Dino Babers

[BGWriter]

I was there as well. Extremely short, and I was disappointed with that. He didn't really say anything interesting, didn't introduce his family (who was sitting right there), and didn't really address anything. To me, it signals that he's only taking this job to get HC experience in FBS so he can move elsewhere quickly (Urban Meyer). To me, this was a bad hire because he's going to change our offense to something insane and then bolt, and we'll be left with a ton of receivers, no viable tight ends, and linemen that can only pass block. Studrawa would have been the MUCH better choice in my opinion.

He's going to change our offense to the cutting edge of what is dominating college football. How is that a BAD thing? And if you think they'll only know how to pass block you're sadly mistaken...the system is predicated on power running as well. You're just not doing it out of bunched up formations, you're spreading the field horizontally and vertically. You make the defense cover the entire field. Then you speed up the tempo so that they cannot substitute. Then when they're sucking wind, you ram it straight down their throats.

This type of offense is the cutting edge of modern football. It is absolutely what would have been my #1 criteria in hiring a head coach...somebody that can bring those principles here to the MAC where they should be able to flat out dominate.

If he leaves, he leaves. I don't really care. I'd rather have a great coach for 2 years than mediocrity for the terms of the contract. I like Stud, and he might have been a good choice as well. Same for Durkin. But I don't see how anybody can complain about potentially hiring the next Urban Meyer.

The bottom line will always be you cannot afford the good coaches long term, and you don't want the ones you can. It'll always be that way. Don't fight it, embrace it. Then in 3 years if Babers bolts, get out that short list and look for the next young innovator.

While I do agree with you I certainly see his point. You don't want to get Rich Rodded into recruiting a bunch of guys that don't fit any other system and then have that guy leave and you are stuck with a bunch of guys that don't fit a system you have so there are a bunch of dead years. With that said I think that at BG, you take the risk and assume that the next coach can find some level of success with the players that were already there.

See, I think the big difference is that Rich Rod was trying to run a system that could only work with one set of players. Everybody had to be a speedy quick athlete. From the QB to the RB to the WRs, and even the OL. He wanted everybody small and light to move super fast. There was no power component to that offense at all. Which is why it failed in the Big 10. Without having a power component of his own the defenses were able to overpower his line up front and render all the speed and quickness meaningless.

If you look at Baylor (and I keep using them because quite frankly I have never seen EIU play except for cutups of Garopollo), their OL is HUGE. They can absolutely steamroll guys when asked to do so.

The system is predicated on a lot of basic principles that have worked in football for years:
1. Power running
2. Diversity/Balance
3. Spread the defense horizontally (something first really seen in the early 2000s, but has been a staple of football since).

Where this differs from the more traditional approach is that it is largely pass first to then transition to the power run, versus the traditional opposite. It also incorporates an uptempo playcalling that helps tire out the defense quicker (and get more plays for your offense). And unlike many of the newer spread offenses (RichRod especially) it spreads the field vertically as well as horizontally.

To Flipper's point, you're right. We absolutely must get a conditioning coach that is used to this sort of offense (I fully expect him to bring in somebody he's worked with before at EIU or Baylor). It is also a principle that is reinforced during every single practice drill from the moment they first step on the field. Read some of Chip Kelly's writings on how he conducts practice. Briles does much of the same. They run every drill, every play, up tempo. That combined with the right conditioning coach is going to be imperative. You can't run uptempo if your own team can't maintain the pace.

What I see is if Babers is successful in implementing what he did at EIU, then bolts in a couple years he'll leave us with a team that is better conditioned than our opposition, has a better WR corps than our opposition, and still has the ability to block with some power when necessary. The TE is not a major component though, so quite possibly we won't have many of them around for whoever takes over the job. I'm not too worried about any of it at this point though. I'm just here to enjoy the ride. Quite frankly, I think this is a coaching hire that has the potential to do with us what Urban did at Utah.

I would much rather gamble that he hits and leaves, then get someone who is vanilla who is here for ten years.

I've already made my views on coaching changes known elsewhere on this site. If Babers gives us two great years and two MAC titles -- and then gets a better job, I'll be thrilled. Absolutely thrilled.

I'll trade in a new coach for one that has given us MAC titles any day of the week and twice on NFL Sundays!

BG will NEVER be a place that a great coach comes to and settles in for the long run. Because a great coach is, by definition, someone who is going to aspire to bigger and better things that simply can't be accomplished at a mid major school.

Our best hope is to become a pipeline of great coaches to BCS schools with a long, long history of successful tenures in the MAC. If we can get several really good coaches in a row who win MAC titles before moving on, it will make finding young, successful coaches to take their place that much easier. BG will become an attractive place for successful coaches looking to move up in the coaching world.

