a terrible coach

[Chip]

GRob was not left with an empty cupboard.
Damien Rhodes, Steve Gregory, Anthony Smith, Joe Fields, Tanard Jackson, Tony Fiammetta, Kelvin Smith, Jameel McClain, Quinn Ojinaka, Steve Franklin, Ryan Durand, James Wyche. Those guys were all on the roster in GRob's first year, and these were only the names I picked off that either have played in the NFL or were factors in college - there were some others I left off.

The biggest problem GRob had with the roster were the underclassmen - not a lot of quality there. Additionally, he did not have a very competent QB as a holdover. He did recruit both Andrew Robinson, who had flashes, and Nassib who has developed into a serviceable QB.

I do agree that GRob did not leave an empty cupboard for Marrone, but he did not recruit evenly. He pulled in some high end talent at some of the skill positions, but again no blue chip QB. There were some severe gaps on the defensive side of the ball and on the O Line. Also, the overall quality of GRob's classes wasn't much different than P's all things considered - GRob pulled in more blue chippers but have of them never made it to campus.

Those seniors would imply you could run the ball and should be ok to good on defense. Defense in 2005 was better than 2004, which wasn't easy because they rarely got a rest. We were a disaster running the ball, due to a new blocking scheme which didn't work out so well, but also because we faced 8 to 9 man fronts all the time. Why? Well, why not. Would you leave your safeties back in coverage against those WRs? Schedule didn't do us any favors either, 4 non conf games, 1 bunny, then FSU, ND on the road, and UVA at home. Big East was much better in 2005 than 2004.

It was the perfect storm, any coach would have struggled. Unfortunately we hired a bad HC which meant struggling would have been an upgrade.

 

[rrlbees]

Is that directed at me? Because I have no problem separating the argument. I think GRob was an ass clown of a coach who came in and tried to implement new systems on both sides of the ball that sucked, and the team's performance plummeted. I also believe that he had way more talent on that 2005 team than 1-10.

And yet, he came in spouting off about having the talent to compete for national championships in short order, and that all the new coaching staff needed to do was implement a new offensive system for that to happen. You know--kind of like the same thing that lots of posters are clamoring for now to have everything magically improve.

It's all about the talent, no matter what system you run. GRob couldn't get it done on the recruiting trail with QB, WR, TE, or OL, so his crappy systems never came together. So far, Marrone hasn't recruited an impressive array of skilled players, either [although he appears to be doing better at WR, TE, and OL], and it remains to be seen whether he can get the job done--despite landing Thompson / MacFarlane / Cornelius, and potentially a Perkins / Morris / Lynch. [as an aside, I omit QB even though we have some prospects in the pipeline [Kinder, Hunt, Broyld] as I stopped being optimistic about our QBs about 10 recruits ago--I'll believe it when I see one of them actually pan out]

Edit: before Bees comes after me for taking a shot at GRob, I readily acknowledge that he was a nice guy and a class act. But he was a natural disaster of a head coach.

LOL, that's funny since I have said oh...maybe 200 times that GRob was not a good HC. The only time I comment on anything GRob related is when facts are ignored or twisted, which happens quite a bit it seems. I also find it amusing that whenever we lose, GRob's name gets mentioned in 100 posts. Let's keep that bar low.

 

[rrlbees]

Those seniors would imply you could run the ball and should be ok to good on defense. Defense in 2005 was better than 2004, which wasn't easy because they rarely got a rest. We were a disaster running the ball, due to a new blocking scheme which didn't work out so well, but also because we faced 8 to 9 man fronts all the time. Why? Well, why not. Would you leave your safeties back in coverage against those WRs? Schedule didn't do us any favors either, 4 non conf games, 1 bunny, then FSU, ND on the road, and UVA at home. Big East was much better in 2005 than 2004.

It was the perfect storm, any coach would have struggled. Unfortunately we hired a bad HC which meant struggling would have been an upgrade.

Shhhh...

 

[RF2044]

LOL, that's funny since I have said oh...maybe 200 times that GRob was not a good HC. The only time I comment on anything GRob related is when facts are ignored or twisted, which happens quite a bit it seems. I also find it amusing that whenever we lose, GRob's name gets mentioned in 100 posts. Let's keep that bar low.

LOL, turn up your sarcasm detector, Captain Sensitive.

 

[rrlbees]

LOL, turn up your sarcasm detector, Captain Sensitive.

Sure, I'll do that if you don't ignore facts.

 

[RF2044]

Sure, I'll do that if you don't ignore facts.

What facts am I supposedly ignoring? There were quite a few players on that team who played in the NFL. There was also more talent on that offense than a 1-10 team. And there were others [Steve Franklin in particular] who were solid the previous year, who became completely ineffectual under GRob's system. Franklin wasn't a guy I saw listed on Tep's post above, and he didn't make the NFL but was a very good starter for us up until that senior year.

I completely agree with Chip that the WRs on that team sucked--flat out sucked. So I'm not sure what facts you think I am supposedly ignoring. I never made the argument [never even suggested, in fact] that there wasn't a dropoff after the senior class--I just dispute that there wasn't talent on that first GRob team.