I posted this idea on the rock...

[Eurocat]

I tend not to post the same thing on both boards, but exceptional times call for....


The question becomes, is any of the current staff retained moving forward. If they believed the head coach knew they would imply that the assistants knew as well.

Here is what I would have some serious consideration to for the upcoming season.

It will be difficult to find a decent person with experience at this late hour, plus assistant coaches coming into this mess, why not approach an USFL or XFL team and hiring the entire staff as a whole for a season. The coaches are already familiar with each other, so the issue of going out and interviewing and hiring is out. It is not a state school so you wouldn't need to follow job posting rules.

Those leagues in general used coaches with some level of experience already, so you are not doing on the job training.

This buys the school the entire season to find the right person.

I would love for Skip Holtz (USFL - Birmingham) to be our new head coach. Very entertaining offenses, he ran at all his stops but also good defenses.

 

[ashley0623]

I hope we hire an actual head coach as the 1-year interim and don't just throw the poor FCS coordinator to the wolves.

 

[GlideCat]

I tend not to post the same thing on both boards, but exceptional times call for....


The question becomes, is any of the current staff retained moving forward. If they believed the head coach knew they would imply that the assistants knew as well.

Here is what I would have some serious consideration to for the upcoming season.

It will be difficult to find a decent person with experience at this late hour, plus assistant coaches coming into this mess, why not approach an USFL or XFL team and hiring the entire staff as a whole for a season. The coaches are already familiar with each other, so the issue of going out and interviewing and hiring is out. It is not a state school so you wouldn't need to follow job posting rules.

Those leagues in general used coaches with some level of experience already, so you are not doing on the job training.

This buys the school the entire season to find the right person.

I would love for Skip Holtz (USFL - Birmingham) to be our new head coach. Very entertaining offenses, he ran at all his stops but also good defenses.

Very logical and a good idea. And I would especially love it if Birmingham's quarterback (McGough) came with the deal. But that would be an amazing amount of stuff for the players to learn in the short pre-season practice schedule. 100% new schemes on both sides of the ball. Or the coaches would have to go sleepless going through tape and playbooks trying to make schemes which balance what the players know now against what the coaches want to do. Especially on defense where they just started learning a anew gameplan and this would be another one.

Tall order but that may just be where we are.

 

[Eurocat]

Thenk for this year its "Keep it simple stupid". Don't the All Star Games and Pro Bowl games each year involve players learning a system in a week?

 

[GlideCat]

Thenk for this year its "Keep it simple stupid". Don't the All Star Games and Pro Bowl games each year involve players learning a system in a week?

The Pro Bowl is kind of a joke but your point about the All Star games is well made. But in an All Star game, you are playing another team that also had to get ready in a week. We are playing teams that have been working together for years. And we lost to all of them but one last year. That is the bind we are in.

 

[Eurocat]

Good point. But still I don't think it is quite as tough as you make it out to be. Didn't Walker and Wilson install their offense just in summer ball? I think I remember reading that it was not added in to the spring practice back then so it was something that was taught just over summer training.

 

[GlideCat]

Good point. But still I don't think it is quite as tough as you make it out to be. Didn't Walker and Wilson install their offense just in summer ball? I think I remember reading that it was not added in to the spring practice back then so it was something that was taught just over summer training.

I hope you are right and I appreciate a constructive solution being put forward. I am just kind of overwhelmed with pessimism right now. It will pass.

 

[zeek55]

Thankfully we have new guys on the staff that are clean and untouched by this scandal.

Braun hire looks like a godsend in that respect. But obviously, it'll be hard for him in his first role at this level coming with this kind of scrutiny and in this kind of horrible situation.

An emergency HC hire would be a miracle but hard to see on July 10 unless something changes in a big way...

Do we trust Schill and Gragg to be able to pull that off?

 

[Eurocat]

Especially on defense where they just started learning a anew gameplan and this would be another one.

So keep the DC who remains as I understand "untainted" and the new DL coach (forgetting his name). Everyone else can come along with whomever we pick. I would love to see long time SEC DC John Chavis come over from the USFL too, but I can see why you would keep coach Braun. He seems to have done nothing wrong and only good things have been said about him since he arrived as far as I know.

 

[GlideCat]

So keep the DC who remains as I understand "untainted" and the new DL coach (forgetting his name). Everyone else can come along with whomever we pick. I would love to see long time SEC DC John Chavis come over from the USFL too, but I can see why you would keep coach Braun. He seems to have done nothing wrong and only good things have been said about him since he arrived as far as I know.

If we were going to grab a DC from the USFL, I would look at the one from Pittsburg, Jarren Horton. He put together a monster defense and was a great defensive play caller. And he is young.

