Patenaude's Offense

EastboundJacket

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Has anyone done good research into Patenaude's offensive scheme? I read he's "basically installed the Temple playbook", which gives a pretty good indication of what he'll do. But is there any way to dig a little deeper into that and what he's done in the past?

I know we'll run a spread offense, which is great, but I'm curious about whether or not Temple ran the spread option, and whether or not they ever lined up under center. I really prefer we not become a team that's only capable of running plays out of shotgun in the red zone, but that's just me.
 

beej67

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Has anyone done good research into Patenaude's offensive scheme?
It is rote shotgun spread BS, same stuff everybody else runs. The people who hated CPJ will love it when it works, and complain about recruiting when it doesn't. Which is basically what everyone did with the last offense.

The only creative bit I've heard is that he sometimes rolls his slot receiver into the backfield as a RB. Which isn't particularly unusual either honestly.

The death of the death march will make me a bit sad, quite honestly. Loved that death march.
 

EastboundJacket

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It sounds as though it's like Friedgen's system where they'll have a limited number of plays or concepts but run them out of every personnel set or grouping under the sun.
That sounds good but just curious, where is that info coming from? In everything I can find on Temple last year, they ran out of only a few shotgun-based spread formations.
 

ElCidBUZZingFAN

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That is def a component of this. Lots of formations and groupings.
Ya, he mentioned something in a recent interview (perhaps it was the Week 1 Clemson press conference) that led me to believe he believed in the patented Friedgen window dressing and setups.
 

txsting

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It sounds as though it's like Friedgen's system where they'll have a limited number of plays or concepts but run them out of every personnel set or grouping under the sun.
That's a sunshine-y view, but IMO the offense is probably the least innovative thing that we do in the whole program. I do like that P-node retains a lot of option concepts and isn't trying to cram in an offense and play calling that doesn't fit what we can do. Given the depth and talent we have at QB, I expect and desire a healthy dose of QB running. I think CGC said our three QB's rate among the top 25 football players in the program. Therefore, the dropoff from one to another won't be viewed as very high. I think we can take chances and let the QB be the ball carrier in a way that, say, Alabama would be unwilling to do.
 

txsting

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That's a sunshine-y view, but IMO the offense is probably the least innovative thing that we do in the whole program. I do like that P-node retains a lot of option concepts and isn't trying to cram in an offense and play calling that doesn't fit what we can do. Given the depth and talent we have at QB, I expect and desire a healthy dose of QB running. I think CGC said our three QB's rate among the top 25 football players in the program. Therefore, the dropoff from one to another won't be viewed as very high. I think we can take chances and let the QB be the ball carrier in a way that, say, Alabama would be unwilling to do.
When I think about it a bit, I could see it working out better than expected. It's a bit like old times...if we can force teams to commit to stopping the QB ground game, it opens that space in the passing game. Except this time, we're 10x better equipped to attack that weakness.
 

18in32

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It is rote shotgun spread BS, same stuff everybody else runs. The people who hated CPJ will love it when it works, and complain about recruiting when it doesn't. Which is basically what everyone did with the last offense.

The only creative bit I've heard is that he sometimes rolls his slot receiver into the backfield as a RB. Which isn't particularly unusual either honestly.

The death of the death march will make me a bit sad, quite honestly. Loved that death march.
As much juice as I've drunk in recent months, very little of the X's and O's part of football has really impressed me so far. I'm wildly optimistic, of course, but there's nothing in Patenaude's pressers that give the impression there will be anything remarkable in our offense. He's multiple and fits the personnel and so forth – but those are all coaching cliches.
 

wesleyd21

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Agree 100% w/ txsting ^^^

Hopefully we’ll be rolling out our QB’s a lot.
And have several designed runs for those guys.

I wouldn’t expect this year’s OL to do the best job pass protecting.
 

johncu

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He says he runs whatever fits his players the best. I don't think we'll be nearly as creative on offense, but I think we will be better coached to execute the fundamentals and more balanced to attack different weaknesses.

Completely independent of scheme, it's really starting to become evident that some of our previous assistant coaches were not getting the job done. Even though I think we will take a big step back offensively from an X's and O's standpoint, I expect a step forward in execution.
 

smokey_wasp

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As much juice as I've drunk in recent months, very little of the X's and O's part of football has really impressed me so far. I'm wildly optimistic, of course, but there's nothing in Patenaude's pressers that give the impression there will be anything remarkable in our offense. He's multiple and fits the personnel and so forth – but those are all coaching cliches.
Having an unremarkable offense is by design, I think. But it will take some getting used to for our scheme focused fanbase.
 

gtfan088

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I haven't seen anything that blows me away, but I like that he really does seem to tailor the offense to fit his personnel. Basically every coach says they do this, but that's not always true. At Coastal Carolina he essentially transformed the offense from a pass-heavy to a run-heavy offense one year because he lost like three quarterbacks to injury, and was successful in doing so.

Ultimately any offense that is putting up points is exciting to me. Chan Gailey's offense wasn't boring because it was pro style. It was boring because it sucked.
 

ScionOfSouthland

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IIRC the complaint most people had about him is that he was balanced for the sake of balance, often getting away from what is working on a drive/in a game to keep a 50/50 split.
 

Walton

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I watched a few Temple games but not all of them so of course I could have viewed an unrepresentative sample.

Offense:

• In general, it is going to be a big adjustment for the GT fanbase; most of us understood the GT offense and knew how it worked. In most cases, we knew it better than most announcers and other fanbases. So, we have a lot to learn. I might butcher some descriptions below so please correct me.

• Multiple, Multiple: lots of different player packages and lots of different formations.

