Catch 22 on Kool kid

[kcsu]

Do you wait to fire him until after national signing day or does he jump to his 12th job in 11 years prior.

 

[Toga]

Way harsh.

 

[kcsu]

Way harsh.

I know and actually think he may stick for another year but im not feeling that he is going to be the answer long term and i worry that by hiring him as our OC, Assistant Head coach, and top recruiter HCSS has put himself in a very difficult position. McDonald is wired in Florida and if Shafer lets him go it could mean some problems for us in the future recruiting game. At this point i believe that Scott should have gone with a seasoned OC and passed on Kool. Shafer is in a very difficult position

 

[OrangePA]

Improve at QB position and the OC will be fine.

 

[SmilinBob]

Improve at QB position and the OC will be fine.

Holy cow OPA, are you in Italy or just up early/late?

 

[CuseOnly]

He isn't going anywhere unless Shafer does. I don't think hat he will take a demotion status wise to go to another school. This is his best shot so far to be an OC and if he fails, does he get another?

 

[SmilinBob]

Good players make coaches look good and great players have a way of making coaches look great. Funny how that works. Ask Saban and Petrino how the NFL was when they went running back to college football where they can have 5 first round picks instead of one. This is exactly what Saban said.

 

[CuseOnly]

Good players make coaches look good and great players have a way of making coaches look great. Funny how that works. Ask Saban and Petrino how the NFL was when they went running back to college football where they can have 5 first round picks instead of one. This is exactly what Saban said.

I agree. Lester and McD have some work to do developing the kids we have. If they can be successful doing that here, they will be sought after elsewhere for sure.

 

[orangenirvana]

Good players make coaches look good and great players have a way of making coaches look great. Funny how that works.

By the same token bad coaches can make good players look mediocre and mediocre players look like our QB's and WR's.

At the same time I'm not ready to give up on McDonald. He's young and not very experienced running an offense, which means he's sort of learning on the job much like Hackett was. Granted, Hackett had a pretty good mentor while he was here but I'd still give McDonald at least another year to show improvement.

 

[SmilinBob]

I agree. Lester and McD have some work to do developing the kids we have. If they can be successful doing that here, they will be sought after elsewhere for sure.

Absolutely. They haven't been able to recruit their vision of offensive players yet and we saw a touch of that when they went after Estime last year.

I don't know how good of teachers they really are...all we can do is judge their product that we get to see on Saturdays. I've seen too many breakdowns from all phases of the offense. The line jumps offsides or misses a stunt and the guy's on Hunt too quickly, the receivers don't get open soon enough or drops, the rb's don't break arm tackles, Hunt/Allen miss their throws or toss it away to the other team... this team is not good enough to hide those mistakes.

 

[SmilinBob]

By the same token bad coaches can make good players look mediocre and mediocre players look like our QB's and WR's.

At the same time I'm not ready to give up on McDonald. He's young and not very experienced running an offense, which means he's sort of learning on the job much like Hackett was. Granted, Hackett had a pretty good mentor while he was here but I'd still give McDonald at least another year to show improvement.

True. Especially if they don't have a feel for the flow of the game, misuse players (incorrect position) or just can not teach what needs to be done.

 

[CuseOnly]

IF anyone remembers Lemon and sales weren't the most physically gifted receivers we have had here. They didn't get open because they were fast or make plays because they were particularly good leapers or because they out-physicaled corners. They were schemed open mostly because of the system they were in.

Think the Mizzou game on the last touchdown. Most of Lemons routes were slants or outs where the ball was delivered quickly. Provo and Becket also caught over the middle or were used on wheel routes. All were schemed open or blown coverage because of the scheme. Slants are pretty hard to cover for a corner if your receiver can get off the line...which is a whole different issue.

This offense doesn't "scheme" anyone open, it seems to rely on guys winning physically one-v-one battles which we clearly cannot do or it relies on speed which we do not have in abundance with experience.

This needs to be fixed and fast.

 

[Crusty]

If McD has one good year as OC he will be in demand. Top recruiters with demonstrated success (even if brief) are rare and someone will double or triple his salary and hire him as HC.

Remember that Shafer was hired on January 8th, 2013 and had less than a month before NSD, He had to hustle and I think he made the right choice.

Every OC wants to be a NC and McD is no different.

 

[CuseOnly]

I also think of the Ped State game where it seemed that they called the same play 2x in a row. The first was a tunnel/bubble screen to their star wide receiver for 3-5 yards.

Next play same formation, fake the tunnel screen, whether outran or blown coverage (looking for the previous play) because of confusion. Schemed open whether he was their star or not if would have been a big play, with a lesser talented kid even.

http://espn.go.com/ncf/video?gameId=332430213&vid=9620721

We don't do this at all, drives me nuts.

 

[SmilinBob]

Good points cuseonly but also remember that this was with two 4 year starters who could call/run the plays better than Hunt or Allen and a better o-line. Hunt HAS to improve his eyes and he is locking or looking at his #1 and this took Nassib a while to learn.

