Campbell’s Offense

[Stormin]

Why is this team so young and inexperienced all over the field? Who is to blame for that? Did all our players leave early and enter the NFL Draft last year or what? I must have missed that?

What was the excuse the year we were predicted to win the Big 12 with all our experience.... but laid an egg? I can't remember the excuse that year?

We lost 5 starters in the gambling scandal. Almost 1/4 of our starters. Linebacker Gerry Vaughn did not play. Eli Sanders was injured. Youngsters are beating out older players but they lack game experience. Potential is there but they are learning.

Iowa was the better team on Saturday. Your incessant ******** is getting old. We are 2 games in with a new OC. New OL Coach. New WR Coach. New Special Teams Coach.

 

[Clonefan32]

I just think we were so deep and experience in 2020 and 2021 that those guys that should be coming up as upper classmen now just didn't get the experience they needed. It was hard to beat out the guys in front of them, and some of them taking an extra Covid year didn't help. They just didn't develop and now we have to rely on the next group of freshmen/sophomores.

 

[Gunnerclone]

I was expecting this thread. And my response is this:

What exactly should the offense look like (especially against Iowa)? What are our strengths that we're not taking advantage of?
We have decent tight ends - get them involved: check

Everything else is average or below average on offense. Iowa's defense is NOT giving up deep passing plays.
So throw the ball often: check

I get it, people wanted this game and are angry because it doesn't look flashy. But my question is still, what else would you have done differently given the situation?

QB run? no, we can't afford an injury at QB with pretty much only a true freshman behind him (thanks dekkers)

Play action pass? Ok, maybe, but you know Iowa's defense isn't going to bite much on that.

The one time I remember the QB rolling out of the pocket by design we completed a perfect 8 yard pass play. Don’t need the QB to run but keeping a small QB in the pocket and throwing 20 yard passes for 3 yard gains aint it.

 

[joefrog]

We lost 5 starters in the gambling scandal. Almost 1/4 of our starters. Linebacker Gerry Vaughn did not play. Eli Sanders was injured. Youngsters are beating out older players but they lack game experience. Potential is there but they are learning.

Iowa was the better team on Saturday. Your incessant ******** is getting old. We are 2 games in with a new OC. New OL Coach. New WR Coach. New Special Teams Coach.

Who recruited them? Who hired the old coaches that had to be replaced?

Curious, will the head coach let them coach?

Did you enjoy his offense not being able to run hurry-up in YEAR 8?

Is Iowa just another game?

 

[joefrog]

Monday morning QB'ing, but where I'm at is that the failure right now is an offense in a complete rebuild that lost 4-5 starters on top of the normal attrition and has an OC in his first year. I'm not losing my mind about playcalling, or general strategy.

Expecting that rebuild to be complete, or anywhere near complete isn't reasonable after 1 game against UNI. Now they need to take the positives, Becht, Higgins, TE's(maybe), and build off that and show that they're actually building and improving instead of flat lining like last year.

Playcalling and general strategy looks exactly the same as it did when we had exceptional NFL talent at the most important positions.

Even then, it was subpar.

Now, with far inferior talent, trying to do the same things?

Curious, who, EXACTLY, is to blame for us being where we are?

And how bad does it have to get for some people?

 

[Stormin]

Who recruited them? Who hired the old coaches that had to be replaced?

Curious, will the head coach let them coach?

Did you enjoy his offense not being able to run hurry-up in YEAR 8?

Is Iowa just another game?

Where have you coached football? Pro? P5 Conference? Absolute shame if your brilliant mind is not in coaching. Show us your coaching results.

 

[LtRaczack]

Playcalling and general strategy looks exactly the same as it did when we had exceptional NFL talent at the most important positions.

Even then, it was subpar.

Now, with far inferior talent, trying to do the same things?

Curious, who, EXACTLY, is to blame for us being where we are?

And how bad does it have to get for some people?

Let me help you out with explaining the perceptions you are seeing here.

Wins Fiesta Bowl-"It is his will."

Repeats exact same approach leading to repeated losses-"He moves in mysterious ways, just be patient."

 

[CascadeClone]

We lost 5 starters in the gambling scandal. Almost 1/4 of our starters. Linebacker Gerry Vaughn did not play. Eli Sanders was injured. Youngsters are beating out older players but they lack game experience. Potential is there but they are learning.

I missed that, what was the deal there?

 

[Stormin]

I missed that, what was the deal there?

Injured. Eli Sanders injured.

 

[Statefan10]

The lack of creativity as many have said is what I'm most upset/annoyed about. Our inability to push the ball down the field was ridiculous. We rarely even tried. Was it the young QB or was it the play calling? Not an expert but I'd guess it was both. Every pass play was copy and paste - Rocco gets the ball, stairs down the field, instantly looks for a guy on an out route. You could see before Rocco even threw the pick 6 that it was going to be a takeaway.

 

[Lewey24]

I would like to reiterate: Not a scheme problem.

 

[spierceisu]

Have we taken any shots down field?

I wasn't upset with the fact that we lost, or that we struggled a bit vs a very good defense, but the lack of shots downfield was hard to watch. The defense just played up and made the short routes and running the ball very hard. I don't believe that Becht was under much pressure at all to get rid of the ball, so why didn't we at least take a shot or two. We don't have to force it into bad coverage, but at least try something more than 5 yards downfield.

