re: I think a portion of our fanbase needs a lesson in offensive balance

da fuq?

I think there's a too literal emphasis on "balanced".

2B's flat out said he's gunning for 200 on the ground and 200 through the air. The tends to lead people to look at the yardage amounts. The next best stat to look at is plays attempted and how those break down by pass or run.

For me when I think of a balanced attack, it means keeping the defense off-balanced, by being good at all the facets of the game. Primarily those being straight ahead power run plays, mis-direction or counter runs, play action passing through 3 levels (deep, intermediate, shallow) of pass routes, and good TE play that gives an offense flexibility.

Multi-dimensional is what we're after but using the word balanced.

No one will ever confuse Baylor with being balanced, or Auburn, or LSU, or even S. Carolina or Clemson. All of those teams lean heavily towards their strengths that they have by design and philosophy and which they recruited players that fit the mold to best run their X's & O's.

Another problem is Bielema's recruiting so far hasn't identified a pattern in the skill positions. We know what he wants on the Oline & DLine. He's benefited from Petrino's quest for length and size at the DE position. We'll see how they recruit the LB position if they go more towards smaller faster hybrid LB's, or bigger framed, slower, stronger LB's. I tend to prefer the faster guys that can blitz, get into coverage, and beat a block. Of course they have to be able to tackle which few of our back 7 players the last 2 years have shown a high ability in doing so.

We'll just have to see how Herbert's bulking up of the team affects their speed and agility. One of the things that makes football the great sport that it is in America is the specialized job duties of each position means kids of all shapes and sizes are needed to field a team. 190 lbs linemen don't stand a chance anymore, WR's that can't get open can't contribute, DB's that can't keep up with WR's or TE's get burned and give up huge plays, QB's that can't throw or make good decisions bury a team. So recruiting for a specific size range can limit your options, I tend to prefer finding really good football players with intelligence and natural instincts regardless of the numbers or 40 times, bring those guys in to lead and teach and go find some freak athletes to pair with them and cover each other's weaknesses with their strengths. Or just be like Saban and get players that have the whole package of freak athleticism, intelligence, High football IQ, and size.