We couldn't ask for anything more, given how things are and the budget it takes to be a major football power today.

So to Coach Babers I say: Go get us a MAC title in 2014 and hopefully one in 2015 as well, and then find yourself a great job at a BCS school that provides you financial security for you and your family for the rest of your life. We'll look at those trophies and remember you with great fondness...and hopefully replace you with someone just as good, if not better.

[hammb]

I was there as well. Extremely short, and I was disappointed with that. He didn't really say anything interesting, didn't introduce his family (who was sitting right there), and didn't really address anything. To me, it signals that he's only taking this job to get HC experience in FBS so he can move elsewhere quickly (Urban Meyer). To me, this was a bad hire because he's going to change our offense to something insane and then bolt, and we'll be left with a ton of receivers, no viable tight ends, and linemen that can only pass block. Studrawa would have been the MUCH better choice in my opinion.

He's going to change our offense to the cutting edge of what is dominating college football. How is that a BAD thing? And if you think they'll only know how to pass block you're sadly mistaken...the system is predicated on power running as well. You're just not doing it out of bunched up formations, you're spreading the field horizontally and vertically. You make the defense cover the entire field. Then you speed up the tempo so that they cannot substitute. Then when they're sucking wind, you ram it straight down their throats.

This type of offense is the cutting edge of modern football. It is absolutely what would have been my #1 criteria in hiring a head coach...somebody that can bring those principles here to the MAC where they should be able to flat out dominate.

If he leaves, he leaves. I don't really care. I'd rather have a great coach for 2 years than mediocrity for the terms of the contract. I like Stud, and he might have been a good choice as well. Same for Durkin. But I don't see how anybody can complain about potentially hiring the next Urban Meyer.

The bottom line will always be you cannot afford the good coaches long term, and you don't want the ones you can. It'll always be that way. Don't fight it, embrace it. Then in 3 years if Babers bolts, get out that short list and look for the next young innovator.

While I do agree with you I certainly see his point. You don't want to get Rich Rodded into recruiting a bunch of guys that don't fit any other system and then have that guy leave and you are stuck with a bunch of guys that don't fit a system you have so there are a bunch of dead years. With that said I think that at BG, you take the risk and assume that the next coach can find some level of success with the players that were already there.

See, I think the big difference is that Rich Rod was trying to run a system that could only work with one set of players. Everybody had to be a speedy quick athlete. From the QB to the RB to the WRs, and even the OL. He wanted everybody small and light to move super fast. There was no power component to that offense at all. Which is why it failed in the Big 10. Without having a power component of his own the defenses were able to overpower his line up front and render all the speed and quickness meaningless.

If you look at Baylor (and I keep using them because quite frankly I have never seen EIU play except for cutups of Garopollo), their OL is HUGE. They can absolutely steamroll guys when asked to do so.

The system is predicated on a lot of basic principles that have worked in football for years:
1. Power running
2. Diversity/Balance
3. Spread the defense horizontally (something first really seen in the early 2000s, but has been a staple of football since).

Where this differs from the more traditional approach is that it is largely pass first to then transition to the power run, versus the traditional opposite. It also incorporates an uptempo playcalling that helps tire out the defense quicker (and get more plays for your offense). And unlike many of the newer spread offenses (RichRod especially) it spreads the field vertically as well as horizontally.

To Flipper's point, you're right. We absolutely must get a conditioning coach that is used to this sort of offense (I fully expect him to bring in somebody he's worked with before at EIU or Baylor). It is also a principle that is reinforced during every single practice drill from the moment they first step on the field. Read some of Chip Kelly's writings on how he conducts practice. Briles does much of the same. They run every drill, every play, up tempo. That combined with the right conditioning coach is going to be imperative. You can't run uptempo if your own team can't maintain the pace.

What I see is if Babers is successful in implementing what he did at EIU, then bolts in a couple years he'll leave us with a team that is better conditioned than our opposition, has a better WR corps than our opposition, and still has the ability to block with some power when necessary. The TE is not a major component though, so quite possibly we won't have many of them around for whoever takes over the job. I'm not too worried about any of it at this point though. I'm just here to enjoy the ride. Quite frankly, I think this is a coaching hire that has the potential to do with us what Urban did at Utah.

I would much rather gamble that he hits and leaves, then get someone who is vanilla who is here for ten years.

I've already made my views on coaching changes known elsewhere on this site. If Babers gives us two great years and two MAC titles -- and then gets a better job, I'll be thrilled. Absolutely thrilled.

I'll trade in a new coach for one that has given us MAC titles any day of the week and twice on NFL Sundays!

