NC State has struggled to effectively Run the ball the last 3-4 years. That, we can all agree on. After two more weeks of ineffective efforts, something's gotta give. It may be time to re-evaluate some Offensive Philosophy.
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It's the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. It's back in the lab for NC State Football. One of our main focuses is on run blocking. You are locked on Wolfpack, your daily podcast on the NC State Wolfpack, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up Wolfpack Nation, it's time to get locked in with Locked On. Thanks for making Locked On Wolfpack your first listen each and every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's Tuesday sponsor is 5 Hour Energy. Go to 5hourenergy.com and use promo code LockedOnCFE in all caps to receive 20% off of your order. Happy Tuesday to all, as always I'm Grayson Boone, joined by former Wolfpack defensive tackle Kenton Gives. Kenton a lot of concerns kind of in and out of week one and week two for NC State Football have centered around the O line and their effectiveness in run blocking. It just quite simply has not been there. Going into the season on the first depth chart of the year, we noted that Matt McCabe was placed at tight end and we talked about the possibility of Jumbo sets helping out with that run blocking issue because NC State has not been able to run that effectively these last couple of years. I don't want to put them on blast, but Matt McCabe has been the lowest ranked offensive player in terms of PFF grades through two weeks. Something's got a gift here. Yeah, absolutely and you talk about what Matt McCabe has not done or what the formation has not done. I would lesser say it's on Matt McCabe and more so won't predict the bill. Every time you see McCabe in the game, what do you know is coming? If a defense can key in on one player and say, oh, this player is in the game, I know what's coming, guess what that does. We can all pretend like knowing another team's tendencies and what they're going to do is means nothing, but it means a whole lot of something when you look at a situation where how many exceptions does McCabe have in the year, Grayson? Zero. How many passing places has he been in on? Grayson? I don't have that number, but probably less than a handful. Yeah. Less than a handful. I know that much. So I say on that to say if every time they see Big 47 into the game is, oh, it's a run. What more is there to really think about? What more do I have to wrap my mind around? Oh, he's in the game, they're going to run the ball. And so it's not putting him in the situation with success. It's not putting his team in the situation with success. And even if he was putting a situation for success, I mean, isn't this his first year ever planted it? Correct. You know what I'm saying? You're not necessarily putting guys in the best position in terms of, hey, I know this is your first year of playing this position, but we're also going to make it so the teams know exactly what we're doing, based on whether or not you're on the field. All in all, I think that's that very poor scheme to die. Yeah, I agree with you on the predictability aspect. It's kind of like if you're a baseball guy, the Astros cheating in the playoffs a couple of years ago, if you know what's coming, your chances of success are much higher in defending it. So for me personally, again, I'm not trying to put McCabe on blast here because he's not the only issue. I think there's just general inconsistencies across the offensive line that has really plagued our run game so far. But in my opinion, I'm about done with that experiment. I think after two weeks, if it's proven to be the most lackluster aspect of your run blocking game, I think you got to scrap it and move forward. Kind of what Robert and I in the offense did last year after that Duke loss, they stripped everything down to the studs, took out what doesn't work, threw back in what does work, and you move forward. I think you just go ahead and rip the band aid off, throw that part out, and maybe a change of philosophy is needed. Something interesting I've noticed I've seen being discussed that I personally agree with. I wouldn't hate a philosophy change to be more past heavy. If you can't get it done on the ground, you've got to find a way to move this fall consistently, and so far, we've seen it through the air. Now McCall needs to improve the accuracy in his overall play as well for that to succeed. But if you're going to get run stuffed against Western Carolina and Tennessee, and Tennessee's got a great defensive line, that is what it is. If you're getting stuffed this weekend against Louisiana Tech, you have a real problem on your hands. I wouldn't necessarily hate going into a philosophy of more air raid type offense, and with Robert and I, that was sort of the idea when he came into state, we would be more air raid focused, didn't quite get it last year because we didn't have the personnel. This year, with our wide receivers and Justin Joliet tight end, you do have the personnel. I think you might want to look to be more past heavy as soon as this weekend. Yeah, and I