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New CU quarterbacks coach Kurt Roper – Thumbs up or Thumbs down?
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Kurt Roper was introduced this week as the new quarterbacks coach at Colorado. Though only 45 years old, Roper already has 22 years of coaching experience under his belt, including eight seasons as an offensive coordinator. Roper has a history with CU head coach Mike MacIntyre, coaching along side MacIntyre at both Ole Miss and Duke.
“Kurt brings a tremendous amount of quarterback coaching experience and has tutored some of the great ones like Eli Manning at Ole Miss and Thaddeus Lewis at Duke,” MacIntyre said. “He has great offensive knowledge and we are extremely excited to have a coach of his caliber on our staff to work with our quarterbacks.”
As you would expect, Roper had nothing but good things to say about his new employer.
“My family and I are excited about coming to the University of Colorado,” said Roper. “We are excited about the opportunity to compete for championships with the Buffaloes. Getting back with coach MacIntyre is obviously really appealing, we have a great relationship, have spent a lot of time together and I know how talented and how hard he works at putting together great teams. I am really looking forward to being a part of this group.”
It’s always sunshine and roses at the beginning of a relationship, but how will Roper work out at Colorado?
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The resume
Glass half-full, or glass half-empty?
Roper previously served as an offensive coordinator for two SEC programs and another in the ACC. He most recently was the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at South Carolina for the past two seasons and earlier in his career had worked with MacIntyre for six years when the two were coaching together at Mississippi (1999-02) and Duke (2008-09).
Roper’s coaching history:
2016-17 – South Carolina – Co-Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
2015 – Cleveland Browns – Senior Offensive assistant
2014 – Florida – Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
2008-13 – Duke – Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
2006-07 – Tennessee – Running Backs
2005 – Kentucky – Quarterbacks
1999-2004 – Ole Miss – Quarterbacks
1996-98 – Tennessee – Graduate Assistant
How has Roper fared in these jobs?
You will hear a great deal this off-season about how Roper tutored All-America signal-caller Eli Manning, the 2003 SEC Player of the Year and No. 1 overall pick of the 2004 NFL Draft, during his six-years as the quarterbacks coach at Ole Miss (1999-04).
Another one of his quarterbacks, Thaddeus Lewis at Duke, spent six years in the NFL after a record-breaking career in Roper’s offense at Duke where he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2008-13.
But … the offenses Roper coached were rarely in the top half of their respective conferences.
This past season, South Carolina was 108th in total offense; 99th in scoring offense, 12th in the SEC in both categories. Those numbers, while less than appealing, were a slight improvement from 2016, when the Gamecocks finished last in the SEC in total offense, and 13th in scoring.
The lack of offensive production (though South Carolina did post an 8-4 record) led to the firing of Roper by South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp.
“After much deliberation, I have decided to go in a different direction with the offensive coordinator position on our football team,” Muschamp announced in a statement on December 5th. “We appreciate Kurt’s contributions to our program and to the University and wish him all the best.”
The timing of the announcement was odd, as South Carolina still had a bowl game to prepare for when Roper was let go. According to an ESPN story, though, Roper was among the top candidates for the head-coaching vacancy at Rice, his alma mater. That flirtation may have led to Roper’s before-the-end-of-season exit.
So, excited that CU is getting a position coach who had a coaching resume which almost got him a head coaching position at an FBS program?
Or concerned over the lack of productive numbers from his offenses the past few seasons?
Depends on your perspective …
–
Recruiting
The lifeblood of a college football program is recruiting.
If the assistant coaches are able recruiters, the team has a chance at success. If the coaches can’t recruit, they will ultimately be looking for employment elsewhere.
What does Kurt Roper bring to the table?
According to his recruiting resume at 247Sports, Roper has brought in five four-star quarterback recruits in his years as an assistant coach. Included on the list is Dakereon Joyner, the 10th-ranked dual threat quarterback in the nation, who signed on with South Carolina in December.
