Offensive Mindset

[coachchia]

When there is a coaching change, what would be your choice as the style of offense we instill. This directly effects the list of candidates...

Personally, I would like to see an option based offense (throw periodically). If one looks at the Service Academies, they are hindered by academics and stringent acceptance but still place formidible programs between the lines. If this system were to be used, there are many up sides.



On the other hand, this style is not as exciting to many. The current winds swirling in college football have grown accustomed to the wide open style of offense. The RPO/Sling it all over field seems to be the consumer/fan choice.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

Our challenge isn't our "style" of play. And I wouldn't be in favor of a "true" option FB...I like a team to pass and run.

 

[MT01]

No to option though I like having a QB that can run like Asher and mixing in elements of the option make you more difficult to defend.

In other words, it's harder to run option as the primary and implement other elements such as when you need to pass than it is to run an offense and add elements of the option to it. We actually ran a speed option play against Rice at least a couple of times that gained some good yardage.

The problem with Franklin - IMO - is that he installs the game plan week to week but abandons some of our successful plays. We didn't run a single bubble screen against Rice. Why? It's always good for 5 to 10 yards. There are just some things that should never be taken out of the game plan, and I've never understood why Franklin does this other than he's just trying to be less predictable.

I would like to see a multiple offense where we can use spread formations, RPO's, some formations with TE's and FB's and throw to them out of those formations. I really like what Alabama is doing this year. They have really opened things up before Tua got hurt, and they always have good running game plays that get the backs in space. They utilize the WR screen game better than we do too. I know we don't have the athletes but they aren't doing anything special. Their OC is just calling the game in a way that is difficult to defend. Another example of this would be UCF and how they utilize a multiple formation offense though they tend to be in the spread more.

So, my preference is an offense that would considered "multiple" where we can do a lot of different things out of many different personnel groups.

That said, our problem is that we have an OL that can't run block but they make up for that by not pass blocking very well either. And the wide receivers struggle to get open and then drop too many balls. So, more than anything. I want someone who will coach these kids to their potential rather than watching a team that is very clearly not getting the instruction they need during the course of the week. Every single problem we face is coaching, so fix that and I really don't care what the style is.

 

[rcodeman]

X's and O's don't matter without some Jimmys and Joes.

 

[blueraiderJT]

X's and O's don't matter without some Jimmys and Joes.

Boise St. does it with 2 star athletes. X's O's is more important. We have more than plenty of talent to get it done. Our coaching flat out sucks. The game prep is awful and there is no consistency this year in play calling. Jimmy Marshall is a straight up weapon and we've done nothing creative with him. We have Dobson and we don't give him the rock that much. We had Chissolm and Dobson and we don't use them as a 1-2 tandem running cross routes? Come on. Not to mention Pierce, Lee, West, etc. We ran no huddle vs. Rice on our last TD and they couldn't stop it. Gap coverage was everywhere. If we ran that the whole game, We would have boat raced them.

What is also awful is Mallory and Brock. They've destoyed our line. The 2 OL coach theory has been an utter failure.

Special teams and clock management is in a freefall. It's a trainwreck. You could have 80 5 star players and it would still be a sh!tshow.

 

[sWiley]

Boise St. recruits far better than 2 star athletes these days and have done so for quite a while now. They beat several Power 5 programs for recruits and do so consistently.

 

[MTLynn]

Boise St. does it with 2 star athletes.

Leighton Vander Esch was a walk-on at Boise and turned into a first round draft pick

 

[FranklinRaider315]

Boise St. does it with 2 star athletes. X's O's is more important. We have more than plenty of talent to get it done. Our coaching flat out sucks. The game prep is awful and there is no consistency this year in play calling. Jimmy Marshall is a straight up weapon and we've done nothing creative with him. We have Dobson and we don't give him the rock that much. We had Chissolm and Dobson and we don't use them as a 1-2 tandem running cross routes? Come on. Not to mention Pierce, Lee, West, etc. We ran no huddle vs. Rice on our last TD and they couldn't stop it. Gap coverage was everywhere. If we ran that the whole game, We would have boat raced them.

What is also awful is Mallory and Brock. They've destoyed our line. The 2 OL coach theory has been an utter failure.

Special teams and clock management is in a freefall. It's a trainwreck. You could have 80 5 star players and it would still be a sh!tshow.

Brock doesn’t coach the O-Line. Mallory and Polly. Polly coaches the tackles, is run game coordinator and special teams coordinator. He’s Wiley’s favorite of all our assistants.
Polly’s bio on goblueraiders.com:

https://goblueraiders.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/mike-polly/1548

 

[MTTim]

Until we build our OL and DL it will make no difference what offense we run.

 

[mtfblue]

Leighton Vander Esch was a walk-on at Boise and turned into a first round draft pick

He also played 8 man football at a high school of less than 50 people

 

[blueraiderJT]

Brock doesn’t coach the O-Line. Mallory and Polly. Polly coaches the tackles, is run game coordinator and special teams coordinator. He’s Wiley’s favorite of all our assistants.
Polly’s bio on goblueraiders.com:

https://goblueraiders.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/mike-polly/1548

My bad. They all suck. I would have canned them already.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

I was having just this discussion with some friends today.

