Did OU switch up their signals for the Baylor game?

[jkjsooner]

Does anyone know? The whole incident in the Tulsa makes me wonder if they haven't been stealing our signals for years. Getting caught may have tipped us off.

[BoulderSooner79]

I'd lean more towards having Riley vs. Heupel at OC as the main difference, but that's just me.

[aurorasooner]

Hell, after ABC caught our OL in the Texass game giving away the run vs pass with his feet, I wouldn't be surprised if any of the opposing coaching staffs wasted much time stealing our offensive play calls.

Sure does make you wonder though since the quality defenses we played the last several years seemed to have a bunch of defenders always headed downhill to our telegraphed point of attack. I always thought it was JH just being too predictable and our offensive running play design being high-school/Jr high at best, but it may have been that we just didn't pay much attention to film-study QC (the little things).

[BoulderSooner79]

I thought Heupel was predictable. But I don't think he was even trying to be deceptive at times - more relying on power. When he did try to mix it up, the QB play was inconsistent and we got burned. I'm sure I'm biased because I love Riley's play calling and I see him as a big step up from Josh. But more than just play calling, he just seems more organized and in control (the little things). The days of the play clock running down below 5 seconds and the players looking around confused are all but over.

[Soonerjeepman]

Shepard, Mixon (yes only 7 yards...BUT A THREAT), Perine, Mayfield....along with a better D. That is why it was different...

better receivers, better offense...better D.

I know that sounds redundant, but really this team is so different than the last 2 years.

[dwarthog]

IMO, we are still a bit predictable on snap counts. Baylor looked to "jump" several snaps at key times correctly. I would like to see us add a hard count to get a few penalties on teams that want to jump like that. Keep them guessing.

Heupel's problem IMO was the lag in getting a play out to the field caused us to be almost out of play clock and the defense knew we had to snap or call a timeout.

[Jacie]

Mayfield needs a signal so that the ball is snapped the second time he claps his hands if he fails to draw them offside with the first clap.

[oupride]

Mayfield needs a signal so that the ball is snapped the second time he claps his hands if he fails to draw them offside with the first clap.
I like this idea. I was at the game and wondered about the snap after the hand clap too.

[swardboy]

Isn't Darlington's crazy head snap a dead giveaway to the hiking of the ball?

[BoulderSooner79]

Isn't Darlington's crazy head snap a dead giveaway to the hiking of the ball?

One would think so, but many teams are doing this including the pros. I think giving away the snap count is an inherent problem with using the shotgun formation. One thing I've seen other teams employ is to do fake snaps such as the QB clapping or stomping the foot and then seeing if the defense does something that gives away a blitz or late alignment shift. I don't see us doing that much.

[winout]

Or, maybe they just thought we switched them up. h/t The Princess Bride.

[dwarthog]

One would think so, but many teams are doing this including the pros. I think giving away the snap count is an inherent problem with using the shotgun formation. One thing I've seen other teams employ is to do fake snaps such as the QB clapping or stomping the foot and then seeing if the defense does something that gives away a blitz or late alignment shift. I don't see us doing that much.

I think Baker has sufficient field presence to pull of something like this.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

It's not the qb who is the concern in fancying up your pre snap and snap.. It's the Oline.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

You want your line to be engaging in on their assignments and fire off a the snap..It's a rhythm offense, so you don't want to do a lot of that stuff.

[BoulderSooner79]

You want your line to be engaging in on their assignments and fire off a the snap..It's a rhythm offense, so you don't want to do a lot of that stuff.

Agreed. It's always been my theory that when OUr team played chicken with the play clock, that the O-line wasn't coiled up and ready to fire off the line at the snap. That was the most annoying things for me under the Huepel regime. Under Riley, we rarely snap the ball under 5 seconds unless it's intentional to drain the game clock.

[dwarthog]

It's not the qb who is the concern in fancying up your pre snap and snap.. It's the Oline.

I suppose that would be a stretch for a college lineman?

[stoops the eternal pimp]

If you had a line who is jelled with the QB, it's a lot more likely.. We did some of that under Heuepel and typically resulted on false start penalties and missed assignments.. We did it some under Landry because he was pretty good at his hard counts.

It can be done, again, I think it can work against the rhythm of the offense more times than not.

[Breadburner]

We have a Qb that can actually run the offense on his own.....

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

I think you are thinking about this the wrong way. Going fast has the biggest advantage against DCs who take a long time to get a call in. They just can't call defenses fast enough to do anything other than vanilla looks (which helps the QB immensely). Thus, when you video tape signals you aren't looking at the specific ones (since you'd have to decode them and tweak your play call) you are looking at how fast you have to get your team into the next play to catch the defense unprepared. The defense is at a disadvantage here since the more simple and faster they make their calls, the easier it is for the O to pick up. And the O can always slow down and change the plays once they have your signals.

On the Offensive side of the ball, it gets a little trickier.

1st key -> Pass vs Run
2nd key -> route tree
3rd key -> play action

If you can figure any of those out, it makes your D much more effective (see Texas this year)