Our offense for 4 years has been praying busted plays gain yards. That's not a system.
You just stop right there, sir. What makes you think think its ok to come in here spouting truth all willy nilly?
Sometimes we planned for that bustiness. Didnt you ever notice our misdirection and confusion we caused with our read option. Yes some plays Dobbs and Hurd would freeze frame for second or two like two bloomindales spring sale mannequins, . This was genius for several reasons.
1. The ball was secreted between the two still-life, post snap afterbirths , about 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage, literally the last place anyone would look, and indeed if spotted, causes confusion, "inverse fake punt?!?" This combined with other avant garde non-footballish innovations such as the WR "Jazzani hands" would often plays against opponents learned behaviors and finely tuned instincts.
2. While conventional teams run delays or draw to confuse opponents with misdirectional blocking schemes, to allow OL to finish blocks, run counters, or the semblance of indicating passing situations. The vols take advantage differently. With the vols run game it was often hard to know which gaps would be open due to defender disinterest, and which were occupied by fallen, falling, exploding offensive lineman. At other times defenders would push their double team of OL so far into the backfield it was advantageous, and the delays gave time for dobbs/hurd to identify which lineman missed his assignment, standing there looking confused as a decoy, if the runner charged hard enough directly at his backside he could be activated, like a mindless golem, or scared pamplona bull, creating lanes of confusion. This was effective especially since the HUNO employed by Butch, would rush, rush, rush the team into thr execution of a tarded play that took so long to develop and seemed so non-footballish in its execution that defenders sometimes maybe thought they heard a whistle, or got tired of pushing soft orange bodies, or legitmately checked to see if Dobbs or Hurd had suffered a stroke.
3. Dobbs and Hurd themselves. At last we consider the two focal points of Butch's borderline iffy football innovation. As a quarterback who understood the physics of flight, spin and kinetic energies...Dobbs was strangely unable to harness those concepts in a manner that would propel football shaped objects in a forward, straight, or consistent manner. When you team up the hoyt wilhelm of quarterbacks with the baby huey of runningbacks, interesting developments can occur. The read option worked usually because the qb ran ten times better than the running back, and hurd resembled a non skill player to the point that it truly became misdirection. In fact he was so deceiving in his size and power, that after tackling him with stray fingers, tossed dirt clods, and the sonic force created by the sound of one hand clapping, defenders kinda forgot he was an offensive weapon altogether. A true trojan horse on the battlefield, Hurd employed a running style duplicated only when Kirk Herbstreits 12yo son recently ambled across MBS turf like a newborn deer of dubious lineage. When dobbs/hurd emerged from their mini-coma into read option pandemonium, you hardly ever knew what would happen. Unless you watched vols games, then you could possibly assume the following.......
4a. Sack for loss of about 10-15.
4b. Hurd run for loss of 5.
4c. Wobbly hurried pass hitting turf. Usually about 10 feet from LOS
4d. Interception by surprised DL or LB
4e. Qb keeper for sack of minus 5 yards.
4f. Muffed handoff, dobbs or hurd tries to fall on ball, turnover or loss of 5.
4g. Hurd running into fallen bodies, no gain.
4h. Hurd busting through middle for 2 yard gain.
4i. Long pass hitting streaking wide open receiver in back or heel of foot.
4j. Pass into double coverage or triple, interception or embarrassed defender shaking head.
4k. Dobbs run for touchdown
4l. (Least common) Kamara, Kelly, or other actual running back gains 10yds-TD on run or screen.
Of course this is only if the defender and Def coordinator is totally confused by the cluster*****ery of Butch's brand of read option. If they see througn the smokescreens of stupid, and "slow play" the read option appropriately, it can minimize outcomes 4k and 4l.
