Ollison

[The Loaded Italian]

By the way... think we saw today why he isnt in all the time.

My god, the guy needs to work hard on blocking. He whiffs more than Chris Davis of the Orioles.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

He also averaged 2.7 yards per carry.

 

[#99HUGHgreen]

I will agree that Ollison does need to get better with blocking, but then Chaney just shouldn't put him in on pass plays.

Ollison was not given the chance to shine when he was hot in the beginning. That's a fact. Once again.

His 2.7 yards is very deceiving.

ND could not stop Ollison on that early series. He was ripping off 5+ gains one after another up the middle until, once again, Chaney (for no logical reason) abandoned it.

Even my ND buddy texted me saying, "What's up with your OC giving up on Ollison up the middle. We couldn't stop him."

Then finally, when Chaney went back to Ollison, he didn't call a play for him up the middle but rather that ridiculous sweep to the short side of the field that makes absolutely no sense and never works. Surprise- Ollison gets minus 2 yards. Brilliant Chaney.

While he did call a few nice trick plays in the first half, Chaney still doesn't get that you can't run a successful game plan just on trIck plays.

Then later, Pitt gets the ball inside the 4 yard line and instead of the no brainier call of Olisson up the middle (twice if necessary), he calls two pass plays with a much low percentage of success. While I was shaking my head, I got another text from my ND buddy saying, "this OC doesn't like taking the easy points, does he."

Then instead of giving Ollison more reps to see if he can break one.... Chaney decided to switch to James and later to A running back by committee plan.

I didn't listen to any post game remarks yet, but if Chaney mentions again about "going with who was hot" at RB instead of admitting he abandon the run play when it was hot, I hope the media is smart enough to call him on it.

- again, he abandoned the run game (with Ollison) while he was hot in the beginning of the game.

- again his offense scores only 3 points in the first half,

- again, he missed easy opportunities at getting 7 near goal line.

I'm sorry, Pitt could easily have won two more games if not for the bad play calling and other misuse of the offense by Chaney (though to be fair we may still very possibly have lost this game in a close one even without him mucking things up).

 

[Pittx9]

I'm sorry, Pitt could easily have won two more games if not for the bad play calling and other misuse of the offense by Chaney (though to be fair we may still very possibly have lost this game in a close one even without him mucking things up).

100% agree. I'm all for getting the ball to Boyd, but the sweep to him that worked today was probably the first all season that worked and they run that play about once every single series. Also, why is the deep ball not getting thrown to Boyd until late in this game when we're down big? Yeah, we throw some passes like that from the 25 yard line to Boyd that usually don't work, but I'm talking bombing it downfield to him like we saw once today.

Today, I don't know. Still a lot of head-scratching moments, but probably Chaney's best game called so far (not high standards.) I will never be convinced that we still lose to UNC though if he keeps Ollison in. He could've called an Ollison dive up the middle from the UNC defensive huddle and they still wouldn't have stopped him. IMO Chaney has been doing an absolutely terrible, terrible job this season.

 

[vegasgreed]

Chaney is the highest paid assistant, is he the weak link of the staff?

 

[Pittx9]

Chaney is the highest paid assistant, is he the weak link of the staff?

I'd say IMO that's beyond obvious. Conklin is going to be a highly sought after coordinator very soon, Pitt may have to pay Chaney to just go away. Also I'd say all the position coaches are doing a decent job all things considered. Take for example, it's not Harley's fault he inherited a team with less then stellar LB talent, I think he's coached them up actually extremely well considering last year if a LB made a tackle it was usually after the other team already crossed the goal line.

I really do get that Narduzzi is a new head coach and a defensive guy, so that is probably why Chaney has full control of the offense. But that strategy has backfired terribly. It's basically allowing him to do whatever dumb things he wants to do, then Narduzzi gets grilled by the media about it.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

His 2.7 yards is very deceiving.

ND could not stop Ollison on that early series. He was ripping off 5+ gains one after another up the middle until, once again, Chaney (for no logical reason) abandoned it.