 

[Eurocat]

Yeah, the Pitt Defense was rock solid as was the defense of San Antonio in the XFL which was coordinated by long time Michigan DC Jim Herrmann, so that is one avenue to consider as well I suppose.

 

[NUera]

The Pro Bowl is kind of a joke but your point about the All Star games is well made. But in an All Star game, you are playing another team that also had to get ready in a week. We are playing teams that have been working together for years. And we lost to all of them but one last year. That is the bind we are in.

Also teams are only allowed to play a certain way usually. In the senior bowl offensive lines can only block about the waist, no shifting, no unbalanced formations. Defensively only four rushers allowed, no 5-man pressures or blitzes from secondary permitted. There’s more but this just gives you a sense of how artificial those games are and how it doesn’t really apply to this situation - if we did the All Star game thing we’d be woefully unprepared for what opposing teams bring.

 

[Eurocat]

Good point as well. Still it seems the best way to go forward to me.

 

[ricko654321]

Thankfully we have new guys on the staff that are clean and untouched by this scandal.

Braun hire looks like a godsend in that respect. But obviously, it'll be hard for him in his first role at this level coming with this kind of scrutiny and in this kind of horrible situation.

An emergency HC hire would be a miracle but hard to see on July 10 unless something changes in a big way...

Do we trust Schill and Gragg to be able to pull that off?

I have a question - at this point, does anyone honestly even care what our record on the field is this upcoming season? I mean it would be nice if we aren’t 0-12 but I can’t say it makes much of a difference to me. Figuring out how to sort through this disaster and get the right leadership in place for the university and AD (and student leadership!) over the medium to long term seem far more important than whether we win any games in the 2023 season. That is basically the last thing I care about right now, this season is a lost cause. I don’t have any issue at all with the likely many players that will transfer, decommit, opt out whatever following this. They are probably smart. Frankly giving the program a year off to sort this whole mess out doesn’t seem like the worst idea, but I guess with B1G TV contracts and all that it’s not an option. Plus then I guess we’d lose even more players.

 

[zeek55]

I have a question - at this point, does anyone honestly even care what our record on the field is this upcoming season? I mean it would be nice if we aren’t 0-12 but I can’t say it makes much of a difference to me. Figuring out how to sort through this disaster and get the right leadership in place for the university and AD (and student leadership!) over the medium to long term seem far more important than whether we win any games in the 2023 season. That is basically the last thing I care about right now, this season is a lost cause. I don’t have any issue at all with the likely many players that will transfer, decommit, opt out whatever following this. They are probably smart. Frankly giving the program a year off to sort this whole mess out doesn’t seem like the worst idea, but I guess with B1G TV contracts and all that it’s not an option. Plus then I guess we’d lose even more players.

You're right, I think a lot of thoughts that many of us had were "in the moment" last night. 24 hours of reflection makes clear the abyss that we're in for the next few years and that getting out will require a lot of rebuilding of the staff/team over time.

To me, the only short-term thing that would be nice to somehow save would be the stadium rebuild. That's the equivalent of sending the team away for 2 years during this Dark Age anyhow and we'd at least come out of it with something to look forward to, a new beginning of sorts on the other side.

But is the leadership up to the task? Do the donors see that as a possibility or care with this Fitz firing?

 

[ricko654321]

You're right, I think a lot of thoughts that many of us had were "in the moment" last night. 24 hours of reflection makes clear the abyss that we're in for the next few years and that getting out will require a lot of rebuilding of the staff/team over time.

To me, the only short-term thing that would be nice to somehow save would be the stadium rebuild. That's the equivalent of sending the team away for 2 years during this Dark Age anyhow and we'd at least come out of it with something to look forward to, a new beginning of sorts on the other side.

But is the leadership up to the task? Do the donors see that as a possibility or care with this Fitz firing?

Yeah totally fair. It’s been a weird and distressing few days. Re the stadium renovation, my suspicion is that it’s on the rocks for now. But it mainly depends on one person, we all know who. And I doubt he’s going to make a public statement of any kind. We will figure out quietly and indirectly over time what his thoughts are, via his actions (ie checkbook).

 

[Jaguar 88]

The stadium project should be shelved until the program rights itself. Facilities do not bring in kids, even the Maryland coach said that. NU has a state of the art practice facility that rivals the Woody Hayes Center in Columbus, but we can't snag anything more than middle to lower tier 3 star recruits. Why waste money on a stadium that will only be a third full, if that. Any money should be spent on getting a real HC and assistants. Fitzgerald obviously has been out to lunch for the past few seasons.