Tag Archives: Temple football

01.19.16
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Kareem Gaulden Should Be Fan Favorite

If, on or around Feb. 3, the browser on your laptop or other device seems extra slow, resist the temptation to throw the gadget against the wall. Just remember it is National Signing Day for college football. In about two weeks, the internet will be shut down or close to it and the cure is readily available. Curing crazy is always a good thing and one way the NCAA can do that is to approve an early signing period.

That is the only way reasonable young men of their word will not have to go through what Temple football recruit Kareem Gaulden is going though now. Gaulden, a defensive back, was one of the early recruits Matt Rhule was able to snag for the Owls. If there had been an early signing day, like last summer when Gaulden gave his word, there would be no poaching of recruits of other programs.

Gaulden took to twitter and expressed his displeasure with the situation last week.

 

That tweet immediately made Gaulden a fan favorite at Temple, someone who to this class might be what All-American defensive back Kareem Ali Jr. was to the last class. Ali is the son of two former Temple athletes, one a football player and the other a track star, who grew up going to Owl games. After originally committed to a Power 5 school, Ali realized his dream was to play for the school that he cheered for all his life.

Gaulden, another defensive back, earned the same kind of love from Temple fans after that tweet. Fans love players who keep their word, and those are the great majority of athletes who commit early. An early signing period would eliminate the craziness of other schools coming in to try to flip recruits and those high school players deserve that option.

The others who take time to make their decisions can wait until Feb. 3 and that’s why an early signing period would be a victory for all recruits.

01.18.16
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Getting The Right Mix

beckster

Someday,  a player like Sebastian Silva could be lifting Matt Rhule like Dick Beck did for Bruce Arians.

On Halloween Night, Temple hosted Notre Dame and 100 big-time recruits at the same time. Among those players were Michigan commits,  Penn State targets and other various four-star players.

The Owls came up empty that night both scoreboards.

Unlike the Penn State game, when defensive back Keyvone Burton committed the next day, the Owls left that game with an empty feeling—a heartbreaking loss compounded by no commits. Had the Owls won that night, who knows what would happen but this weekend—at least from a recruiting standpoint—was three times percent more productive than that otherwise spectacular night for Temple football.

Not only did the Owls get their top recruiting target, quarterback Anthony Russo of Archbishop Wood, but added a couple of speed merchants. The latest pair are listed as “athletes” and they are Randle Jones III, from Miami Beach (Fla.), and Linwood Crump (Sayerville, N.J.) Both supposedly have sub-4.5 speed and, for people (raising my hand here), who said the Owls need burners like Travis Sheldon and James Nixon, they certainly fill that need.



Ideally, a great recruiting
class is a mixture of guys
wanted by P5 schools like
Dioubate and “trust the film”
guys and guys who
Bruce Arians liked,
tough guys, who could play
but were under the radar.
Nick Sharga of
the current team fits
that third category.

No word yet on the DT Temple needs, Karamo Dioubate  from Prep Charter, but that would be another Russo-like coup at his position. Temple has been known for final week signing surprises under Al Golden and, to a lesser extent, Matt Rhule, so maybe he’s one. He’s been involved with Michigan State and Auburn and is a Penn State decommitted player.

Ideally, a great recruiting class is a mixture of guys wanted by P5 schools like Dioubate and “trust the film” guys and guys who Bruce Arians liked, tough guys, who could play but were under the radar. Nick Sharga of the current team fits that third category.

Still would like to see the Owls make Russo more comfortable in his situation and add Sharga-like linebacker and Wood teammate Sebastian Silva. Even more than the Russo factor, adding an accomplished all-state player like Silva—who is faster, bench presses and dead lifts more than Tyler Matakevich now—would fill a linebacker need in this class that has popped up since the Owls lost a decommit to Rutgers.  Silva’s situation reminds me very much of Dick Beck’s when he came out of Central Bucks West. Beck, like Silva, was under-recruited but became the only captain of the 7-4 Owls in 1990. The rumor now is that the Owls will try to entice Silva to be a preferred walk-on and that just won’t work because other schools are offering him real money. Rhule should now, like Bruce Arians did for Beck then, find a scholarship for Silva. Just like I guaranteed Bruce back then, I guarantee Silva will be worth the scholarship. Fortunately, Bruce listened to me.