A clear detriment to Roper coming to Colorado is his lack of connections in the western half of the United States. Roper has coached exclusively east of the Mississippi in his career, and, while being a veteran of take-no-prisoners recruiting world of the SEC, Roper will have to start over in Boulder.
For his part, Roper sees his stint at Duke, where recruiting opportunities were limited due to Duke’s high admission standards, as a great learning opportunity. “I think working at Duke has helped me for any job going forward,” Roper said. “What it taught me is there’s enough good football players out there that are good students that you don’t have to sacrifice or compromise any of your values in recruiting. I think that’s what Duke taught me. I think you go out here and find good players that work hard that are good students and you go try to win games.”
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The situation
It’s unusual for a team to have a coach designated just for the quarterback position.
In 2017, there was only one coach in the Pac-12, Stanford’s Tavita Pritchard, whose sole title was that of quarterbacks coach. Across most of the conference (including Colorado), the quarterbacks coach also was the offensive coordinator, while at a few schools the head coach took care of the quarterbacks.
In 2018, Colorado will have co-offensive coordinators, with Darrin Chiaverini (who also coaches the wide receivers) and Klayton Adams (who also coaches the offensive line). Between the pair, there is one year (Chiaverini last season) of offensive coordinator experience.
Enter Kurt Roper, a position coach who has eight years as an offensive coordinator experience under his belt, who will be subordinate to Chiaverini and Adams.
How is that going to work?
Several proverbs come to mind, like “too many cooks spoil the broth” and “too many chiefs, not enough Indians”.
A few days into the relationship, it’s all sweetness and light …
“I’m looking forward to working with (co-coordinators) Klayton (Adams) and Darrin (Chiaverini),” Roper said. “They’re going to set the philosophy and I’m going to coach the quarterbacks to my best ability to that philosophy. I’m looking forward to sitting down with them and talking football and learning the system and then passing it on to the players.”
“I can tell right away we’ll mesh well together,” Chiaverini told the Daily Camera. “I told (head coach Mike MacIntyre) that during the interview process. I really like his personality. I think it meshes well with our room. You can tell he’s a good guy and I’m excited about that. In this business you work a lot of long days, a lot of long hours and you want to be around good people and you can tell he’s a good guy.”
Through into that mix the fact that Roper and head coach Mike MacIntyre have a long history together, with both being on David Cutliffe staffs at both Ole Miss and Duke.
“Anytime you can work with somebody that you know and have a close relationship with, that’s a beneficial situation,” Roper said. “I really believe Mike is one of the best football coaches I’ve ever been around. He’s intense, he’s intelligent, he works at it, and because of that it gives you a chance to win football games. Any football coach wants to win. That’s the number one goal. I’m coming into a situation that I have some familiarity with, with Mike, and obviously a chance to win championships — and that’s what you want.”
So, when there is a conflict in philosophy, or the use of a certain player, or the preparation of a game plan … who wins out?
The two newly appointed co-offensive coordinators … or the head coach and his longtime friend, who is supposed to just be the position coach in the room?
Will it lead to an enhanced offense … or a debacle?
“I think it’s great,” Chiaverini said. “I can bounce ideas off of him. He’s seen good days and bad days as a play-caller, so he knows what things work, what things might not work.
“The more input you can have during the week and formulate the plan (the better) and then Saturday you have to go out and execute it and I’ve got to be the one that calls it and do a good job doing that.”
Cross your fingers …
—
Bottom Line
Buff fans are still lamenting the loss of defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt, who left for greener pastures in Oregon.
What Buff fans tend to forget is that Colorado was lucky to get Leavitt in the first place.
Recall that Leavitt was on the outs in college football, having been fired by South Florida after a school investigation concluded he grabbed one of his players by the throat, slapped him in the face and then lied about it.
Leavitt was languishing as a position coach for the San Francisco 49ers when a marriage of convenience came to pass – CU needed a defensive coordinator; Leavitt needed a place to restore his reputation.
