You hire these rising guys when they are on their way up or you never get a chance to hire them at all.
Kade Bell - New OC - OFFICIAL
- Thread starter Burgh15
- Start date
I'm a vocal critic of Dooz, and I agree he deserves his credit for this. This hire is refreshing news.
I won't get into the same things that others have said before. I did find their 2022 game against Georgia Tech online (missing the 1st WCU possession, which was an 89 yard TD drive). WCU had 271 yards passing on 7.7 YPA across two QBs. Not bad. Couldn't get anything going in the run game. Kept it 14-14 until the 2nd quarter and then got overwhelmed by GT's size. Gave up over 7 yards per rush to the Yellow Jackets so I can't fault the WCU offense for this.
1st play: 11 personnel. full left with TE off the line. RB in pistol. WR runs motion right before the snap (which I love). QB zone read. Handoff to RB who reads LB in the gap and bounces outside for a 15 yard gain.
2nd play: same personnel but bunch left with TE totally covered by the OT/WR (interesting, the Dolphins and 49ers do this a lot). Another zone read behind LT. QB gives it, gain of 6.
3rd play: no huddle, snap with 20 seconds on the clock. Same personnel. Flair with 2 WR to the right and WR and TE to the left. TE again deeper than the OT. TE and one WR to the right ran double flats, the WR ran double curls. I like this concept. Lots of easy looks. Both curl WR were actually wide open and those were the correct reads. Went flat left instead, TE still catches it for 7.
4th play: no huddle again, snap with 12 seconds again. Same personnel. Again full left with a WR stacked just inside the other. WR on the right runs a corner. He is wide open. Nice ball, even put it low to protect the WR from the safety. Hits WR right in hands on a sliding catch (it's probably hip high). Right through both hands and dropped. Ruled an INT but easily overturned.
5th play. Similar formation except WR on the left is now deeper than TE. He goes in motion right before snap (again, I love it). GT is in zone again. This is a run action and ends up being a screen to the RB. WR are blocking downfield just a split second early but they get away with it because QB timing on pass was still good. Pass a bit too high (RB is very small) and incomplete. Looked like it could have been a nice - 5+ - yard gain.
6th play. 10 personnel. WR stacked to the left again with the guy who has been split end now 4 yards deep (interesting). Motion him to the TE spot on right. GT in man for once. They run everything deep (corner, sluggo, something weird that is really just not a route at all. Absolutely nothing open. QB steps into pocket and finds RB in flat who is WIDE OPEN and he takes it upfield for 30. Maybe this QB is a running threat because GT looked like it had 2 LBs both spying. The WR motion into a TE may have messed with GT's LB assignments. RB just got lost.
7th play. Very weird formation. It's almost 31 with a WR lined up right off the RT, a WR lined up at that backfield TE spot, and then another WR lined up to the right of him. Very unique. They motion the outer TE right before the snap (11 seconds left). RPO. Nobody picks him up. WR on the left runs a corner and takes the safety. Other WR runs a...nothing. Literally didn't run anything. Max protect with inner TE and RB. This play was designed as 1, maybe 2 reads for QB. TE wide open in the left flat on a wheel, 22 yard TD.
I'm stopping now but these first few plays were interesting. Stuff I liked was that it's a lot of the same stuff dressed up. They used 11 on almost every play but they moved their personnel all over the place so it looks like 21, 31, etc. but it's really just 11 the whole time. The QB generally made the correct reads, especially on the money downs. Loved the pre-snap motion as it seemed to confuse the hell out of GT's LB assignments. There seemed to be an answer on every play and the QB knew how to find it. That's good.
I think this offense will cause a lot of stress on the LBs and S. Maybe that's why Duzz loves it so much.
1st play: 11 personnel. full left with TE off the line. RB in pistol. WR runs motion right before the snap (which I love). QB zone read. Handoff to RB who reads LB in the gap and bounces outside for a 15 yard gain.
2nd play: same personnel but bunch left with TE totally covered by the OT/WR (interesting, the Dolphins and 49ers do this a lot). Another zone read behind LT. QB gives it, gain of 6.
3rd play: no huddle, snap with 20 seconds on the clock. Same personnel. Flair with 2 WR to the right and WR and TE to the left. TE again deeper than the OT. TE and one WR to the right ran double flats, the WR ran double curls. I like this concept. Lots of easy looks. Both curl WR were actually wide open and those were the correct reads. Went flat left instead, TE still catches it for 7.
4th play: no huddle again, snap with 12 seconds again. Same personnel. Again full left with a WR stacked just inside the other. WR on the right runs a corner. He is wide open. Nice ball, even put it low to protect the WR from the safety. Hits WR right in hands on a sliding catch (it's probably hip high). Right through both hands and dropped. Ruled an INT but easily overturned.
