Offensive changes betwen GOL and Gailey?

[GTKyle]

What are the major offensive changes that occured in the playbook between GOL -> Gailey -> Nix -> Bond?

Just curious.

 

[knoxjacket]

Our offense went from explosive to comatose in a relatively short amount of time.

 

[BarrelORum]

Our offense was all world under Friedgen. We were consistently at the top or the top of the country with our offense. I think in 1998 we finished the season with the #1 offense.

When Friedgen departed, we had a better than average offense, but I remember our Bill O'Brien the OC going into the LSU bowlgame (first game without The Fridge) and after looking pretty solid first half, we looked like dogsh*t in the second half.

2001 followed and we did better than average as an offense with O'Leary and O'Brien as OC. We had definitely taken a step down from Fridge to OBrien, but O'Brien still had a respectable offense.

In 2002 OBrien was again above average. Gailey was at the helm, and he had some serious personnel issues at RB. Hollings who in my opinion WOULD have been the best RB in a single season for GT, got injured and we hit the wall offensively. OBrien was still ok, but apparetly he clashed greatly with Gailey.

2003 OBrien moved onto Duke and Gailey ran the helm for two years as Coach/OC. We started really sucking in my opinion. Had a decent running game, but our passing game was pedestrian at best. Its been much of the same the last few years.

Gailey is a ball control rushing pro offense. You don't see a lot of plays where we are spreading another team out. Friedgen was really in my opinion the guy who really started the Spread Option. But Friedgen was versatile, he liked to run all kinds of formations. He was big time into the triple option spread when Joe Hamilton was QB, and he liked a lot of play action as well. Watching his offense, you were definitely getting your money's worth.

O'Brien was a poor man's Friedgen (a very poor man might I add). We didn't run an option spread under OBrien all that often. OBrien though relied heavily on passes in the middle of the field in the seams, and we didn't have the talent to run much of that.

The best way I can put it is that Fridge's offense was like getting ready to light the biggest fire cracker in your bag. OBrien's offense was like lighting a roman candle. And Gailey's offense is like lighting a damp sparkler.

 

[beej67]

What are the major offensive changes that occured in the playbook between GOL -> Gailey -> Nix -> Bond?

Just curious.

I don't think you can put GOL on the list. As I see it, it goes like this:

Freidgen->O'Brian->Gailey->Nix->Bond

Freidgen spent 80 hours a week designing plays and being a hardass about execution, knowing if he went batsh*t enough on schemes and matchups he could finally, after a zillion years in football, earn himself a HC job at some middle of the road college and afford a lake house as good as George's on Lake Burton.

O'Brian learned some stuff from Freidgen, but had a uncanny knack for calling 4 yard plays when we needed 5.

Gailey could have been as good as Fridge if he could have spent more than 15 hours a week at OCing. Didn't trust anyone after O'Brian, shoulda passed the job off earlier than he did.

Nix read a lot of books and whatnot to stay ahead of the game as far as things like Texas style spread option goes. I probably would have gotten along well the most with Nix, because I'm a big offense nerd who doesn't really know what the f*ck he's talking about. At least I admit it. Nix got lucky playing rock-paper-scissor vs Miami and lucked into a fat job in Coral Gables. Lucker.

Bond I ain't so sure about yet.

 

[ramblinwise1]

Wasn't GOL's lakehouse on Lake Oconee?

 

[beej67]

I think in 1998 we finished the season with the #1 offense.

99 was better. In 99 we AVERAGED over ten yards on FIRST DOWN.

..except for the turnovers that gave us losses to Wake Forest and UVA.

Watching his offense, you were definitely getting your money's worth.

Watching Fridge's offense was like heaven. The closest thing I've ever seen is what WVU is doing now, but really, it's not even close. Fridge was like WVU with creativity and class. You can tell pretty much what WVU is going to do when they line up on offense, not so for 98 and especially 99 Tech football. Fridge would line up in the wishbone on 3rd and 8 and other DCs jaws would drop, and then we'd run the ball 10 yards with near impunity. Fridge's offense was quite simply the most incredible offense that has ever been devised in football, ever.

It's really a shame, for any offensive coordinators to come along in the future, honestly. They'll never match up, and us internet DB junkies will never be happy with what they do.

I like this whole Wildcat offense thingy we did vs ND. Wish we'd have maybe tried it a little more vs BC and UVA.


One note about the 99 offense, both of our WRs ran sub 4.4 40s and both could catch one handed. Our QB ran a 4.5, and threw the best fade I've ever seen. Put that in any offensive system and it's libel to reach critical mass.