When Leavitt got back into the good graces of the college football world by helping to turn around the CU defense, he left for the next opportunity (and he will leave Oregon as well, when given the chance (Jim Leavitt tweet during the Willie Taggart to Florida State saga: “Always been honest. Never have I mislead. Have great passion for the Ducks! Want to be a HC someday again Lord willing“).
The Leavitt lesson is that Colorado has to take some chances when it comes to coaching hires. There is not a parade of well-known assistant coaches with unblemished resumes beating down the doors of the Champions Center.
The reality is that, if Roper is successful, and raises Steven Montez (or Tyler Lytle … or Sam Noyer … or Blake Stenstrom) to All-Pac-12 status, he will likely be offered another chance at being offensive coordinator (or even head coach) elsewhere.
In the meantime, Buff fans can only hope that this latest marriage of convenience – with Kurt Roper taking a demotion to position coach – works out for the team in general and the quarterbacks in particular.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with what Kurt Roper said during his first week on the job:
“You have to help quarterbacks be mentally tough and the way you help them be mentally tough is you teach them how to make decisions and then you back them up when they make those decisions,” Roper said. “You have to help them grow as a quarterback and a leader. What I tell quarterbacks all the time is that when you choose to play this position, you haven’t chosen a position — you’ve chosen a lifestyle. You have to live the right way.”
Sounds great .. we’ll see how it plays out on the practice fields and meeting rooms.
I’ll leave you with this last bit of positive karma for Kurt Roper.
If you are old enough, you may remember a sit-com called “Three’s Company“. John Ritter starred in what would now be a politically incorrect set up of a young man pretending to be gay so that he could live with two other women in the same apartment.
Colorado had two co-offensive coordinators. With the addition of Kurt Roper, the Buffs now realistically have three.
Two’s company, three’s a crowd? CU fans certainly hope that’s not the case.
Oh, and the karma reference between Kurt Roper and “Three’s Company“?
The threesomes landlords in the sit-com?
The Ropers …
–
—–
Stuart
Continue reading...
New CU quarterbacks coach Kurt Roper – Thumbs up or Thumbs down?
—
Kurt Roper was introduced this week as the new quarterbacks coach at Colorado. Though only 45 years old, Roper already has 22 years of coaching experience under his belt, including eight seasons as an offensive coordinator. Roper has a history with CU head coach Mike MacIntyre, coaching along side MacIntyre at both Ole Miss and Duke.
“Kurt brings a tremendous amount of quarterback coaching experience and has tutored some of the great ones like Eli Manning at Ole Miss and Thaddeus Lewis at Duke,” MacIntyre said. “He has great offensive knowledge and we are extremely excited to have a coach of his caliber on our staff to work with our quarterbacks.”
As you would expect, Roper had nothing but good things to say about his new employer.
“My family and I are excited about coming to the University of Colorado,” said Roper. “We are excited about the opportunity to compete for championships with the Buffaloes. Getting back with coach MacIntyre is obviously really appealing, we have a great relationship, have spent a lot of time together and I know how talented and how hard he works at putting together great teams. I am really looking forward to being a part of this group.”
It’s always sunshine and roses at the beginning of a relationship, but how will Roper work out at Colorado?
—
The resume
Glass half-full, or glass half-empty?
Roper previously served as an offensive coordinator for two SEC programs and another in the ACC. He most recently was the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at South Carolina for the past two seasons and earlier in his career had worked with MacIntyre for six years when the two were coaching together at Mississippi (1999-02) and Duke (2008-09).
Roper’s coaching history:
2016-17 – South Carolina – Co-Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
2015 – Cleveland Browns – Senior Offensive assistant
2014 – Florida – Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
2008-13 – Duke – Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
2006-07 – Tennessee – Running Backs
2005 – Kentucky – Quarterbacks
1999-2004 – Ole Miss – Quarterbacks
1996-98 – Tennessee – Graduate Assistant
How has Roper fared in these jobs?
