Let's talk Wisconsin

[chariots]

If he brings us to the Rose Bowl I’ll happily eat crow, but if not he’ll have had 13 years and never brought us to the promised land... similar to (gulp) Carmody.

There's promised land and there's PROMISED LAND. In basketball several, usually 6+, Big Ten teams make it to the tournament. In football one team holds the Big Ten title.

If there was a 64 team football equivalent Fitzgerald's 2008, '12, '15 & '17 are definitely in the field and depending on how the rules/committee fill out the bubble '09, '10, '11 and '16 might also be.

I get that 13 years without a title is disappointing, but this mountain is a lot harder to climb than the one presented to Carmody.

 

[CatManTrue]

We really do not know what the budget is for assistants. Is it higher than Walker? In actual dollars yes but everything is more expensive. How does it compare with the rest of the league? And we are a higher cost of living than other schools. I mean, OSU has a couple P5 HCs working as coordinators with Million $ salaries and they were not even the ones chosen to be interim HC. Mich and PSU are likely similar. There are not many defenders for Cushing but the rest seem to be reasonably talented coaches.

Our budget should be higher if we can afford a quarter of a billion for practices.

My thanks to the passionate Daily staff: they did a fairly robust statistical analysis and found Mick to be, as expected, average:

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2018/...-mccall-coaching-staff-offensive-coordinator/

I wish they had run an analysis including Stanford as our “upper limit” comparator. But if folks wants me to back off of our OC, a championship (or a damn close finish with a ND upset) is what I want to see.

It’s particularly telling that MacPherson is the coach on our staff that BGSU is interested in for their HC vacancy. Why not Mick, who was their OC during some of their best years? Because even they’re not settling for average.

 

[gocatsgo2003]

Jeez, Wisconsin's defense is beat up:



Full article: https://madison.com/sports/college/...cle_3619b239-9a51-55e4-ad7e-59a1360edc21.html

 

[gocatsgo2003]

Our budget should be higher if we can afford a quarter of a billion for practices.

My thanks to the passionate Daily staff: they did a fairly robust statistical analysis and found Mick to be, as expected, average:

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2018/...-mccall-coaching-staff-offensive-coordinator/

I wish they had run an analysis including Stanford as our “upper limit” comparator. But if folks wants me to back off of our OC, a championship (or a damn close finish with a ND upset) is what I want to see.

It’s particularly telling that MacPherson is the coach on our staff that BGSU is interested in for their HC vacancy. Why not Mick, who was their OC during some of their best years? Because even they’re not settling for average.

Because MacPherson is very tied-in with Ohio football and vocal about his desire to be a head coach. As far as I know, Mick doesn't really have that same desire at this point in his career.

 

[GreenBayCat]

I get that 13 years without a title is disappointing, but this mountain is a lot harder to climb than the one presented to Carmody.

13 years? What about 17?

 

[CatManTrue]

There's promised land and there's PROMISED LAND. In basketball several, usually 6+, Big Ten teams make it to the tournament. In football one team holds the Big Ten title.

If there was a 64 team football equivalent Fitzgerald's 2008, '12, '15 & '17 are definitely in the field and depending on how the rules/committee fill out the bubble '09, '10, '11 and '16 might also be.

I get that 13 years without a title is disappointing, but this mountain is a lot harder to climb than the one presented to Carmody.

I’d argue that we still haven’t reached the PROMISED LAND in college basketball as that would require at least a sweet 16, elite eight, or final four appearance. It was great to make the tourney but the bar has been raised and Collins continues to try to reach it.

The only team under Fitz that came close is the 2012 team, as we were a field goal away from potentially being in the championship game. Which was also the last year that this offense / OC genuinely impressed me.

The 2008 and 2017 teams were really good but never truly in the title hunt, and our 2015 team was blown out by three out of our four decent opponents (excluding Stanford in the opener). I attended all four of those bowl games and never felt like I was watching a close-to-championship-level team. Had a lot of fun though (except for the 2016 Outback bowl... awful awful time all around).

 

[GreenBayCat]

And Kustock likely would not have been here except for Barnett

Hmmmm. Kustok was talking with Barnett, but Barnett was sprouting buffalo horns. He committed to Walker after Barnett’s transformation was complete.

 

[CatManTrue]

Because MacPherson is very tied-in with Ohio football and vocal about his desire to be a head coach. As far as I know, Mick doesn't really have that same desire at this point in his career.

I love Mac and hope he gets to the next level, but haven’t you heard of The Godfather offer? If so, why isn’t McCall getting it from his former employer to change his mind? And isn’t it concerning that our OC has no further career aspirations?

Given your expertise, any thoughts on how we could improve the offense outside of upgrading our staff?

 

[CappyNU]

The only team under Fitz that came close is the 2012 team, as we were a field goal away from potentially being in the championship game. Which was also the last year that this offense / OC genuinely impressed me.

Not coincidentally, the only year under McCall when we were top-50 nationally and top-3 B1G in scoring offense.

 

[gocatsgo2003]

I love Mac and hope he gets to the next level, but haven’t you heard of The Godfather offer? If so, why isn’t McCall getting it from his former employer to change his mind? And isn’t it concerning that our OC has no further career aspirations?

Given your expertise, any thoughts on how we could improve the offense outside of upgrading our staff?

Because McCall doesn't want to be a head coach at his age, best I can know/tell. Same idea for Hank.

No reason we can't introduce new concepts and motions into our offense with the same staff along with more aggressive playcalling without staff changes, but they haven't shown much willingness to do so.

 

[CatManTrue]

Not coincidentally, the only year under McCall when we were top-50 nationally and top-3 B1G in scoring offense.

