by Mike Gibson

Guest Post From Fizzy

The following is a guest post from Fizzy, who played for George Makris in the `1960s.

Adventures in Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda land

RUN PHILLIP RUN

Operating a college spread offense without having your quarterback run the football, is like taking a shower with your golashes on.

Why doesn’t Matt Rhule allow his quarterback to run the football? Doesn’t he see how much it limits his play calling by eliminating the threat of forcing linebackers to hold their pursuit until they see who has the ball? In all the last five winnable games that were lost, if Walker had been a force on the ground, the outcomes may have been different.

running

This year, Phillip Walker has been a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He’s thrown some fantastic passes for long touchdowns. On the other hand, he has thrown too many interceptions, and made un-senior like decisions. The one thing missing, and it’s been missing from his sophomore year on, is he rarely runs the football. Walker is very good at running the football, and it adds so much to the offense.

After the second straight week of watching Temple blow out an opponent, you would think I’d be happy. But keep in mind these were both soft teams. The offense didn’t do well against Army and Penn State, and playing at Memphis Thursday night will certainly be more of a test.

This past week, Coach Rhule employed the “Wildcat” against SMU with freshman Isaiah Wright playing tailback, and it was mostly successful with jet sweeps and tailback keepers. However, the Wildcat is a gimmick. If you take out your quarterback and put in a runner, who are you going to fool? It hasn’t worked well in the NFL, nor in college for that exact reason. The quarterback is the one who should be doing the keepers, roll-outs and bootlegs; that’s what will surprise the defense and energize the offense.

I’ve been advised that Walker has an ongoing shoulder problem on his non-throwing shoulder, which continues to plague him. That puts Rhule in the tenuous position of being damned if he does, and also if he doesn’t. As a former coach, I’ve been in that situation too. But Walker’s been playing and there’s always the possibility he will take a shot on the tender shoulder, anyway. So my suggestion is to allow Walker to run bootlegs, keepers and roll-outs, to the outside only. That way, he can go out of bounds or slide to protect himself. It won’t protect him all the time, but neither does staying in the pocket to throw the ball.

In the past two weeks, I’ve watched Houston’s quarterback Ward, and Louisville’s quarterback Jackson, bring their offenses to life with scintillating runs. We can do the same.

I’m just sayin…

Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

8 thoughts on “Guest Post From Fizzy”

John Belli
October 4, 2016
12:09 pm

I agree with what you say. Nevertheless, I have to side with the coaches because they know what’s best for the team. It’s clear that Walker has not been the same since he suffered a cheap shot in last year’s PSU game and that he appears not to be a threat to run. That being said, I believe that the coaches have concluded that even with that impediment, he gives the Owls the best chance to win because for the time being he is the best passer, knows the offense inside out, and can run if required to do so. I think the coaches know how bad his shoulder is but can’t say that they take that into consideration when calling plays for obvious reasons. Marchi and Nutile would be playing if they could run the offense more efficaciously. I do not believe they can so we’re stuck with a wounded QB. If he eliminates the interceptions we’ll be in capable hands for the rest of the season. One final thing, I would not burn Russo’s red shirt. He was an okay runner in high school and to play him the offense would have to be tweaked to accommodate that weakness in his game. At least Walker is currently a threat to run, albeit a small one.

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MD Owl
October 4, 2016
12:39 pm

Whether Walker runs or not is not the problem to me. The problem is he is not seeing the field well at all. Watch a game ftom the stands and focus on the other receivers. He constantly throws to the wrong one. Even on completions, there are normally better options. He hits on some long ones, because that is normally where the play is designed to go and it is open.

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- John Belli
  October 4, 2016
  3:15 pm
  
  The thing is that you can’t run the read option without a true option. That’s why it’s important he run the ball. otherwise, defenses will gang up on the back.
  
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  - kj101941
    October 5, 2016
    1:08 am
    
    just a very sad state of affairs we find ourselves in after four years of “the process” recruiting…,
    
    what are the facts? our QB is rated in the bottom 25% of the conference and he is our best QB..,
    
    what does that say about next year? not sure how the others could do any worse for the rest of the year..,
    
    the benefits of playing others at QB exceed the risks
  - Badley
    October 5, 2016
    1:00 pm
    
    Response to KJ: I think Walker has not played well this year but pulling him as you advocate makes no sense. That being said most of your posts make no sense. If Walker is unable to perform due to injury then your hand is forced and you have to play someone else. in the meantime, I will ride with Walker. And just to set the record straight I, unlike some other posters on this board, never thought he would play QB in the NFL because he is not good enough. I play Walker for one reason, he gives you the best chance of winning the game, period end of story.
Mike Gibson
October 5, 2016
8:37 am

sounds like Phil’s shoulder could be an issue down the line. Hope not.

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John Belli
October 5, 2016
10:39 pm

http://www.yardbarker.com/college_football/articles/report_nebraska_wants_to_rejoin_big_12/s1_127_22041061

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- Mike Gibson
  October 6, 2016
  8:48 am
  
  Tremendous blow to Houston’s P5 hopes. I think Nebraska talks them into taking BYU and not Houston.
  
  Reply