The Rod Smith Record

[crambone]

This is quite possibly one of the worst threads in the history of this board.

HE IS GONE...WHY THE HELL ARE YOU DEFENDING HIM?

I could understand if he was still there and people were bashing him, but why now?

He is a Krispy Kreme eating lazy oaf who barely called half of our Offensive plays this year.  We will be much better off without him.

Good riddance.

[Bullpride08]

We lost the Penn State game because we kept turning the ball over on our side of the field.

The guy won 15 games.  The guy knocked off 2 of the top 10 teams in the country.  His offense put up points many times -- and almost ALL of his bad games were road games.  Its always tough to score points on the road.

2 straight bowls -- A top tailbak - A top freshmen QB -- A great WR core.

I just give the guy a lot of credit.  He did a good job.  

He improved from 2005 to 2006.  I discount the PSU game because of the environment plus the fact that there were so many kids playing their first game that game, but your point is stupid.  Last time I checked it was the offense that turned the ball over.  I thought he was in charge of the offense.

Some on here may disagree with me, but I do not classify this core of receivers as great just yet.  Great receivers do not drop as many balls as ours do.  Yes, there was improvement from '05 to '06, but we were still a couple of dropped balls away from 2 more wins this year.

You need to separate great individual effort from play calling.  Andre Hall had most of his success due to tremendous individual effort and talent.  They were putting 8 men on the line and he still carried the team on his shoulder.  A good coordinator would have/could have done a lot to exploit that and loosen up the defense.

I'm not trying to knock Rod at all.  He is very young ( I think they said 2nd youngest coordinator in the nation) and he has potential to grow, but he still has a lot to learn.  Unfortunately,  you really can't say he has developed anyone yet.  Wouldn't a good measure of that be guys that made it to the next level?  Sometimes you win because you are more talented and deeper than the other team.  Sometimes you win by better game planning.  Most of the time we won because of stellar defensive performances.  Rod had a few good games and was showing improvement, but I can't say he did a great job as you are saying.  He still has a lot learning and growing to do.

84,

your last paragraph sums it up pretty accurately.  He was a very young guy, in a bit over his head, and had a lot to learn- self admitted which is why he's back at WVU.  He hasn't developed any real players, he hasn't developed an offense that was difficult for defenses to stop.  He was showing signs of improvement but let's not be melodramatic about him.  He was a decent young coordinator, that was getting a TON of help from Gregory and Franks, still in a bit over his head, and will probably develop into a good coordinator by making the move he's making right now and taking a step backward (in stature or title).  Like they say sometimes you've got to take 1 step back to take two steps forward.

No ills toward Smith, the guy tried but the kind of program we were, our youth, talent, he was just called on to do more things in his 6 years then  his skill sets had warranted.

[usfgrad84]

I think another point to make is that there is nothing personal towards Rod.  I have found him to be a pretty nice guy as I am sure most on here that have met him would agree. However, I think this move is best for him personally and for the USF program at this point in time.  He gets more money, gets to go home, work with a longtime mentor in a top program (that is also a great innovator) so he can learn some new aspects of the game and the job.  When he came to the program it was a tremendous opportunity for him to get started with an up and coming program.  it was that way for several of USF's coaches.  Despite the demanding long hours, most guys have stuck around for a pretty long time with Jim.  Now it's time for them to spread their wings too.  He definitely did the best he could.  He was given an opportunity that  he probably wouldn't have gotten if Hobby had quit at the end of the season in'04 rather than just prior after the Spring game last year.  It's not easy to learn at a BCS level of play.  Stepping back and working with Rodriguez is a good move for him right now.  

I think we will be better off by having the experience of Gregory.  A lot.