really don't see what the point of running the ball more is if it's not successful. Running the balance is not 50% run, 50% pass. Balance is being able to do what you want to do. Get the ball to where you want to get the ball to. If that looks like, hey, we're going to have a bunch of screens in here, and that's going to be our running game. Hey, we're going to have a bunch of situations where we use shovel passes or whatever the case may be. If that is what your running game will look like, that's what your running game will look like, but it's not smart. It's not wise to keep trying to run a ball when you're starting running back is in the negative yard. All right. What are we doing here? So schematically, this thing needs to be, I wouldn't say stripped down to the studs and there were guys who wrote, there were guys who were in position to make plays, offensive line needs to perform better to give guys more time, and we need better quarterback play to make those reads and hit those guys that are open. Yeah. And I'm not saying abandon the run because you can't do that because you do have to keep some level of balance, but historically, under Dave Doren, the offense is kind of running to set up the pass. You might want to roll that back and do pass to set up the run. If you can establish a consistent balance there, then perhaps you can reroute this thing and find more offensive success that way, but it's got to come quickly. We talked about the urgency now getting embarrassed like that. It raises a lot of questions that you need to find answers for relatively quick as you got LA Tech this weekend and then Clemson on the road in the next, I'll be very interested to see how they do attack offensively this weekend. Because again, if Jordan Waters is going to get stuffed at the line of scrimmage time after time after time, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. So far through two weeks, that is what it has looked like Hollywood Smothers is really the only guy that has popped in the run game and I would like to see his snap count and carry count increase this weekend at Louisiana Tech because if he's the only guy that can get a burst through the line and then find a hole and move on to the second and third levels of a defense, then perhaps that's an answer in itself. If Jordan Waters is maybe too patient in a sense and the holes are not being opened up through the offensive line, give it the Smothers. He's found success here. You might have to go ahead and start exploiting that. So some type of philosophy is going to have to change, I believe, if this offense is going to reinvent itself in a sense and continue some success moving forward. 100% and again, to me, I'm not mad at a band in the run. I get it that you say, hey, don't abandon the run and that's a philosophical difference between me and you grace it, but to me, if you get what you have been getting out of the run blocking so far this year, yeah, I mean, if you can't run, then don't run. If you can't run the ball, don't run the ball, okay. And again, will that make you one dimensional to some extent? Absolutely. But what would you rather have? One dimensional and you accept it, you know it, you play to your strengths or one dimensional and still trying to do what your weakness is, but failing. It becomes that square peg and round hole situation where it just will not work. You don't have the time to force it and continually fail as the season goes on. Absolutely. Absolutely not. And, you know, it's out. I will say this, I understand the idea that we can't just go quick game all the time because as you'll see in the lockdown, look at the week at the moment, our quarterback play is not allowing us to do that either. So it's that big Burmillo situation where he said, hey, we couldn't score on him and we couldn't stop the score other than that will be just fine. That's what you're looking at offensively. You're looking at a situation where you're saying, we're not running the ball great, we're not hitting our quick game, great, but other than that, we'll be fine in trying to find ways to make defensive lineman and the defenses in general move laterally instead of straight down hill or instead of, you know, pretty much being in positions where they're comfortable every time. Yeah. Very intrigued to see what the offense will show us in week three against Louisiana Tech. Coming up next, we have a whole lot of nothing or a whole lot of something after a quick word from our sponsors. Our first sponsor of the day is Ultimate College Football Head Coach, locked on Wolfpack fans, we got to give you a heads up for a moment on a brand new mobile game that we think you're going to love. 