Silva is not only a baller, but he has captain-like qualities and the Owls would be remiss letting a quality player and individual like this get away. One day he will captain a college football team and I would like that team to be Temple.

Tomorrow: Why All Fans Should Love Kareem Gaulden

 

01.15.16
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Anthony Russo Commits To Temple

Ever since Doug Flutie enrolled at Boston College in January of 1981, Temple has been looking for its own Doug Flutie.

It may have found him shortly after lunch today.

Temple Football Forever has learned from very good sources that Archbishop Wood’s Anthony Russo had lunch with LSU today, chewed on the Tigers’ pitch and decided by dessert that he was going to become a Temple Owl.

newscoop

We have received two phone texts tonight from separate sources indicating this is true, including from someone whose “mom works with a friend of mine.” Since Anthony Russo was not taking interviews until further notice, figuring that he talks to his mother is not a huge leap of faith and would spill the beans to her.

This is huge for Temple University for a couple of reasons.

One, The Flutie Effect. Two, with P.J. Walker gone after next season, Temple needs a play-making quarterback.

rhulerusso

Just a couple of guys talking pro-set offense.

The Flutie Effect is signing a big-time kid from your own backyard could lead to a domino effect of other big-time kids from the same backyard. That leads to sustained success of the hometown team, which leads to a boom in student applications. In a 1984 game against the University of Miami, Flutie threw a last-second “Hail Mary” pass 48 yards that was miraculously caught for a game-winning touchdown—a climactic capper on one of the most exciting college football games ever. The play put BC on the map for college aspirants. In two years, applications had shot up 30 percent.

Russo’s program-defining pass is yet to come, but he is certainly capable of it. Temple has had a lot of good-to-great quarterbacks since Doug Flutie, including current starter P.J. Walker, the school’s all-time touchdown leader. Temple has never recruited the best high school quarterback coming out of the Philadelphia area. Even Haverford High’s Steve Joachim, who won the Maxwell Award as College Football Player of the Year in 1974, was never signed by Temple. He was a transfer from Penn State, where he started two games.

Russo changes that dynamic. He is an Elite 11 quarterback who has functional mobility, who would fit perfectly into the same Pro Set system new Owls’ offensive coordinator Glenn Thomas helped run with the Atlanta Falcons and Matt Ryan.

Ironically, Ryan who, like Russo, is from a Philadelphia high school league (Inter-Ac),  but went to Boston College. Even though Russo is from Warminster, he is Philly proud enough to say “I’m Anthony Russo from Philadelphia” in many of his interviews.

Now Anthony Russo will get a chance to put Temple and his home town on map. Even if they officially call the new on-campus stadium “The Apollo of Temple” maybe one day fans will unofficially refer to it as “the house Anthony Russo built.

Related:

Temple Should Look to Wood for Package Deal

01.14.16
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Least Sexy Choice Gets Head (OC) Job

stare

“You really want me to waste 20 seconds on every  snap waiting for a play call?”

Say what you will about Matt Rhule, but he has been predictable in his three-year tenure as Temple’s head coach.

Ten days ago, we wrote that Glenn Thomas’ resume was the weakest of our five possible candidates for the open offensive coordinator job but “Matt Rhule has shown a propensity to hire from within” so that’s probably why Thomas was the leading candidate. In our caption we said he was the “least sexy” candidate so that’s “probably why he was going to get a bigger office.” Sure, he had been Matt Ryan’s quarterback coach but, prior to that, a stint at Midwestern State wasn’t going to knock anyone’s socks off.

thomas

Sometimes, being right is a pretty hallow feeling and that’s the feeling I had this morning after hearing that Thomas was moved up to the OC job.  For all of the progress this offense had in the first 10 games of the season, it produced just 13 and 17 points in the two most important games at the end and probably could have used a different pair of eyeballs.

Unlike last year, this offense doesn’t need a complete overhaul, just some tweaking. Putting Jahad Thomas in the slot would be an explosive upgrade, as would giving Jager Gardner and Ryquell Armstead a real shot at the No. 1 tailback position. Those moves are a lot less likely to happen now.

