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Constraint Plays: Something Hawk Never Understood.

Darth Snow

Darth Snow

Hawaiian Buffalo
Club Member
Junta Member
http://smartfootball.com/offense/why-every-team-should-apply-the-constraint-theory-of-offense

What kind of offense should you or do you? A typical responses sounds something like: “I run a system with bubble screens, play action passes, screens, and draws.” This is a nonsensical answer. That’s not an offense; it’s a collection of plays. An offense consists of what are your base runs, base dropback passes, base options, or whatever else are your base, core plays. The other plays I mentioned are not your offense, they are constraints on the defense, or “constraint plays.”
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Sound familiar? :lol:. And there was a reason why the playcalling got so bad whenever Hawk got involved. Especially after one of his patented offseason redesigns to the spread/oneback shotgun/whatever the **** we were....


The upshot is that a good offense must: (a) find those one or two things on which it will hang its hat on to beat any “honest” defense — think of core pass plays, options, and so on, but also (b) get good at all those little “constraint” plays which keep the defense playing honest. You won’t win any championships simply throwing the bubble screen, but the bubble will help keep you from losing games when the defense wants to crush your run game. Same goes for draws and screens if you’re a passing team. You find ways to do what you want and put your players in position to win and score.
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Hawk loved (b) without ever understanding (a). Hell, on defense he preferred to protect against (b) without ever stopping (a). In essence, Hawk was the guy mentioned in the first paragraph.

NCAA 12 footballers, this is great reading. Especially since us videogamers LOVE to find one play or formation that cheats and takes advantage of the broken features of the video game to make it difficult to beat... Here's to hoping they fix gliding super flying linebackers etc!

Edit: And from what I've seen of the new staff, they really understand (a). Let's hope they understand (b) as well.
 
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This was a criticism of Hawk all along - that he had no idea what he really wanted to do on offense. He was constantly throwing stuff out there in the desperate hope it would work. Every once in a while, it did. Most of the time, it was a miserable failure.
 
Yeah but we had player groupings. I'm never going to forget the first home game he rolled out that sweet new look out.

Sitting in the stands thinking WTF, why are there like 12 people running on and off the field at the same time on the second play of the game, and how the hell are we going to get a play off before a delay penalty.

Should have known right then that things were going to end very bad.
 
SnowBuff said:
NCAA 12 footballers, this is great reading. Especially since us videogamers LOVE to find one play or formation that cheats and takes advantage of the broken features of the video game to make it difficult to beat...
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You calling me a cheat? You know I "like to line up two tight ends and just go."
 
IMO, D II was looking for any collection of grab bag plays CH could run...I really think it is that simple.
 
GoBuffs08 said:
Yeah but we had player groupings. I'm never going to forget the first home game he rolled out that sweet new look out.

Sitting in the stands thinking WTF, why are there like 12 people running on and off the field at the same time on the second play of the game, and how the hell are we going to get a play off before a delay penalty.

Should have known right then that things were going to end very bad.
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Another example of Dan taking a good concept and driving it into the ground, kinda like he did with option (b) above. Personnel groupings are used by plenty of teams in college successfully, but it really gets used quite a bit in the NFL. I know the Patriots and the Saints use it a lot--and the whole goal is to create mismatches. By running people in and out, and lining up receivers/TE's/RB's in different spots, you confuse the defense, and you end up with mismatches. TE's end up on CB's, RB's end up on LB's, WR's end up on LB's, etc.

Hawkins used it as a way to "maximize" the talent on his roster, i.e. get guys who normally wouldn't be playing, on the field. It works when you're an NFL team and your 3rd string WR is a 4th round pick. On Hawkins team, those alternates were walk-ons, and some of them shouldn't have been playing BCS football. So there were no mismatches, and defenses weren't confused.
 
I was always confused as to why Dan tried to install a new offense every single spring. But read this:
Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said his offense has to be multiple because the Deacons do not recruit to a system. They try to lure the best recruits and then craft an offense to match them.


“We’ve pretty much had to do that in the 10 years we have been at Wake Forest because our talent changes so much,” Grobe said. “It’s hard for us at Wake Forest to go out and recruit players that just fit a certain type of offense. We’re out trying to find the best quarterback we can find. One year it might be the best runner or the best thrower.


“Once you get them assembled, now you have to figure out what do they do best.”
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Dan was a bad coach. He didn't develop talent, and couldn't get the players to buy in. I don't think the offensive philosophy is what doomed him at CU.
 
valdezj said:
I was always confused as to why Dan tried to install a new offense every single spring. But read this:
Dan was a bad coach. He didn't develop talent, and couldn't get the players to buy in. I don't think the offensive philosophy is what doomed him at CU.
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I agree. It was a contributing factor, though. The guy was a fool. A total goof. An incompetent simpleton. The fact that he had no offensive philosophy was a symptom of a larger problem.
 
sackman said:
I agree. It was a contributing factor, though. The guy was a fool. A total goof. An incompetent simpleton. The fact that he had no offensive philosophy was a symptom of a larger problem.
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Agreed. :)


I like these threads. There's always really interesting opinions on how CU should run their offense.
 
With Westbrook and Carruth at WR, Fauria and Lepsis at TE, and Salaam at TB, I believe it was called the "pick your poison" offense.
 
valdezj said:
Stupid question time. What was the offense that Mac had back in 94? I remember him using two TE's. The two TE formation?
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Once, when flyfishing in the surf, I caught a fish I couldn't identify. When I was done fishing, I visited the fly shop and described it to the dudes who worked there. I said, "I caught this fish, it was pretty big, and it had a big spot next to it's fin, and when I lifted it out of the water it made a croaking sound."

One of the fly-shop guys said, "Yeah, that was a 'spotfin croaker'."

At first I thought he was messing with me, but it turns out that's exactly what it was.

I'm not sure what made me think of that story.
 
DallasBuff said:
No way we should have...best Buff team ever.
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simple, we tried to run the entire first half... they dared Kordell to throw.... The Huskers got a quick lead and had field position the entire first half.... Their defense won the game....
 
For all of Kordell's greatness, he had a brain lock when it came to the fuskers. His worst games came against them. I remember the 93 game when he was throwing the ball all over the place - except to our receivers. That probably played into Mac's decision to stick to the running game in 94.
 
sackman said:
For all of Kordell's greatness, he had a brain lock when it came to the fuskers. His worst games came against them. I remember the 93 game when he was throwing the ball all over the place - except to our receivers. That probably played into Mac's decision to stick to the running game in 94.
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yes... he played terrible for 3 quarters in 93.... had some success but too late in 93 and 94 was a complete clusterF&*$........ In 1994 I was sitting at the 40 yard line surrounded by Nebrassholes who virtually conceded the game before it even started... with a sack full of Oranges ready to be deployed.... I was so sick at the end of the game I couldnt even bare to eat them....
 
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