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Ultimate college football head coach, begin your coaching legacy today. Middle portion of our Tuesday show, now time for a whole lot of nothing or a whole lot of something. Three topics will tell you exactly where we stand on them. First one here, just talked about Hollywood Smothers. He's been looking like a clear RB1 option, especially against Tennessee, a couple of those nice runs before the whole game went south. What do you make of this Kenton? Whole lot of nothing? Whole lot of something. Whole lot of something. If you are going to continue to try to run the ball, go with the guy who's been doing it the best, period. In terms of yards per carry, I don't think it's close with anybody else on the team. So, I think that's your RB1. I mean, I guess you could play Jordan Waters or whatever the case may be in short yardage situations, but I really don't see why you would not want Hollywood to be your RB1. What's your justification for it? What would you say? And I mean that for a very genuine standpoint, because Hollywood Smothers hasn't fumbled on the year yet, has he? Nope. Hmm. We cannot say that for our current RB1. Hollywood Smothers has not had a game with negative rushing yards, has he? Nope. We cannot say that for our current RB1. So, you know, this is not to be disrespectful. This isn't to say, oh, we need to make wholesale changes and jump ship, but I think that it's if you watch the tape, it's been clear who our best back had been in very limited touches. And I get it. I understand is the old, it's the old theory of the, it's easy to be the side, hard to be the main, right? It's easy to be Tony Pollard, harder to be Ezekiel Elliott. Because again, you have a different situation going on in terms of what defenses are expecting and what defenses you can expect to see, I understand that. But again, at some point in time, I can give up a couple yard discrepancies. The discrepancy between these two is massive in terms of what we're seeing when they touch the ball. So I think there's a whole lot of something you got to give Hollywood more touches and more burn. In terms of yards per carry, Jordan Waters is at 4.4, Hollywood Smothers is at 7.1. It is distinctive Hollywood has had far more pop. It's just visible in the game. He hits the hole. He has that burst. He can get into open space, Jordan Waters, you know, you certainly don't want to dispatch Jordan Waters. He's a valuable piece of this offense, but he's underwhelmed. He's seemingly been brought down by a lot more armtack than you would have expected out of him. He's a very physical runner, but has not really been putting that physicality on tape that quite yet. And so with Hollywood success that he's been finding, I'd be hard pressed to disagree with anyone that wants to give Hollywood more carries this weekend against Louisiana Tech, especially in a game where quite frankly, there are a pretty bad football team. It's building confidence. It's doing the little things correctly in a week like this one. I think if you need to get some momentum rolling, you go ahead and start looking what Hollywood Smothers can do for you there in the run game. So I agree with you, Kenton. I think this is a whole lot of something. Second one here on Saturday night, Tennessee punted just once and had zero three in outs. Tennessee State punted six times, had five three in outs, and also turned the ball over on downs in just four plays twice, a lot of nothing, a lot of something. A whole lot of something, I guess, I mean, that sums up your ball game. I don't know how this cannot be a whole lot of something. The ability to sustain drives is important because even if you don't get points out of them, you get more data. That is, yes, football is an organized game fight to some extent, but also you need to know what your opponent is doing, how they're doing it. So even if you have a driver, you do not score necessarily. You still need to get, oh, okay, we saw, we sustained a drive for eight plays, and we saw how they lined up against this look, how they lined up against this look, what worked against this, what works for that, you learn and you gather data and information. If you're having three in outs, if you're having four in outs, if you're having time after time again where you can't sustain drives, that's what's happening. You're not getting the information that you need. So all in all, I'd say a whole lot of something. This was your ball game in essence. Yeah, I, I more or less put this in here to point out how astounding it truly is. One team could be consistent on offense. The other team could not. One team was turning the ball over on offense. The other team was not. It is as clear as day. And so I understand why Tennessee fans were kind of up in arms about us saying that the McCall pick six changed the game still think it did, however, when your offense is going to perform like this and Tennessee is performing like that, your results are going to more or less come out the same way. And so it would have, but NC State this week, much like I just talked about finding confidence and executing at a high level, you have got to find that consistency. The offense has to stay on the field for more than three plays or four plays or five plays. You have to move the chain, stay ahead of the chains and continue to build that rapport between quarterback, tight end, wide receiver, running back O line, the whole nine yards. That cohesion has been nowhere to be found for the majority of both of these games. Western Carolina, you kind of found it later in that game. But for the most part, we looked pretty lost out there. If you look lost in week three against Louisiana Tech, there's