Bill Lynch’s Six Shooter
Get ready to add yet another offense to the wide assortment of offensive styles the Buckeyes will run up against this season. First it was Navy’s option, then USC’s pro style sets, then Toledo’s spread offense and then who knows what out of the Illini. Saturday night, Bill Lynch’s Hoosier Pistol will be just the latest challenge for a wicked-looking Ohio State defense.
You wouldn’t imagine a team that had parted ways with the talented Kellen Lewis would be running such a formation, but after suffering through a 3-9 (1-7) season last year, Lynch and his staff paid an offseason visit to Nevada to learn about the offense Chris Ault had developed and used with great success. In 2005, the first season the Wolfpack operated out of the Pistol, the offense improved its numbers by 30 yards and nearly five points per game. More importantly, Nevada’s record improved from 5-7 to 9-3. Lynch is hoping for a bit of that magic, so he can, you know, continue to collect paychecks.
LEFT: Quarterback Ben Chappell lined up in the Pistol for Indiana in the alignment’s base set. RIGHT: Change of pace quarterback Mitchell Evans, a wide receiver by trade, will also tack snaps from the formation.As you’ll soon see, the Hoosiers are operating out of a true Pistol, with the quarterback in a shortened shotgun formation and a tailback immediately behind him. This differs a bit from the Pistol that was toyed with in Columbus last year in that the Buckeye version featured a back lined up next to the quarterback replacing the third receiver in the formation.
Though it more closely mimics the formations pioneered at Nevada, the Hoosiers do not, in fact, utilize their starting quarterback as rushing threat. Chappell is a capable passer, but his best rushing day of the year is a three carry, two yard outing against Eastern Kentucky in the opener. He’s only looking to do two things back there: handoff to the running back or fake a handoff and throw.
The offense itself features a lot of motion and misdirection. It should be reminiscent of what Navy brought, including the ability of the offense to run downhill through the center of the line. Rich Rodriguez, offensive philosopher, compares it to an I-formation running out of the shotgun. It will be challenging to stop, especially in the early going. It’s no surprise that the Hoosiers are averaging nearly 11 minutes of ball time in first quarters alone. Expect the Buckeyes to take a bit to adjust to the Hoosier offense, but thankfully, as mentioned above, Chappell isn’t quite the threat Navy’s Dobbs is on his feet.
Indiana will line up in traditional sets when the situation dictates as seen by the single back (left) for short yardage and full shotgun (right) during two minute drills.At various points in the game, Ohio native Mitchell Evans will come in from wide receiver to take snaps in the Pistol. He was part of a brilliantly executed option to Tandon Doss that resulted in the Hoosiers’ first touchdown in Ann Arbor last weekend (the first time they showed that all season). Though Evans isn’t really a threat to throw the ball, he has passed from the set on three occasions this year and should be able to keep the Buckeye defense at least a little honest.
Through four games, the Hoosiers have already matched their win total from last season. They put up nearly 500 yards of total offense against the Wolverines last Saturday and the Pistol alone should probably put them into position to win more games than their talent by itself would seem to suggest (though the new offense stumbled a bit out of the gate). I’m not quite ready to go into “oh-noes-upset-alert” mode, but I do think the absence of Coleman will be felt against this offense as strong safety play is vital to stopping their mid-line thrusts.
On the topic of offense, reader BuckNasty charted the Buckeye offense from the Illinois game and Pryor took every single snap from the shotgun until about eight minutes remained in the fourth.
| Back | Left | Center | Right |
|---|---|---|---|
| Herron | 2-12 | 3-23 | 8-34 |
| Saine | 3-36 | 3-21 | 6-11 |
| Hall | 2-6 | 4-16 | 1-0 |
Further findings include the fact that the running game performed better rushing behind the left side of the line (Adams/Miller/Boren) than the right (no real surprise here):
Pryor’s rushing numbers were even more skewed towards the left side of the line. On runs to the left, he picked up 45 yards on six carries, while on runs to the right, he was held to two yards in the red on four attempts. Conversely, but not unexpectedly for a right-handed thrower, his passing numbers were much better to the right side of the field than the left.
I would like to see Tress go with experience and start Russell for his game. I know everyone will kill me for saying this, but I feel going up against a tricky and effective O like this, it is better to have experience on the field. And hey, maybe getting his ass burned for 85 yds on one play, will have taught him something.
Also, the OSU run game will be even more important this week, since IU may have the best DE combo in the B10, maybe the country. These guys are both top NFL draft picks and will make their presense felt against our young tackles.
This is not your big brothers IU team, IMHO preseason predictions were mostly wrong and IU is not a team to take lightly. We have to bring it on every snap, every game.
While I agree last week they didn’t look like the same old Indiana, Michigan’s D is pretty suspect. I’m not saying this is going to be an ass whooping, but just the comments made by Worthington on an earlier post about flying around on every play, makes me believe this team doesn’t care who they play, especially since they are a 1 loss team and every game could be the difference between BCS and Capital One Bowl.
Calling the scUM D suspect is complimentory in-fact.
That is easily one of the worst Defenses in the country…….
This is true, probably had a tougher D in Toledo, but I didn’t want to fire up any trolls lol.
Come on our D sucks, but there has to be worse! I think……maybe
Is it me or have we not deployed the pistol much at all this season?