On Pitt's first series Ollison ran the ball three times for nine yards. On Pitt's second series Ollison ran the ball twice for nine more yards. For all the 5+ gains that were coming one after another Ollison's longest run of the day was...

6 yards. Once.

At some level I'd like to see Ollison be given a bigger load carrying the ball too. But today 2.7 yards per carry defined his day pretty darn well.

 

[thebadby2]

I will agree that Ollison does need to get better with blocking, but then Chaney just shouldn't put him in on pass plays.

Ollison was not given the chance to shine when he was hot in the beginning. That's a fact. Once again.

His 2.7 yards is very deceiving.

ND could not stop Ollison on that early series. He was ripping off 5+ gains one after another up the middle until, once again, Chaney (for no logical reason) abandoned it.

Even my ND buddy texted me saying, "What's up with your OC giving up on Ollison up the middle. We couldn't stop him."

Then finally, when Chaney went back to Ollison, he didn't call a play for him up the middle but rather that ridiculous sweep to the short side of the field that makes absolutely no sense and never works. Surprise- Ollison gets minus 2 yards. Brilliant Chaney.

While he did call a few nice trick plays in the first half, Chaney still doesn't get that you can't run a successful game plan just on trIck plays.

Then later, Pitt gets the ball inside the 4 yard line and instead of the no brainier call of Olisson up the middle (twice if necessary), he calls two pass plays with a much low percentage of success. While I was shaking my head, I got another text from my ND buddy saying, "this OC doesn't like taking the easy points, does he."

Then instead of giving Ollison more reps to see if he can break one.... Chaney decided to switch to James and later to A running back by committee plan.

I didn't listen to any post game remarks yet, but if Chaney mentions again about "going with who was hot" at RB instead of admitting he abandon the run play when it was hot, I hope the media is smart enough to call him on it.

- again, he abandoned the run game (with Ollison) while he was hot in the beginning of the game.

- again his offense scores only 3 points in the first half,

- again, he missed easy opportunities at getting 7 near goal line.

I'm sorry, Pitt could easily have won two more games if not for the bad play calling and other misuse of the offense by Chaney (though to be fair we may still very possibly have lost this game in a close one even without him mucking things up).

The way Chaney calls plays and his constant shuffling of personnel especially at RB prevents anyone from getting into any kind of rhythm, and prevents the O from getting into rhthym as a unit. I agree that Ollie's numbers are deceiving. He was getting good gains in the first quarter before the Chaney Shuffle kicked in.

I liked Whitehead as a ballcarrier a lot. He has a nose for the end zone with the ball in his hands that not even TB has, and he has more explosiveness and ability to stretch the D on the edge than TB as well. He's a weapon.

 

[Pittx9]

The way Chaney calls plays and his constant shuffling of personnel especially at RB prevents anyone from getting into any kind of rhythm, and prevents the O from getting into rhthym as a unit.

Could that be the reason too that we see a motion or substitution penalty every single week? Maybe I pay attention to detail too much, but those penalties upset me waaaaaay more than anything else this team does wrong. You get burnt deep? Ok, you probably did something wrong, but the receiver is probably fast and the margin of error is slim. Miss a wide open receiver? Ok, shouldn't happen at this level but you have a chance to make a play the next time you drop back to pass and make up for it. These pre-snap penalties though are just so stupid and easily avoidable. There is just no excuse to ever commit as many as we have.

 

[#99HUGHgreen]

On Pitt's first series Ollison ran the ball three times for nine yards.
For all the 5+ gains that were coming one after another Ollison's longest run of the day was...
6 yards. Once.

At some level I'd like to see Ollison be given a bigger load carrying the ball too. But today 2.7 yards per carry defined his day pretty darn well.

On Pitt's first series Ollison ran the ball three times for nine yards

Let's try this again...Deceiving why:

His first run was up the middle for 5 yards

His second run was up the middle for 6 yards

His third run was that ridiculous sweep call to the short side for - 2. Which shouldn't count against Ollison because anyone would have lost yardage there-That is 100% on Chaney... So it's not as simple as "three times for nine yards" as you suggest.