You will hear a great deal this off-season about how Roper tutored All-America signal-caller Eli Manning, the 2003 SEC Player of the Year and No. 1 overall pick of the 2004 NFL Draft, during his six-years as the quarterbacks coach at Ole Miss (1999-04).
Another one of his quarterbacks, Thaddeus Lewis at Duke, spent six years in the NFL after a record-breaking career in Roper’s offense at Duke where he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2008-13.
But … the offenses Roper coached were rarely in the top half of their respective conferences.
This past season, South Carolina was 108th in total offense; 99th in scoring offense, 12th in the SEC in both categories. Those numbers, while less than appealing, were a slight improvement from 2016, when the Gamecocks finished last in the SEC in total offense, and 13th in scoring.
The lack of offensive production (though South Carolina did post an 8-4 record) led to the firing of Roper by South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp.
“After much deliberation, I have decided to go in a different direction with the offensive coordinator position on our football team,” Muschamp announced in a statement on December 5th. “We appreciate Kurt’s contributions to our program and to the University and wish him all the best.”
The timing of the announcement was odd, as South Carolina still had a bowl game to prepare for when Roper was let go. According to an ESPN story, though, Roper was among the top candidates for the head-coaching vacancy at Rice, his alma mater. That flirtation may have led to Roper’s before-the-end-of-season exit.
So, excited that CU is getting a position coach who had a coaching resume which almost got him a head coaching position at an FBS program?
Or concerned over the lack of productive numbers from his offenses the past few seasons?
Depends on your perspective …
–
Recruiting
The lifeblood of a college football program is recruiting.
If the assistant coaches are able recruiters, the team has a chance at success. If the coaches can’t recruit, they will ultimately be looking for employment elsewhere.
What does Kurt Roper bring to the table?
According to his recruiting resume at 247Sports, Roper has brought in five four-star quarterback recruits in his years as an assistant coach. Included on the list is Dakereon Joyner, the 10th-ranked dual threat quarterback in the nation, who signed on with South Carolina in December.
A clear detriment to Roper coming to Colorado is his lack of connections in the western half of the United States. Roper has coached exclusively east of the Mississippi in his career, and, while being a veteran of take-no-prisoners recruiting world of the SEC, Roper will have to start over in Boulder.
For his part, Roper sees his stint at Duke, where recruiting opportunities were limited due to Duke’s high admission standards, as a great learning opportunity. “I think working at Duke has helped me for any job going forward,” Roper said. “What it taught me is there’s enough good football players out there that are good students that you don’t have to sacrifice or compromise any of your values in recruiting. I think that’s what Duke taught me. I think you go out here and find good players that work hard that are good students and you go try to win games.”
—
The situation
It’s unusual for a team to have a coach designated just for the quarterback position.
In 2017, there was only one coach in the Pac-12, Stanford’s Tavita Pritchard, whose sole title was that of quarterbacks coach. Across most of the conference (including Colorado), the quarterbacks coach also was the offensive coordinator, while at a few schools the head coach took care of the quarterbacks.
In 2018, Colorado will have co-offensive coordinators, with Darrin Chiaverini (who also coaches the wide receivers) and Klayton Adams (who also coaches the offensive line). Between the pair, there is one year (Chiaverini last season) of offensive coordinator experience.
Enter Kurt Roper, a position coach who has eight years as an offensive coordinator experience under his belt, who will be subordinate to Chiaverini and Adams.
How is that going to work?
Several proverbs come to mind, like “too many cooks spoil the broth” and “too many chiefs, not enough Indians”.
A few days into the relationship, it’s all sweetness and light …
“I’m looking forward to working with (co-coordinators) Klayton (Adams) and Darrin (Chiaverini),” Roper said. “They’re going to set the philosophy and I’m going to coach the quarterbacks to my best ability to that philosophy. I’m looking forward to sitting down with them and talking football and learning the system and then passing it on to the players.”
