The Offense is Throwing the Kitchen Sink at Foster and his Defense

I found the following two quotes from Bud Foster to the media rather telling. The first is from last Thursday, the second is from yesterday.

"We're seeing it all from our offense right now, my credit goes to those guys what they're doing too ... I mean, we're seeing it all. That's going to be good for us as we prepare for a season, but you know obviously we got to catch up right now for everything, but they're making progress."

"Our offense is giving us every ... We've seen everything we're going to see next fall, if maybe not more, and our kids' heads were spinning, but I think we're slowly catching up."

This is not me pushing the panic button. The most pessimistic among us might read those quotes and be worried that Bud's young defense is, for lack of a better word, "behind" an offense searching for a quarterback, shuffling its o-line around, and identifying a pecking order at tailback. We're used to the defense dominating the offense in April and August—that's our comfort zone.

However, as a devout believer of "In Foster I trust", in Foster I trust. Foster also said last night, "I like our first group, I think we're really flying around doing some good things right there." Bud's a straight shooter.

I cited Bud because it's more evidence indicating Loeffler's offense this fall will be varied. Shortly after he was hired by Tech, Loeffler described his scheme to Bill Roth as, "A pro-style offense, that's multiple, with the ability to run the quarterback." Already this spring Bucky Hodges has lined up in the Wild Turkey (who may be keeping the seat warm for Chris Durkin), the offense has run an up-tempo no huddle, and there's been a variety of running plays (veer, zone, power, speed option) practiced. French and Mason have already hammered my next point home, but it's more clear Loeffler's lean on Logan game plans we saw last fall were out of necessity, not preference.

Last spring was a 1000-level intro class for the offense. As Willie Byrn put it, "It was hard to even call it a spring, because we had to work on our huddle the first day." The subject matter is different this April. Any offense that can spar with Foster and stay on its feet is enrolled in graduate studies.

Loeffler said the following to ESPN.com's Heather Dinich last May, "I've run this offense, the West Coast system, many many years, and whenever you can establish a foundation, you can build and add during the season and it's never-ending. You can keep adding and deleting. It's a good system."

The initial upfront investment to pay for the steep learning curve of Loeffler's scheme is seemingly paying off. Actions and wins in real games speak louder than words, so we won't be able to truly determine if the offense is progressing until after the season. However, it appears Loeffler's true offensive vision will become a reality this fall. I'm ready to see what that looks like and how it fares.