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West Coast offense and Tyler Hansen

Buffnik

Real name isn't Nik
Club Member
Junta Member
I keep reading posts on all the boards expressing concerns about Tyler Hansen and whether his game works in the West Coast offense that Embree and Bieniemy will run at CU.

The rationale for this seems to be that the conventional wisdom on the West Coast is that it calls for a guy to stand in the pocket and be very efficient with the ball.

That can be true, but it's not necessarily true. The West Coast has also been the system that best showcases playmakers at the QB position. The two greatest running quarterbacks in NFL history, Steve Young and Michael Vick, both were great in the West Coast offense.

I think this offense is going to be great for Tyler and we're finally going to see him be a consistent difference maker for our team.
 
I think most of us are afraid of it just because of what we have seen out of him so far. I know he has the potential and the talent to be successful, idk I guess we will find out soon enough.
 
Unlike the endless Hawkins/Hansen debates, I just do not see how anyone can say there is a better option than Hansen at this juncture.

The offense this year will depend a lot on whether the OL can live up to its potential. The other pieces are in place for us to be a decent Pac-12 offense.
 
That can be true, but it's not necessarily true. The West Coast has also been the system that best showcases playmakers at the QB position. The two greatest running quarterbacks in NFL history, Steve Young and Michael Vick, both were great in the West Coast offense.

While Hansen is definitely the man for next season, I'm don't think he'll necessarily flourish (obviously I hope he does). Vick was successful last season, because he really did start to stand in there and make throws. Young always stood there first, and used his feet when he needed to. He was very complimentary of Vick for having learned to do so this season, as opposed to getting too run happy. This is Hansen's biggest problem - pressure comes or his first few reads aren't there...he tucks and tries to make something happen. He's not calm back there.

I think it's absolutely true that a true West Coast offense requires a QB to stand back there and be efficient. That was the biggest maturation of Vick this last season, and hopefully is Hansen's this upcoming season.
 
I think this offense is going to be great for Tyler and we're finally going to see him be a consistent difference maker for our team.[/QUOTE]

Hope you are correct here. Tyler definitely has the tools to be a playmaker at the QB position and the leader of our offense. However, there are still some legit concerns about his ability to work through his progressions, and make timely, accurate passes to the receivers in space. Some of that has to do with O-line protection, and some has to do with receivers getting separation from the defenders, but for whatever reason, he just never seemed completely comfortable in the passing game. New system, new coaches, that could change.
 
I'm sure Scooter will adjust the offense to Tyler's 'abilities', but we should be realistic with our expectations out of Hansen. Especially with the state of our OL.
 
The biggest difference is the quality of coaching Hansen and the other QBs get.

Don't underestimate what a coaching staff that can get the best out of their players can do. Spring battles should be fun to follow...
 
Nick, a QB in the WC offense got to be accurate and make all the throws. Tyler has struggled with his accuracy, lacks pocket awareness, doesn't make all the reads. But hopefully has a Senior he can step up. Hirshman could play early, Dorman is the most polished QB in the WC offense on the roster.
 
He got gun shy after his sophmore year, if he can stand in the pocket without happy feet, i think he'll be fine. He needs some confidence in his o-line.
 
Dont forget about John Elway. I would love to see Tyler roll out on a couple of waggles per game.
 
Dont forget about John Elway. I would love to see Tyler roll out on a couple of waggles per game.

John Elway had a bigger arm, stronger, could make all the throws. I still remember the interception thrown by Hansen in the Baylor game, i was in the stadium, it hunts me till today, can't get it out of my mind. The guy just throw it right to the Safety, even i that i was not on the field saw that safety. Don't want to be too negative. Hansen is now a senior, time for him to step up and put up big numbers. I hear he is working hard in offseason programs, learning the new playbook, could be his last year of playing organized football, need to have a big year, play like a senior.
 
John Elway had a bigger arm, stronger, could make all the throws. I still remember the interception thrown by Hansen in the Baylor game, i was in the stadium, it hunts me till today, can't get it out of my mind. The guy just throw it right to the Safety, even i that i was not on the field saw that safety. Don't want to be too negative. Hansen is now a senior, time for him to step up and put up big numbers. I hear he is working hard in offseason programs, learning the new playbook, could be his last year of playing organized football, need to have a big year, play like a senior.


I would never compare Tyler to the Duke I was saying dont forget to add him to the list of great running qbs that ran the wc.

I not worried about the qb position right now. Run the ball and run it well and we will be fine.
 
I keep reading posts on all the boards expressing concerns about Tyler Hansen and whether his game works in the West Coast offense that Embree and Bieniemy will run at CU.