“I can tell right away we’ll mesh well together,” Chiaverini told the Daily Camera. “I told (head coach Mike MacIntyre) that during the interview process. I really like his personality. I think it meshes well with our room. You can tell he’s a good guy and I’m excited about that. In this business you work a lot of long days, a lot of long hours and you want to be around good people and you can tell he’s a good guy.”
Through into that mix the fact that Roper and head coach Mike MacIntyre have a long history together, with both being on David Cutliffe staffs at both Ole Miss and Duke.
“Anytime you can work with somebody that you know and have a close relationship with, that’s a beneficial situation,” Roper said. “I really believe Mike is one of the best football coaches I’ve ever been around. He’s intense, he’s intelligent, he works at it, and because of that it gives you a chance to win football games. Any football coach wants to win. That’s the number one goal. I’m coming into a situation that I have some familiarity with, with Mike, and obviously a chance to win championships — and that’s what you want.”
So, when there is a conflict in philosophy, or the use of a certain player, or the preparation of a game plan … who wins out?
The two newly appointed co-offensive coordinators … or the head coach and his longtime friend, who is supposed to just be the position coach in the room?
Will it lead to an enhanced offense … or a debacle?
“I think it’s great,” Chiaverini said. “I can bounce ideas off of him. He’s seen good days and bad days as a play-caller, so he knows what things work, what things might not work.
“The more input you can have during the week and formulate the plan (the better) and then Saturday you have to go out and execute it and I’ve got to be the one that calls it and do a good job doing that.”
Cross your fingers …
—
Bottom Line
Buff fans are still lamenting the loss of defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt, who left for greener pastures in Oregon.
What Buff fans tend to forget is that Colorado was lucky to get Leavitt in the first place.
Recall that Leavitt was on the outs in college football, having been fired by South Florida after a school investigation concluded he grabbed one of his players by the throat, slapped him in the face and then lied about it.
Leavitt was languishing as a position coach for the San Francisco 49ers when a marriage of convenience came to pass – CU needed a defensive coordinator; Leavitt needed a place to restore his reputation.
When Leavitt got back into the good graces of the college football world by helping to turn around the CU defense, he left for the next opportunity (and he will leave Oregon as well, when given the chance (Jim Leavitt tweet during the Willie Taggart to Florida State saga: “Always been honest. Never have I mislead. Have great passion for the Ducks! Want to be a HC someday again Lord willing“).
The Leavitt lesson is that Colorado has to take some chances when it comes to coaching hires. There is not a parade of well-known assistant coaches with unblemished resumes beating down the doors of the Champions Center.
The reality is that, if Roper is successful, and raises Steven Montez (or Tyler Lytle … or Sam Noyer … or Blake Stenstrom) to All-Pac-12 status, he will likely be offered another chance at being offensive coordinator (or even head coach) elsewhere.
In the meantime, Buff fans can only hope that this latest marriage of convenience – with Kurt Roper taking a demotion to position coach – works out for the team in general and the quarterbacks in particular.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with what Kurt Roper said during his first week on the job:
“You have to help quarterbacks be mentally tough and the way you help them be mentally tough is you teach them how to make decisions and then you back them up when they make those decisions,” Roper said. “You have to help them grow as a quarterback and a leader. What I tell quarterbacks all the time is that when you choose to play this position, you haven’t chosen a position — you’ve chosen a lifestyle. You have to live the right way.”
Sounds great .. we’ll see how it plays out on the practice fields and meeting rooms.
I’ll leave you with this last bit of positive karma for Kurt Roper.
If you are old enough, you may remember a sit-com called “Three’s Company“. John Ritter starred in what would now be a politically incorrect set up of a young man pretending to be gay so that he could live with two other women in the same apartment.
Colorado had two co-offensive coordinators. With the addition of Kurt Roper, the Buffs now realistically have three.
Two’s company, three’s a crowd? CU fans certainly hope that’s not the case.
Oh, and the karma reference between Kurt Roper and “Three’s Company“?
The threesomes landlords in the sit-com?
The Ropers …
–
—–
Stuart
Continue reading...