Sunday morning QB ---

[SpeedkingATL]

Under center short yardage plays and two back sets are two things many would like to see and don't happen often at App. I know this is a young team but the play calling is just too conservative and predictable. Often reminds me of Cadet off guard on first down every series a few years ago. Hopefully it will open up as Lamb and the young players get comfortable with the play book. No misdirection, reverses, or creativity for the most part; of course multiple back sets are required for these plays to succeed.

[EastHallApp]

Although the offense moved the ball well most of the night, to me we are really missing a big play threat at WR. Part of the reason we had so many drives break down is simply that the more plays you have to run to score, the more likely you'll make a mistake. And we just couldn't get any quick strikes. We had non-scoring drives of 15 plays, 8 plays, and 10 plays. And as well as Lamb played, his longest completion of the night was 21 yards.

Think we need to see more of Sumler. I know he's not perfect, but at least he can get behind the defense, or catch the ball in space and run for some YAC. Hopefully Barbour can help here as well once he gets healthy.

[AppGrad78]

Regarding the problems we're having at running a play before the play clock runs out, I believe this is due to coaching strategy rather than indecision. We're waiting for the defense to tip its hand before we run a play. Lately, coaches like Nick Saban are favoring abandonment of that practice, favoring going with the best offensive play regardless of the defensive alignment.

[Bearboy]

I thought the passes by Lamb floated several times. I hope that is something that needs corrected fast. Other than that, I thought he managed the game well. Defensively, pretty much lights out except for McGowan missing several tackles. I think Boggs will be seeing more playing time as the season progresses. In short yardage, he made a couple of stops.

[diehardapp18]

Under center short yardage plays and two back sets are two things many would like to see and don't happen often at App. I know this is a young team but the play calling is just too conservative and predictable. Often reminds me of Cadet off guard on first down every series a few years ago. Hopefully it will open up as Lamb and the young players get comfortable with the play book. No misdirection, reverses, or creativity for the most part; of course multiple back sets are required for these plays to succeed.

whatever we were doing those last two drives is what we need to stick with. Southern Miss looked sick trying to stop our offense late in the game, Lamb was carving them up

[AppSt94]

I know many are calling our play calling conservative and I know that we had a new QB making his first start but I don't really see a whole lot of difference with what we did Saturday to what we have been doing for many years with this offense. Everything is underneath the safeties in space then rely on YAC. Other than the occasional boundry throw to Price that has been it for quite awhile. Am I wrong?

[ASUDieHard]

Regarding the QB under center in short yardage situations, I remember an interview with Satterfield before the season started (could have actually been in the spring) and he was specifically asked about that. He answered that they had installed, or were going to install, that in the offense. Anyone else hear/remember that? I guess it doesn't really matter at this point, as they obviously never installed it. Just curious why he abandoned that thought.

[WVAPPeer]

I know many are calling our play calling conservative and I know that we had a new QB making his first start but I don't really see a whole lot of difference with what we did Saturday to what we have been doing for many years with this offense. Everything is underneath the safeties in space then rely on YAC. Other than the occasional boundry throw to Price that has been it for quite awhile. Am I wrong?

No --- and I really didn't see where Taylor at QB stretched the defense - his 2 "long" passes were both underthrown - both guys look to be very good on the shorter timing routes ---

[AppfaninCAALand]

Who knows? We may look back to games like Saturday and those late season ones last year as the foundation for all the great bowl winning, Top 25 ranked Sun Belt championship teams of 2015, 2016, and 2017.

[moehler]

I don't know why its so hard for spread offenses to go under center when the situation calls for it. Sat night Clemson did the exact same thing, 4th and 1/2 yd in overtime, 6'2 qb, instead takes the shotgun snap, hands off to running back, slow developing play, gave FS defensive line time to react, stop him with a 2 yd loss, ballgame, playcalling made no sense, just don't get it.

[Rick0714]

Regarding the QB under center in short yardage situations, I remember an interview with Satterfield before the season started (could have actually been in the spring) and he was specifically asked about that. He answered that they had installed, or were going to install, that in the offense. Anyone else hear/remember that? I guess it doesn't really matter at this point, as they obviously never installed it. Just curious why he abandoned that thought.

I wondered if I had dreamed that, but I remember hearing that as well and thought "finally!". I remember the excuse years ago was, "we play every play in the shotgun and don't practice under the center so we're afraid they will get confused". I understand that but ... back when my son was playing pee wee football (3rd and 4th grade here) we ran offensive plays from under center and the shotgun and only had I misfire where the center thought the QB was under center in two years. Surely, if 3rd and 4th graders can keep it straight, college scholarship athletes could! Just my two cents worth.

[ASUMountaineer]

Here you go guys:

Hey Coach Satt,

Hope all is going well for you and your family. Everybody is "jacked" for this season (or most are anyway). Here are a couple of related questions: 1) we for the last few years have had difficulty scoring from the red zone. I realize that most spread teams struggle with the less space but during our run in 2005-2010 we also had an element of power too. Will we see maybe an extra O-lineman or maybe a D- lineman in the backfield ( I know we have used a TE there but we need a bigger body)? A' la Dan Kilgore from San Fran. 2) Also, will we run more two back sets this season and how often ... I know it depends on the situation but maybe 25% ?

Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. Also I love all the new publicity this season!!

Thanks
Gerry Camelo

Hello Coach Satterfield. I’m excited about our move to the Sun Belt and think we can really compete in the new conference right out of the gate.

My question is: It seems we have sometimes had a tough time in the last couple of years converting short yardage for 1st down or TD when we needed to. I know we are a multiple spread offense but can we expect to see the QB go under center instead of the gun more in these type situations?

Thanks and Go Apps!

Grey Preston
Lodi, Virginia
ASU (1979)

Why do we never go under center on third or fourth down for short yardage?

Larry

SS: Gerry, Grey and Larry,

Great questions and obviously a topic that has been discussed a lot around here since we went to the spread offense in 2004.

One thing that we have started doing is taking snaps from under center every day in practice. If we get into a scenario in a game where we start having problems with the shotgun snap or with the quarterback catching the ball (e.g. in a driving rain at Furman last year), we do need to have the ability to go under center to run our offense.

Obviously, being under center is not a big part of our offense. But we'll definitely have a little bit of a short-yardage/goal-line package (a couple of running plays and some play-action plays off that) in our playbook.

One factor in how much we use that under-center package besides the obvious down-and-distance is who we're playing and if we match up well, personnel-wise, when we line up under center. One thing that we don't want to do most of the time is pack a lot of guys into the box. That's the negative about going under center — if you build your team to have huge offensive linemen and pound the ball between the tackles, you'll want to be under center. However, our offense is built to play in a spread and we're trying to spread the field and put our speed guys in space, so our philosophy has been to be in the shotgun the vast majority of the time. We feel like we have more options at our disposal while in the shotgun to be able to move the football.

http://www.appstatesports.com/ViewArtic ... =209523847

[goapps93]

Regarding the QB under center in short yardage situations, I remember an interview with Satterfield before the season started (could have actually been in the spring) and he was specifically asked about that. He answered that they had installed, or were going to install, that in the offense. Anyone else hear/remember that? I guess it doesn't really matter at this point, as they obviously never installed it. Just curious why he abandoned that thought.

I wondered if I had dreamed that, but I remember hearing that as well and thought "finally!". I remember the excuse years ago was, "we play every play in the shotgun and don't practice under the center so we're afraid they will get confused". I understand that but ... back when my son was playing pee wee football (3rd and 4th grade here) we ran offensive plays from under center and the shotgun and only had I misfire where the center thought the QB was under center in two years. Surely, if 3rd and 4th graders can keep it straight, college scholarship athletes could! Just my two cents worth.

It's not that 3rd and 4th graders can do something that college athletes can't. It's more a difference of offensive philosphy. I'm assuming that your pee wee son's team went out of both sets regularly. That's different from a team who always runs shotgun going to under center for certain plays. Most NFL teams do both, that means the center and QB are working on both all the time. It's also much easier for a center who primarily snaps to a QB under center to switch, periodically, to the shotgun. I know this from experience. Our offense, for whatever reason, doesn't call for ANY under center sets. We also have to remember that blocking schemes are different for short yardage plays under center. Personally, I like the shotgun and would never go under center. We should be able to gain short yardage from the shotgun wherever we are on the field, especially with creative play calling.

[Rick0714]

Regarding the QB under center in short yardage situations, I remember an interview with Satterfield before the season started (could have actually been in the spring) and he was specifically asked about that. He answered that they had installed, or were going to install, that in the offense. Anyone else hear/remember that? I guess it doesn't really matter at this point, as they obviously never installed it. Just curious why he abandoned that thought.

I wondered if I had dreamed that, but I remember hearing that as well and thought "finally!". I remember the excuse years ago was, "we play every play in the shotgun and don't practice under the center so we're afraid they will get confused". I understand that but ... back when my son was playing pee wee football (3rd and 4th grade here) we ran offensive plays from under center and the shotgun and only had I misfire where the center thought the QB was under center in two years. Surely, if 3rd and 4th graders can keep it straight, college scholarship athletes could! Just my two cents worth.

It's not that 3rd and 4th graders can do something that college athletes can't. It's more a difference of offensive philosphy. I'm assuming that your pee wee son's team went out of both sets regularly. That's different from a team who always runs shotgun going to under center for certain plays. Most NFL teams do both, that means the center and QB are working on both all the time. It's also much easier for a center who primarily snaps to a QB under center to switch, periodically, to the shotgun. I know this from experience. Our offense, for whatever reason, doesn't call for ANY under center sets. We also have to remember that blocking schemes are different for short yardage plays under center. Personally, I like the shotgun and would never go under center. We should be able to gain short yardage from the shotgun wherever we are on the field, especially with creative play calling.

I Understand the philosophy, I was dealing more with the excuse as given back when SS was the OC. Especially considering that they have practiced the play for "short yardage/goal line situations" as SS said in the quote above, its antithetical to run a goal line play inside the 1 from the shotgun. There is a reason that at almost every level that play is QB sneak. App ran it from the shotgun, so did Clemson and we see the results. "Should be able to" really doesn't mean much when you DON'T get it. I can remember this being a soft point for years for the reason that it's not been successful, at least against teams of FCS caliber and above. The blocking scheme is not that different from what we run from the shotgun in short yardage. We typically do not run the inside or outside zone blocking in short yardage anyway. It just has to hit quicker and starting 3-5 yards back just doesn't seem to work for us. If it suddenly starts working, I will be the first to eat crow and shut up.

[NewApp]

Needless to say, there is a lot of difference between peewee football and college ball. Defenses are a lot smarter in college ball for one thing. I don't see the analogy.

[ASUMountaineer]

Regarding the QB under center in short yardage situations, I remember an interview with Satterfield before the season started (could have actually been in the spring) and he was specifically asked about that. He answered that they had installed, or were going to install, that in the offense. Anyone else hear/remember that? I guess it doesn't really matter at this point, as they obviously never installed it. Just curious why he abandoned that thought.

I wondered if I had dreamed that, but I remember hearing that as well and thought "finally!". I remember the excuse years ago was, "we play every play in the shotgun and don't practice under the center so we're afraid they will get confused". I understand that but ... back when my son was playing pee wee football (3rd and 4th grade here) we ran offensive plays from under center and the shotgun and only had I misfire where the center thought the QB was under center in two years. Surely, if 3rd and 4th graders can keep it straight, college scholarship athletes could! Just my two cents worth.

It's not that 3rd and 4th graders can do something that college athletes can't. It's more a difference of offensive philosphy. I'm assuming that your pee wee son's team went out of both sets regularly. That's different from a team who always runs shotgun going to under center for certain plays. Most NFL teams do both, that means the center and QB are working on both all the time. It's also much easier for a center who primarily snaps to a QB under center to switch, periodically, to the shotgun. I know this from experience. Our offense, for whatever reason, doesn't call for ANY under center sets. We also have to remember that blocking schemes are different for short yardage plays under center. Personally, I like the shotgun and would never go under center. We should be able to gain short yardage from the shotgun wherever we are on the field, especially with creative play calling.

