Why coaching IS the main problem | Syracusefan.com

Why coaching IS the main problem

OrangeFoo

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I've seen a lot of back and forth posts about whether it's coaching or the players who are the problem with this team. Well it's pretty clear both are big problems, but I see the coaches as the BIG problem. Players will come and go but the coaches will stay and they are in charge of which players are on the team and which are playing.

I've seen way too many bad tendencies to not be concerned about the coaching and here are a few:
- Our team concedes entire halves of the game where one unit or the other just doesn't show up. Against UCONN our offense stayed on the bus for the first half, the defense never came out of the locker room for the second half and the special teams never left their dorms in Syracuse from what I can tell. I guess if this was a one game thing I could accept it, but this has happened in every game this year other than WVU. The inability to get the players to function for an entire half or more of a game is inexcusable and is all on the coaches. How they are prepping the team and what they are telling them are not sinking in and that's totally on the coaches.

- Our coaches are extremely slow to make in half adjustments. My favorite quote of the year is from Hackett against Wake where he said that at half time they had to throw out their entire game plan... umm why the did it take you to half time to adjust to what was going on on the field? That change should have been made within a drive or two. Then there was the defenses inability to stop UCONN's one play in the second half, this might be acceptable if it were a one time thing but this has happened to Shafer many times last year and a few times this year like against Rhode Island of all teams. If plan A is not working there does not seem to be a plan B or if there is a plan B it takes forever to show up. This is again on the coaches.

- The same players make the same mistakes game after game after game. I give you our secondary's repeated inability to cover receivers game after game because they are constantly peeking into the backfield or we can talk about Hay's and Sharpe's amount of PFs this year. I don't even want to talk about the total ineptitude at tackling that we've seen for three years now. For a coach who's strategy is to take raw players and teach them fundamentals and discipline it would seem a bad sign when his team is terrible at the fundamentals and discipline.

- The shittiness that is our oline after year 3. Marrone came in as a former olineman and an oline coach of some renown surely he'd fix the oline, right? There has been absolutely no improvement in the oline in 3 years as far as I can see. It's still the biggest weakness on the team and I don't see it changing. I don't know how Marrone, an oline expert, could look at this oline in the preseason an proclaim it a strength of the team. This would be less galling except there were a bunch of transfers from oline players who might have helped. Anyways if it were a one year thing it would be understandable but this is year 3 and the trend hasn't gotten any better. That's coaching.

- The disaster that is our special teams. We are in year 3 and we have a shitty punter and a kickoff guy who can barely reach the 10 yard line in a freaking dome. We lost the UCONN game due to special teams just like we lost games last year and the year before due to STs suckage. How many times have we kicked it out of bounds btw on kick offs? Yet out damn punter can't kick it out of bounds to save his life... are you kidding me? This is ALL on coaching and please don't tell me we don't have a ST coach because that is again a coaching decision in itself

I am not saying we need to fire HCDM but he needs to look into the mirror and ask himself if he's really cut out for this job. I see someone who probably would have made a great oline coach, but I am not seeing someone who has the feel to be a head coach at a college level. I wish HCDM all the success in the world because if he fails it scares the crap out of me where we go from there. Marrone is the ideal coach for Syracuse based on resume but he needs to do some serious introspection to succeed in this day and age because whatever he's doing ain't working.
 
Nice rant, but way, way over the top.

For perspective, SU was leading that game into the fourth quarter. Interesting game to watch overall, with UConn helping us with turnovers; bad outcome because UConn converted its chances in Q4, while we didn't it. Nassib had a solid passing game after a slow start; terrific game by Lemon; very good second half by Provo. Opportunistic play by the defense in 1H. My point -- it really wasn't all bad.

If you are going to pile on the coaches for every thing that went wrong, who gets credit for the fumbles-caused, and the interceptions made? Or the 275 yard passing?

Now, some things were pretty bad. Coverage teams (and the kicking) were horrid -- about as bad as it gets. The difference in the return/coverage teams was a huge factor. Couldn't stop McCombs or McCummings, which is partly a credit to the UConn blockers. Conversely, our OL didn't create much room for Bailey.

If you want, you can blame coaching for some of what was bad -- for the basic differences in blocking and tackling, you might have to give the UConn players an edge.
 
Nice rant, but way, way over the top.

For perspective, SU was leading that game into the fourth quarter. Interesting game to watch overall, with UConn helping us with turnovers; bad outcome because UConn converted its chances in Q4, while we didn't it. Nassib had a solid passing game after a slow start; terrific game by Lemon; very good second half by Provo. Opportunistic play by the defense in 1H. My point -- it really wasn't all bad.