Had Chaney kept running up the middle with what was working instead of screwing around with a play that never has worked for Pitt all year and is literally a play that runs the RB into the sidelines because there is no room for him to turn the corner.

Next series...

Ollison runs up the middle for 5 yards (that's three total runs up the middle for him- all for 5 or more yards)

Ollison runs up the middle for 4 yards

Chaney again shifts away from Ollison

Pitt gets ball down to the 7 yard line.

Instead of calling a few plays for Ollison up the middle (who has not run for less than 4 yards up the middle to this point) Chaney calls a Boyd run and then calls two pass plays with a much lower probability of success. But hey it's not the first time he's done this.

If Chaney kept running Ollison up the middle on the first series not only does he have much better stats but he likely finds a great rhythm and better find the soft spots and breaks a big one.

Even you agree that he should have been given more opportunities.

 

[ZekeGadsonFan]

Ollison is a very pedestrian RB. He lacks any explosiveness and his vision seems average at best. The repeated posts bashing the coaches for not giving him the ball more are just silly. He has touched the ball way too much this season. That is one of the reasons our offense is so dull. But Conner got broke and none of the other slightly more talented RBs have stepped up, so it is what it is as they say. Hes what we got for now.

 

[#99HUGHgreen]

Ollison is a very pedestrian RB. He lacks any explosiveness and his vision seems average at best. The repeated posts bashing the coaches for not giving him the ball more are just silly. He has touched the ball way too much this season. That is one of the reasons our offense is so dull. But Conner got broke and none of the other slightly more talented RBs have stepped up, so it is what it is as they say. Hes what we got for now.

As hard as it is to disagree with a "Zeke Gadson" fan, I'm gonna have to do it.

Ollison is certainly not Conner, but he is far from pedestrian. Goodness he ran for more than 200 yards in a game he didn't even start. If Chaney would just stick with him and the power run up the middle, everyone would get a chance to see this kid break a couple of big runs and score TDs again... The way he did it in the first couple of games when they stuck with him.

It's not only not silly for the coaches to feed Ollison the ball more, doing so gives this team the best chance to start winning again.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

On Pitt's first series Ollison ran the ball three times for nine yards

Let's try this again...Deceiving why:

His first run was up the middle for 5 yards

His second run was up the middle for 6 yards

His third run was that ridiculous sweep call to the short side for - 2. Which shouldn't count against Ollison because anyone would have lost yardage there-That is 100% on Chaney... So it's not as simple as "three times for nine yards" as you suggest.

Had Chaney kept running up the middle with what was working instead of screwing around with a play that never has worked for Pitt all year and is literally a play that runs the RB into the sidelines because there is no room for him to turn the corner.

Next series...

Ollison runs up the middle for 5 yards (that's three total runs up the middle for him- all for 5 or more yards)

Ollison runs up the middle for 4 yards

Chaney again shifts away from Ollison

Pitt gets ball down to the 7 yard line.

Instead of calling a few plays for Ollison up the middle (who has not run for less than 4 yards up the middle to this point) Chaney calls a Boyd run and then calls two pass plays with a much lower probability of success. But hey it's not the first time he's done this.

If Chaney kept running Ollison up the middle on the first series not only does he have much better stats but he likely finds a great rhythm and better find the soft spots and breaks a big one.

Even you agree that he should have been given more opportunities.

Oh, OK, now I get it. When Ollison runs for five yards it's proof that he's a good back who needs the ball more. When Ollison gets stopped for a short gain or a loss it's proof that his coach is an idiot and that Ollison needs the ball more. Gotcha.

You certainly can't argue with "logic" like that.

The thing that I can't figure out is why every offensive coordinator at every level of football sometimes calls short side sweeps when anyone who runs a play like that is going to lose yards. You'd figure that after well over 100 years of football that some of these coaches would have been able to figure out that that play loses yards every single time. I wonder why none of them have seemed to have figured that out yet?