The rationale for this seems to be that the conventional wisdom on the West Coast is that it calls for a guy to stand in the pocket and be very efficient with the ball.

That can be true, but it's not necessarily true. The West Coast has also been the system that best showcases playmakers at the QB position. The two greatest running quarterbacks in NFL history, Steve Young and Michael Vick, both were great in the West Coast offense.

I think this offense is going to be great for Tyler and we're finally going to see him be a consistent difference maker for our team.

You're right, most people have forgotten that the west coast was basically designed for a mobile qb. Joe Montana was the prototype, and Steve Young, John Elway and Brett Favre all could move. The old 49ers offense used several sprint outs as bread and butter plays in their offense, and the Broncos version was built on the bootleg. There is no reason why Hansen can't run the west coast, provided he has the discipline to go through his progressions instead of focusing on one receiver and then taking off if he's not open, or pirouetting backwards and losing us 20 yards. But with Kiesau calling the plays, its hard to judge his performance last year. We weren't exactly keeping teams off balance.
 
You're right, most people have forgotten that the west coast was basically designed for a mobile qb. Joe Montana was the prototype, and Steve Young, John Elway and Brett Favre all could move. The old 49ers offense used several sprint outs as bread and butter plays in their offense, and the Broncos version was built on the bootleg. There is no reason why Hansen can't run the west coast, provided he has the discipline to go through his progressions instead of focusing on one receiver and then taking off if he's not open, or pirouetting backwards and losing us 20 yards. But with Kiesau calling the plays, its hard to judge his performance last year. We weren't exactly keeping teams off balance.


All the QB you mentioned where accurate with the ball, and they could go through there progressions. Hansen locks up on one guy and if it is not there, he scrambles, that is why i am concerned about Hansen next year, hopefully i am wrong. Dorman may have an advantage over the rest of the QBs because he ran the WC offense in HS. Hansen is also prone to make alot of mistakes, hopefully the extra year of practice will correct those mistakes. Spring ball will answer alot of my questions, hopefully i can trip up there to watch the spring game.
 
The spring game is just around the corner, we'll all get a taste of what embree has in store for hansen and the rest of the buffs
 
Hansen just needs to become more accurate period. The last coaching staff did him a huge disservice for the past 3 years subbing him in and out and never really letting him get all of the reps a 1st stringer should have. He should be further along than he is right now being a senior.
 
All the QB you mentioned where accurate with the ball, and they could go through there progressions. Hansen locks up on one guy and if it is not there, he scrambles, that is why i am concerned about Hansen next year, hopefully i am wrong. Dorman may have an advantage over the rest of the QBs because he ran the WC offense in HS. Hansen is also prone to make alot of mistakes, hopefully the extra year of practice will correct those mistakes. Spring ball will answer alot of my questions, hopefully i can trip up there to watch the spring game.

If Dorman sees any sort of meaningful playing time as a freshman, we have major issues. If he even plays at all next season, I will be surprised. You cannot underestimate the value of reps that the other three guys will be getting in the spring.

Hansen definitely needs to get better.
 
If Dorman sees any sort of meaningful playing time as a freshman, we have major issues. If he even plays at all next season, I will be surprised. You cannot underestimate the value of reps that the other three guys will be getting in the spring.

Hansen definitely needs to get better.

Remember that Hirsch will have had spring ball, a full season, and another spring ball to get reps. I'm kinda hoping he pushes Hansen a bit. I don't hear much talk of Hirsch though. What's the word on him?
 
My money is on TH as the starter. As others have observed, the WCO can use bootlegs/waggles all day long and TH throws fairly well on the run. Plummer wasn't a strong armed QB and he did OK under Shanny's WCO, and I have a funny feeling we will see a lot of Shanny inspired offensive looks with Embo. For Hirsch, Burnette or Dorman to come in and knock off TH, they are going to have to be pretty impressive IMO. TH has a long way to go, but I think he's the best option right now.
 
i actually thought Dorrell would succeed at UCLA with a Shanny inspired WCO. but, when they played here against Barney in the early 00's....they showed a lot of interesting sets and WR routes in warmups and when the game started they were pretty uninteresting. they had huge WR's and for some reason didn't really try and exploit CU's small DB's until late in the game....then the WR's dropped a lot of passes (couple were sure TD's). latter may be the reason for not trying it...but still.

i think Tyler can be effective. prob is, as it was with both Cody and TH, there were a lot of limitations on what you could run on 3rd down and long. and we saw *a lot* of 3rd and long the last 5 years.
 
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