• When talking about personnel they basically use this number scheme: 21, 11, 20, etc.:
o First digit is the number of Running backs.
o 2nd digit is the number of TEs
o The remainder (5 total skill players) are WRs.
o 21: 2 RBs, 1 TE, 2 WRs
o 20: 2 RBs, 0 TE, 3 WRs

• I think the OC said his base formation is 11 but since we are so RB heavy and TE light you will see more 20, 21.

• They were switching personnel and formations constantly. Sometimes they do go up tempo and didn’t switch much.

• They used a power I formation for short yardage/goal line with QB under center.

• They liked to throw in trick formations or plays. One time they had 3 QBs on the field at one time, 1 of the QBs was in shotgun and another was standing directly behind him. Not sure what the purpose was.

• They used wildcat a few times. We have good running QBs so we might not use this BUT I could see Oliver subbing for Johnson to run this package since he is a dynamic runner. Unlike for most teams, defenses wouldn’t know it was wildcat since the “RB” was a QB.

• Even though they did sub a lot: they had a few key players that got the ball a lot. More or less, if we have great players, they are going to get the ball regularly.

• I think overall, we are going to be a better running team than Temple. I think (hope) our QB play is going to be better overall. Temple did have good WRs.

• It is hard to tell without reviewing the stats but they did seem to play a lot of different players and rotate a lot. They finished well at the end of half and end of game.

• The negative: I thought the QB threw a few stupid INTs and had a lot of passes knocked down at the LOS. Hope it was a talent/experience issue and not a coaching issue.
 

txsting

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I watched a few Temple games but not all of them so of course I could have viewed an unrepresentative sample.

Offense:

• In general, it is going to be a big adjustment for the GT fanbase; most of us understood the GT offense and knew how it worked. In most cases, we knew it better than most announcers and other fanbases. So, we have a lot to learn. I might butcher some descriptions below so please correct me.

• Multiple, Multiple: lots of different player packages and lots of different formations.

• When talking about personnel they basically use this number scheme: 21, 11, 20, etc.:
o First digit is the number of Running backs.
o 2nd digit is the number of TEs
o The remainder (5 total skill players) are WRs.
o 21: 2 RBs, 1 TE, 2 WRs
o 20: 2 RBs, 0 TE, 3 WRs

• I think the OC said his base formation is 11 but since we are so RB heavy and TE light you will see more 20, 21.

• They were switching personnel and formations constantly. Sometimes they do go up tempo and didn’t switch much.

• They used a power I formation for short yardage/goal line with QB under center.

• They liked to throw in trick formations or plays. One time they had 3 QBs on the field at one time, 1 of the QBs was in shotgun and another was standing directly behind him. Not sure what the purpose was.

• They used wildcat a few times. We have good running QBs so we might not use this BUT I could see Oliver subbing for Johnson to run this package since he is a dynamic runner. Unlike for most teams, defenses wouldn’t know it was wildcat since the “RB” was a QB.

• Even though they did sub a lot: they had a few key players that got the ball a lot. More or less, if we have great players, they are going to get the ball regularly.

• I think overall, we are going to be a better running team than Temple. I think (hope) our QB play is going to be better overall. Temple did have good WRs.

• It is hard to tell without reviewing the stats but they did seem to play a lot of different players and rotate a lot. They finished well at the end of half and end of game.

• The negative: I thought the QB threw a few stupid INTs and had a lot of passes knocked down at the LOS. Hope it was a talent/experience issue and not a coaching issue.
Great post. I didn't know power I under center was in the playbook. Love this.
 

EastboundJacket

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I watched a few Temple games but not all of them so of course I could have viewed an unrepresentative sample.

Offense:

• In general, it is going to be a big adjustment for the GT fanbase; most of us understood the GT offense and knew how it worked. In most cases, we knew it better than most announcers and other fanbases. So, we have a lot to learn. I might butcher some descriptions below so please correct me.

• Multiple, Multiple: lots of different player packages and lots of different formations.

• When talking about personnel they basically use this number scheme: 21, 11, 20, etc.:
o First digit is the number of Running backs.
o 2nd digit is the number of TEs
o The remainder (5 total skill players) are WRs.
o 21: 2 RBs, 1 TE, 2 WRs
o 20: 2 RBs, 0 TE, 3 WRs

• I think the OC said his base formation is 11 but since we are so RB heavy and TE light you will see more 20, 21.

• They were switching personnel and formations constantly. Sometimes they do go up tempo and didn’t switch much.

• They used a power I formation for short yardage/goal line with QB under center.

• They liked to throw in trick formations or plays. One time they had 3 QBs on the field at one time, 1 of the QBs was in shotgun and another was standing directly behind him. Not sure what the purpose was.

• They used wildcat a few times. We have good running QBs so we might not use this BUT I could see Oliver subbing for Johnson to run this package since he is a dynamic runner. Unlike for most teams, defenses wouldn’t know it was wildcat since the “RB” was a QB.

• Even though they did sub a lot: they had a few key players that got the ball a lot. More or less, if we have great players, they are going to get the ball regularly.

• I think overall, we are going to be a better running team than Temple. I think (hope) our QB play is going to be better overall. Temple did have good WRs.

• It is hard to tell without reviewing the stats but they did seem to play a lot of different players and rotate a lot. They finished well at the end of half and end of game.

• The negative: I thought the QB threw a few stupid INTs and had a lot of passes knocked down at the LOS. Hope it was a talent/experience issue and not a coaching issue.
Super helpful. Like @txsting said, I didn't know the Power I was in the mix, and I'm excited to hear it.
 

ETBee

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Lots of different personnel and formations? I suppose we can expect to see our share of false starts, delay of games, illegal substitutions, and wasted time outs on Thursday night. We will have to be patient with that.
 
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