A reason you can't fully blame Rod Smith...

[Jim Johnson]

Like the show on ESPN Classic, I will provide a single anecdote that might - might - make you think again about calling for Rod Smith's head...

NOTE: I will not use names to protect people's identity - since I have not asked them for permission to disclose this story publicly.

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A Tampa Bay area high school head coach is a relative of an employee at USF, and is good friends with Rod Smith.  That employee related a conversation between the coach and Smith:

The coach called Smith after the Connecticut game and let him have it.  "What kind of **** plays are you calling, Rod?? You're a better coach than that. The plays are so predictible."  [basically the kind of conversation any one of us would have, except we would use the words moron, imbecile, and possibly doofus - among others.]

Rod responded, "Coach, you think I don't know that? Do you think I want to run the ball up the middle every other play?  Do you think I want to call gimmick plays at critical  moments?  It's not me.  Coach Leavitt is overruling my calls and calling his own.  Don't blame me for all of the play calling, Leavitt over rules me almost half the time."

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Now, this would not be admissible in court and I will not divulge the source.  However, I believe the person who passed the story on to me would not embellish or lie on this topic.

Rod Smith as QB Coach may have real problems -- PJ was better in 2005 than 2004, but just barely.  

But maybe, just maybe, we can't place the play calling problem squarely on his shoulders alone.

[flsportsfan83]

If CJL is overruling him and calling these stupid ass plays than maybe he should go

[flsportsfan83]

the story seems a little fishy

[BULLfreak]

yeah it does

[BULLheaded]

Restated from greg's thread.....coaching is NOT ONLY ABOUT CALLING PLAYS!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, play calling has been suspect but our offense is a fricking disaster! They make bad decisions, make poor throws (3 going on 4 qb's now) drop practically everything that hits them on the numbers (how many recievers and how many years has this been a problem?) blocking many times completely breaks down and penalties penalties penalties. These kids are not getting developed properly and they are certainly not getting the preparation they need to execute during the games. Adding suspect play calling us only the straw that breaks the camel's back. Unless we fix the issue with coaching the play calling won't matter one way or another......well maybe we can get lucky and pull a WVU and hope that our running attack continues to improve so all we have to do is hand off every play every game and hide the problems.

[smazza]

i have been saying this for years

i have said leavitt is ultimately responsible

it is wrong to fire smith and not leavitt(though it is done all the time in similar circumstances)

every OC we hire can't be bad.it is leavitt

[BULLheaded]

I don't agree with that smazza, I think Leavitt is a great defensive mind and if he can learn to let go of the offense and bring in a capable staff he will end up a great HC. This always seems to be an issue with defensive minded coaches, why do they always think they can run an offense?

[BullDoug]

Reason No. 2 - poor QB performance

[Joe]

A few points

1. Your right, coaching is more than play calling. Smith is also QB coach. Its a tough position to be in in your first year (Both OC and QB Coach). To say he hasn't developed a QB is crazy, anyone see Blackwell?

2. If this is true it might sound like "Ron Zook Syndrome." Zook, a defensive guy, was famous for overuling assistants to put in the basic run plays and the trick plays. (i.e. - Zook called the WR reverse pass when the Gators were driving on Michigan in the closing seconds of the 2003 Outback Bowl. The trick play failed after the treu freshman WR threw an INT on a downfield pass to Rex Grossman). Zook's best OC at Florida was a guy named Larry Fedora, he is extremely good and ditched Zook at his first chance this past offseason.

3. Our QBs are what they are. Julmiste was an Wing T option QB in high school making him a passer has been very hard. He's got speed, but not the talent to read defenses, etc. I think he'll be a WR next season.

[BULLheaded]

first I may be wrong but I don't believe that Rod developed Blackwell, I think he came in towards the end of MBs time here. Second, blackwell was good because he was able to run around like crazy buying time and hiding our offensive problems back then. So IMO we have two hopes, one is to hope for more talent that can hide our poor coaching the other is to hope for coaching that can make the talent we bring in better.....shoot I'd like to see a third and get coaches that can improve the players AND bring in players capable of making the coaches shine. Why should we settle if we don't have to and coaching is an area that I don't believe we have to.