After AAC championship loss, Zach Gelb was the only reporter in Houston with the gonads to ask the tough questions about the “dog stare” offense. The disgraceful time management when Temple fans were yelling “Hurry the F*ck Up!” from Philadelphia loud enough to be heard in Texas fell on deaf ears in the post-game presser. The answers from Rhule,  P.J. Walker, Marcus Satterfield and both Thomases (Glenn and Jahad) were that nothing went wrong. The answers seemed to be “something went wrong?” or “I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary” or the standard Sargent Schultz response: “I know nothing. I see nothing. I hear nothing.”

They had known no other way. A coordinator who had not been part of that fiasco might have been better able to map a new direction.

01.13.16
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Unfinished Business: Perfect Slogan for 2016

unfinished

 

Of all the Vince Vaughn movie titles the Temple football team could have used for a 2016 slogan, the final choice was Unfinished Business.

Since Swingers and Return to Paradise did not seem like appropriate themes for a college football season, it was probably the best choice for a couple of reasons. Unfinished is a nod to the notion that the 3-4 finish of 2015 was unacceptable and admitting the problem is the first step to solving it. A lot of the problem was the result of a knock-down, drag-out, game against Notre Dame but a team  that trains as hard as Temple should have been able to physically respond from a physical game and that is something the Owls have to fix going forward.

opponents

There were other issues that caused the 3-4 that need to be fixed, preferably by the mid-April spring game. The team needs to find a better method to contain dual-threat quarterbacks. Nobody contained Houston quarterback Greg Ward, but even a mediocre Maryland team contained South Florida’s Quinton Flowers and Temple will have to study what Maryland did in a 35-17 win and try to copy that against all other dual-threat quarterbacks. More unfinished work is fixing an inefficient offense. Having to look to the sideline in the final quarter of the Houston game for the AAC championship robbed them of the chance of making that game competitive. It has to be ditched for a more streamlined approach when trailing in the final quarter of games.

The business part of the slogan is a reminder that bowl games are going to have to be business trips. The fun in bowl games is lifting that trophy at the end of the game, not bowling, kayaking or beach volleyball that the Owls overdosed on at the Boca Raton Bowl.A little birdie (Owl) told us that there was open curfew the night before the first practice and that many of the players got into their hotel rooms at 3 a.m.  They had to practice at 8 a.m. and there was throwing up on the field and much joking about it. That, in my mind, was a wasted practice. Judging from what happened on the field against Toledo, it may not have been the only one. Temple fans who stayed at the Toledo hotel were reporting fewer such side trips and late night curfew busting the Rockets. Perhaps not coincidentally, Toledo won the game, 32-17.

The 2015 slogan “Leave No Doubt” served this past team well because it was an original slogan born out of a heartfelt speech by departing senior Kenny Harper a year ago when the team wasn’t picked for a bowl despite qualifying. Harper’s message to his teammates was “leave no doubt” by finishing with such a good record that bowls would have to choose the team. That part of Harper’s speech stuck and was the 2015 rallying cry.

This year’s “Unfinished Business” is a recycled one done by a number of teams before. Recycling saves energy, though, and the Owls certainly ran out of that commodity at the end of the season so maybe this slogan will help sustain them through what they hope will be a longer season in 2016.

 

 

01.12.16
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It Could Be Now or Never to the Big 12 for Temple

big-12-conference-logo

One thing to watch before waiting for the latest in recruiting is the NCAA meetings this weekend (Jan. 14-16) in San Antonio.

If the craziest thing of crazy things happens, Temple could be one of two schools the Big 12 adds this weekend. The conference will more likely add Houston and Cincinnati, but Temple is not out of the question.

Time is of the essence since any expansion will probably go down at the NCAA convention this weekend (Jan. 14-16).  The Big 12 wants a conference championship game, but NCAA rules require 12 games for a championship game. Crazy as it seems, the “Big 12” has only 10 teams. The conference appealed the 12-team limit, but that will probably be denied and, knowing that, the conference might be quick to add two new teams. Having a conference championship game represents earnings of roughly $2 million per year per school in addition to offering a marquee matchup to help the conference bid for a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Temple football, Notre Dame football,

Temple’s No. 1 selling points: 2 home crowds of 70,000 plus great TV ratings.

The conference needs two more teams for a playoff and the scuttlebutt is that the conference could reach out to Temple for one of the spots. If the Owls are asked to jump, the only question they should ask is how high because the revenue stream coming into the school is estimated to be in the area of $23.4 million per year now as opposed to the $3.3 million they are making now as a member of the AAC. Had the Owls been in the Big 12 last year, for example, their 23-10 basketball team would not have been snubbed on NCAA Selection Sunday. Also, a 6-6 Temple football team in the Big 12 would get a far more attractive bowl than the 10-win Owls got this past season.

The Big 12 is in a tight spot because the recent departures of Missouri and Texas A&M leave the conference two short of the minimum required for a championship game. Oklahoma, this year’s football champion, had to sweat out a spot in the championship semifinals because its league did not have a title game. The league wants to avoid such a scenario in the future.

That’s where Temple comes in because the league wants to add a TV network, like the Big 10 and the SEC has now. Temple is the only FBS school in the largest TV market (Philadelphia) not already taken by a Power 5 school, the fourth-biggest. The Big 12 had to be taking notes when the Owls drew the largest TV rating ever for a network night game in Philadelphia on Halloween night against visiting Notre Dame. Since Notre Dame has been on the network 56 times before that night, the variable that drove the ratings off the charts was Temple. Any addition of Temple would bring TV eyeballs that would make the addition a win-win for both parties. Still, better fits are Cincinnati and Houston. Cincinnati would be a travel partner for West Virginia. If the conference goes to 14 teams, than the other two teams being considered will be among Temple, UConn and Memphis.

While the Big 12 makes no sense for Temple from an Olympic sport standpoint, in an era where nothing makes sense, money talks and just about every school should be willing to walk.

01.10.16
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Temple Should Look to Wood for Package Deal

Short highlight of Sebastian Silva above. 

One way to jump-start the final days after the so-called dead period is the tried and true recruiting practice called “package deals.”

Many people thought that Jahad Thomas and P.J. Walker were part of a package deal that Temple had with the Elizabeth High pair. The popular thinking was that Walker, New Jersey’s Player of the Year, was “’enticed” to come to Temple when the Owls went after his friend, the less-recruited Thomas. That could not have been farther from the case. The actual story was that the Owls had Walker wrapped up, and it was Walker who strongly suggested the Owls take a look at Thomas.

silva

Sebastian Silva: Perfect technique

The Owls liked the film and, now, both Thomas and Walker have to at least be considered candidates for the AAC Football Player of the Year in 2016. I can’t tell you right now who is better. It’s that close between these two very good friends.

Sometimes things work out that way, package deals or not. The second guy recruited out of the same school often turns out to be better than the first guy and vice versa.

Archbishop Wood has also turned out to be a gold mine for the Owls, as next year’s projected starters at two positions are from that school. Colin Thompson figures to have the inside track on tight end,  while Nate L. Smith could be the starting free safety.

inquirer

That’s why it probably would not hurt Temple to take a long look at Tyler Matakevich 2.0 in Archbishop Wood linebacker Sebastian Silva (No. 43 in the above video). Sebastian is 5-11 (two inches shorter than Tyler), weighs 215 pounds and his 4.56 40 is almost 1.5 seconds faster than Tyler’s.



“I really like
this Silva kid.
He could be another
Tyler Matakevich.”
_ Steve Conjar

“His No. 1 school
choice is Temple.”
_ Frank Pacifico

“I really like this Silva kid,” former Temple tackling leader Steve Conjar said. “He could be another Tyler Matakevich.” Conjar has an acumen for picking out great linebackers. On the day a freshman Matakevich made a tackle for a 3-yard loss that saved a win over South Florida, Conjar said: “You watch. This kid will break all of my records.” That was 492 tackles ago.

Former Temple quarterback Frank Pacifico added this:  “He’s aggressive, fearless, athletic, has incredible mental toughness, is intelligent and above all, a real class kid. His number 1 school choice is Temple.”

On top of that, the Owls have been twisting Wood quarterback Anthony Russo’s arm to de-commit from the dumpster fire that is Rutgers’ football but, for some unknown reason—maybe misplaced loyalty—Russo has been reluctant to do so.

The closest Russo came to a Temple flip was when Marcus Satterfield came to visit.

 

Now Satterfield is gone, so Temple needs an inside guy to prod Russo to make the right decision to play in the same stadium the Eagles play in and for a winning team, not a losing one. Temple needs Anthony Russo more than Rutgers does. Anthony Russo needs Temple more than he does Rutgers.  It is, quite simply, a better fit . All of the family, friends and fans of Archbishop Wood will have an easier time getting to the Linc than Piscataway to watch Russo. Plus, he would be playing in a  town where he will most likely make his living in the business world. That could be legendary and would certainly beat setting up a shingle in the toxic waste dump that is Northern New Jersey.

Silva could make that case to Russo from the inside of the walls on Old York Road and, in the process, become for Temple’s future what Walker and Thomas are for Temple now.

Maybe in five years, we won’t know who is better: Russo or Silva, Silva or Russo. If it’s the kind of debate that exists now with Jahad and P.J., it would be a nice problem to have.

01.09.16
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Powerball Could Yield Best TU Stadium

power

Without a large endowment or big-ticket donors, fans of the Temple football team will have to hope one of the school’s season ticket holders hits Saturday’s $800 million Powerball Jackpot because the school’s current plans to build a stadium are woefully inadequate.

Then, they have to hope that fan has a large and generous heart and a warm and fuzzy feeling toward Matt Rhule’s team.

Temple is planning on spending $100 million to build an on-campus stadium similar in size to Wake Forest’s BB&T Stadium and that is just not good enough if the Owls hope to position their football team into a Power 5 Conference a few years down the line. Wake Forest’s stadium seats 31,700 and that is the smallest of the P5 schools, just ahead of fellow ACC member Duke (33,941) and Pac-12 member Washington State (32,952).

apollo

The difference between those schools and Temple is that all three of them have been grandfathered into the P5, charter members of established conferences long before the latest round of musical chairs added some new money from a former Big East school like Louisville. The schools Louisville left behind became the AAC, of which Temple is now a member. Louisville brought with it a 55,000-seat stadium that was filled on a regular basis.

No new teams bring 30,000-seat stadiums and surely the Owls’ administration has to be smart enough t realize that.  Fellow AAC teams with P5 aspirations bring larger stadiums, as Memphis seats 61,008, Connecticut 40,642, Houston 40,000 and Cincinnati 35,097. Temple is going to have to build a stadium of similar size or its entire athletic program could be marginalized into oblivion when the P5 splits from the G5, a fate many believe is inevitable.

That’s why the athletic department fund raisers are certain to check the roll of season ticket holders against the names of the Powerball winners next week. It could be their last best hope to build a functional stadium.

Tomorrow: Package Deals

01.08.16
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Lurie Doesn’t Have to Look Far For Best Guy

chipmatt

“This is a pretty sweet gig, Matt, you should think about it.”

 

If Jeffrey Lurie, the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, is to be believed, then he really does not have to look far to find the next coach of his team. Lurie can grab a pair of binoculars, walk outside of his office at Lincoln Financial Field, and look four miles up North Broad Street. If he can see past City Hall, his guy is just north of there.

That’s where he will find Matt Rhule, the current head coach of the Temple Owls, who seems to fit all of the criteria Lurie outlined when he described his vision for the next Eagles’ coach. If Lurie was carrying a notepad around, Rhule certainly would earn a lot of checkmarks.

Smart, strategic, thinker? Check. Communicator who understands Philadelphia fan base? Check. Attention to detail and NFL experience? Check. Personal style of leadership that relates to players? Check.

No one knows if the NFL is in Rhule’s future, but he gave a clue in a four-hour appearance on 97.5 Thursday. A caller asked him if he’d rather have the Alabama job or the New York Giants’ job and he didn’t flinch. “Giants,” he said. “Temple is the only college job I want.”

Matt's communications skills passed the ultimate test with Sam Ponder.

