Here you go guys. Dan Hawkins was tight ends, special teams, and assistant head coach at Boise State in '98, '99 and '00. Helfrich was quarterback coach at Boise State those same 3 years. It's pretty obvious they became good friends there and it was also the time when young Cody was hanging around practice as a little kid becoming a football quarterback junkie. Nothing wrong with that at all, mind you. I think it's great for Cody to develop that way. I love the kid. However, you now have an offensive coordinator, who with that background, obviously attempted to design an offense this year at Colorado with someone in particular in mind. I think it's undeniable when you look at the offensive scheme that they tried to run this year. The trouble was it blew up and didn't work.
They must have thought the shotgun would place Cody Hawkins back in the pocket without having to drop back. It is undeniable that Cody does not have much foot speed. They also thought he would be able to see the entire field right away. It is undeniable that he is not very tall and still can't see over the linemen to effectively pass over the middle unless the linemen can create passing lanes. How many passes were blocked at the LOS? The young linemen were not skilled enough yet to finesse defensive linemen in such a way to create passing lanes. Therefore, they couldn't attack the middle of the field. The defense could key sideline pass and cheat up to stop the run because they just didn't need to worry about the middle of the field.
The handoffs to backs standing still made it easy for the defense. The finesse blocking and zone blocking wasn't clearing anything because the young line was not skilled enough to do it. They were outnumbered on top of it because the defense could cheat up since they didn't have to worry about passing over the middle. Slow developing run plays with handoffs to backs at a standstill were getting blown up. That's why I keep saying that running with a blocking back in front of a tailback getting a handoff with a couple-three steps head of steam, coupled with drive blocking linemen, would have been much better for this young group.
Dead last in the Big 12 in offense and 95th out of 119 D1-A teams in offense is undeniable. I have no idea what they might try next season, but what they did this year sure didn't work. I think the Buffs have the personnel returning next year to have a pretty effective offense. I don't know that the coaching will realize what they have to do to get it done, or if they realize it, have the fortitude to actually do it.
Anyone is free to tell me I'm FOS regarding anything that I have brought up, but I think it's pretty hard to argue with. All of this is why I have continually said that the offense this year was flawed to begin with. It all went back to relationships built in '98-'00.
i am with you, all the way to the part where you suggest that they are blinded by their feelings for cody.
the rest is, is factual, i think. your opinion as the "why" of it is just an opinion, of course.
i've always enjoyed your posts here and on nb, but may i offer a counter-theory? let's say they did, in fact, build a passing offense for the year around cody to try to hide his limitations. why would they do that unless they had little faith that any other qb in the program was ready to take the reigns?
i don't think these guys are dumb or really playing favorites (that's just my opinion), but i do think they have an "idea" (but not really a plan) on what kind of offense they want... i think they think they are trying to install some kind of high scoring passing machine offense. so, when they sat down and looked at the personnel this year, they schemed in a way that they thought they could be an effective passing offense, given the fact that their starter is small and not fleet of foot. they messed up.
the spread type offenses only work if you've got a guy who can beat you with his feet at the qb position. and, i totally agree with you about the middle of the field. CU simply couldn't do anything across the middle and once defenses figured that out, the Buffs were cooked on offense.
i also totally agree with their failed scheming on running the ball. i think they want to run the ball effectively but i am not sure they know how to set up an offense that does that well. do any of these guys have any background at all with serious running teams?
i also agree about the o-line being asked to do too much too soon. a running offense would have helped them a lot.
i think it is less favoritism and more the fact that the staff is pretty dang inexperienced. the learning curve has been steep. this isn't the wac. i hope the on-the-job training takes hold next year.
we've got some horses but they've got to install an offensive plan that plays to their strengths. i would say our biggest weaknesses on offense are qb and wideout and they tried to run an offense centered around qb and wideouts. i don't get that at all. take that stable of backs and those good tightends and what should be a 3 deep set of good o-linemen next year and pound people.
These are all pretty fair-minded points. I have to sit back and say yes. And yes, the biggest weaknesses were quarterback and wide receiver and asking a young line to cover for those weaknesses was too much. I think they had what is called a "psychological set" on what they wanted to do and who they wanted to do it with. And yes, it blew up. My big concern is that the "psychological set" on the passing offense may not be overcome.
I really think that the linemen, tight ends and backs who return next year set the Buffs up for a powerful rushing attack. Like I said, I don't know if the coaches even want to see it for what it could be, and if they do, do they have what it takes to get it done? I know Paul Johnson probably would have wherewithall to get it done. Imagine if Paul Johnson had told Colorado he would come.:wink2: Snap me back to reality... maybe the current guys will get it done...
Exactly.:thumbsup: