Martin and the Playcalling

[jtstang]

Willis is already a much better passer than Flanigan.

I disagree. Flanigan was not a cannon-arm, but clearly had superior arm strength over Willis. He hooked up with the 53-yard-specialist, Brian Berry, on numerous well thrown deep balls as I recall. Willis throws anything over 20 yards higher than he does long.

[Nacho]

Flanigan was without doubt the best running QB SMU has ever had but he was not going to beat anyone throwing the ball. He simply couldn't read defenses--not my words but a coach at the time.

[jtstang]

You said better passer, not better defense-reader. Willis has a rag-arm compared to Flanigan, although Flanigan was not a rocket either. Besides, Flanigan never had enough time to read a defense, he was always running for his life.

[Nacho]

Don't get me wrong I loved Flanigan. Who would you rather have as QB of this team? That's a tough one even for me.

[davidsmu94]

Call me crazy, but I am not that impressed with Martin. Mapps has been the better back this year and he deserves the starting job. The only reason Martin is even in the picture is because of his role last year.

Plus, Martin is proving that he is prone to injury.

Alright, you are crazy

[chillinfool]

Even though it's too early to talk about Willis and the draft, I wouldn't rule him out as being a potential NFL QB strictly due to his height. In fact, a good comparison right now would be Willis to Seneca Wallace, the Seahawks QB who is 5'11. They have similar scrambling ability and rely on the shorter, more conservative passes.
Also, 6 of the 32 quaterbacks starting this week are 6'1" or shorter....Wallace, Vick 6', Grossman 6'1", Gradkowski 6', Brunnell6'1", and Brees6'.

[jtstang]

Don't get me wrong I loved Flanigan. Who would you rather have as QB of this team? That's a tough one even for me.

Good question. At the beginning of the year, when everybody was saying how much better our offensive line was going to be at pass protection, I would have said I'd like to see Flanigan behind that kind of line. Now that Willis is running for his life every play, I guess I'd say I already knew Flanigan could do that.

[The PonyGrad]

JW is the perfect QB for the offense we are running. Any suggestion to change the OC while he is here is nuts.

Our offense does need to work out how best to incorporate the run now that Martin is back. Currently the run is a risky play. If we guess the defense right we can bust it for a long one, if not we could get a short gain or even lose yards. Passing is our ball control with running as a change of pace. If the run gets predictable we are going nowhere, Martin or Mapps.

[Nacho]

When Burns was the OC at Cincy this was a much diferent offense. It was much more a veticle O. Now as you say it is a short pass control O. Like the former Aerial Circus we take the 2 yard pass as our birthright. I would like to see this open up but until we get a stronger O line I think we will see more of the same.

[The PonyGrad]

You mold the offense to the players and recruit to an offense. If Willis had a cannon of an arm then we would probably be more vertical.

I for one am glad to see that we are not trying to shoehorm players into an offense.

[PerunaPunch]

Blog,

Just to set the record straight, Cedrick Dorsey is out best blocking back (according to the coaches). That's why you see him lined up in the FB spot sometimes despite his size.

Martin is running tenuously. He's not the back he was last year against TCU, not even close. Rather than smashing and slashing, he's trying to make people miss, which isn't really his strength because he's tall and runs too upright. Also, Martin is running slow. The holes are there, but they're closing before Martin gets there. He lines up 7 to 8 yards deep and doesn't get to the line with sufficient alacrity.

Martin's best run of the UAB game was a short yardage play that ended up going for 12 or 15. I guess he forgot to dance around, but when he hit the hole... he just kept on going.

During the UAB game, I bitched for 2 quarters about putting Mapps in. And when they finally did, the holes were there.

[The PonyGrad]

I would like to see more option. With defenses worried about Willis running or passing it should open up the RB on the option.

[OC Mustang]

You said better passer, not better defense-reader. Willis has a rag-arm compared to Flanigan, although Flanigan was not a rocket either. Besides, Flanigan never had enough time to read a defense, he was always running for his life.

Flanigan did have a rocket, jt. He just couldn't do it over and over and over. I also think he was a whole lot faster than Willis, but Willis has him on the first 3-4 steps. I think Willis is sturdier; he is just short compared to Flanigan. And as for running for his life, he ran the single wing in high school at WF Rider. They guy knew how to read on the run; he just didn't trust his receivers like Willis has decided to do. SMU just didn't have anybody besides Berry who could consistently catch and burn. Rossley was okay, surehanded and all. But even with Pellerin's catching ADD we have better receivers now than then.