Matt’s communications skills passed the ultimate test with Sam Ponder.

With all the clowns Lurie is bringing in for an interview–including a Chicago Bears’ assistant who is four years younger–he’d be crazy for not picking up  the phone and making a local call before the Giants do.

Lurie said he wanted a smart, strategic, thinker, who looks out for the long-term interests of the organization, and Rhule certainly has proven to be that in taking the Owls from 2-10 to 10-4 in three years. He did it by recruiting two- and three-star athletes, giving most of them a red-shirt year to get stronger and faster and he sacrificed short-term gain for long-term goals.  There are no redshirts in the NFL, but the thought process should be appreciated.

Lurie also said he wanted a communicator and anyone who saw Rhule talking to Sam Ponder on ESPN College Football’s Game Day knows Rhule certainly is that. He wanted someone who knows what it is like to coach the Eagles, and understands the fan base of Philadelphia, and Rhule gets a checkmark for that as well. If you can concentrate enough to give a coherent answer while looking at Samantha, you are a great communicator.

Lurie mentioned attention to detail and, as an assistant to Tom Coughlin in 2012 with the New York Giants, Rhule said that was his biggest takeaway, an attention to detail. Lastly, Lurie wants a personal style of leadership that relates to players and is not aloof.

With those comments, Lurie made clear he was looking for the anti-Chip Kelly—in other words, Matt Rhule.

01.02.16
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5 Plays We’d Like to See More Of in 2016

This would be a great first play on 9/17, P.J. to Cortrelle Simpson.

When Temple head coach Matt Rhule scraped the multiple receiver formations used in the 2014 season, that was a major step forward that resulted in 400 points in 14 games, the most points scored by an Owl team since the 1979 team scored 399 in two fewer games. Now, with some minor tweaking, the 2016 team appears to be talented enough to score more. These are five tweaks.

thompson

When you have a 4* TE, got to get him ball more than 1x per game.

  1. Seam Pass to Tight Ends

That is the same pass former Florida recruit Colin Thompson went for 53 yards down the middle in the Memphis, the 12th game.  It also went for 37 yards to Kip Patton in the Penn State game, the first game.  In between, it was not called much, if at all. Thompson is a four-star recruit, while Patton might be the fastest tight end in Temple history. The AAC doesn’t have a rule limiting tight ends to one catch per game. You could not tell that by the way Temple underutilized those weapons in 2015.

rollout

Having P.J. fake, then rollout, makes him much more effective.

  1. Roll Out Deep Throw by P.J. Walker

Walker completed two pinpoint throws of well over 50 yards, but both were in the 2014 season–one at Connecticut and one at Penn State. He was able to do it by rolling away from the pressure where he was better able to see the field. This season, he was strictly a pocket passer. Next season, the Owls should roll him out of the pressure and he won’t have to look over 6-foot-5 pass rushers and he can have a run-pass option.

patton

  1. More Options for Tight Ends

When you have athletes like Thompson and Patton, a seam pass isn’t the only way to get them the ball. Short roll outs by Walker and quick 5-yard passes will get them in space where they can use their running ability much like the Owls did with former tight end Evan Rodriguez (see Maryland game film, 2011). Also a jump pass where Walker takes the snap and feigns a run, jumping just before reaching the line of scrimmage and releasing the ball into the back of the end zone worked for the combination of Chester Stewart and Steve Manieri at Miami (Ohio).

thomascatch

  1. Put Jahad Thomas in Slot

Despite scoring 17 touchdowns and rushing for 1,287 yards, tailback Jahad Thomas was nicked up in the final few games of the season. Keeping him fresh should be a priority and one way to do that would be to put him in the slot, where he can get the ball in space and occasionally run a reverse or two. That will enable talented sophomores Jager Gardner and Ryquell Armstead to emerge as featured backs.

  1. Quarterback Draw

If Walker were not a quarterback, he would make a terrific tailback because of his moves in the open field. Using him as a strictly a pocket passer plays into the hands of the defense. A few designed quarterback draws, in addition to the aforementioned rollouts, would drive opposing defenses crazy and that’s the very definition of a well-designed offense.