For that matter, how many times have they used since last year’s Wisconsin game? It seemed to get placed on the backburner after Boom got cheapshotted in that game (hey, Jai Valai . . . paybacks are coming soon). And then I’m not sure it was used all that much even after Boom came back. This year, I can’t recall it being used at all. Not sure why. It was very effective with Beanie, but why not put Saine in that spot?
Yeah, I don’t think we’ve seen it yet this season.
I think it’s strange, too, that they haven’t shown any pistol. Maybe the guys just don’t like it. Also, let’s not forget that Pryor is trying to get a bachelors in NFL-Quarterbacking…the pistol does not help you towards that goal. You could say the same for the offensive line and the running-backs, too…they want pro-looks.
Yeah, I agree, but it’s still weird. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say we’re seeing less of it because Tressel really liked running it a bruiser like Beanie taking the handoff.
With the pressure the OSU defense has from the D-Line you shouldn’t have many probelms with IN. They will throw out some Swinging Gate and trickery like that, but as long as the defense can play assignment football I doubt they sustain much of a drive all day.
Look for a few plays to catch OSU out of position just by the amount of formations they will throw at you, but nothing to make one think they can win.
Sorry forgot, don’t want to get off track with the mandatory insults, OSU won 42-7 last year.
Scat Cat. That is all.
Scat Cat, that’s hilarious. “two steps forward, two steps back something opposites attract”
I heard that song the other day in Ralph’s(That’s Kroger for all of you that aren’t living in California), I had to laugh when it came on. That video is an image I will never be able to erase from my mind.
Jordan Hall is a Scat Cat (meant as a compliment)
for a scUM fan, your alright.
Wolverines made a few good comments, even if he is affiliated with TTUN. Besides, TTUN did give the Buckeyes a lot of film to digest heading into the IND game. Probably like 200+ plays, 69 total points, more than 800 yards of offense. Michigan allowed Indiana to play about 7 quarters of offensive football. We should appreciate their generosity.
agreed on the film comment.
I’m looking for Indiana to not be the usual Indiana, but still nowhere near scary.
can we extend the shut-out streak to 3??
Scat Cat, that video is so retarded that I will never be able to erase it from my memory. Retarded but effective.
that’s like saying “you know, for an asshole, you’re kind of a nice guy”
Will Keith be posting anytime soon? I think his post game analysis used to be great on BC.
Keith will be back soon, he just needed some time off for real life.
WAIT! You mean there is something to life, OTHER than football. I dont believe it!
While I realize this isn’t your traditional 3 and out all day IU team, I don’t think we should be too worried.
So it’s an untraditional 3 and out IU team?
yes, very untraditional 3 and out.
all i was eluding to is that this team managed to find the end zone a bit more than previous, non Randel-El teams.
Anyone else think it’s weird that this is a night game?
Isn’t it a night game because of the improvements to the stadium?
If you ask me, they shoulda spent the money on improving the football team….but thats just me
that’s a possibility, everyone has the notice that it’s a “wear gray” kind of night, correct?
side note: a bunch of my comments just randomly showed up that were posted but the site told me some kind of error message… weird..
Only 33 votes for the ghost on D. Nickey?
COME ON!! He beats up Lendale “Titties” White in practice, that alone wins him major points ion my (imaginary) book.
I voted…..TWICE!!!
Slapping Lendale around get’s at least 2 votes from me
as you should
Got my vote for going after Young
All of DickRod’s teams play pee-wee level defense.
I’m as scared of IU’s offense as I was Toledo’s… Case in point.
Considering this is his first year even working with this D coordinator and a Defense that has no depth and youth at key positions, maybe the pee-wee comment should wait until Robinson gets the people he wants on the field and not the leftovers from the dismal recruiting at the end of the Carr years.
No.
Yes
Did anybody notice when they had the camera on the OSU sideline that Hazell was signaling a play out to Pryor and Tress was lookin at him like wtf is that?
No wonder Hazell calling plays is looking like success.
Jury is still out on this play calling things. Probably because we didn’t get to see much variation last week. Hopefully things are more exciting this weekend.
I’m more interested to see if Tressel let’s Hazell make the play calls against good teams like Iowa and Penn State or if he will take the duties back then.
my thoughts exactly. Calling plays against Toledo and maybe Illinois is one thing, but when we play Iowa and Penn State it’s a whole other ball game.
According to Lynch in talking about Pryor: http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20090930/SPORTS0301/309309993/1085/SPORTS03?utm_source=bleacherreport.com
“If you sell out, he’s going to take the ball and come out the other end or (run) a quarterback draw or run an option. He’s a very difficult guy to defend. And in the passing game as well.”
In reading that statement in the literal sense, the passing option in a run blitz or just blitz situation is a mere after thought.
What’s interesting — and this shouldn’t be a shock — is that Lynch mentioned the passing game as kind of an afterthought in his presser.
Lynch had a great line about Tressel as well: Summed up his teams as those that don’t beat themselves. You have to beat them. So true, yet so frustrating when we run up against a team capable of beating them.
Why does Anderson Russell hate tackling? Shouldn’t you have to do that to be a football player?
Because to tackle he would have to learn to cover someone to be near them. And God knows he doesn’t want to cover anyone.
I heard he wanted to play soccer originally, but all the non-stop running killed him…..
soccer?!? is he a euro?
Not that I know of.
It’s just that all the kids I ever knew that didn’t like contact, or football in general….went on to play soccer. Based on his cover skills, he should’ve followed suit