Finally a coaching staff that has stayed together

[Brad]

7 hours ago, Bull Dozer said:

We have quite a few young guys stepping into much bigger roles at key spots (QB, LB, CB, OL, DT) so the continuity is very important. 

Agree.

I remember weeks ago when the somewhat lackadaisical Fire Charlie Strong/Sterlin Gilbert football justice campaign was underway and I posed the question "wouldn't it just be nice to have some consistency"?  I now can answer that.  Yes.

[Calibull]

4 hours ago, GoBulls84 said:

Tulsa was probably the worst game he had as a passer after taking the gig full time.

lol... no  try Maryland, FSU, and I think Navy his first year as a starter.  But Tulsa was pretty bad too.  SMU... first start... worst passing game.  Memphis Soph year wasn't great... but he did ok.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Calibull

[Calibull]

It's not like Flowers threw for 3K... he didn't.  He's not a passer, he's a dual threat guy who needs one so the other works.  He's 5'10 and a really good runner with an average arm.  He's a great player though... but he's not a great passer.

[SoFlo All Day]

On 2/22/2018 at 3:01 PM, Calibull said:

It wasn't all Gilbert... it was Flowers too.  I think his play calling will be better with a QB that has bought into what he wanted to do.  Flowers wanted to do what Taggart let him do, his own thing and create.  I think the offense will be better with a different style QB in it.  All of those dive plays weren't dives, some were reads that Flowers just handed off.

Also... if Q had been more consistent in the short passing game... I'm not saying anything anyone doesn't know.  Short hopped passes...  

Agree. Flowers' inability to hit a pass inside 15 yards really hurt drives. There were quite a few 3rd and 5/6/7's that dies out bc the passes were off. 

[Orlando Bull]

On 2/23/2018 at 6:46 AM, PCBull14 said:

You mean what worked   

We shalt see, I don't believe the offense gets better at all. I think it gets worse.  If it does find a way to improve,  the defense will suffer even more. Its the Charlie Strong way, a complete team is not in his abilities. 

Louisville... 2013... total offense rank (28)... total defense rank (23).

This was his last year, the team he built. Yes, large part of success was bridgewater, but, show me a top-tier offense that doesn't have a good QB?

As for Flowers, there is no doubt that he didn't fit the mold of what Gilbert wants to do. We'll see if there is better flow to the offense this year. I feel differently about the player/coach relationship. The player's responsibility is to play at peak performance within their skill-set. The coach's responsibility is to put the players in the best scenarios to compliment their skill-set. I believe that it took Taggart some time to do that with Q, and Gilbert never got there. In the last 2 games, he either gave up, or, Q stopped listening (UCF 2-pt conversion story where Q and DJ made up the play themselves?).

Still, Flowers is truly a freak athlete and football player, he wasn't perfect and some of that is on him, but, the square peg/round hole issue is on the guy paid to put him in the best position to succeed.

All that said, I don't hate Gilbert at all. He's well respected. It's one of the conundrums of coaching IMHO. You're respected and you got the job because of your past success with a certain system. it's your system and it's proven to be successful, but, you run up on a player/group of players that it's not suited to... do you get new players, or, tweak your system? I'd say that 80%+ of coaches look for new players because they trust what has worked for them. The truly outstanding coaches adjust to the strengths of their guys, it's rare to see a coach completely change their mentality based on player strengths, and, even more rare at the College level because there is always turnover in personnel. 

So, I suspect that the offense will look more organized and we'll see the methodology of the play calls next year... but, I also suspect that the drop-off in talent will prevent us from putting up the numbers we have the last 3 years. Strong is a defensive coach, he'll continue to improve the defense and it should help take pressure off of the offense.

[SANJAY]

On 2/23/2018 at 3:47 PM, George_Bullnard_Shaw said:

Well so much for my hope for a new special teams coach.

Thought I read somewhere that the 10th assistant will be handling some (all?) special teams.

[Calibull]

On 2/24/2018 at 8:15 PM, SoFlo All Day said:

Agree. Flowers' inability to hit a pass inside 15 yards really hurt drives. There were quite a few 3rd and 5/6/7's that dies out bc the passes were off. 

YUP! That's all I was saying. I know I wasn't the only one who noticed... and I was one of Flowers biggest defenders.  I never defended his inability to hit those passes, I just argued he does so many other things it made up for that.  But I can't pretend he didn't have a problem in the short game... because he did.

[GoBulls84]

On 2/24/2018 at 1:15 AM, Calibull said:

lol... no  try Maryland, FSU, and I think Navy his first year as a starter.  But Tulsa was pretty bad too.  SMU... first start... worst passing game.  Memphis Soph year wasn't great... but he did ok.

He had some good passes dropped against Maryland. Then you had the BS with Tags bringing in Bench after the offense started finding its legs and completely ruining the rhythm. I mentioned taking the gig full time because the SMU game was just a crap situation for Q and he was definitely not made for that offense. Memphis was tough, but some of that too was Tags completely tanking the offense in the second half.

 

He certainly had some tough games, but Tulsa was the worst game I can think of, where he was pretty much completely off. Wasn't hitting the deep ball, wasn't hitting the short stuff, seemed like he had no rhythm. And the usual Anti-Gilbert brigade was out in full force, but that was actually a pretty decently called game on his part IMO, but Q just wasn't hitting it

[The Great 8]

On 2/22/2018 at 12:53 PM, Triple B said:

Definition of urban legend

: an often lurid story or anecdote that is based on hearsay and widely circulated as true

 

You know, like the hb dive being the bread and butter of our offense last year ...

If you think the dive being the bread and butter was an “urban legend” I seriously question your ability to watch football.

For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure The Daily Stampede already did an analysis on play calling and did indeed find the obvious: the dive play (i.e. between the tackles) was called inordinately more than other runs.

Consider refraining from calling something an urban legend just because it’s not obvious to you, when you put in zero research.

[beastiebull]

With the receiving Corp Q had I am not sure being a more accurate passer would have helped things. 

I remember very few plays being made by a receiver - i.e. catching balls that weren't perfectly thrown.

Obviously, they even had problems hanging onto the ones that were. 

If we are going towards more of a pocket passing attack the receivers need to improve.