The best part about Cam is that he didn't try to change the system over night. You can clearly see he is changing, but first starting with taking our system that was in place and making it "efficient". In 2-3 years. Crazy.
It did seem like more of a struggle last year (especially in the red zone, even early in the season) than it has so far. Our offense just seems so much more organized, and Mett is so much more composed, Landry and OBJ so much more reliable. Though, we did put an absolute beatdown on Washington, who put up MUCH less of a fight than TCU did.
We are far less predictable. It's a familiar offense, but we are passing out of the I-formation and passing on first down. We are checking out when they bring 8 into the box. And we are not running in new personnel for specific plays which always telegraphed the play. I mean, whenever Shepard came into the game, no matter where he lined up, there was a 80% chance that he was going to get the ball.
Eyeball test, man. Eyeball test. It's night and day. Yet there still is one huge difference in the stats: 9.2 vs 11.5 yards per completion That is throwing the ball downfield with confidence and being extremely aggressive.
A more revealing stat is 3rd down conversions % through 3 games. 2012- 47% 2013- 64% This correlates to what we're all witnessing on the field this year. For some perspective, LSU is currently ranked 6th nationally in 3rd down conversions while they finished ranked 63rd last year. Obviously it's only 3 games and the % is likely to drop some, but the difference is stark. To give you an idea about how good 64% is, the #1 ranked, 3rd down conversion leaders every year, usually have around a 55% 3rd down conversion rate.
I would also venture to say that the distribution of our yardage in those games last year was spread-out more evenly over the 4 quarters. Seems like it wasn't until the 4th qtr that we really made the scores embarassing. This year, we're scoring a shitload in the 1st half and then just putting it on cruise control. Man, that game was such a tease. The team looked so similar to how they did in 2011. Smothering defense and an offense that just imposed its will. I thought it was gonna be a great season come Sunday morning.
