B1G Moving to Air Raid Offenses
I am bored and excited for the season to kick-off in 1.5 weeks. I saw this article and it got me thinking a few things, so I thought I'd make a small opinion post here.
1. This is old news really but further cements the logic that Wisconsin moving to air raid does explain how Bostad became available to IU. The old school Wisconsin offense wasn't cutting it at a level they expect so the ground and pound needed to change.
2. Kevin Wilson sort of brought that Big 12 air raid type of style offense to IU before most of the other B1G schools had it and it changed our persona. But I think that is because it wasn't something most teams saw outside of possibly Ohio State.
3. With IU needing to claw itself and its image out of the basement, they need to go against the grain a little. Trying to compete for the same recruits that fit the same system as the top half of the league, will often result in IU getting a less overall talented version of what those other teams are running out each Saturday. Sure, you can still possibly win but as we know, the odds have usually been stacked against us.
I say that because if the league is going to be primarily air raid, then IU needs a system that's unique to what other B1G teams are facing week in and week out, and therefore makes it harder to prepare for. It also makes it easier to recruit higher end talent that fit our system when less teams are looking for that style of OL. Nebraska did this in the 90's with the triple option (albeit more teams ran that back then) but Nebraska was able to recruit the best option style recruits in the country because that was their bread and butter. Then they collapsed once they tried to compete against the other power programs who had already established themselves in the pro-style offensive system and had to recruit head-to-head against them for the same players. So, although it looks like we're sort of going backwards in offensive scheme compared to the B1G, its often a bit of a pendulum effect. The least used scheme can work in favor of programs like IU that will often struggle trying to run out the same styles with often lesser talent.
I am bored and excited for the season to kick-off in 1.5 weeks. I saw this article and it got me thinking a few things, so I thought I'd make a small opinion post here.
1. This is old news really but further cements the logic that Wisconsin moving to air raid does explain how Bostad became available to IU. The old school Wisconsin offense wasn't cutting it at a level they expect so the ground and pound needed to change.
2. Kevin Wilson sort of brought that Big 12 air raid type of style offense to IU before most of the other B1G schools had it and it changed our persona. But I think that is because it wasn't something most teams saw outside of possibly Ohio State.
3. With IU needing to claw itself and its image out of the basement, they need to go against the grain a little. Trying to compete for the same recruits that fit the same system as the top half of the league, will often result in IU getting a less overall talented version of what those other teams are running out each Saturday. Sure, you can still possibly win but as we know, the odds have usually been stacked against us.
I say that because if the league is going to be primarily air raid, then IU needs a system that's unique to what other B1G teams are facing week in and week out, and therefore makes it harder to prepare for. It also makes it easier to recruit higher end talent that fit our system when less teams are looking for that style of OL. Nebraska did this in the 90's with the triple option (albeit more teams ran that back then) but Nebraska was able to recruit the best option style recruits in the country because that was their bread and butter. Then they collapsed once they tried to compete against the other power programs who had already established themselves in the pro-style offensive system and had to recruit head-to-head against them for the same players. So, although it looks like we're sort of going backwards in offensive scheme compared to the B1G, its often a bit of a pendulum effect. The least used scheme can work in favor of programs like IU that will often struggle trying to run out the same styles with often lesser talent.
