Upon Further Review: Greenwell compares Dawson to Gran, Hinshaw

Cats Illustrated continues a conversation with coach Todd Greenwell, a respected football X's and O's guru.

Next up in our series, comparing Shannon Dawson's offensive philosophy and what didn't work so well last year with the offense currently under construction with Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw at the helm.

Follow Todd Greenwell on Twitter @GreenwellTodd.

Todd Greenwell: When you put Dawson's offense on the field you're basically saying, 'I've got a good player on the outside and another good player on the inside. Which one of your two defenders can I beat?' And how I can beat them is by throwing the ball up in the air, basically saying, 'You go get it. Go win this match up and we'll get a big play.'

That was very evident in the very first game of the year (against Lafayette). The defense lined up in press man coverage across four receivers and they ran four verticals probably 25 times. I think we missed it on 23 of them. The ball's thrown wide, thrown short or dropped and when you get into that you're going to have some three-and-outs. When you start to panic you don't have a way out of it and you don't have that self-correct mechanism. You're going to get into three-and-outs and there's no way to get over it.

Whereas at least in the spring game and looking back at what Cincinnati did, it was most of a ball control, west coast type of offense. 'If you're going to give me that three yard pass, I'm going to take it and we'll play 2nd and four or 2nd and six. We're not going to throw 50 yards down the field every time ... That's kind of what Dawson was all about.

It always made me feel like I was watching a team that can't shoot threes keep jacking up threes. At some point the 2-3 zone is getting more compact and you've got nobody that can shoot it. It doesn't matter how many times you can shoot it. They're not afraid and you're just playing right into (the defense's) hands. That's kind of what we got into last year. We're running deeper and routes closer and closer with four man coverage and those routes keep taking longer, the protection gets worse, you're running for your life, you're throwing the ball up for grabs and you've got nobody who's going to catch it. It rolls backwards as fast as it can go.

The philosophy Gran and Hinshaw have is, 'We need to move the chains. ... We don't have to throw the ball because we're not in 3rd and 15 every time ... When you get into those 2nd and 15's, those 2nd and 20's, that 2nd and nine, you're going to throw for a low percentage. You shoot a bunch of threes (the football analogy is) you're going to pass for a low percentage.

I really expect (Drew) Barker's (completion) percentage will probably just 12- to 15-points. He was at 50 (percent) so I would say he'll be at 62- or 65-percent this year, just for the fact that he's going to be throwing easy passes. They're going to say, 'This is the freedom you have. If you have an uncovered slot over here or whatever ... we're going to go ahead and throw the ball and we're going to play 3rd and two. It's a situation where we can run it or pass it (instead of getting) to the point where we're one-dimensional."

Greenwell: I was able to take at least six or seven different concepts that I pulled from Jalen Whitlow running Neal Brown's offense and from what I was seeing at Cincinnati (with Gran and Hinshaw), four or five of the different concepts were almost identical to the way Neal Brown was running them. That's how Cincinnati was running them last year. There's quite a bit of similarity in their approach.

What you're going to see is a little bit less of the one-on-one outside screens Neal Brown liked to throw. The corner has backed off the widest receiver and he'll take two steps back and you expect to the slot to get under and block the corner. You'll see less of that. As far as inside switch routes, you'll see a lot of that (with) Gran. Basically he's trying to work teams into mismatches because of the fact that now he's got the tight end on the field and the tight end can be an inside blocker. You've got a running back and a tight end. You're going to have to keep a body on the field to defend against the run and (then) you can send (C.J.) Conrad down the middle, send him out wide ... pull an outside receiver into that ... There are a lot of different things he'll be able to do that Neal Brown wasn't able to have.