Tyson Helton Out:The Offseason Offensive Coordinator Thread

He interviewed three guys and all three ended up fired after the 2008 season.

 

I strongly disagree. That 2013 offense doesn't even loosely resemble this one.

 

Again, Clawson failed, but it wasn't because he lacked competence as an OC. It was because Fulmer didn't allow him to be good.

 

Eh. I know Phil didn’t help things with his “marriage” of the two offenses, but Clawson effed up pretty bad here. He’s been bad his first year other places, so he might have eventually been good. I don’t think it was Phil asking Crompton to throw 67 times against UCLA when Hardesty and Foster were averaging like 8ypc. Also, he was QB coach and all three of those guys were hot shit and then managed to be decent with other coaches.

 

I'm not arguing that he was good here. The offense was obviously a disaster. But Fulmer never had great offenses without Cut. Even when we were super talented, the offenses were very klunckly sans Cut. So, it's just tough to pass judgment on whether Clawson was competent based on that season.

He has done pretty well as an HC. Really well at Bowling Green, and respectable at Wake (he's still there, fwiw).

 

That 2013 offense had:

- A freak athlete in Nick Marshall who while not a great quarterback had all the arm strength you could need and enough accuracy to get by as a passer when paired with his running ability.
- 3 NFL running backs
- 3 NFL receivers
-an NFL tight end
-an NFL fullback
-two NFL offensive lineman and two more who were really, really good, just not quite NFL caliber

That’s the main difference. They don’t have that kind of talent now (though the receivers do have a lot of potential).

 

I’m familiar with his successful offenses elsewhere.


You said his failure was because of Fulmer. I’d say that’s at best a half truth. He had three pretty solid QBs and got jack shit out of them. His playcalling was awful. His flipping of offensive linemen was a joke and other teams have said they knew what we were doing based on just OL alignment. Phil or no, he was going to be a disaster in 2008. Maybe if he got his QB in here and trained him from the getgo he could have moved the ball a little, but that wasn’t going to be the case in year one.

 

I got a MAGA hat at Trump Tower. It's not signed.

 

Not unfair.

Well, except for the part about Crompton. I contend he was a bad quarterback that Kiffin figured out how to partially salvage, and not a good qb that was squandered by Clawson or others.

 

If you're telling me the 2013 offense was attempting to do the same things as this year's version, I'm sorry but I don't agree.

 

I mean it’s not the exact same but it’s not far off. Main differences:

-Stidham can’t run so there goes the read option
-They attempt the deep balls like they did to Coates in 2013 but Darius Slayton doesn’t catch them
-They still run jet sweep but it doesn’t work as well, largely because coaches have learned to stop it (Pruitt wrote the book on stopping it)
-Power run game is attempted but doesn’t work because this offensive line can’t block it
-They were never running hurry up as much as you’d think based on how the media talked about it but they can’t do that either because they’d just be hurrying up into 3 and puts a la Butch Jones’s Tennessee offenses

Off the top of my head the only thing they do a ton of now that they weren’t in 2013 is running a shit ton of smoke draws and having screens comprise a much larger percentage of the passing game. Both largely because the offensive line sucks donkey balls. They don’t do the orbit motion as much anymore either, which again is because the line can’t protect and that was sort of a gimmick to begin with that isn’t going to work if there’s no run threat.

 

The quoted portion is a fairly significant difference.

 

I think it’s important to note that Gus’s preferred offense is the 2009, 2016 and 2017 version. The read option offense of 2013 is not what he wanted to do but rather what he had to with Marshall’s skill set, and that’s backed up by the fact that they pulled back on the read option with Marshall in 2014*.

Is Gus an idiot for going away from what he made his bones doing? Yes, he absolutely is.

 

2015 Boise State - With a true freshman QB true sophomore RB
15th total yards
15th ppg
81st turnovers

2016 NC State
63rd total yards
77th ppg
62nd turnovers

2017 NC State
25th total yards
40th ppg
13th turnovers

2018 NC State
28th total yards
35th ppg
28th turnovers

Some pretty good numbers. I'm OK with a pass heavy offense if it's effective. Has had a 1,000+ rusher every year though. Leading rusher is 206 yards away from 1k this year (Their game against WVU got cancelled, so they have ECU coming up and the bowl game).

 

Cam Newtons don't grow on trees. Nick Marshalls sort of do. So, yeah, I'd say it's stupid that he got away from the '13 version.

 

I wouldn’t mind the Dan Enos and Jalen Hurts package coming to Knoxville

 

Would take that in a heartbeat. And not just because I’m anti-Freeze

 

About as likely as Chaney/Pittman imo...

 

So reports are Lindsey is staying at Auburn, Enos likely getting a promotion...that leaves us with Freeze or Drinkwitz?

 

I don't think Chaney is that unlikely. I'd love to find a place for Pittman here.

And UT is still quiet. One possibility is that they were waiting for the SECCG to end to talk to someone.