tape to show those subtleties to a Defensive Coordinator.

I wonder if Spavital will be able to use his packaged play concepts with both a run/pass option based on the QB presnap read or check-with-me as much as he has traditionally in the past? The melding of the blocking schemes seems like it will really require some creativity to accomplish that.

Yep. We are all interested to see how the changes translate to actual production.

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AgBQ00

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They won't be in three point stances only on run plays. If they are that really would be inexcusably stupid

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I tend to agree. So let me ask you: Have you guys two-pointed almost exclusively before now? Do you see them going to the 3 point with spread sets from here on out so as to disguise intent pre-snap?

Interesting developments. Was Christensen there in the Spring? Please let me know as I'd like to rewatch your Spring Game if so.