 

[Pghfan]

Weird that a guy his size, who actually runs in a physical manner, is so scared to block.. I would kind of get it from a smaller back but this dude is 230 pounds.. Not sure I saw a rb that bad at blocking.. Maybe Chaney had a point..

 

[thebadby2]

Weird that a guy his size, who actually runs in a physical manner, is so scared to block.. I would kind of get it from a smaller back but this dude is 230 pounds.. Not sure I saw a rb that bad at blocking.. Maybe Chaney had a point..

What makes you think he's "scared" to block? Looks more like he's got his head up his ass in pass protection and doesn't know what he's doing. Not a matter of being afraid, just a matter of learning the protections. Some guys pick that up easily, others don't.

 

[Pittx9]

What makes you think he's "scared" to block? Looks more like he's got his head up his ass in pass protection and doesn't know what he's doing. Not a matter of being afraid, just a matter of learning the protections. Some guys pick that up easily, others don't.

Exactly. Chaney needs to take time in practice to show him what he's doing wrong, not scream at the kid, yank him from the game, and give up on him. He's our best chance of running the ball well so he really needs to find a way to make it so Ollison can play and not hurt the team with his poor blocking. Chaney's approach to this is clearly not working at all.

 

[Pghfan]

What makes you think he's "scared" to block? Looks more like he's got his head up his ass in pass protection and doesn't know what he's doing. Not a matter of being afraid, just a matter of learning the protections. Some guys pick that up easily, others don't.

OK, maybe he is not scared but his whiffs are not knowing the playbook, just avoiding contact.. Guy had his head down and sort of tried to fall at his knees, missing badly. If that is not scared, what would you call it?

 

[thebadby2]

On Pitt's first series Ollison ran the ball three times for nine yards

Let's try this again...Deceiving why:

His first run was up the middle for 5 yards

His second run was up the middle for 6 yards

His third run was that ridiculous sweep call to the short side for - 2. Which shouldn't count against Ollison because anyone would have lost yardage there-That is 100% on Chaney... So it's not as simple as "three times for nine yards" as you suggest.

Had Chaney kept running up the middle with what was working instead of screwing around with a play that never has worked for Pitt all year and is literally a play that runs the RB into the sidelines because there is no room for him to turn the corner.

Next series...

Ollison runs up the middle for 5 yards (that's three total runs up the middle for him- all for 5 or more yards)

Ollison runs up the middle for 4 yards

Chaney again shifts away from Ollison

Pitt gets ball down to the 7 yard line.

Instead of calling a few plays for Ollison up the middle (who has not run for less than 4 yards up the middle to this point) Chaney calls a Boyd run and then calls two pass plays with a much lower probability of success. But hey it's not the first time he's done this.

If Chaney kept running Ollison up the middle on the first series not only does he have much better stats but he likely finds a great rhythm and better find the soft spots and breaks a big one.

Even you agree that he should have been given more opportunities.

Lots of teams run the toss play to the boundary, for the reasons that there are less defenders on that side of the field, and that you have to mix up your playcalling in the run game or you become easy to defend. The counter argument is that you have the sideline as an extra defender and you don;t give your players space to operate. I think if you have the right personnel, it can be pretty effective as an occasional change of pace to the between the tackles run game. I don;t think we have the right RB to run to the boundary effectively very often, it requires a back who can really accelerate.

I think that play might look different with a guy like Whitehead carrying the ball as opposed to one of our RBs or Boyd. Boyd is a strider, he's not an explosive burst guy who's going to kill you in space

 

[thebadby2]

OK, maybe he is not scared but his whiffs are not knowing the playbook, just avoiding contact.. Guy had his head down and sort of tried to fall at his knees, missing badly. If that is not scared, what would you call it?

I'd call it bad technique.

 

[Pghfan]

I'd call it bad technique.

understatement of the year

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Lots of teams run the toss play to the boundary, for the reasons that there are less defenders on that side of the field, and that you have to mix up your playcalling in the run game or you become easy to defend.

