Bajakian still having a job is embarrassing
- Thread starter samuirocks
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How bad did we look on those misdirection plays that Rutgers ran. Think Jake would ever run one of those? See one play one.
Why should fans expect the players, coaches, administrators or results to improve next season?
Ben Bryant passed for a total of 35 TDs the past two seasons so the guy can play. With Bajakian, he did not get further than the Rutgers 40. So he didn’t even approach FG territory, let alone a TD.
If we don’t show huge offensive improvement vs UTEP, I don’t know how we’ll stay within 20 points (at best) in any Big 10 game. The defense isn’t good enough (and very few are) to repeatedly get a stop when they’re always on the field and losing the field position game because the offense can’t move the ball.
If we don’t show huge offensive improvement vs UTEP, I don’t know how we’ll stay within 20 points (at best) in any Big 10 game. The defense isn’t good enough (and very few are) to repeatedly get a stop when they’re always on the field and losing the field position game because the offense can’t move the ball.
QBs are only as good as the players around them. Our roster is not very good to be honest. Inferior coaching is a killer as well.
I don’t believe our roster is that bad. I think we have bad coaching of fundamentals and bad offensive system to create an edge against an opponent leveraging our players.
Last year we had an NFL RB (Hull) and an All-American OL (Skoronski) and one of the worst offenses in the country. So it’s not like we have no talent. It is a total coaching failure. Since Bajakian arrived, we had one season of a mediocre offense with Ramsay and two seasons and one game of basically no offense.
Increasingly looks to be the case. Does Braun have the cojones to can him early in the season?
I doubt Braun has the institutional support to do so.
Tell me again.Was Holtz seen in NJ.? What has he contributed?. Was his hiring a pr stunt to deflect the media from Brauns lack of experience.?
So many questions, so few answers.
Did not do well as Rutgers OC last year, and he doesn't play nicely in the sandbox. Do better.
Agreed. We have enough talent to not be an abject embarrassment on the offensive side of the ball.
Braun is fighting with one hand behind his back. I’m hoping Sullivan’s mobility & tenacity can unleash the offense if he won’t move on from Jake.
It is too painful to watch currently.
All coaches and staffs have their moments of frustration and conflict. Do you know the entire story? Came highly recommended by Princeton's HC. Use him.
What happened to Bajakian? He's had success at other places but he can't do shit here. Even with Ramsey he got just enough done to get out of the way of Hank's defense.
I think part of the answer is depth/linemen, but it seems like he's lost his way. The answer does not seem to be "Fitz's leash."
I think part of the answer is depth/linemen, but it seems like he's lost his way. The answer does not seem to be "Fitz's leash."
During his one year at Boston College, Jake had Corey Dillon, and a good offensive line. You can do a lot with that, even with a mediocre quarterback.
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There was a discussion here about Gleeson, it seems he has to be the smartest guy in the room and let's everyone know it. Does not play well with others, is the picture that emerged. His offense at Rutgers last year was a disaster and he was fired during the season. I don't get the sense that he'll be that much better than Jake. He had huge success at Princeton, but the real architect of that offense was his predecessor. He could be the offense version of Jim O'Neil.
Rutgers is paying him $800k to be an advisor at NU. He must not be too dumb. He also might be the next the next Bill Walsh, coaching hires are always a crap shoot. Jake obviously is not very successful.
Aren't we a team that could benefit by having two qb"s who rotate?. We do have a history with Colter and Trevor, Sully has legs like Colter, and Bryant has an arm like Siemian. Certainly worth a shot.
Jim O'Neil is a smart dude, too. He talks the talk. He's also a terrible DC. I'm not questioning Gleeson's intelligence, but I have doubts about him being a big improvement over Jake.
One key pick up that I read was Ben saying that he had success working in college offenses while Jake relies on alot of pro concepts. I really don't care who makes game plans or calls the plays, just get our offense in gear and score 24+ points per game so we have a "chance" to win. Don't really care if they run Green Bay sweep or USC's current spread, just score and give us a chance.
Good for him. As long as he's not coaching our defense, I hope he has a good life.
Herein lies why football may be destroying our educational system, by sucking resources for a massive Serotonin high on Fridays and Saturdays. NIL, P5 consolidation and media profits are the least of the problems. The real problem is how to cure a depressive society which needs this high to substitute for lack of other fulfillment. Football and other sports competitions are essential, but we have reached a point where they are under the control of commercial interests. The Ivy League has it right, and maybe that is where Northwestern belongs. Either that or work to reform the B1G to stop this nonsensical commercial money, power grab.
This is an important point. The 2020 team succeeded because of an incredible defense that allowed us to win games by only needing to score 14+ (and often putting the offense in great field position).
Since we were winning, everyone was happy and that protected Bajakian and masked what an average offense he led. Of course, since then it’s been a complete and total offensive failure. I’m too lazy to look it up but we must have the worst (or very close to it) offense in P5 since 2020. I still can’t believe Fitz kept Bajakian after last season.
As I said in another thread, I really think Fitz viewed this as a 2-3 year rebuild project.
Overhaul the defense this year, overhaul the offense next year, and fix any other problems in the 3rd year while phasing in 2-3 coordinators/assistants each year.
JON obviously had to go first, he shouldn't have been hired from the beginning.
But yes, a fair point can be made that Bajakian's offenses have been just as problematic as JON's defenses other than the 2020 Hank/Ramsey special.
We probably had the worst DC and OC pairing in FBS by far over the past 2 years. That's really why the program imploded as it did.
Fitz's overhaul only being 1/3 to 1/2 complete is why I'm more leaning towards us hiring an outsider coach that overhauls the staff.
I don't see how/whether Braun can be tasked to do that as a new HC; is he really going to want to fire a bunch of guys and hire a bunch of guys; is he qualified to do that much program building?
Hiring an outside coach and letting Braun stay on as DC (if the new coach doesn't bring a DC in tow) is the best outcome we can hope for at this point.
If true, that's a dumb approach. Fix it now if you realize it's broken. There may be no tomorrow, as Fitz found out. It makes no difference if you have two new coordinators at the same time, such a bad excuse by Fitz.
I think Braun will need to go. Not because he is a bad DC. We will never know that at NU, but because the new guy needs to bring in his own staff and not have the baggage of the whole regime. Smith, Binns, and anyone associated with program will be history. Not fair, but it has to happen .
Look at all the chatter on the free board about Fitz being a terrible Coach since he got here and was only successful because if Saint Hank. Keeping any existing staff will be the reverse where people blame the retained staff and canonize the new guy.
Keeping Jake was made worse by his admission that they basically only retained his position because he didn’t want to blow up both sides of the ball.
Part of the job of HC is to have capable OC/DC.
Obviously Saban's out there seemingly able to have success with a rotating door at OC/DC, but that's extremely rare. He might be the only guy that can ever pull that off. Look at Dabo at Clemson; success isn't the same as coordinators turn over...
Our program worked for a long time with Fitz as the HC, Hank as the DC, and McCall as the OC. It worked for one final year after McCall was swapped for Bajakian with Ramsey coming in as a polished and finished product as QB.
Then the program collapsed when JON took over as DC and Ramsey left.
Those are the facts.
And yes, I agree that it might just be better to have a clean house though I think Braun's so new (along with the other new hires) that I don't think they should just be tossed out..., but obviously that's up to the next HC to decide.
It's pretty clear that Fitz doesn't see problems he doesn't want to see.
