Is it just me...

A

Axe

Flats Noob
Joined
Dec 31, 2001
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539
...or is our current offensive attack tailor-made for Bilbo or what? Don't get me wrong I'm not saying the coaches are wrong for going with Suggs. I spent a lot of time at our spring and fall practices and it was obivous that Suggs was far ahead of Bilbo in terms of running the offense.

However, it seems that Bilbo could really be successful with the things we are trying to do right now. We had a lot of succes with the option, etc. How much would Bilbo's mobility add to that success? How about the spread attack. Bilbo's mobility would put a lot more stress on the defense when we run the little draw out of the gun because they really have to respect Bilbo if he keeps it. His cannon arm would come in very handy on some of the quick short passes out of the spread attack. Bilbo also puts a lot more pressure on a defense with his ability to attack the entire field with his arm.

I know many of you(including myself) would say Suggs clearly understands the offense more. He is more likely to avoid the big mistake and sustain drives. I understand that point and agree with it, the only trouble is we lost Saturday because we made the big mistake which cost us 7-14 points and only put 13 points on the board.

FSU went the other way, they went with a young QB that played like one. He only completed 8 passes but made them count. He might not be great at making reads, but the kid has natural talent and used it to hit a beautiful deep ball. The important thing for FSU was the young kid protected the football, go figure. GT goes with the veteran and is bitten by -3 turnover margin.

Suggs might be the best answer we have. I can't second guess the coaching staff. Still, something tells me that Bilbo could really have success running a slightly-watered down verison of the attack we saw Saturday. With the success our ground game has had, I think you can move the football and still keep things simple for Bilbo.
 
One thing I've noticed on Suggs deep passes...Rather than loft it up a little and give the receivers a chance to adjust their speed while the ball is inthe air - he puts very little "air" under the ball, so there is little room for adjustments by the receiver...

Ironically, on shorter, out patterns, he does put more air under the ball, and to me, these are the passes that need more zip.

Just an observation
 
To answer your question that O is perfectly suited for Bilbo. His high school coach at Moss Point swithed from an I-formation to a 5 wide formation for Bilbo's last two years. And it wasn't like they had never had talent QB's before with Kevin Fant directly preceding him and Derek Taite before that (both started at Miss. State). Jerry Alexander (Moss Point's head coach) said Bilbo was the most talented QB he has ever coached and that his strengths were reading defenses and his cannon for an arm. There is a reason Bilbo was the Gatorade national player of the year and rewrote the high school passing record books for Mississippi. I think some of you underestimate Bilbo because he is from Mississippi. But the truth is Mississippi high school football is very good. There are only 2.8 million people in MS (over a million less than Atlanta) and it supports Ole Miss, MSU, and USM and has the very best talent picked out by LSU, Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee. How good do you think UGA and Tech would be if 15 of the top 20 football players from Georgia went out of state. Plus there are only 2 major programs in Georgia and Georgia has about 8 million people. My point is Mississippi has some very good talent and Bilbo was the best. I don't think some of you realize how good he is.
 
I was almost run off the board 2 or 3 weeks ago for stating the same things you each have given to this post. This topic and so far all replys are right on the money and this great reading. Thanks to each one of you for I now feel vindicated!!!!
 
We just have to face it, Techrod, there are some who are just plain out visionaries. You must be one of those who has such powers. That is also called leadership. Some always want to martyr a good corageous leader who is not afraid to step out on a limb. Thanks for the courage to speak your convictions.......

(OF)FOC
 
It is rather ironic that a coach would use the excuse, "Bilbo needs seasoning and his mistakes could cost us the game".

I would say, "Duh", to that remark since we are already losing the games on mistakes.

rolleyes.gif
 
Axe I agree, one would think that Bilbo's physical tools would be effective in this type of attack. Which makes it all the more puzzling that he doesn't seem to be getting it. From what people closer to the program say it seems to me it must be a vision thing. You know, he doesn't see the whole field yet and therefore doesn't make the right reads. There was a comment on another thread where someone said several senior players have said he's not ready. It's a shame, but maybe next year?
 