 

[beej67]

Wasn't GOL's lakehouse on Lake Oconee?

Maybe it's Chan's that's on Burton. I'm not sure. One's on Burton by god. JTS knows the answer.

 

[mm42]

The '99 offense was indeed #1 in the country, 509 yards per game. We were #2 in scoring offense, behind Beamerball thanks to all their defensive and special teams scores.

 

[GT65_UGA89]

Which season was it that the defense had a string of something like 7 or 8 straight games of scoring on a turnover? The streak may have even taken place over 2 consecutive seasons. Seems like that was around the late '90s --possibly 2000-01.

 

[BarrelORum]

1998 we had a crap load of Defensive TD's.

 

[GTKyle]

Dang, I wish I went to school at tech during 1998-1999, that would have been awesome.

 

[ASimPerson]

I wonder how many people at the time realized how great those offenses were considering that the defenses were terrible. In 1999 we allowed 30.08 points/game.

For reference, last year we allowed 18.36 points/game.

2000 was a much better season in that regard, and perhaps provides some inspiration for this year: after starting 2-2 with losses to FSU and NC State, Tech reeled off 7 straight wins (including Clemson and Georgia) before losing LSU in the Peach Bowl.

 

[beej67]

I wonder how many people at the time realized how great those offenses were considering that the defenses were terrible. In 1999 we allowed 30.08 points/game.

For reference, last year we allowed 18.36 points/game.

2000 was a much better season in that regard, and perhaps provides some inspiration for this year: after starting 2-2 with losses to FSU and NC State, Tech reeled off 7 straight wins (including Clemson and Georgia) before losing LSU in the Peach Bowl.

That Clemson game was a farce.

 

[knoxjacket]

I wonder how many people at the time realized how great those offenses were considering that the defenses were terrible. In 1999 we allowed 30.08 points/game.

For reference, last year we allowed 18.36 points/game.

2000 was a much better season in that regard, and perhaps provides some inspiration for this year: after starting 2-2 with losses to FSU and NC State, Tech reeled off 7 straight wins (including Clemson and Georgia) before losing LSU in the Peach Bowl.

...and the ACC offenses of the past couple of years have been even worse than those defenses.

 

[midatlantech]

GTKyle, Go to the Louisville Board and ask those students how they feel right now. They're all offense and no defense and that's exactly what it was like here those years. We'd scratch our way near the top and then lose to Wake Forest.

 

[beej67]

GTKyle, Go to the Louisville Board and ask those students how they feel right now. They're all offense and no defense and that's exactly what it was like here those years. We'd scratch our way near the top and then lose to Wake Forest.

Yup.

I remember yelling "just go ahead and let them score, so we'll have enough time to score again!"

Every game reduced to whoever had the ball last won, it seemed like. We'd lose games by scoring too fast, and leaving the other team with the last drive.

 

[goldeagle]

RAlph,GOL, and Beamer all have houses on the same cove at Lake Oconee in the area near Cuscowilla/Reynolds Plantation.

 

[beej67]

Must be Chan who's on Burton then.

 

[00Burdell]

Dang, I wish I went to school at tech during 1998-1999, that would have been awesome.

Best offense I have ever seen.

Fridge's philosophy was/is to be able to run any play out of any formation. When we would snap the ball, you could see linebackers freeze like a blind man being attacked by bats - not sure where to swing or which way to run.

And you never, ever heard a fan say "I knew we were going to run that play." No. No one ever knew until we were ten yards downfield.

It got to the point where I just expected to be up 21-0 with five minutes left in the first quarter. No matter who we were playing.

Just to give you an idea, when Fridge would come up with a new play, you'd see Spurrier at Florida running that play three weeks later.

And its nice to have your offense featured on the cover of a book on the subject:

 

[beej67]

Fridge's philosophy was/is to be able to run any play out of any formation.

His terminology supposedly centered around it. If you have 30 plays, and you can run any of them out of 5 formations, then that means 150 plays you can call. So then you call the formation to stress the mismatch and call the play to suit the situation. That's the theory anyways. It's clearly not working for him at Maryland - that or he's just to busy as a head coach to spend the 80 hours a week focusing on offense like he used to at Tech. Same problem Chan had as a HC calling plays.

This is accurate too:

And you never, ever heard a fan say "I knew we were going to run that play."

We lined up in wishbone on 3rd and 8. Nuff said.

But I call BS on this:

It got to the point where I just expected to be up 21-0 with five minutes left in the first quarter. No matter who we were playing.

It got to the point where I expected to be 21-21 in the first quarter, no matter who we were playing. :P