CJ on offense: Tulane staying the course
- By Guerry Smith
- Joe Kennedy's Wave Crest
- 28 Replies
Tulane is ranked 119th out of 125 FBS teams in scoring offense this year, but when asked by Ed Daniels today if he plans to re-evaluate his offense in the offseason, CJ gave an emphatic, "No."
Here's what he said:
"The offense is on track exactly where we want it to go. We talked about what we were going to do when I got here. The first thing we wanted to do was run the ball. We are doing that. For two years we hadn't done much running of the ball, but schematically we're doing a great job running the football. We are averaging over 150 yards a game. In the passing game, we hit and we miss, we hit and we miss. Last year we had a receiver that caught the ball for 1,000 yards. He's playing for the Washington Redskins. So now what it is is just continuing to get together, continuing to get this thing where we want it to be. There's a lot of stuff that we want to do that we're not doing. I'm looking at some of these quarterbacks. These three-and four-year quarterbacks are outstanding. I think we'll be there."
Daniels followed up by saying the spread has taken over FBS football and not many schools play Tulane's pro style. He asked if it was harder to recruit to CJ's offense considering the preponderance of the spread in high school football. The answer:
"No, I don't think that's problem. If those kids look four years down the line, you look at receivers and quarterbacks from the spread offense, hardly any of those guys are successful in the NFL. So if you are going to sell the NFL, that's why I love what Stanford is doing, I love what Notre Dame is doing, I like what Florida State is doing. Alabama went to the NFL to hire Lane Kiffin, so all these teams that are really winning or are starting to are going back to what we're doing. I modeled this thing a little after Stanford offensively. They struggled early on when they got there, but when they got the offense down and what they're doing, the reason why they're beating people is because they're playing pretty much what I call the smart man's offense. Once you get older kids in, and then it also attracts great quarterbacks. There aren't many good drop back quarterbacks that are playing in the spread. All those guys are getting hit and they're getting hurt. The best spread quarterback was (Johnny) Manzel. He's not playing in the NFL. If I was you, I'd be like (Zach) Mettenberger. I'd be a drop back quarterback. I watched him last night, and he played pretty well."
My comment: This isn't the best year to single out Stanford, which ranks 82nd nationally in yards and 96th in points, but the Cardinal was effective with its conservative style the past four year, helped immensely by having Andrew Luck at QB for two of them. Although the spread teams definitely are pre-eminent in college football right now, I've never felt there was only one way to win. Through three years, though, CJ has not proven he can win with his system.
"When I took this job, the first thing I wanted to do, and everybody thought I was crazy, but all the coaches that mentored me said 'CJ, build your defense first. Whatever you do, build your defense.' So every play that we got, every defensive player, every guy that could play a lick of defense, we went out and signed him, and the offense suffered a little bit. So now this is a year where it kind of rears its ugly head with all these young kids playing, especially playing at once. So for that, I'm more at fault than anybody."
Your thoughts?
Here's what he said:
"The offense is on track exactly where we want it to go. We talked about what we were going to do when I got here. The first thing we wanted to do was run the ball. We are doing that. For two years we hadn't done much running of the ball, but schematically we're doing a great job running the football. We are averaging over 150 yards a game. In the passing game, we hit and we miss, we hit and we miss. Last year we had a receiver that caught the ball for 1,000 yards. He's playing for the Washington Redskins. So now what it is is just continuing to get together, continuing to get this thing where we want it to be. There's a lot of stuff that we want to do that we're not doing. I'm looking at some of these quarterbacks. These three-and four-year quarterbacks are outstanding. I think we'll be there."
Daniels followed up by saying the spread has taken over FBS football and not many schools play Tulane's pro style. He asked if it was harder to recruit to CJ's offense considering the preponderance of the spread in high school football. The answer:
"No, I don't think that's problem. If those kids look four years down the line, you look at receivers and quarterbacks from the spread offense, hardly any of those guys are successful in the NFL. So if you are going to sell the NFL, that's why I love what Stanford is doing, I love what Notre Dame is doing, I like what Florida State is doing. Alabama went to the NFL to hire Lane Kiffin, so all these teams that are really winning or are starting to are going back to what we're doing. I modeled this thing a little after Stanford offensively. They struggled early on when they got there, but when they got the offense down and what they're doing, the reason why they're beating people is because they're playing pretty much what I call the smart man's offense. Once you get older kids in, and then it also attracts great quarterbacks. There aren't many good drop back quarterbacks that are playing in the spread. All those guys are getting hit and they're getting hurt. The best spread quarterback was (Johnny) Manzel. He's not playing in the NFL. If I was you, I'd be like (Zach) Mettenberger. I'd be a drop back quarterback. I watched him last night, and he played pretty well."
My comment: This isn't the best year to single out Stanford, which ranks 82nd nationally in yards and 96th in points, but the Cardinal was effective with its conservative style the past four year, helped immensely by having Andrew Luck at QB for two of them. Although the spread teams definitely are pre-eminent in college football right now, I've never felt there was only one way to win. Through three years, though, CJ has not proven he can win with his system.
"When I took this job, the first thing I wanted to do, and everybody thought I was crazy, but all the coaches that mentored me said 'CJ, build your defense first. Whatever you do, build your defense.' So every play that we got, every defensive player, every guy that could play a lick of defense, we went out and signed him, and the offense suffered a little bit. So now this is a year where it kind of rears its ugly head with all these young kids playing, especially playing at once. So for that, I'm more at fault than anybody."
Your thoughts?