Axe

As usual, you are right on target.

Would Bilbo have had three TOs ? Maybe, maybe not.
Would we have lost with Bilbo ? Maybe, maybe not.

Would Bilbo be getting invaluable experience for the future ? Yes...

Would Bilbo make some big plays (that we desperately need) ? Absolutely - take that to the bank.

Would Bilbo need a "watered down" offensive package ? Yes, probably....so ?

I WISH I could see the downside of playing Bilbo...If Tech were playing mistake free on offense, I'd have to go with Suggs....But thats not the case.
 
I actually thought we would see more of Bilbo with this type of offense because it definately fits his style, but it has also given AJ more confindence and he has shown improvement with the spread.

However, even though AJ has shown improvement I believe the coaches should be giving Bilbo more game time snaps for a few reasons.

First, he has shown that he can be effective in his limited time this year. Does that mean he will do well when he gets more snaps? I don't know but I think he has done well enough to earn more snaps.

Second, our offense has put up a lot of yards over the past few weeks but we don't have the points to show for it. Someone mentioned that our average points per game in conference is 18.7. I don't think the injuries have killed us too much because we are still putting up nearly 400 yards per game. Bilbo has shown the knack for putting the ball in the endzone when he enters the game. Therefore, it seems logical to insert him into the game and see if he can make some plays and put us in the endzone. Some players just have the ability to put points on the board while others may move the ball but don't put points up.

I'm not the coach and I don't get the privilege of getting to know these kids in practice (and off the field) so I could just be way off base here, but it seems like it couldn't hurt to shake things up a little.
 
I bet BOB and CG know the plays better than anyone. But that doesn't mean they have the skills to step off the practice field and into a game and execute those plays successfully.

You can't always judge how someone will perform on game day by how they practice. Wish you could, it would make it easier to judge talent and potential.

If the best quarterback is playing, it does not appear that the plays have been designed around his game day strengths and weaknesses.
 
I like your thinking in this post. You're not alone! It's not just you. As this offense has taken form, I've thought the same thing.

Much appreciated how your post above was stated. You didn't blast the players or coaches, but you brought out issues and thoughts that are great for discussion. I don't second guess the coaches either. Message boards are simple a poor place to do such. That's my opinion.

Bilbo does some things with his legs as weapons that most qb's can not. He's not shown me to be a natural option qb with darting quick feet, but that's not to say he couldn't be taught to run the option well. Eric Crouch wasn't a quick feet guy as well. It's all about reading the corner, ball handling, making the D commit, decission making, and rythem with the pitch. Where Hamilton was really natural because of his quick feet, Bilbo is big strong and fast with a cannon of an arm.

There is so much Bilbo can do in a spread type offense. The ball gets to the corner and sideline quickly because of his arm. He rolls out and throws on the run well.

If we concentrated on moving the chains while baiting the safties up and picking the right times the stretch the field, I feel very confident in Bilbo running the offense we've seen lately. Not to be critical of coaches, but I sure would like to see us try to get the ball down the field in some way rather than a fly pattern on one on one. I know the match up is there. Can see that plainly. It's not something we do well. It's a hard catch over the shoulder. It's a touch pass which we don't seem to do well. That and the fad pattern in the end zone are just not our strengths. Oh yeah, the match ups are there. If we can't do it well why even try. There are other ways to stretch the field that are different types of throws. Are we scared to go over top of safeties and LB's when they are in the box? I don't know. The throws over the middle are easier throws and catch if the coverage is rolled up.

Like what I see out of the running game. Sometimes I feel like we get away from it though. Honestly we've moved the ball well most of this entire year. When we've had trouble it's making the big play stretching the field and scoring a TD in the red zone. Turnovers and penalties haven't helped, but we've kicked far too many field goals when we haven't made turnovers and penalties as well.

Ok, Axe, I got completely away from subject. Nice Post! I think this offense is evolving to fit Bilbo well.

Go Jackets!
 
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