Do you think going under center occasionally would throw the defense off enough to make our "standard" offense more effective?

[AppSt94]

Needless to say, there is a lot of difference between peewee football and college ball. Defenses are a lot smarter in college ball for one thing. I don't see the analogy.

I think what you meant to say was the defenses are more sophisticated in college. I'm not sure that the players are smarter.

[AppSt94]

Regarding the QB under center in short yardage situations, I remember an interview with Satterfield before the season started (could have actually been in the spring) and he was specifically asked about that. He answered that they had installed, or were going to install, that in the offense. Anyone else hear/remember that? I guess it doesn't really matter at this point, as they obviously never installed it. Just curious why he abandoned that thought.

I wondered if I had dreamed that, but I remember hearing that as well and thought "finally!". I remember the excuse years ago was, "we play every play in the shotgun and don't practice under the center so we're afraid they will get confused". I understand that but ... back when my son was playing pee wee football (3rd and 4th grade here) we ran offensive plays from under center and the shotgun and only had I misfire where the center thought the QB was under center in two years. Surely, if 3rd and 4th graders can keep it straight, college scholarship athletes could! Just my two cents worth.

It's not that 3rd and 4th graders can do something that college athletes can't. It's more a difference of offensive philosphy. I'm assuming that your pee wee son's team went out of both sets regularly. That's different from a team who always runs shotgun going to under center for certain plays. Most NFL teams do both, that means the center and QB are working on both all the time. It's also much easier for a center who primarily snaps to a QB under center to switch, periodically, to the shotgun. I know this from experience. Our offense, for whatever reason, doesn't call for ANY under center sets. We also have to remember that blocking schemes are different for short yardage plays under center. Personally, I like the shotgun and would never go under center. We should be able to gain short yardage from the shotgun wherever we are on the field, especially with creative play calling.

Do you think going under center occasionally would throw the defense off enough to make our "standard" offense more effective?

Not necessarily on the goal line because they are going to stack the box but in the middle of the field it would probably confuse the linebackers because you now bring in the play action pass. It would create space on between the 2nd and 3rd levels but we do that anyway.

[asu66]

I know many are calling our play calling conservative and I know that we had a new QB making his first start but I don't really see a whole lot of difference with what we did Saturday to what we have been doing for many years with this offense. Everything is underneath the safeties in space then rely on YAC. Other than the occasional boundry throw to Price that has been it for quite awhile. Am I wrong?

Please don't take this the wrong way. When you speak of those deep throws to a big receiver, please use Quick as your example, rather than XXXXX. XXXXX disgraced himself and Appalachian with his actions both in and out of uniform. He's no example for anything good at ASU. He's not listed for a court date in Watauga and he's not listed as an offender in the NC Department of Corrections, so his attorney must have found a first-offender program for him somewhere. On the other hand, there's no indication from a dozen Google searches that any D-I, D-II, D-III or NAIA teams or any semi-pro teams have picked him up. The NFL wouldn't give him even a distant sniff of a locker room with its current high visibility PR problems.

[asu66]

I don't know why its so hard for spread offenses to go under center when the situation calls for it. Sat night Clemson did the exact same thing, 4th and 1/2 yd in overtime, 6'2 qb, instead takes the shotgun snap, hands off to running back, slow developing play, gave FS defensive line time to react, stop him with a 2 yd loss, ballgame, playcalling made no sense, just don't get it.

According to Jim Donnan, former all-ACC and Liberty Bowl QB at NC State and Hall of Fame coach, switching to an under center snap from the shotgun formation is more difficult than the average bear would understand. He said Saturday night that our center was having trouble just getting the ball to Lamb on a simple shotgun snap. The snaps were all over the place--high, low, left and right. A couple got to Lamb on the bounce. To depend on him to make a clean under-center snap in a critical short yardage situation would be high risk. He said he wouldn't call it if he was our coach. He was clearly down on our center. He thought that was a key weakness of our O line.