5th play. Similar formation except WR on the left is now deeper than TE. He goes in motion right before snap (again, I love it). GT is in zone again. This is a run action and ends up being a screen to the RB. WR are blocking downfield just a split second early but they get away with it because QB timing on pass was still good. Pass a bit too high (RB is very small) and incomplete. Looked like it could have been a nice - 5+ - yard gain.
6th play. 10 personnel. WR stacked to the left again with the guy who has been split end now 4 yards deep (interesting). Motion him to the TE spot on right. GT in man for once. They run everything deep (corner, sluggo, something weird that is really just not a route at all. Absolutely nothing open. QB steps into pocket and finds RB in flat who is WIDE OPEN and he takes it upfield for 30. Maybe this QB is a running threat because GT looked like it had 2 LBs both spying. The WR motion into a TE may have messed with GT's LB assignments. RB just got lost.
7th play. Very weird formation. It's almost 31 with a WR lined up right off the RT, a WR lined up at that backfield TE spot, and then another WR lined up to the right of him. Very unique. They motion the outer TE right before the snap (11 seconds left). RPO. Nobody picks him up. WR on the left runs a corner and takes the safety. Other WR runs a...nothing. Literally didn't run anything. Max protect with inner TE and RB. This play was designed as 1, maybe 2 reads for QB. TE wide open in the left flat on a wheel, 22 yard TD.
I'm stopping now but these first few plays were interesting. Stuff I liked was that it's a lot of the same stuff dressed up. They used 11 on almost every play but they moved their personnel all over the place so it looks like 21, 31, etc. but it's really just 11 the whole time. The QB generally made the correct reads, especially on the money downs. Loved the pre-snap motion as it seemed to confuse the hell out of GT's LB assignments. There seemed to be an answer on every play and the QB knew how to find it. That's good.
I think this offense will cause a lot of stress on the LBs and S. Maybe that's why Duzz loves it so much.
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I was responding to this post, which is nonsensical:
If he can convince all those skilled players in south Florida to come to Pitt instead of FSU, Miami or UF,
Hopefully, that answers your question.
For sure a bit over the top but his offense and his tied in Fla should be helpful to get some talent in Fla much like Charlie P on D
Of course, Chaney never ran the spread again after Purdue and his first NFL stint. Not at Tennessee, Arkansas, Pitt or UGA. He wasn't hired to run the spread at Pitt, and he didn't run the spread at Pitt.
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We won't be competing for or getting the south Florida players that FSU, U of F, and Miami want.
Never have, never will. This hire, while a very good one IMO, will not change that.
I wasn’t implying that but we should be able to get some offensive players out of Fla much like Charlie P has. Although with Nil that may be more difficult
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Guess the next question is, will this guy light a fire under recruiting on the offensive side of the ball? He could have the best system in the world but he's going to need some playmakers.
My comment, which did appear extreme was not intended that way. Merely with his ties there it would be nice to tap the south Florida market for skilled position players.
One thing I loved in one of his videos was saying they could play fast at 90 plays a game or slow down to 70 plays a game.
Playing at higher tempo gives you a ton of advantages including more opportunities to get the ball in the hands of your playmakers.
Jurassic Cignetti has Pitt as the 3rd lowest offensive plays per game in division 1 averaging 60 plays per game and even worse over the last 3.
I would have preferred Mack Leftwich but Pitt doesn't really recruit Texas so go with the Florida guy and trust talent.
And to hell with the 70s control the clock run the clock offenses.
College Football Stats - College FB Team Plays per Game | TeamRankings.com
College Football plays per game, by team.www.teamrankings.com
Yeah, I thought playing slow negatively affected our 2022 season. The way I've heard coaches describe it, if you have a talent advantage you want to run as many plays as possible, because the theory is that you will "win" more plays when you have more talent. I'm sure it's not an exact science and it depends on other variables as well, but that always made more sense to me.
Hopefully dumb ass Duzz doesn't water his offense down to protect his precious D, and he goes 100% fully all way exactly like whatever he did at Western Carolina.
Either that or Heather had a microscope so far up his backside during this process that she could see his tonsils 🤣. Either way I'm encouraged by this hire. Especially how it might attract kids. No disrespect to Cignetti but no one wanted to play in that offense.
I would have liked to have seen C'Bo in this offense. Dude was dynamic in space.
... so of course Cignetti decided it was best to ram him between the tackles for no gain all day.
Promise recruits that it will be fun city, not boo city, tossing the ball all over the yard super-fast, running and gunning, all day long, nobody wants to go somewhere to pound the rock and control the clock or any kind of boring, obsolete garbage like that.