If you are going to pile on the coaches for every thing that went wrong, who gets credit for the fumbles-caused, and the interceptions made? Or the 275 yard passing?

Now, some things were pretty bad. Coverage teams (and the kicking) were horrid -- about as bad as it gets. The difference in the return/coverage teams was a huge factor. Couldn't stop McCombs or McCummings, which is partly a credit to the UConn blockers. Conversely, our OL didn't create much room for Bailey.

If you want, you can blame coaching for some of what was bad -- for the basic differences in blocking and tackling, you might have to give the UConn players an edge.

So you're missing the point of my post. Any of the issues I highlighted would be okay if it was a one game thing but these are all issues that have come up game after game season after season. That my friend is on the coaches.

Also the fact that we lost to one of the worst BCS programs out there in my book is pretty bad. Let's not look for moral victories there.
 
People looking into things to much.

Thets add...
Carter, Cruz, Smith, Hogue, Sales :bang: , Holmes, Suter, Merkersonson, Tiller, Bartholomew, Perkins and some decent special teams to this team.

Thets put the best parts of this years team with the best parts of last years and we would be one tough team. Give us last years road record with this years home record. Maybe we would be even ranked.

So we are young and lost our linebackers at the heart of the defense.
Teams lose players it happens. Just look at Big East basketball. What if Jonny Flynn and Kristoff returned for the 09-10 campaign?

The question is where the future is going. Will we be a tough balenced team? The question is not the inconsistincies and pathetic tackling of this team.
We are going to be playing against VT, Miami, Florida State, and BC again soon. A better level of football. We better get our stuff straight.
 
So you're missing the point of my post. Any of the issues I highlighted would be okay if it was a one game thing but these are all issues that have come up game after game season after season. That my friend is on the coaches.

Also the fact that we lost to one of the worst BCS programs out there in my book is pretty bad. Let's not look for moral victories there.
Not looking for moral victories. I don't go for the "season after season" stuff -- in the three Marrone years, we have seen 3 very different teams, with very different sets of strengths/weaknesses. Last year, the defense was ranked top 10 in scoring defense -- must have been some great coaching in that season; the offense was built around Carter off guard; and we made a bowl game and beat Kansas State. This year, Nassib is setting season records for passing; Provo is setting records for catches by a TE; but the defense is inexperienced at LB and nowhere near as tough overall as last year. So, "season after season" is nonsense.

The problem with your post is it is full of negatives, with no judgment about what is going well, or where we have shortcomings. I am not excusing the coaches -- mistakes were made; Marrone isn't a ball of energy. But some of the weakness on coverage teams comes down to speed/tackling ability (partly coaching, but partly talent); we have soft spots on the OL; our LBs are fast but below average in size/experience; same with our CBs. As is often the case, the game yesterday turned on line play (UConn has the better OL and LBs) and kick coverage.
 
Not looking for moral victories. I don't go for the "season after season" stuff -- in the three Marrone years, we have seen 3 very different teams, with very different sets of strengths/weaknesses. Last year, the defense was ranked top 10 in scoring defense -- must have been some great coaching in that season; the offense was built around Carter off guard; and we made a bowl game and beat Kansas State. This year, Nassib is setting season records for passing; Provo is setting records for catches by a TE; but the defense is inexperienced at LB and nowhere near as tough overall as last year. So, "season after season" is nonsense.

The problem with your post is it is full of negatives, with no judgment about what is going well, or where we have shortcomings. I am not excusing the coaches -- mistakes were made; Marrone isn't a ball of energy. But some of the weakness on coverage teams comes down to speed/tackling ability (partly coaching, but partly talent); we have soft spots on the OL; our LBs are fast but below average in size/experience; same with our CBs. As is often the case, the game yesterday turned on line play (UConn has the better OL and LBs) and kick coverage.

Exactly, last week they had a ton of penalties, which hadn't been much of an issue all year. Yesterday it was kick coverage, which for the most part has been pretty good.

They were ranked in the top 20 against the run before yesterday.
 
Exactly, last week they had a ton of penalties, which hadn't been much of an issue all year.
Penalties have been an issue all season.
 
Yep, dbl digit penalties are a weekly occurance.:rolleyes:
So penalties aren't an issue unless they get into the double digits?

I think they're an issue when they kill our drives and extend the opponents' drives.
 

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