Sidelines
Science and guesswork
key to play-callingPLAY-CALLING. What is it? How does it happen? Is it skill? Luck? A combination of both? What?
"I've gone against some of the best offensive minds around," Tulsa coach Keith Burns said Saturday. "And there's no question June Jones is one of the best. He knows exactly what he wants to do and he's got Timmy Chang throwing exactly where he wants."
But how does he know? With the clock ticking and the defense shifting and everyone waiting for the decision. Which play? When?
Luckily for us, June Jones is feeling good today.
Good enough to let us in on the secret. A little.
It turns out a lot of it is timing. But you knew that.
And guesswork. It had to be.
Make that educated guesswork, based on experience and tendencies and gut feeling and the flow of the game.
Take one of Saturday's more surprising plays, an 18-yard second-quarter Hawaii touchdown for unknown senior running back Josh Galeai. Galeai had fans scrambling for their lineups when he took a Chang screen pass, broke into the open field and broke into the scoring column before anyone could grasp what had happened.
Before you knew it, his fists and feet were pistons, celebrating his first touchdown in a UH uniform.
"The line blocked that so well, that was like the biggest open screen play ever," Galeai said, like he almost couldn't believe it.
It was just like it had looked when they walked through it, when they drew it up.
But this was the real thing, and that was even better.
The timing had been just right. Tulsa wasn't ready for this, not at all. It was a chalk talk come to life.
"They had been a big blitz team and they came after us the first five or six or seven plays, and when we hit everything and kept a real fast pace, they kinda went and started playing zone," Jones explained.
Tulsa's defense had been thwarted in the opening minutes. It was out of its game plan, hanging back. Playing it safe. But there was only a matter of time before that changed, and then Hawaii could strike. Jones could feel it.
"So I kinda knew that they were going to get frustrated," he said. "And I guessed."
It was perfect.
Well, not quite. It's not an exact science. Jones guessed one play early. He'd called the same play just before Galeai scored, a screen pass for Thero Mitchell that went for 13 yards. It worked -- 13 yards is pretty good. But it wasn't the perfect call at the perfect time.
"I thought they were going to blitz right there," he said. "And that's why I called it."
Jones wasn't wrong, but he wasn't as right as he was about to be. He thought about going for the screen pass again. Sooner or later, Tulsa would blitz.
"And then I said, 'Oh, they gotta do it this time, then,' and then I guessed right and of course that made me look good.
"But the percentages were that they blitzed quite a bit in that certain area, and they hadn't, so that was an educated guess."
The pass rushers were caught flat-footed. The cover men were all downfield. The linebackers were scattered. Galeai had a convoy in front of him, and he walked home.
"I mean, Lui Fuata, I could have given him the ball and scored," Galeai said that night, breaking into a huge grin. "I just stayed right behind him, and it was like, glory."
KITV's Robert Kekaula asked Jones if he can't help but giggle on the inside, just a little bit, when a play is called this perfectly.
"Ummm," Jones began, "not during the game I don't."
I imagine that's what film sessions are for.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com