Yup. Tied with the powerhouse Ohio University At #42, scoring 31.7 PPG. Ahead of the Hoke-led Michigag, the start-of-the-sanctioned Ped State, and the Hope-less Purdue squad.

That “3rd in the B1G” team ranking ought to have an asterisk. But hey, let’s keep giving Mick a lifetime deal. He’s sure earned it...

 

[CatManTrue]

Because McCall doesn't want to be a head coach at his age, best I can know/tell. Same idea for Hank.

No reason we can't introduce new concepts and motions into our offense with the same staff along with more aggressive playcalling without staff changes, but they haven't shown much willingness to do so.

The difference is that Hank has earned his stature by using our supposed “lesser talent” to keep churning out solid, often impressive, B1G defenses that have kept us competitive. I don’t want him to go anywhere.

Our offense is still running tired MAC schemes from the last decade. If we can’t truly compete for a title in Thorson’s 5th year after all of the games he’s won and what he’s fought to come back from, we need to make some damn upgrades or just admit that we’re happy being an average team.

 

[gocatsgo2003]

The difference is that Hank has earned his stature by using our supposed “lesser talent” to keep churning out solid, often impressive, B1G defenses that have kept us competitive. I don’t want him to go anywhere.

Our offense is still running tired MAC schemes from the last decade. If we can’t truly compete for a title in Thorson’s 5th year after all of the games he’s won and what he’s fought to come back from, we need to make some damn upgrades or just admit that we’re happy being an average team.

I'm not disagreeing with you, just giving the reason(s).

 

[CatManTrue]

I'm not disagreeing with you, just giving the reason(s).

I’m not disagreeing either. Just venting after a tough week / year...

 

[gocatsgo2003]

I’m not disagreeing either. Just venting after a tough week / year...

... and yet we are still 4-1 in the B1G and hold our own destiny in our hands. Hank's defense matches up better with pro-style offenses (i.e. Wisconsin, Notre Dame, and Iowa) as it's built largely on run fits, plus at least Wisconsin is looking very beat up on defense.

This three-game stretch is probably the most important of Fitz's career so far, but let's at least play one of those games before we freak out too much.

 

[Cats20]

The 2008 and 2017 teams were really good but never truly in the title hunt, and our 2015 team was blown out by three out of our four decent opponents (excluding Stanford in the opener). I attended all four of those bowl games and never felt like I was watching a close-to-championship-level team. Had a lot of fun though (except for the 2016 Outback bowl... awful awful time all around).

Does this team feel like a championship team though? I would say they are closer to BEING a championship team than FEELING like a championship team.

 

[CatManTrue]

... and yet we are still 4-1 in the B1G and hold our own destiny in our hands. Hank's defense matches up better with pro-style offenses (i.e. Wisconsin, Notre Dame, and Iowa) as it's built largely on run fits, plus at least Wisconsin is looking very beat up on defense.

This three-game stretch is probably the most important of Fitz's career so far, but let's at least play one of those games before we freak out too much.

If we had an above average OC, we’d be at least 5-0 (6-1 overall) with only an out-of-conference blemish to Duke barring us from perfection - and, hell’s bells, maybe we’d be undefeated if that were the case. I’m not freaking out at all (aside from my first child’s pending birth), just stating the obvious: if we don’t win a title with the talent that we have, then changes simply need to be made.

 

[CatManTrue]

Does this team feel like a championship team though? I would say they are closer to BEING a championship team than FEELING like a championship team.

Your assertion is correct: we’re closer record-wise. But if we lose our next 2 conference games we’ll again be playing for 3rd place in the West, and no closer to Indianapolis since Nebraska joined.

 

[gocatsgo2003]

If we had an above average OC, we’d be at least 5-0 (6-1 overall) with only an out-of-conference blemish to Duke barring us from perfection - and, hell’s bells, maybe we’d be undefeated if that were the case. I’m not freaking out at all (outside of my first child’s pending birth), just stating the obvious: if we don’t win a title with the talent that we have, then but changes simply need to be made.

1) You're kind of freaking out.

2) Spinning your wheels on a hypothetical probably won't help with #1.

3) The staff will have done a tremendous job if we win a title with the talent we have. Doesn't mean there's no room for improvement in that case, but we are still at a talent disadvantage compared to teams traditionally at the top of the conference (especially with Larkin's retirement).

 

[CatManTrue]

1) You're kind of freaking out.

2) Spinning your wheels on a hypothetical probably won't help with #1.

3) The staff will have done a tremendous job if we win a title with the talent we have. Doesn't mean there's no room for improvement in that case, but we are still at a talent disadvantage compared to teams traditionally at the top of the conference (especially with Larkin's retirement).

1) really, I’m not. I took a vacation day to do baby prep so have more time to post than usual. I’m really just venting what I’ve thought about this offensive staff since 2013 imploded.

2) not spinning any wheels, just stating the obvious. Michigan & Duke both adjusted quickly to our stale offensive gameplan, and we imploded against Akron who also figured us out. We could just as easily be 0-7 or 7-0 with a few different turns of the coin

3) I agree. But I am at the point where I’m tired of our average offense and we need to upgrade if we don’t win something significant this season. Just win, baby - otherwise, watch your ass.

 

[zeek55]

Your assertion is correct: we’re closer record-wise. But if we lose our next 2 conference games we’ll again be playing for 3rd place in the West, and no closer to Indianapolis since Nebraska joined.

We haven't lost anything yet, and we're still 4-1 in the hunt.

The next 3 games are the season. Wisconsin, Notre Dame, and Iowa. We've gotten to this point in control of our destiny, now it's time to see what we really have.

Forget the Akron, Duke, and Michigan games; they don't matter anymore.