I would not and did not see Shurmer, as truly involved until Sean Lewis's system was already in. I thought Shurmer joined the team later, maybe after fall practices started. It is not even clear Shurmer participated in the initial Oline evals. Analyst, not on the field.
Same thing with Bill O'Boyle (SL's guy from Kent State). I would not envision Shurmer stepping in/on BOB's toes until the season was well underway and then not going well (basically, the date of the demotion), although Shurmer has way more high level Oline experience than BOB. My bottom line is SL/BOB and then Prime (perhaps buying into reports from SL/BOB) severely over-estimated the Oline talent last year, plus the depth was just razor thin/non-existent. The Oline had no plan B, with or without injuries. IMO, once the film got out and CU's line woes were exposed, the offense was basically exposed and put in a box. That is what film and good defensive coaches do. Also, you can only coach up players so much.
Outside of the struggling offense, last season my biggest tell was actually the Dline. The 1st 6 games or so, they made very few plays up front, Juju Lewis was the highlight of the ASU win. As the season progressed I thought the DLine guys actually played/improved incremntally better (not saying they were great) and made more plays ending with a decent showing at Utah. Jordan Domenick had highlights, as did others. In hindsight, I don't think they got better in Spring or Fall ball going against CU's Oline, rather the Dline started short-changed and had to catch up via in-game match-ups.
No doubt, SL and Prime appeared to be a fit early on, however they were not a fit in the end. I said it last year, before and when SL departed: "I'm not sure SL played well in the sandbox with others (i.e. the other coaches/analysts)." Tough because SL had a great background and potential landing on his feet taking BOB with him. No reason for Prime not to give him ample leash last year. Arriving at CU, SL was a successful HC (G-5) with a great offense however that did not translate into P-4 offense going against P-4 defenders with a weak Oline. I really think they over-estimated what a P-4 Oline should look like. It is about impossible to adjust when your talent in the trenches is exposed.
I suppose posters can rip on Shurmer for his NFL follies or worry about uncertaintly, however it is not like anyone could have even stepped even during the bye week, ripped up the playbook, and come anywhere close to installing a drastically different offense which worked around those exposed Oline deficiencies. Also, although DE and others were good/servicable backs, it is not like we had the gamebreaker that we envisioned McCaskill to be.
