I know I am preaching to the choir, but even in the Chip days the Duck D was pretty darn stout under Aliotti.  While the offense was busy racking up points, the defense held the line where margins of victory were pretty comfortable for the most part.  You can have both, but you have to put your trust in your coordinators.  Lanning is a defense guy, but I am sure in his interview he sold his vision for putting up points and hopefully he truly trusts his new offensive coaching staff to develop and run something more exciting than running exclusively between the tackles and two yard check down crossing patterns.  Give it 2-3 years to take, even with the cupboard pretty well stocked it will take time to get the right guys in place to run whatever system wis coming.  Spring ball will at least give us a taste of what is to come...

If we are primarily a defensive school we are wasting a great asset.  Ever notice in the recruiting reports how many of these kids, especially at the offensive skill positions, say Oregon is their dream school?  Why?  Uniforms?  Maybe a little bit, but the big thing is that these kids grew up watching Chip Kelly's offense, Marcus Mariota, and maybe a little bit of Vernon Adams, as well.  That was a fun, fun team to watch because of the offense.

If we can't get an exciting offense going we're squandering a great recruiting tool.  And championship teams these days have great offenses, too.

Perhaps defense still wins championships and certainly, a great defense is something you should always aspire to have.  But a great offense is going to have a few break-out plays even against a good defense.  To win a championship, you need either a great defense and a good offense or a great offense and a good defense.  I see no reason to not aspire to greatness on both sides.  We should have game plans on both sides of the ball that give playmakers a chance to make big and exciting plays.  That wins games, gets players a chance in the pros, and attracts recruits on both sides.

DucksReign wrote:

I hope not! That will be recipe for a losing program. You are not going to shut down every team every game i.e. see Cal with the #2 Scoring Defense in the Pac-12 and a 5-7 W-L record. You have to be able to score the ball on offense. Clemson is ranked #2 in the nation this year in Scoring Defense.  Scoring Offense? Ranked #82.  They finished third in their Division.

Everyone talks about Georgia ranked #1 in Scoring Defense...they are 9th in the nation in Scoring Offense. Alabama is 3rd in the nation in Scoring Offense and 13th in Scoring Defense.

You can have a "serviceable" defense and win with a great offense but you cannot have a "serviceable" offense and win big with a great defense...not in this day and age of RPO and rule changes which help the offense i.e. targeting, coverage of WR's, starting field position on kickoffs and so forth.

Look at the recent Rose Bowl teams...The luckeyes are ranked #1 in the nation Scoring Offense and #38 in Scoring Defense. Utah #14 in Scoring Offense and barely better than the luckeyes in Scoring Defense at #35.

If anyone should understand the necessity of having a great offense it should be Lanning and what Georgia has done this year. Alabama has scored 74 TD's this year; Georgia 69 and Mighty Oregon 57.

Yes the defense helps a lot by where they give the offense the ball BUT the offense still needs to score.

I consider it a miracle Cristobal was able to recruit the offensive firepower he did while running an offense from the 1950's. Yet anyone who watched the Rose Bowl and saw the the major improvement CJ Stroud has made since he played against Oregon(the 2nd start of his career) vs the stagnation of Anthony Brown....coaching matters most and more than recruiting.

 

Good points and stats on the importance of offense in the modern game. The days of just having the best defense and be able to be dominant are over.

I don't think Lanning wants to have a slow paced low scoring offense. Like others have said we'll have to wait and see how things play out.

 

I want to be known and recognized as a "playoff school" first and foremost. The only way you have an opportunity to win a National Championship is to get to the playoffs.

Alabama hasn't won championships because they are known as a "defensive school" and / or "offensive school"...they have won because they have excellent, well-coached teams on both sides of the ball.

KONA808 wrote:

What a great CFP game. So many well-coached, talented players. uga is gonna do it. Pick-6 puts the nail in the ala coffin.

That was the best Championship game I've seen in recent times! It was nice to have a rooting interest with Lanning on Georgia. To hold Alabama under 20 was amazing.