going to be a whole lot more panic buttons. Audibly, you'll be able to hear it around Raleigh. So the cohesion, the consistency, the confidence, the three C's, that is something we need to see pun intended this week against Louisiana Tech whole lot of something. Last one here, we spoke about my call looking uncomfortable so far this year. Based on the quarterback drama we had last year, what's kind of the leash that you're starting to think about a whole lot of nothing, a lot of something. Whole lot of something. You're a six year guy. We should not be discussing a leash. I don't think I have to say anything beyond that. So I'm not going to your six year playing college football. We should be discussing, damn, that guy looks better than advertised or he's held serve. He's held serve. You haven't been perfect. We aren't undefeated, but he held serve. He did what he's supposed to do. Instead, we're discussing how much leash you should or should not have a whole lot of something. In some senses, I'm kind of torn on this, but more or less, it is a whole lot of something because of everything you just outlined week two, and some folks are already talking about a leash. That's a major problem for the leader that you brought into this program. Six year experienced guy, he's done basically everything you can do in college football. And yet here we are wondering if we should throw in the freshman quarterback just to see what he can do. That's not a very good feeling when you're looking at potentially 10 wins and ACC championship. The confidence is not being inspired in any of us right now. So this is a get right week for McCall. In terms of leash though, if you want to break it down like that, I do think it's still far too early. I would say no matter what, no matter what, I think McCall is your guy until after the Clemson game. If these struggles continue after Clemson, then I think the conversation becomes very real, very quick. Like I was talking about in the post game, the coaching staff is not going to pull plug after two weeks, especially not after what we went through last year and that quarterback debacle between MJ and Armstrong. So in terms of leash, yeah, it's extremely frustrating that we are having to talk about this after two weeks, but we say all that to say the quarterback play just has to improve. You have got to find a way to be the guy that we brought you in here to be point blank period. That's really all there is to it. So for right now, yes, it is a whole lot of something coming up next. We have our locked on look of the week. Everyone and their mother knows what play we're about to show you, but there's a lot more to it than you may think. This comes after a quick word from our sponsors. Our second sponsor of the day is five hour energy. Five hour energy fixes tired fast. 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The offer is only valid from now until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders, so get on over to five hour energy.com today. Last couple of minutes of our Tuesday show, it's now time for the locked on look of the week. Kenton, what do you got for us? All righty. So we're going to look at the interception. We're going to look at how it happened, why it happened and all those things. Okay. So it appears to me that this is very clearly a play action where you're reading low to high. That's important and I'm going to explain to you all why that's important a little later, but long story short, this is a play action with your tight end dragging across. It looks like split zone, but your tight end leaks to the flat and normally you have two deeper routes behind him. So you read one, two, three, it's normally either your top guy, your middle guy and your guy in the flat or you're reading the guy in the flat, guy going deep on this scene route. And then Casey who is coming out on what seems to be like a something like a wheel, something like a stop some hybrid of the two, whatever the case may be. That's what happened. Look at Tennessee's defense. They come up, they simulate that they're bringing the house, right? They simulate, oh yeah, this is for sure, cover zero, we're bringing everybody yada yada so on and so forth except they're not and it's not a particularly hard job to see it. Don't get me wrong. I've talked about this before, but you have to have the ability to see certain things and recognize them in pre snap recognition, okay? If it were covered zero and all these guys were coming, your safety would not be sitting back there in terms of the middle of the field deep third safety. He just wouldn't be back there. If it's covered zero, that means that he has man coverage responsibility on somebody or you will have one player unaccounted for, completely wide open defenses generally don't leave one player unaccounted for completely wide open. It's a recipe for disaster. So you see a safety that high indeed, you have to know, oh, this is probably covered three. They're probably running some type of some type of fire zone, which they were a fire zone, meaning you're blitzing, bringing extra guys or you're bringing guys who are not on a line of scrimmage and then you're dropping somebody else who every