College football is two things. Coaching and recruiting. You recruit players to fit your system and coach them where to be, or you change your system to fit your recruits and coach them on where they need to be.

After 14 years we of course should be the former. But right now we are neither. We don’t have a system. The OL is awful. Our QB is our best RB. Receivers don’t run routes. Defense doesn’t wrap up. Clock management. Special teams. The biggest chunk of that is coaching. After that is depth which is recruiting.

Every single player we bring in should redshirt their first year. Every single player.

I firmly believe there is a coach out somewhere who could win with what we have and use it as a footing to build on. Someone who can “coach” our players and do those two things of adapting. Just find me that coach and I don’t care what system they run cause there sure as hell isn’t anyone like that on staff now.

Oh, and give me someone with a wild personality that is always on, great with people, and a true ambassador of the brand.

 

[FranklinRaider315]

I was having just this discussion with some friends today.

College football is two things. Coaching and recruiting. You recruit players to fit your system and coach them where to be, or you change your system to fit your recruits and coach them on where they need to be.

After 14 years we of course should be the former. But right now we are neither. We don’t have a system. The OL is awful. Our QB is our best RB. Receivers don’t run routes. Defense doesn’t wrap up. Clock management. Special teams. The biggest chunk of that is coaching. After that is depth which is recruiting.

Every single player we bring in should redshirt their first year. Every single player.

I firmly believe there is a coach out somewhere who could win with what we have and use it as a footing to build on. Someone who can “coach” our players and do those two things of adapting. Just find me that coach and I don’t care what system they run cause there sure as hell isn’t anyone like that on staff now.

Oh, and give me someone with a wild personality that is always on, great with people, and a true ambassador of the brand.

Great post. I agree 100%!

 

[RaiderDoug]

We don't have the horses. It's starts with low effort recruiting. Middling classes filled with developmental kids who's best offers are FCS schools. For every Byard or RIchie James, you end up with 20 good kids who can't play at this level. Unless you have the occaisional star like those guys, or a Brent to paper over the holes, you end up with what we have this year.

They are good kids who go to class, so I hate to knock 'em, but if they're limited on signing day, they're going to be limited on gameday.

Look no further than the QB room. Look at all the guys we've given 'ships to in the last few years. Where are they? How is a guy who, as best I can tell, was a prep-school walk-on who's pretty much only a runner the best we've got. What happened to Nolan, or Shiflett, or Kyle Banks, or Urzua (injured?), or Turner, or Randall Johnson?

We have 17 'ships tied up in WRs, yet, only 2 of them catch more than 3 passes per game. I had to do the math twice because it's unbelievable.

It's like they recruit by deciding who'll accept a 'ship without actually having to do any actual recruiting.

The whole thing is broken.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

How is our recruiting set up?

when Brown was hired at WVU I read an article on his staff. Each position coach is given a certain area to recruit based on their contacts, history, etc in addition to spot recruiting for the position they are over. ie the QB Coach is over Kentucky, Indianapolis, Chicago, and spot recruiting QBs. Defensive Line Coach is over Ohio, Atlanta, and Miss JUCO.

When reading it I thought heck. Makes sense. But do we do it that way?

I imagine it going more along the lines of “hey. We need a RT. Throw a dart at a map and sign whatever guy is in that town.”

 

[AustinLewis]

How is our recruiting set up?

when Brown was hired at WVU I read an article on his staff. Each position coach is given a certain area to recruit based on their contacts, history, etc in addition to spot recruiting for the position they are over. ie the QB Coach is over Kentucky, Indianapolis, Chicago, and spot recruiting QBs. Defensive Line Coach is over Ohio, Atlanta, and Miss JUCO.

When reading it I thought heck. Makes sense. But do we do it that way?

I imagine it going more along the lines of “hey. We need a RT. Throw a dart at a map and sign whatever guy is in that town.”

Last I checked, MT did something similar to WVU. Quite frankly, it's common practice in FBS football.

The football staff I was a part of had the defensive coordinator handling north Alabama, DL coach handled south Alabama, the WR coach had Middle Tennessee, etc

 

[AustinLewis]

When there is a coaching change, what would be your choice as the style of offense we instill. This directly effects the list of candidates...

Personally, I would like to see an option based offense (throw periodically). If one looks at the Service Academies, they are hindered by academics and stringent acceptance but still place formidible programs between the lines. If this system were to be used, there are many up sides.

On the other hand, this style is not as exciting to many. The current winds swirling in college football have grown accustomed to the wide open style of offense. The RPO/Sling it all over field seems to be the consumer/fan choice.

I'm not a huge fan of the traditional triple option offense ... except for the service academies.

