David Locke's statistical analysis yesterday confirmed something for me:

The way BYU runs the ball out of the two back shot gun is not working. I would like to see this analysis done comparing rushing success out of the two formations on all of last year's plays. My gut feeling based on games this year is that NM was not an anomoly, but rather the norm. When we line up in the eye, even though teams know it's coming we rush more successfully.

To really successfully run out of the shotgun, you need the typical spread option belly read play that the QB is in control of. To run that, you need to be willing to use your QB as a runner, which I hope we all agree is not an option for us very often if ever!!! I think we should run the ball out of the shot gun no more than 5 times a game and we should consider it like a draw play (situationally). It should not be a staple of the offense that get's called 19 times in a game!

Running the ball out of the eye or split backs with the QB under center has and will continue to be successful. What needs to be added are more play action passes, including bootlegs looks and teams would really be defenseless against our offense.

Locke was going a little too far in saying abandon the spread, but the point about how we chose to run the ball and what makes it work was a very good one in my opinion.

Anyone want to run those stats for the whole season last year? It would probably require watching every play since you need to know the formation the team lined up in and not just the result of the play. Too much work for me thats for sure.