Difficult Offense?

[HoosierUte]

Ill admit I’m not a huge X’s and O’s guy, but I have been hearing that Luds offense is complicated and difficult to learn. What are we really taLking about here? I mean it’s a football play, just like every other team runs. Many teams run dynamic offenses that aren’t known to be “difficult” for the players to learn. Shouldn’t that have been a huge red flag? It’s not like we saw some amazing offense that benefited from being difficult to learn. My question is what about Lud’s offense was so complicated and why couldn’t it be simplified?

[Anfernee]

Plain and simple: He made it “complicated” by his asinine play calling and not utilizing his talent. Killing any sort of momentum with his own play calls. Which then makes everyone, players and fans, frustrated beyond belief. Let’s just be grateful he’s longer OC.

[Ute Dub]

Terrible non-answer.

[Anfernee]

🎶Ain’t no fakin’ I’m onto Bajakian.🎶

[2008 National Champ]

Without being in the QB room, none of us can answer that. Ludwig himself says that it takes two FULL offseasons to completely install his offense.

One possibility is the number of decisions that a QB needs to make on each play. Another could be having 16 different ways to run to the A gap. A third could be the number of available options on each play, i.e. a 5 man passing tree but only 2 being “live”.

[Utegator]

Could you argue that this type of offense only worked because it often didn’t work and required a running QB to scramble and salvage a “blown up” play?

[2008 National Champ]

I have been making that exact argument for the last 6 years. When Ludwig has an accurate QB that can improvise with his legs when the planned options are not available, his “system” seems to work really well. Those types aren’t exactly dime a dozen at the college level.

We’ll never know how often Rising checked out of a play call and into one that worked. The most “famous” being the flea flicker against SC. Which then became a play that Ludwig had in every game plan going forward to the point where it didn’t fool anyone anymore.

[EagleMountainUte]

The play action really got a lot of defenses on skates to. The rush game just isn’t even close to what Ludwig wants.
Bernard is putting up a valiant effort but it becomes so obvious what Utah wants to do depending on personnel.

[Utegator]

Yeah, but then they only went to Bernard 14? times last game.

[jshame17]

Cam checked into the flea-flicker?

Hadn’t heard that. Crazy…

[2008 National Champ]

You hadn’t heard that? It’s been one of the most repeated stories from 2021. That on that 4th down call, Ludwig sent in a play but when the team came out in the wrong formation, Whitt called for timeout. When they asked what play Rising thought was called he said flea-flicker. The coaches looked at each other and decided that would be a great call so they went back on the field and ran it.

[Yergensen]

Two of three really good QBs in Whitt and Lud’s tenure audibled a lot (Cam) or were rumored to be calling the plays on field (BJohnson). Lud had Huntley for a year, can’t speak to the dynamic with Huntley.

So, who gets more of the credit for playcalling in good seasons?

Norm Chow schemed and playcalled a D2 QB and Mountain West talented team to a near PAC South title, 8 wins and a bowl win. That guy was good.

[2008 National Champ]

Huntley had the improvisation down but what really made that 2019 offense go was him getting hurt against SC. The pass blocking was really subpar that year and he was having to escape immediate rushers constantly but with his lower body injuries he couldn’t be the runner he was in previous years. So he made the first man miss, found his single covered receiver and delivered a ball usually where only his receiver could make the play.

No one ever accused Huntley of lacking confidence in himself. Most people gave credit to Ludwig for elevating Huntley’s skill level but I’m of the belief that a fully healthy Huntley, after making the first guy miss, runs the ball himself. 75% of the time? 90%? Even 25% would have meant a lot less of those big plays downfield which is what really made that year’s offense hum because most of those big plays were on 3rd and long.

[Yergensen]

Okay then, so we give at least part of the credit to Brian Johnson who called plays himself, Cam who mastered pre-snap reads to audible into the right play and Huntley the playmaker who improvised during plays.

[Tony (admin)]

If it takes 2 full offseasons to learn, that seems like non starter. Especially in the day and age of the portal.

[TruckStopTerrors]

Yeah, I remember reading all the time how difficult his offense was to grasp and that being the reason that certain players weren’t seeing the field etc. I guess that’s fine if you’re one of the best offenses in college football year in and out, but it just seemed kind of ridiculous to me. If guys are good enough to play but it takes them a full year to learn the offense, that’s not a benefit. Anyway, I’m looking forward to a new OC.

[Anfernee]

That’s why Alford hasn’t played. The Wizard of Ludville’s offense. So glad he’s gone.

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