[CTcard]

A few replies to the recent threads about what to expect from the offense this year.

My guess is that the answer to "will the offense be substantially different" depends upon how you interpret that phrase.
I believe that the Stanford offense changed a lot from 2011 to 2012, again mid-2012, again in 2013, and again in 2014. Some of those changes I liked, some I really despised - but it didn't look static to me.
On the other hand, the offense remained a mostly man-blocking, power-ish, run-first offense through all of that (well most of that, mid-2014 was weird and a mess).

Our personnel won't change much in 2015 versus end of season 2014. We'll have four good TE options instead of three and we will have less strength blocking from the FB position - with just maybe a little more possibility of handling the ball from there. The line will be reshuffled a bit - despite four starters back I am somewhat concerned about early returns from the right side of the line. I would guess we'll be running left a lot. And whomever wins the RG spot will probably be the best puller of the group.

The similarity in personnel, plus the success at the end of 2014, plus what I interpret Coach Shaw-speak to mean makes me think we will see:
A) Still an attempt to be a run first, man-blocking, power or power-ish team. At least until it doesn't work. If the RG cannot pull there will probably be plenty of simple one-on-one runs to the left.
B) A fair amount of medium-range passing game to big receiving targets, but if we see up to 50% passing plays (which is less than most teams) then something has gone wrong with A. The slant pattern may make a comeback - after having lots of struggles with that play, Hogan hit some nice ones towards the end last year.
C) A fairly regular look for a home-run ball to TEs slipping down the field, McCaffrey doing whatever, and occasionally Rector (or other) on a fly pattern. This also depends upon the success of A - as that is how you get the safeties looking in instead of covering.

I don't expect to see too much impact from any frosh on offense. If Love, or any frosh, has as many touches as McCaffrey did in 2014 I will be surprised.

One wildcard is exactly how Shaw intends to get McCaffrey the ball more. I get the sense he will be running inside a fair amount. However, I think McCaffrey is particularly effective catching the ball, so I hope there will be plenty of misdirection - get McCaffrey a pass with a chance to make a move kind of plays. That we haven't seen a ton of from Stanford lately, particularly from backs.

[CTcard]

A few replies to the recent threads about what to expect from the offense this year.

My guess is that the answer to "will the offense be substantially different" depends upon how you interpret that phrase.
I believe that the Stanford offense changed a lot from 2011 to 2012, again mid-2012, again in 2013, and again in 2014. Some of those changes I liked, some I really despised - but it didn't look static to me.
On the other hand, the offense remained a mostly man-blocking, power-ish, run-first offense through all of that (well most of that, mid-2014 was weird and a mess).

Our personnel won't change much in 2015 versus end of season 2014. We'll have four good TE options instead of three and we will have less strength blocking from the FB position - with just maybe a little more possibility of handling the ball from there. The line will be reshuffled a bit - despite four starters back I am somewhat concerned about early returns from the right side of the line. I would guess we'll be running left a lot. And whomever wins the RG spot will probably be the best puller of the group.

The similarity in personnel, plus the success at the end of 2014, plus what I interpret Coach Shaw-speak to mean makes me think we will see:
A) Still an attempt to be a run first, man-blocking, power or power-ish team. At least until it doesn't work. If the RG cannot pull there will probably be plenty of simple one-on-one runs to the left.
B) A fair amount of medium-range passing game to big receiving targets, but if we see up to 50% passing plays (which is less than most teams) then something has gone wrong with A. The slant pattern may make a comeback - after having lots of struggles with that play, Hogan hit some nice ones towards the end last year.
C) A fairly regular look for a home-run ball to TEs slipping down the field, McCaffrey doing whatever, and occasionally Rector (or other) on a fly pattern. This also depends upon the success of A - as that is how you get the safeties looking in instead of covering.

I don't expect to see too much impact from any frosh on offense. If Love, or any frosh, has as many touches as McCaffrey did in 2014 I will be surprised.

One wildcard is exactly how Shaw intends to get McCaffrey the ball more. I get the sense he will be running inside a fair amount. However, I think McCaffrey is particularly effective catching the ball, so I hope there will be plenty of misdirection - get McCaffrey a pass with a chance to make a move kind of plays. That we haven't seen a ton of from Stanford lately, particularly from backs.