I'm happy to be alone with my take on this one, I've just never liked the slow mesh. Didn't like it in Clawson's first year, and still can't stand it. Its probably why I've never been fully onboard the Clawson hype train.
I can't stand how slow the decision making appears to be, and when you team it with a rapidly quick offense, it is not for me. Even when its clicking I'd rather play more practically. As others have pointed out its a deceptively good offense, when you break down the efficiency numbers they are always much lower than the overall statistics. Not to mention the toll it takes on your defense, there's a reason why we are so thin at the end of the year.
I can live with the RPO but get the ball out quick and maybe run some clock from time-to-time. Getting smashed by every team with superior athletes is not what I'm here for.
The RPO, as Wake runs it, give Wake a good chance to beat teams with peer or even somewhat better talent. No offense is going to be effective when the talent disparity is as great as it is between Wake and Clemson.
The Wake offense is, in some ways already based on "trickeration." It reads the defense and waits for the defensive key to make a move. Then the offense goes in a direction that makes that defender's play suboptimal. It was interesting that the analyzer in the video couldn't figure out which defender(s) the Wake QB was reading during the mesh. If he can't figure it out with multiple runs with a clicker, it makes it less likely that opposing defenses will figure it out during a game to change/disguise it.
If that gets Wake to 8 wins and a bowl regularly, that is a pretty good base. It will slowly lead to better recruiting. Recruits like to go where they have a chance to win and go to bowls and get swag and be on TV. It's a big improvement over Wake historic football, which is less than 40% wins over 110 seasons.
I wouldn't mind some variation in the RPO. Maybe a few more "hurry up and wait" plays where the offense is to the line quickly to limit defensive substitutions, but then waits and runs down the play clock before the snap.
Effective RPO is really, really dependent on the QB making the "right" read in a second or two. Not easy. He is less likely to make the right read if his judgement is influenced by perceived or actual issues with his own physical condition and/or the condition and/or capabilities of his team mates. Early in the season Jamie seemed to be making mostly "right" reads. Later in the season, that percentage seemed to drop and he seemed to be calling "QB run" a lot when other options looked to be better. Clicker guy noted that on several of the plays he showed. I'm sure Wake staff has a bunch more.
Football offensive plays are built on two basic underlying philosophies:
Power Football: Getting more and/or better blockers into an area of the field and running a play behind that group of blockers. In today's game, that is mostly seen in short yardage situations.
Deception football: Getting the defense to commit players to an area of the field and then running or throwing the ball somewhere else. This is the bulk of the modern game. Offenses like the old wing-T, triple option, RPO and others try to convince the defense that the ball is going one place so the defense commits to stopping that action, while the ball is actually going another place.
Receivers do this frequently, using moves and fakes to get the defenders to believe they are going one place, then going another.
Wake is not at this time (and probably never will be) in a position to routinely line up and just physically over match most opponents. Much more likely is that Wake will be even to somewhat overmatched physically. So some type of deception offense will need to be the norm if Wake is to have success.
The RPO offense plays to what should be a Wake football strength: smarts. QB reads certain defenders and does something (run or pass) that will make that action ineffective.