 

[CuseOnly]

If McD has one good year as OC he will be in demand. Top recruiters with demonstrated success (even if brief) are rare and someone will double or triple his salary and hire him as HC.

Remember that Shafer was hired on January 8th, 2013 and had less than a month before NSD, He had to hustle and I think he made the right choice.

Every OC wants to be a NC and McD is no different.

I agree, I want him to be very successful and I think he is the right choice. He needs time to learn on the job which in coaching is very difficult without getting your HC fired.

 

[SmilinBob]

If McD has one good year as OC he will be in demand. Top recruiters with demonstrated success (even if brief) are rare and someone will double or triple his salary and hire him as HC.

Remember that Shafer was hired on January 8th, 2013 and had less than a month before NSD, He had to hustle and I think he made the right choice.

Every OC wants to be a NC and McD is no different.

They all want to be NC...National Champion. I assume you meant HC but I like how you wrote NC instead!

 

[CuseOnly]

Good points cuseonly but also remember that this was with two 4 year starters who could call/run the plays better than Hunt or Allen and a better o-line. Hunt HAS to improve his eyes and he is locking or looking at his #1 and this took Nassib a while to learn.

I am not talking about successful plays or Lemon/Sales. I do not see a successful scheme to get these kids open at all. Personnel is irrelevant. Even if Hunt had time, the kids aren't open because the scheme is bad.

 

[OrangeAl]

Do you wait to fire him until after national signing day or does he jump to his 12th job in 11 years prior.

Itchy trigger finger?

 

[SmilinBob]

I am not talking about successful plays or Lemon/Sales. I do not see a successful scheme to get these kids open at all. Personnel is irrelevant. Even if Hunt had time, the kids aren't open because the scheme is bad.

I see that and I agree with you and from our seats that often does seem to be the case. It does seem that when we have a receiver that is being thrown too there are 2 to 4 guys on the D near him while it seems to look easier for the other offenses vs our D. That damn bubble thing drives me crazy on how other teams execute it well and we do not.

 

[sufandu]

He won't leave because he's too unproven as an offensive coordinator for anyone to hire him away, and, unless the head coach runs the offense, you don't hire an OC just for his recruiting. A position coach, yes, but not an OC. He shouldn't be fired because we don't know how good/bad he is yet. If he is capable of analyzing mistakes and making necessary changes he may wind up being a very good OC. If he is capable of recruiting better players for his offense that'll only help him. That's when we'd have to worry about him jumping.

 

[cuseinchina]

He won't leave because he's too unproven as an offensive coordinator for anyone to hire him away, and, unless the head coach runs the offense, you don't hire an OC just for his recruiting. A position coach, yes, but not an OC. He shouldn't be fired because we don't know how good/bad he is yet. If he is capable of analyzing mistakes and making necessary changes he may wind up being a very good OC. If he is capable of recruiting better players for his offense that'll only help him. That's when we'd have to worry about him jumping.

You would have thought he'd be able to do a better job adjusting his offense to his current talent - the inexperience argument doesn't seem as valid as most are making it out to be. He was I believe an offensive coordinator for a year or two at Western Michigan where he likely had to deal with inferior players to what he has to work with at Syracuse. He was not OC at Miami, but he did run their passing attack from what I understand - so he knows what it takes to move the ball against ACC competition. Just seems pretty clear he's not willing/able to make adjustments either of his scheme to fit the players, or during the game. Shafer clearly promised him the world to get him here with the associate head coach stuff...he needed the recruiting and trusted his friend enough to give him a shot. So far there is no evidence other than our uptick in recruiting to make me think this was a good hire. People act like it was a complete rebuild, coming in starting with nothing, but that's just not the case. It would be ok if we were losing but moving the ball. But when you are getting blown out regularly and have stats like 0 points scored or 27 yards passing or whatever...there are serious issues.

 

[bnoro]

Do you wait to fire him until after national signing day or does he jump to his 12th job in 11 years prior.

Didn't you make a thread like this about Hackett?

 

[kcsu]

Holy cow OPA, are you in Italy or just up early/late?

Late actually just got back from the city of lights. Also as you know i enjoy starting a good debate. Hope Kool catches fire but he is a major work in progress but so was Hack

 

[Millhouse]

I don't think he'll be great but he might be good enough. This offense doesn't look completely stupid - it just looks a little ho hum with little talent in the passing game. I don't know if he'll be really good. I wish there was an obvious offensive identity. I think that's important

We're 75th in the country in YPG against BCS teams. That's bad but that's right in line with where we were 2009-2011.

This season is interesting to think about. Should we be impressed that the offense isn't worse than 75th considering how bad our QB/WR play is? Or should we be pissed that we're wasting a top 25 rushing offense vs BCS. 5.21 yards per carry vs BCS is miles better than anything we've had an in recent years.