case may be. So Tennessee is bringing all of their defensive lineman and this linebacker at the top of the screen and against this play action kind of boot flat mid read this seam route look, okay? So that's what's going on there. Now I want to take a second to jump forward because a lot of people are saying, hey, the seam route was open and I have a picture of the screen captured where yes, there's a window, yes, that window is there for him or call to hit this. However, Grayson and I, Grayson Boone have talked about, you know, does he need to be Superman? No, he just needs to be good. He just needs to be himself. That's all we're asking for. That play right there, that's a Superman play and I don't mean that lightly. A quarterback who hits this throw with pressure coming in his face, you know, hit that throw into that window, that's a Superman play. No doubt about it, I'm not expecting you to hit that, but there's something else going on in this frame that I need to pay attention to from a different angle. So as we see, there's at the snap, there's an unaccounted for a rusher that is coming from the short side of the field where Grayson wanted to roll to right away. Justin Jolie leaking behind him, bought a bean, bought a bull, you should have Justin Jolie in the flat. But Justin Jolie stops and the defensive end or the edge rusher there ends up directly between him and Grayson McCall. Now here's the thing about that, it is possible that Justin Jolie ran the wrong road. He shouldn't have stopped, he shouldn't have kept going, that's possible. That's absolutely possible. If I take it back to the first slide here, one of the options was if Justin Jolie did not stop there, keep it going to the sidelines. So that was a possibility as well as on this one, it's as well as on this slide where we're talking about the free rusher, you know, Justin Jolie could continue to the flat. But here's the deal, Grayson McCall, I need you, there's a red line behind Grayson McCall for a reason, Grayson boom, what is the angle on that line, if I bought a line perfectly perpendicular with that one, what angle would it create? Right angle? A 90 degree angle, correct, the right angle. So what does that mean, Grayson? He's standing straight up, one foot, going off your back foot, standing straight up for a pass that is one yard behind the line of scrimmage, and yet that is what we get. As we can see in this slide here, you've got this back foot barely on the ground, you're leaning back, receiving back, throwing the ball, and then here comes Brooks. Wow, Grayson McCall, I knew you were a philanthropic guy, but just for me, just for me, I normally got to work hard for my interceptions. This one here, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, there are some guys who do the phone bank thing, there are some guys who do giving out turkeys on face, giving in all that, Grayson McCall is giving away turnovers early this year. And he throws at the Brooks, who Justin Jolie did his best outside linebacker impression this week as well, it just didn't work out the same way. Because Grayson, what did we say during that interception in the last game? Against better competition, this is a what? Another interception. A pick six in particular, yeah. A pick six. So it seems to me that the common denominator is not Brooks. It's not the pressure in his face, because the stick route, there was barely any pressure. And it was a right away throw, no movement. It seems to me that the common denominator in these moments is NC State's offense doing things like this. So I look at that and I say, what a disappointment. We all know how this play ends, instead of having the opportunity to be down 10 to six, or maybe even tie and get a 10 hole, you then go down 17 to three, and the wolfback just did not get back up off the mat afterwards, which was thoroughly disappointing. But what's even more disappointing is this is the second pick of the year, where again, we're throwing passes within five yards of line of scrimmage and that's happening. Just disgusting. Whether Tennessee was going to dominate the rest of the game or not, there's really no debating that the game more or less ended right there with that interception. NC State, all the win came out of the sales and they more or less roll over and die. In big moments like that, one play can absolutely change the entire dynamic of the game. That one did very hard pill to swallow. That'll do it for us here on Tuesday. As always, thank you all so much for joining us. Be sure to hit that like button, drop your comments down in the comment box. Tell us what you think about our run blocking struggles through two games so far. Tell us what you think about Hollywood Smothers. Should he be getting RB1 look? We certainly might think so. Tell us what you think about Grayson McCall's struggles and how it can also improve, looking forward to LA Tech. Anything else you have on your mind, be sure to drop that down in the comment box as well. We will see you right back here tomorrow on Wednesday and until then, go pack. Go back. A Prime members, you can listen to this lock-down podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today! [MUSIC PLAYING]
