SUU football: T-Bird offense hopes to take flight in second year under Crowton
rmiller4@thespectrum.com
Last season, Southern Utah quarterback Ammon Olsen often left offensive meetings with his mind hurting.
During offensive coordinator Gary Crowton's first season with the T-Birds, there was a bit of a learning curve. Crowton brought with him a fast-paced spread attack that resembles the product TCU, Oregon and Baylor put on the field. With all the new vocabulary and schemes, sometimes it was hard for the players to keep up.
"When you start off you've got to explain your philosophy, and then the philosophy comes, then you've got to teach how you want to play," Crowton said. "So there's a lot going into the new year."
His quarterback agreed.
"The first year was just picking his brain and understanding how his brain works because he is a genius, especially when it comes to football," Olsen said. "So last year I left meetings every day with a headache, trying to understand what he is trying to say."
The knowledge Crowton possesses isn't all that surprising when you consider where he's been. In more than three decades coaching, he has made stops at Oregon, LSU, BYU and even the NFL, serving as offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears. He's helped win a national title (2007 at LSU), had the No. 1 offense in both scoring and yards (2001 at BYU) and has helped multiple offensive players reach the NFL.
But while there may have been some growing pains last year, the T-Birds are hoping those are past them, and they are now ready to spread their wings, so to speak, on the offensive side of the ball.
And that starts with Olsen.
During last season's fall camp, the BYU transfer competed with returning starter Aaron Cantu for the QB job. Cantu had led the T-Birds to their first ever playoff appearance the season before, but by the fourth game of 2015, Olsen had succeeded him under center.
Olsen started the last eight games for SUU, and played well enough to garner the Big Sky Conference Newcomer of the Year award.
After the strong finish to last season, there's no quarterback controversy heading into this year. It's Olsen's job and he is starting to take ownership of it. Crowton said that the signal caller is not only comfortable leading the team, but also is getting a command over what the T-Birds are running.
"It's a complete different story (than last year)," Olsen said. "The confidence level with me and the offense in general is much higher. Last year, when you are kind of competing with two quarterbacks during the season it's hard to get into rhythm, the entire offense."
The T-Birds didn't wait for fall camp to get some practicing in. The team used off-season workouts to build chemistry over the summer. Having a year under their belts with Crowton isn't hurting, either.
"The more I know his offense, the more I know his vocabulary and how he thinks. Meetings are going great," Olsen said. "The offense is going great and we can understand each other a lot better."
That was evident on Thursday morning as the offense broke off multiple big plays. Olsen was on target, hitting receivers in stride and short passes went for long gains. It was what the team wants to see when the season kicks off on Sept. 3.
"Guys now have an understanding and we can get to the little details that we want to," Crowton said. "Our timing should be a little bit better, our speed should be a little bit better, and hopefully that should help us improve. I see a lot of good things."