Personally, I'd prefer a spread (Leach at WSU, Franklin at MT, Riley at OU, or Day/Yurich/Wilson at OSU) or pro-spread hybrid (Kiffin at FAU, Sarkisian at Alabama, Helton at USC Jr, or Brohm at Purdue).

IMO, if you can dominate the LOS and create one-on-one matchups at the point of attack/put athletes in space, you'll be on your way to winning some games.

 

[MTLynn]

They are good kids who go to class, so I hate to knock 'em, but if they're limited on signing day, they're going to be limited on gameday

That is what McPhee wants... he doesn't care if the football team wins, he only cares about the APR.

Maybe he wants the football program to dry up and blow away so he has a reason to kill it completely.

 

[MT01]

I don't know where some of you get this stuff.

While I'm less than enthused with his tenure at the helm he has generally been very supportive of athletics. He always attends the games, special events, etc. He is very engaged and supportive of the coaches, their families, etc. If a President didn't care about that he wouldn't waste his time.

It's not like we have Gordon Gee here. I actually give the McPhee's a lot of credit in this regard. I believe its disingenuous to suggest he doesn't care or cares about APR more. If that were true we would be much higher in university rankings after this long of a tenure. I believe it's just a result of the fact that McPhee has maxed out his abilities. In this regard, he's a lot like Stockstill. He's taken things as far as he can. For the next level to happen at MT, it will require change with a dynamic leader with a vision for what a 21st century university should be.

Right now we have a lot of middle management (no pun intended) in executive positions across the university.

 

[MTLynn]

McPhee's support is for the APR.

His reason for firing McCollum was APR. Boots was fired for football attendance.

Guess what? Attendance is crap, football has been mediocre for years but the APR is great. The result is that Stock has a long-term deal

McPhee is happy with the state of affairs or there would be change.

I wouldn't be surprised if Stock is restricted with the type of players he can sign (no players like Appy or Troy) so McPhee is forgiving with the on-field results

 

[MT01]

McPhee's support is for the APR.

His reason for firing McCollum was APR. Boots was fired for football attendance.

Guess what? Attendance is crap, football has been mediocre for years but the APR is great. The result is that Stock has a long-term deal

McPhee is happy with the state of affairs or there would be change.

I wouldn't be surprised if Stock is restricted with the type of players he can sign (no players like Appy or Troy) so McPhee is forgiving with the on-field results

Stockstill has a long term deal, because McPhee and Massaro went overboard (among other things) in trying to keep a coach that was offered deals at Memphis and ECU. Sure, APR was considered important giving the mess that McCollum left but absurd to suggest that's the only reason he has the deal. The 10-win season, bowl win over USM, and attempts to poach CRS have as much if not more to do with his contract as the APR.

Your assessment has merit but gives too much credit to one particular element. It's not that simple. In other words, your view is an oversimplification of the issue - which of course is common for message boards.

 

[MTLynn]

how many more years of empty stadiums and losing records do you think Stock gets before McPhee fires him?

 

[crposton]

how many more years of empty stadiums and losing records do you think Stock gets before McPhee fires him?

How many years are left on his current contract?

 

[MTsumner92]

recruiting on our OL has been below average since Geep Wade.

 

[blueraiderJT]

I've seen teams with half our talent win 10 games. We have a serious coaching problem and our S&C coach that replaced Spray is garbage. We look weaker than we've ever been. It also explains a lot of the injuries. It's not gonna get better even though I thought it would when the season started. Stock has gotta retool with a whole new coaching staff to make it better.

 

[rcodeman]

Stockstill has a long term deal, because McPhee and Massaro went overboard (among other things) in trying to keep a coach that was offered deals at Memphis and ECU. Sure, APR was considered important giving the mess that McCollum left but absurd to suggest that's the only reason he has the deal. The 10-win season, bowl win over USM, and attempts to poach CRS have as much if not more to do with his contract as the APR.

Your assessment has merit but gives too much credit to one particular element. It's not that simple. In other words, your view is an oversimplification of the issue - which of course is common for message boards.

That was 10 years ago when somebody was after him. Even pre-Saban Alabama fans think we are living to much in the past with that statement. I think the issue has become simple over time. What can you point to after he received the contract other than APR that is above average.

 

[FootballKuato]

Oh, and give me someone with a wild personality that is always on, great with people, and a true ambassador of the brand.

Coach Lunsford at Georgia Southern is a great example, GSU was 2-10 two years ago and Lunsford took over beating App State twice (Top 25 both times) and competed for the Sun Belt in the first year. Has been 16-7 and barely (by 3) lost to a tough Minnesota team this year. He is pumped up and does a good job recruiting and getting kids to believe.

 

[FootballKuato]

I've seen teams with half our talent win 10 games.

MT is in the catch-22 of scheduling tough teams for money which we do because of poor attendance but we have poor attendance because we start the season 1-3 every year.

 

[MTsumner92]

I would like to see us go after GA Mangus.

 

[blueraiderJT]

how many more years of empty stadiums and losing records do you think Stock gets before McPhee fires him?

It would have to be at least 3-4