 

[MartyFine]

 

[Gunnerclone]

I’m not sure whether to take that as a good thing or a “wtf are we doing on offense” thing?

 

[t-noah]

"Take what the defense will give you" is okay if they are selling out to stop you in one phase of the game. But it is NOT okay if that defense is really good at baiting you into throws. Like, idk, Phil Parker's defense. He is the king of that "sure the out route is open, you should totally make that throw".

Probably a third of the games they win are because of that.

I will have to wait a couple more days before I can watch the game again (not sure I want to), and dissect it. Granted, Iowa has a very good D. But that seems to be an excuse now?

Off the top of my head, ISU's first drive went well. IIRC, we mixed the run and pass. We then of course had the FG blocked.

It seemed that we got away from that as the game progressed and again, became more predictable? I honestly can't remember one deep throw, let alone many passes in the 10-20 yard range. I believe Rocco has the arm, they just didn't use it. Did we even try to target our tight ends?

So now, as the game progresses, we are struggling, Iowa tightens the box even more. We try off tackle repeatedly when we could have tried RPO, a quick slant, a deep ball, a tight end or tight end screen, etc. Sure, you don't want to throw a pick, but a punt after a run up the middle and a cloud of dust, or a punt after a failed long ball, is still a punt. We never opened things up. We try a stupid out route to Norton which was an easy pick.

We need to try some misdirection at least, some up tempo, anything to keep them from stacking the box. Our slow ball control offense is going to be contained and stopped by Iowa, and other teams, so what do you have to lose? We still seem to be too careful, have slow play calls, players afraid to just play. Take some chances, measured and controlled but use the field. Keep them on their toes. We could have been more creative against UNI as well. We chose not to show Iowa anything when we played UNI. When we played Iowa, did we chose not to show them much also? I refuse to think that we cannot change our scheme when we must.

I'm no expert but I don't think we can be afraid to make mistakes, incorporate some risk. Open up that 'ball control game' that we might want to play, and actually make it work. We have to be more creative. We will continue to succeed only at 'close losses' otherwise.

 

[LonelyCyKC]

I've only seen Kohl play but Campbell is multiple time coach of the year. I suspect the "small ball" approach is from the offensive coordinator. Am I wrong?

Another question: Does ISU have the NIL cash to compete in the transfer portal era? If the website I looked at is accurate the cyclones had 12 players transfer out and only 3 transfer in.

Just a side thought: Has anyone totaled up the NIL money spent by Colorado on the Portal player acquisitions this year?

 

[LonelyCyKC]

I will have to wait a couple more days before I can watch the game again (not sure I want to), and dissect it. Granted, Iowa has a very good D. But that seems to be an excuse now?

Off the top of my head, ISU's first drive went well. IIRC, we mixed the run and pass. We then of course had the FG blocked.

It seemed that we got away from that as the game progressed and again, became more predictable? I honestly can't remember one deep throw, let alone many passes in the 10-20 yard range. I believe Rocco has the arm, they just didn't use it. Did we even try to target our tight ends?

So now, as the game progresses, we are struggling, Iowa tightens the box even more. We try off tackle repeatedly when we could have tried RPO, a quick slant, a deep ball, a tight end or tight end screen, etc. Sure, you don't want to throw a pick, but a punt after a run up the middle and a cloud of dust, or a punt after a failed long ball, is still a punt. We never opened things up. We try a stupid out route to Norton which was an easy pick.

We need to try some misdirection at least, some up tempo, anything to keep them from stacking the box. Our slow ball control offense is going to be contained and stopped by Iowa, and other teams, so what do you have to lose? We still seem to be too careful, have slow play calls, players afraid to just play. Take some chances, measured and controlled but use the field. Keep them on their toes. We could have been more creative against UNI as well. We chose not to show Iowa anything when we played UNI. When we played Iowa, did we chose not to show them much also? I refuse to think that we cannot change our scheme when we must.

I'm no expert but I don't think we can be afraid to make mistakes, incorporate some risk. Open up that 'ball control game' that we might want to play, and actually make it work. We have to be more creative. We will continue to succeed only at 'close losses' otherwise.

I think that it was a combination of youth needing more reps and technique training, and using restricted plays.

The RPO appeared to always be hand off the ball to the right, no QB runs/passes which would have opened up the RB handoff option. There was never anyone covering the QB after about the third time it was used. Iowa then focused on and piled on the RB. This can be fixed by simply using all three options.

The problem with the passes looked primarily like receiver route and technique errors, which should be fixable. Our best pass plays in the past were to the TE. How about more this year.

There is not much to say about running up the middle. Uff Da!

 

[Drew0311]

I have no faith in Campbell after seeing what our players are doing in the nfl this year. I think he got lucky

 

[t-noah]

There is not much to say about running up the middle. Uff Da!

Sweedish translation: Butter my butt and call me a biscuit!

 

[simply1]

Just a side thought: Has anyone totaled up the NIL money spent by Colorado on the Portal player acquisitions this year?

Prime is a genuinely unique proposition.