My One Beef With "The Chip Kelly Era"

That being said, you’re wrong.

but if we need a power back in a certain game or certain situation, we will use him. No doubt in my mind.

Winning national championships on NCAA 2012 doesn’t qualify you to make decisions on an actuall NCAA football program, now if our program was in disarray I would understand your points more clearly. But look at Chip’s record. Thats the way coaches have been… for a long time. He is about as cutting edge as it gets, we all trust him to do the best for the team.

Frankly, he was a bigger version of that Rodgers kid who played just north of us.

This is just completely untrue. Rodgers was an All-American type of running back.

His average of 5.7 yards per carry is still less than Barner or James. Heck, it is only .5 yards more per carry than Darron Thomas. If you wanted a Bruiser or something to go Goal Line I would suggest Michael Clay, I mean according to yards per carry his average was 64 yards per carry, plus he is 220, 5’ 11" now that I think about it, I ACTUALLY do like the idea of Michael Clay on the goal line.

I think approach is to put the best players on the field no matter the situation. You could also make the arguement that by putting Remene in that you aren’t as dangerous to the edges thus the defense could pack the middle more. As far as the partcular play you are talking about, Kenjon may have missed the read. He should probably should have gone to the outside. Or at least he may have had a better chance to the outside. Check out the video of the play. Instead Kenjon tried to run over 3-4 DLs and LBs. Also, LaMike was in, Chip was trying to use him as a decoy.

I also think that Chip has seen that in some situation it would be advantageous to have 2 TEs and have the QB under center. We saw this package in the spring game. He might consider using Colt as a power back on goal line situations (complete speculation on my part). I think most coaches are hesitant to put players lower down the depth chart in for critical situations. As far as Tra goes I think it would be hard to put a true freshman with little in game experience (under the assumption he is deep down the depth chart) and rely on him in a critical situation.

Our starting QB and two main backs work through their timing and exchanges hundreds of times, while a backup like The Gentlemen is going to have significantly less reps. In an offense that relies on timing and the threat of misdirection a botched handoff or mistake in the flow of the play could be a disaster. I think Chip Kelly is going to put the players on the field who have the best chance to execute the play he calls.

If we run goal line plays all year with Barner and James back there, and it worked, why would we suddenly try something different? I don’t think Chip called that play because he owed it to those players to get the ball. He called that play to try and win a football game. You could also look at the Auburn defensive line and think that a shifty, elusive back has a better chance to squeeze through a small hole or elude a tackle, than a big guy has the chance to barrel his way through Nick Fairley.

I believe we’ll see more guys rotate through the backfield this year, with less carries for LMJ and significantly more for the #3 and even #4 running backs. But it will all come down to how well they can execute the mesh with DT and how well they can run the play at the correct tempo. I would bet you ten Schrute Bucks that Chip would prefer to run a power play at perfect pace with a small back than just a little off with a big back.

First, Remene Alston would not have scored. Yeah, he’s big, but he never showed any power in his running. As much as he put all his effort into the Oregon football team, he just wasn’t very good. He didn’t have great speed or power. He could have been the #2 when Barner went last year, but he wasn’t, because he didn’t earn that spot.

As for as this “Chip Kelly not being a power back guy” nonsense, you sure do have problems with selective reasoning. Blount did not play when he was reinstated because he wasn’t ready to play. He certainly played later, to the chagrin of Beaver fans (and maybe to the chagrin of Duck fans after the Rose Bowl)

Also, let’s take a giant step back for a little. Our offensive line played pretty poorly in the national championship game, and the Oregon offense was stopped in short yardage situations in some painfully memorable spots. But you really need to take in all the data before making these grand pronouncements. Oregon has been stellar in the red zone the last few seasons. Yes, their line didn’t do well against Auburn. But that doesn’t mean that there is some weakness in Chip. It means that the team didn’t execute, and they’ll come back, figure out what went wrong, and correct those mistakes.

The main thing to remember is that if your offensive line is letting opponents in the backfield, it won’t matter how big your back is, they won’t be scoring.

“I just read something on Oregonlive” and stopped reading. Did I miss anything?

a previous posters comments about using Lache as a receiver. I would like to see him develop into more of a TZR role, ala KjB though. Granted he would have to learn all of those positions, but he does have some downfield running ability between the tackles and can be great given space. I think he has a lot of talent but would like to see him used along with other running backs in the roster.

Simply put, I believe CK puts the player(s) in that he feels will give the best chance of success.