Imagine if you ran Ollison 25 times a game and every single one of them was between the tackles. How long do you think it would take your average defensive coaching staff that you were playing against to figure that out? How long would it be until they had eight guys inside the box and inside the tackles, waiting for Ollison to run the ball right at them? How much do you think that Pitt fans would be bitching about the play calling if our offensive coordinator decided doing that was a great idea?

 

[#99HUGHgreen]

Lots of teams run the toss play to the boundary, for the reasons that there are less defenders on that side of the field, I think if you have the right personnel, it can be pretty effective as an occasional change of pace to the between the tackles run game. I don;t think we have the right RB to run to the boundary effectively very often, it requires a back who can really accelerate.

I think that play might look different with a guy like Whitehead carrying the ball as opposed to one of our RBs or Boyd. Boyd is a strider, he's not an explosive burst guy who's going to kill you in space

Bingo... That is my point. There is a virtually 0% chance he beats the defensive to the boundary and turns the corner for positive yardage. So why call that play for him? It just doesn't make sense. Yes, using Whitehead would seem to make much more sense.

 

[Panther_in_Kentucky]

As hard as it is to disagree with a "Zeke Gadson" fan, I'm gonna have to do it.

Ollison is certainly not Conner, but he is far from pedestrian. Goodness he ran for more than 200 yards in a game he didn't even start. If Chaney would just stick with him and the power run up the middle, everyone would get a chance to see this kid break a couple of big runs and score TDs again... The way he did it in the first couple of games when they stuck with him.

It's not only not silly for the coaches to feed Ollison the ball more, doing so gives this team the best chance to start winning again.

Sorry, Ollison is a very average back. I shared your opinion until I saw him literally disappear or take a dive when he was needed to pass block. Also, if not for Whitehead Pitt would have lost this game 42 - 10. Whitehead is CLEARLY Pitt's best option at running back. He's the one that needs 20 carries a game, not Ollison.

 

[Teh Teh]

I will agree that Ollison does need to get better with blocking, but then Chaney just shouldn't put him in on pass plays.

Ollison was not given the chance to shine when he was hot in the beginning. That's a fact. Once again.

His 2.7 yards is very deceiving.

ND could not stop Ollison on that early series. He was ripping off 5+ gains one after another up the middle until, once again, Chaney (for no logical reason) abandoned it.

Even my ND buddy texted me saying, "What's up with your OC giving up on Ollison up the middle. We couldn't stop him."

Then finally, when Chaney went back to Ollison, he didn't call a play for him up the middle but rather that ridiculous sweep to the short side of the field that makes absolutely no sense and never works. Surprise- Ollison gets minus 2 yards. Brilliant Chaney.

While he did call a few nice trick plays in the first half, Chaney still doesn't get that you can't run a successful game plan just on trIck plays.

Then later, Pitt gets the ball inside the 4 yard line and instead of the no brainier call of Olisson up the middle (twice if necessary), he calls two pass plays with a much low percentage of success. While I was shaking my head, I got another text from my ND buddy saying, "this OC doesn't like taking the easy points, does he."

Then instead of giving Ollison more reps to see if he can break one.... Chaney decided to switch to James and later to A running back by committee plan.

I didn't listen to any post game remarks yet, but if Chaney mentions again about "going with who was hot" at RB instead of admitting he abandon the run play when it was hot, I hope the media is smart enough to call him on it.

- again, he abandoned the run game (with Ollison) while he was hot in the beginning of the game.

- again his offense scores only 3 points in the first half,

- again, he missed easy opportunities at getting 7 near goal line.

I'm sorry, Pitt could easily have won two more games if not for the bad play calling and other misuse of the offense by Chaney (though to be fair we may still very possibly have lost this game in a close one even without him mucking things up).

They weren't passing downs. But it isn't as simple as not put him in on passing plays.

That being said... He is our best runner, and I like him as a player. A freshman not being able to block is common. He will get better as a blocker he's a big guy