Nothing is exciting on paper. You would have to have hope that a young, high energy guy who has some good experience and been successful at a lot of different things (QB coach, OC, WR coach) and multiple levels across the country.
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CU Buffs hire former Minnesota OC Mike Sanford as their new OC
- Thread starter Creebuzz
- Start date
Big Jim
WTF?
Yeah, I saw he was the OC of a team that beat UNLV. Pfft.
I guess the desire to get rid of KD fast would be manifested by hiring this dude.
Exactly. We aren’t poaching a successful OC from any P5 program. CU has to take a few risks and he seems to be extremely well thought of.He has been mentioned with other OC openings at P5 schools and a few G5 head coaching lists. For example, he was thrown on the list for the Fresno State job in the link below. Granted, that doesn’t mean much, and certainly doesn’t guarantee he’d be good as an OC, but it does show that there is smoke around him moving up the ranks. Personally, I’d rather roll the dice with an up and comer than a retread. CU is playing with house money at this point.
12 Names to Watch in Fresno State's Head Coach Search
Fresno State Football: 12 Names To Watch In The Bulldogs’ Head Coach Search Bulldogs head coach Kalen DeBoer has moved on to Washington. Who should replace him? We run down the obvious and ou…mwwire.com
I mean, who do you think CU is in the market for?
Exciting young guy with a unique offense that's hard to prepare for plus he can recruit?
Maybe he has a low ceiling, but that seems like a decent gamble to get to bowl eligibility and build from there.
Or you can have a retread.
Maybe he has a low ceiling, but that seems like a decent gamble to get to bowl eligibility and build from there.
Or you can have a retread.
His bio is every bit as attractive as Chip Kelly's was when he went to Oregon, and yes, I'm serious.
This is the type of unorthodox hire that CU (and KD) has to make right now - it's high risk, high reward.
Worst case scenario, he's Bob Stitt - a couple innovative concepts, but can't really produce at the P5 level. Best case, well, he's a young Chip Kelly.
I honestly wouldn't expect KD to have the stones to make a hire like this. I'll be even more shocked if he really does give him the keys to offense.
I hope he does.
Big Jim
WTF?
Running a triple option derivative offense will work for a few games, maybe a good chunk of a season. It isn’t going to work against Pac-12 defenses in year 2 for the most part. Recruiting to that offfense also guarantees that you are left with a much worse athlete situation than today.
Maybe coach Vlacho is starting to look a lot better.
You should know Brennan Marion and his unique GoGo offense. The smartest coaches in football already do.
How an offense marrying modern spread looks with old-school option plays is changing football.
ftw.usatoday.com
Some of Marion's concepts have been used successfully by Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma, and also by Kliff Kingsbury and Bill Belichick in the NFL
Depends on the passing game. I don't even know how that developed for him. From the sounds of it it's not an offense that passes the ball 3 times a game. Do you know what it's like or are you assuming based on the buzz words?
Coach sled was high risk, high reward (with the reward being free sleds), so more of those guys. What happened to a big splash hire RG was promoting
If Marion is the hire, I am all for it.
He is a savant and has some of the most well known (white) offensive geniuses in football literally running his plays to great success.
He has megastar potential. My only hope is that, if he’s hired, KD won’t try to reign him in or remove the innovation. Over managing a 4D thinking coach like Marion will set him up for failure.
He is a savant and has some of the most well known (white) offensive geniuses in football literally running his plays to great success.
He has megastar potential. My only hope is that, if he’s hired, KD won’t try to reign him in or remove the innovation. Over managing a 4D thinking coach like Marion will set him up for failure.
Big Jim
WTF?
I read the article in the post above yours. It doesn’t sound like much passing.
The UNLV game that was highlighted they passed the ball 1/3 of the time.
He doesn’t strike me as a guy who wants to pass the ball at a 3:1 clip. However, when he was at Howard, year one was 66:34 run : pass split. Year two was a 58:42 run : pass split. Given what he’s been a part of this year at Pitt (#4 scoring offense in all of FBS with a greater pass emphasis), he strikes me as someone who’s putting it all together in the lab.
