New Offensive Coordinator options?

Just for reference, here are the ten teams that had the highest percentage of passing plays in 2021. Three potential OC candidates are represented on this list. It's pretty interesting how their play selection choices stack up...

1    Miss State    72.99%   
2    W Kentucky    68.07%    
3    Nevada    65.33%    
4    Virginia    64.58%   
5    Arkansas St    63.10%    
6    Purdue    61.19%    
7    N Mex State    60.88%  
8    USC    56.49%      
9    Troy    56.22%   
10    Fresno St    56.16%    

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/passing-play-pct?date=2021-12-07

 
BigRedBuster said:
The offense scored well in the red zone until they had to rely on their kickers. 
 
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I’m not trying to convince anybody or change minds but the fact is the offense had numerous opportunities throughout the season to win games and/or to create a safe lead and it repeatedly failed to deliver. Lots of reasons and things to blame for that but, at the end of the day, we were 3-9 and a fair amount of that has to fall on the offense. The defense held up their end of the bargain more often than not and yes special teams directly caused 3-4 of the losses but gaining yards and not scoring enough points was an ongoing issue. Sure, there is more to blame than the scheme/system or an OC but something has to change because what we’ve been doing isn’t getting the job done.

 
JJ Husker said:
I’m not trying to convince anybody or change minds but the fact is the offense had numerous opportunities throughout the season to win games and/or to create a safe lead and it repeatedly failed to deliver. Lots of reasons and things to blame for that but, at the end of the day, we were 3-9 and a fair amount of that has to fall on the offense. The defense held up their end of the bargain more often than not and yes special teams directly caused 3-4 of the losses but gaining yards and not scoring enough points was an ongoing issue. Sure, there is more to blame than the scheme/system or an OC but something has to change because what we’ve been doing isn’t getting the job done.
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And, if those trips into the red zone that didn't have a TD resulted in a field goal, that would be a big difference.  Also, if we had way fewer drives starting on our 5 or 10 yard line, the offense would be more successful.

The fact is, the offense (by looking at the stats) were doing their job pretty well of scoring TDs once they reached the red zone.  Now, that also would have been much better if we had a competent O line that could control the LOS in the red zone.

So, fix ST and the O line, and the view of the offense would be way different by a lot of fans.  And....if that would happen, we would have had way fewer games where the offense is trying to create a miracle at the end of the game in a 2 minute offense.

Imagine if the ST were switched in the Iowa game.  The first several scores by Iowa were field goals and, if I remember right, some of them weren't short.  Imagine if their coaching staff would have had the lack of confidence in their kicker like Frost has had.  Those would have resulted in no score for Iowa more than likely.  And....we probably win.

Edit to add:  I'm not saying there weren't issues on offense.  I'm saying that the scheme was pretty sound.  If we could have a greatly improved O line and ST, everyone would have a different view of the offense and 4 coaches would probably still be employed.

 
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Undone said:
My only comment here is that I don't think we've failed because of our system. In fact, I'm positive that we didn't fail because of that.

We lacked an offensive line that performs on the level of even Illinois' or Minnesota's, and honestly our running back room is probably not even on those teams' level, either.

Now if he wanted to sling the ball 55% of the game? Obviously Husker fans aren't going to like that.
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Minnesota had 4 offensive linemen on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd team all B1G and all 5 are NFL prospects.....so no, we're not to that level of offensive line yet.

.....but some still refer to them as a "lesser" team.

 
TheSker said:
Minnesota had 4 offensive linemen on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd team all B1G and all 5 are NFL prospects.....so no, we're not to that level of offensive line yet.

.....but some still refer to them as a "lesser" team.
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Good stats there - thank you. But I didn't mean our offensive line being on their level - I just meant getting the results they get each season at this point and beating those teams (them and Illinois).

We played right with Minnesota the entire game but our running back tripped on a critical 4th & goal from the 1, and our QB's accuracy was off here and there in that one.

To be on Minnesota's level in the W/L column, with Frost's good scheme & playbook I'd say we just need offensive line play that looks something like our 2018 squad.

 
JJ Husker said:
I’m not trying to convince anybody or change minds but the fact is the offense had numerous opportunities throughout the season to win games and/or to create a safe lead and it repeatedly failed to deliver. Lots of reasons and things to blame for that but, at the end of the day, we were 3-9 and a fair amount of that has to fall on the offense. The defense held up their end of the bargain more often than not and yes special teams directly caused 3-4 of the losses but gaining yards and not scoring enough points was an ongoing issue. Sure, there is more to blame than the scheme/system or an OC but something has to change because what we’ve been doing isn’t getting the job done.
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Spot on. Stats don't tell the whole story

 
Born N Bled Red said:
You laugh, but Iowa's whole "bestest, most awesomest season" in program history (cough 10-3) basically boiled down to them successfully kicking field goals, not scoring touchdowns. 
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Then they got extremely lucky against Penn State because not only did PSU's starter throw some really inaccurate passes that wound up getting picked off, he went out of the game with injury right before halftime and then the backup completely sucked the rest of the game.

 
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Undone said:
Good stats there - thank you. But I didn't mean our offensive line being on their level - I just meant getting the results they get each season at this point and beating those teams (them and Illinois).

We played right with Minnesota the entire game but our running back tripped on a critical 4th & goal from the 1, and our QB's accuracy was off here and there in that one.

To be on Minnesota's level in the W/L column, with Frost's good scheme & playbook I'd say we just need offensive line play that looks something like our 2018 squad.
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The Minny game was lost in the first half when Chinander allowed their QB to play pitch and catch, along with the offense struggling to find a solid strategy with Adrian battling an ankle injury.

 
We got in the Redzone 53 times last season. That's pretty good. We scored a rushing touchdown 28 times. We passed for a touchdown 7 times and made just 6 field goals. Coming away with 0 points 12 times.

Basically if we got into the Redzone we had about a 53% chance we were going to rush for a touchdown.

If we weren't able to rush for a touchdown we had about a 47% chance we were going to get 0 points because the redzone passing game and our kickers were awful.

1. Find a qb who can throw the ball in the Redzone. (Maybe try to bring in a qb who at the minimum wouldn't constantly overthrow his 6'9 future all pro TE.)

2. Find someone who can kick a fieldgoals at better than 50%

3. Get a better online coach, or at least one the players will actually listen to.

4. Quit giving the other team points while the defense is on the bench.

5. Profit

Scheme wasn't  the problem, even play calling wasn't a problem for the most part. - with a few notable exceptions. Play calling improves dramatically if you have any confidence whatsoever that your players can execute it.

 
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ColoradoHusk said:
The Minny game was lost in the first half when Chinander allowed their QB to play pitch and catch, along with the offense struggling to find a solid strategy with Adrian battling an ankle injury.
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Totally agree - especially on the "Adrian battling injury part." Should have just tried to hand the ball off more to Yant and see what happens.

I feel legitimately bad for Martinez that so many games in his career came down to him having to try to do it all because of the total train wreck around him (this season referring mainly to the offensive line, but also special teams putting us in a constant hole).

 
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