The idea that Riley and Langs wanted to do things "their way" a.k.a. The Callahan Effect isn't true at all. Coming into the job, he was asked about being pass-happy and he said no, I want people on the ground with the ball. He said the same thing following the win versus UCLA, so at this point I'm curious if people are just hearing what they want to.
What you say starts to ring hollow if it isn't matching up to what you do.
Hard to do it when you don't have the personnel who can execute it properly. We're talking about the understanding of principles and familiarity. The team's confidence and knowledge of what they were looking to do versus Miami is obviously different than it was versus UCLA. That's a ten game difference.
It's also hard to do it when you give the ball to our backs 18 times and call 45+ pass plays.
Newby averaged 5.9 yards per carry against Miami this year. Ameer averaged 6.5 yards per carry vs. Miami last year. 6.5 is better than 5.9 but not so much that one of those games resulted in 229 rushing yards while the other resulted in 82.
If the coaches are telling you can run it against certain teams but you can't run it against other teams, that's pretty much where that confidence is coming from.
There is no "sweet spot" for passing the ball. It's about the effectiveness of the passes you do throw. That's why TO had a highly effective passing game even though he often threw it around 15 times a game. "Balance" is overrated, and I hope Riley is realizing that and coaching up Langs accordingly.
I generally agree with everything here but what the bolded implies. Armstrong won the game (leading an offense to 37 points while posting 250+ yards in total offense is much better than just avoiding a loss). This just makes me wonder why that wasn't the game plan for games like Purdue and Illinois, which should have been walk off wins.
When it comes to Riley's offense, yes there is. However, you are correct when it comes to the effectiveness of the pass. You'll see passes that Tommy failed to make again only if he can't make them, someone else will.
Armstrong won the game because he was put in position not to do much damage and stay on the ground where he was more of a threat to UCLA than putting the ball in the air where he was actually a threat to his own team's success. Also, Purdue? Ryker Fyfe.
Knock Fyfe, but then admit that having a pass heavy first half and a disastrous 70% passing 3rd quarter after trailing only 21-9 at half was all on the coaches and their awful game planning.
Riley's offense has been traditionally much more than 22 passes a game. I think in his own idea world, attempts would be between 35 and 40 a game. At least based on his history. M
The absolutely most Riley'd want to see the ball passed is likely 35 and that's only in a situation where you have a passing game that can gash a defense like Nebraska's run did against the UCLA D. There's no reason to cross 30.
You know, more than once you've accused people of hearing or seeing only what they want to hear when developing/expressing concerns, but clearly that's what you're doing here. Otherwise, what could be your basis for believing that Riley would like to see the ball passed more than 30 times a game only occasionally?
Here are the last
8 seasons of Riley pass attempts:
Attempts (games) - starting QB's rating - attempts per game.
458 (13) – 128.6 – 35 attempts per game (Fyfe was at 140.8 for a rating, which reveals the value of these QB rating stats)
472 (12) – 128.3 – 39 attempts per game
625 (13) – 146.5 – 48 attempts per game
504 (13) – 138 – 39 attempts per game
503 (12) – 127.1 – 42 attempt per game
375 (12) – 126.4 – 31 attempts per game
478 (12) – 141.9 – 40 attempts per game
448 (13) – 128.4 – 34 attempts per game
What you see here is that (a) Armstrong performed as well as any other QBs during their first season in a Riley offense, so arguments tha the didn't have a good enough QB fall flat, and (b) Riley NEVER had a season where his QB averaged less than 30 passes per game. Were all those OSU teams just gouging their opponents like NU did against UCLA with the run?
People need to stop deluding themselves with the belief that Riley is a power run minded coach.