If this is the hire, it will be a pleasant surprise because this kind of person is the kind of rock star coach who supplants the dude who hired him. It takes a very secure person to hire someone whose potential greatly exceeds yours.
So maybe do a tiny, tiny bit more research before making declarations.
2017 Football Cumulative Statistics - Howard University Athletics
The official 2017 Football cumulative statistics for the Howard University Bison
hubison.com
I literally googled "howard bison 2017 football stats" - I mean that was really, really hard work, but bottom line for his offense that season:
They averaged 215 yards/game rushing, and drum roll.... 230 yards passing. In terms of plays called over the season it was 500 rushing and 275 passes, so yes, pretty run heavy, but this isn't Air Force who literally played an entire half without throwing the ball once last week (I think they finished the game with 3 passes).
But, how did it evolve after that first year?
Year 2 at Howard:
192 yards/game rushing and 278 yards passing. Over the season, 440 rushes and 314 passes, so much closer to evenly split. (Also keep in mind that sacks = rushing plays, so there more called passes than these numbers indicate).
What about when he went to William and Mary?
Keeping in mind that everyone notes that W&M had a severe lack of talent at WR.
186 yards/game rushing & 155 yards passing. 527 rushing plays and 276 passing plays.
That year at W&M indicates to me that he, and I know we haven't seen this in, like, forever, adjusts his play calling to match the talent he has available.
Anyway - I think the bottom line is that you're reading too much into the "triple option" words, vs what he's really doing with his offense - which is blending old and new concepts in a very innovative way. Innovative enough that the best in the business are
I think the baseline here is Bob Stitt - whose play designs were also copied by the best in the business, but who never really worked out as an FBS, let alone P5, coach.
But, unlike Stitt, Marion has spent time on the sidelines at FBS and P5 schools in his early career, vs Stitt who went NAIA, DII, FCS without ever working at P5 program until late in his career when he spent one season as an analyst at Okie Lite.
I could actually really get on board with him as an OC. Young, good recruiter, some experience in P5 programs, and an experienced play caller with an innovative offense.
I'd rather take a chance on potential then hire another boring,
Big Jim
WTF?
He is a WR coach at Pitt. Outside of recruiting WR coaches have a limited impact on an offense. Pitt’s recruiting class is currently worse than CU’s so he doesn’t seem to add the value a WE coach needs to bring.
He’s not making a move to Colorado to be a WR coach. He would make the move to be OC. If they make him the OC, my guess is that he won’t also be the WR coach. I am always skeptical of a coach who isn’t an ace recruiter. But, am I willing to take a gamble on a guy who has the upside of peak Chip Kelly compared to some other retread like Langsdorf who’s also not going show out on the trail either? Yes
My bottom line is "who is CU gonna get that's better?"
Not, "who is the ideal, but totally not realistic, coach that is theoretically available?"
This is where we're at. Take a chance on a young up and comer, or find either a middling average guy who happens to be out of a job at the moment or someone who was once decent but failed their last couple stops.
Big Jim
WTF?
Chip Kelly comp? Huh?
Before Chip Kelly was the best well known offensive mind in football for several years, the dude worked at Columbia, Johns Hopkins, and New Hampshire. Bellotti took a chance on a young, innovative coach from the other side of the country and it paid off. This is Marion’s upside as the OC. Can it fail? Obviously. This would signal that they’re at least doing something to innovate by hiring a guy who’s a legit savant.
I like it, it's risky, but if he can pull it off it's big
we aren't going anywhere running some random air raid or west coast or whatever else will excite KD. Lets hope this is the new spread option or something
worst case it fails, we fire Marion and KD, and in that case we all win
we aren't going anywhere running some random air raid or west coast or whatever else will excite KD. Lets hope this is the new spread option or something
worst case it fails, we fire Marion and KD, and in that case we all win
The best case is that we win big and we forcefully nudge KD into retirement in order to promote Marion… hookers and blow return to Boulder in celebration of CU’s top 5 offense and we can be happy again.
edit: to clarify intent.