It will be boo city if the passes are incomplete and it's 3 and out in 24 seconds, repeatedly, fwiw.
That's fine with me, I want to play that way and risk that happening. I won't complain, in fact I'll just say keep doing it, never go back to that slow. old school garbage.
They run plenty. I watched 7 snaps against GT and every single play was either a zone read by the QB or an RPO. They're going to be a threat to run the ball on every single down. It won't be our dumb shotgun offense with Jurkovic.
There’s two arguments to playing fast:
1. Talented teams should want to increase plays. This is why you don’t see a ton of upsets in the NBA playoffs. Too many plays run over the course of the series. Or why a lot of classic college basketball upsets involved games before the shot clock.
2. Force teams to go with personnel decisions and then you attack the opposite. This strategy would be irrelevant to talent advantage. This is more like what Heupel does. Spread you and force you to make a personnel decision. DB heavy or front line heavy. Then the play call is based on what you choose to do. So in theory you’re always at a disadvantage pre-snap because your personnel is already not set up to stop what we’re going to do.
Yeah, I likened him to Dion when he hit the second level of defenders - not often enough I guess.
Kelly had also been an OC for a long time, running his offense. And then went to be OC for a team that was being led by what most considered an elite offensive mind.
The concern with Bell is not just that he doesn’t have any FBS experience, he doesn’t have much experience period. And he isn’t necessarily the genius behind it. Western Carolina probably doesn’t care much about losing the son, because the offense is the father’s. Much like Oregon probably wouldn’t have cared if Kelly lost his OC during their run.
Now, I think Kendall Briles is the best OC in college football. So certainly a son stepping out of the shadow of his dad and running the offense just as well, can work.
But there’s always a concern when you’re hiring the OC of an offensive HC, and to what extent that OC is actually the offensive genius making it work.
But Bellotti didn’t start running a spread offense until 2005, and hired Kelly in 2007 to have him install and run it at Oregon. Kelly became the HC of Oregon in 2009.
Of course there is a risk with hiring someone like Bell. But there were several D1 schools looking at him this year. I think the fact that he is the son of an NFL player, head football coach, and was a QB himself with some OC experience is a good thing.
There would be a risk in hiring anyone. I’d rather go with some young, hungry coach who likes to score points and run a modern more players want to play in, then the ball control offense Pitt has had in the past (minus a few seasons). Narduzzi knows there can be no more seasons like this, or that’s it for him. Most teams can’t just line up and muscle their way to wins because they don’t have the year in and year out talent like Alabama, Georgia, etc do.
Pitt wasn’t gonna get a guy with a lot of experience running a highly productive offense. Plus even if Bell didn’t design the offense, he has been working with it for years and has been the one calling the plays the last couple.
This may not work out, that’s always a risk with a OC hire, but this was the direction Pitt needed to go in. Hopefully if all goes well in 2 years we’re constantly worried about trying to hold onto him.
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That's fine, as long as running doesn't mean a stretch handoff 7 yards deep in the backfield that everyone can see developing 2 hours before kickoff.
Because if you can't complete passes or move the ball then uptempo at least allows you to try to adjust. The defense got spent last year just as much if not worse then the acc champ year .
He will definitely appeal to offensive playmakers. He's already paid dividends: Kenny Johnson withdrew from the transfer portal. I think Kenny has superstar potential in Kade Bell's offense.
I'm also happy that he's a former QB who's used to winning. Time will tell, but I'm very happy with this hire and looking forward to the season.
I'm also happy that he's a former QB who's used to winning. Time will tell, but I'm very happy with this hire and looking forward to the season.
Was Kenny Johnson in the transfer portal? I saw where he announced he was coming back. I just thought it strange and an example of what college FB has come to, a true freshman having to announce he’s coming back.
But it makes sense if he had previously announced he was entering the transfer portal. I guessed I missed that prior announcement.
He was never in the portal. I hate that this is what CFB has become. Guys needing to announce they are coming back through the collective account.
This isn't about the players making the announcement. Alliance 412 is his sponsor. This is no different than Lowes announcing they were sponsoring Jimmy Johnson in NASCAR.
No, the guys aren't in the portal. It's literally a tweet saying they are coming back. It's just annoying this is where the sport is right now.
They are trying to get more people to subscribe to Alliance 412. That’s why they are posted this stuff.
I believe it is a good hire, I was responding to the notion that people love teams that throw , go fast etc.,because in truth the bottom line is winning , that is the only thing that keeps most fans happy.........'79 says he cares not about winning only that they have offense miles away from "three yards and a cloud of dust" ( my interpretation of what he meant)
