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[QUOTE="sutomcat, post: 494053, member: 27"]
Good question.
 
Here are some numbers for Western Michigan for the 2 years before McDonald was their OC, the two year period he was there running their offense and the 2 years after he left.
 
Note that WMU enjoyed two excellent seasons while George and Scott were there (for Bronco football anyway). 
 
In 2005, there was a major improvement in running the football and passing the football (passing TDs way up, interceptions way down). 
 
In 2006, the passing game struggled.  Definite step backwards.  The passing game continued to do fine.  I attribute this to the fact that in 2006, McDonald was forced to use Ryan Cubit as his starting QB.  
 
Ryan was Bill Cubit's son.  It was his senior season.  The year before, Cubit played relatively minor minutes after starting in 2004 (McDonald kept him on the board, as he should have).  Ryan started his career at Rutgers, with his dad as the OC.  After Bill got the HC job at WMU, Ryan followed him there.  Tough break for George to get stuck with a nepotism deal in his second year as OC.  I think McDonald was the sacrificial lamb after a relatively bad season offensively in 2006.
 
I suspect a big reason WMU was more successful record wise when GM was there was because he ran the ball a lot more and a lot better than the people there before and after him (Shafer's defenses played a big role as well).   The spread becomes a lot easier to defend when it is one dimensional.
 
He certainly was not a disaster at OC.  With competent QB play in 2006, he would be been fine.
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