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All these comments about let's take the risk.... does anyone realize all of CU's busted hires have been high risks that failed miserably? Dan Hawkins was a "genius", MM had one decent year at San Jose State, Embree had no head coaching experience, Dorrell failed at fUCLA. This is a program that needs no nonsense, skilled football minds, not flash in pan, high risk hires. This isn't time to panic and grab whoever, with red flags - the program is close enough to the bottom already.
finnfal
Well-Known Member
Aside from Dorrell and Marion apparently 'following' each other a few days ago, what smoke are you seeing? I mean, it's Boulder, everything looks like smoke...
Wouldn't mind having that guy as a coach.
This makes no sense. Literally none of these coaches were risky hires in the sense people are talking about now. Hawkins was the hottest coach on the market. He was a fraud, ultimately, but that was a safe hire if someone most thought was a fairly known commodity. MM was exactly what we thought we were getting. A stable presence who could run a professional organization and rebuild the program from the **** show that was Embree and EB. They were definitely risks, I guess, but not in the same way. They were completely unprepared for the jobs they were hired into and they weren’t hired because they were up and coming geniuses, they were hired because they were Buffs and the opposite of Hawkins. Dorrell wasn’t a risky hire. He was what happens when the AD says **** it I don’t want to try anymore.
Does anyone know if this offense is similar to what is used at Coastal Carolina? I admit to not watching many of their games, but a ton of it is focused on deception and misdirection. The announcers said their coaches think of it as an evolution of the Triple Option along with RPO. If it's something similar here, I'd take it.So maybe do a tiny, tiny bit more research before making declarations.
2017 Football Cumulative Statistics - Howard University Athletics
The official 2017 Football cumulative statistics for the Howard University Bison
I literally googled "howard bison 2017 football stats" - I mean that was really, really hard work, but bottom line for his offense that season:
They averaged 215 yards/game rushing, and drum roll.... 230 yards passing. In terms of plays called over the season it was 500 rushing and 275 passes, so yes, pretty run heavy, but this isn't Air Force who literally played an entire half without throwing the ball once last week (I think they finished the game with 3 passes).
But, how did it evolve after that first year?
Year 2 at Howard:
192 yards/game rushing and 278 yards passing. Over the season, 440 rushes and 314 passes, so much closer to evenly split. (Also keep in mind that sacks = rushing plays, so there more called passes than these numbers indicate).
What about when he went to William and Mary?
Keeping in mind that everyone notes that W&M had a severe lack of talent at WR.
186 yards/game rushing & 155 yards passing. 527 rushing plays and 276 passing plays.
That year at W&M indicates to me that he, and I know we haven't seen this in, like, forever, adjusts his play calling to match the talent he has available.
Anyway - I think the bottom line is that you're reading too much into the "triple option" words, vs what he's really doing with his offense - which is blending old and new concepts in a very innovative way. Innovative enough that the best in the business arestealingcopying his play designs.
I think the baseline here is Bob Stitt - whose play designs were also copied by the best in the business, but who never really worked out as an FBS, let alone P5, coach.
But, unlike Stitt, Marion has spent time on the sidelines at FBS and P5 schools in his early career, vs Stitt who went NAIA, DII, FCS without ever working at P5 program until late in his career when he spent one season as an analyst at Okie Lite.
I could actually really get on board with him as an OC. Young, good recruiter, some experience in P5 programs, and an experienced play caller with an innovative offense.
I'd rather take a chance on potential then hire another boring,old"experienced" guy that's either been passed over for real promotions half a dozen times or who has a long history of being average.
Pitt is in the ACC championship game on Saturday, so if this is the guy, we could hear something as soon as Sunday.
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