BG will NEVER be a place that a great coach comes to and settles in for the long run. Because a great coach is, by definition, someone who is going to aspire to bigger and better things that simply can't be accomplished at a mid major school.

Our best hope is to become a pipeline of great coaches to BCS schools with a long, long history of successful tenures in the MAC. If we can get several really good coaches in a row who win MAC titles before moving on, it will make finding young, successful coaches to take their place that much easier. BG will become an attractive place for successful coaches looking to move up in the coaching world.

We couldn't ask for anything more, given how things are and the budget it takes to be a major football power today.

So to Coach Babers I say: Go get us a MAC title in 2014 and hopefully one in 2015 as well, and then find yourself a great job at a BCS school that provides you financial security for you and your family for the rest of your life. We'll look at those trophies and remember you with great fondness...and hopefully replace you with someone just as good, if not better.

Couldn't agree more.

[Globetrotter]

The only way I could possibly see it happening is if we get an alum or an older coach that is just sick of moving and wants to be a guy that is set in one place and gets his name on a stadium. And I doubt that happens.

[transfer2BGSU]

The only way I could possibly see it happening is if we get an alum or an older coach that is just sick of moving and wants to be a guy that is set in one place and gets his name on a stadium. And I doubt that happens.

We already have the name of a coach on the stadium.

[mscarn]

There are great points being made, but there's also a down side to the win-leave-and-we'll-be-happy roller coaster. Plenty of negative stuff can happen in the process that imperils programs, including:

-Disruption in recruiting and missing out on potential foundational pieces of the program (re: Ryne Robinson post Urban Meyer)
-Players in place that don't match other systems/personalities/coaching styles
-Lack of continuity in strength training routines that retards development
-The overall quality of the experience for the players, who understand the financial side of things but develop relationships with these men and are genuinly hurt when they depart

Remember, it took five long, hard, grueling, tumultuous years to reach the level we find ourselves at. Clawson, the staff and the players did the work over time. The foundation was built and can sustain a coaching change, but too much change and the foundation gets shaky, gaps appear that aren't addressed because people are thinking about the next career move and cracks surface (pardon the excessive extention of that analogy).

Arkansas State football is sick of the coach-per-year approach and put in a $3 million buyout. Kentucky basketball tries to win every year and then start over. The results have been mixed and every other major college basketball program finds some redeeming value in stability and not making wholesale change the norm. We should take heed.

[jpfalcon09]

There are great points being made, but there's also a down side to the win-leave-and-we'll-be-happy roller coaster. Plenty of negative stuff can happen in the process that imperils programs, including:

-Disruption in recruiting and missing out on potential foundational pieces of the program (re: Ryne Robinson post Urban Meyer)
-Players in place that don't match other systems/personalities/coaching styles
-Lack of continuity in strength training routines that retards development
-The overall quality of the experience for the players, who understand the financial side of things but develop relationships with these men and are genuinly hurt when they depart

Remember, it took five long, hard, grueling, tumultuous years to reach the level we find ourselves at. Clawson, the staff and the players did the work over time. The foundation was built and can sustain a coaching change, but too much change and the foundation gets shaky, gaps appear that aren't addressed because people are thinking about the next career move and cracks surface (pardon the excessive extention of that analogy).

Arkansas State football is sick of the coach-per-year approach and put in a $3 million buyout. Kentucky basketball tries to win every year and then start over. The results have been mixed and every other major college basketball program finds some redeeming value in stability and not making wholesale change the norm. We should take heed.

Double-edged sword when it comes to being a mid-major school. Want success? Say hello to a revolving door with coaches a la Arkansas State. Want mediocrity? You get stuck with a guy like Dan Enos or Frank Solich and your program fails to be able to take the next step. Want a coach to be around a long time? His message eventually falls flat and ultimately results over time become worse, aka Gary Blackney syndrome.

For as great of a coach Petersen was at Boise, his teams the last few years failed to live up to previous expectations and obviously he knew it was time to get out. I think Clawson's "blueprint" was the best you'll get out of a mid-major. He enjoyed success with another regime's players, then rebuilt with his own to win a championship. He did it in five years, not too short or too long, and he accomplished basically everything he needed to with his players. Babers is in a unique situation, he enters with talent already in place and "pressure" to succeed with so much hype surrounding his offense.

[mscarn]

Tough to argue. Mack Brown described his sixteen year run as "four presidential terms" and how a change is usually desired after one or two of these at most. That seems fitting for Division I coaching.

[BGWriter]

There are great points being made, but there's also a down side to the win-leave-and-we'll-be-happy roller coaster. Plenty of negative stuff can happen in the process that imperils programs, including:

-Disruption in recruiting and missing out on potential foundational pieces of the program (re: Ryne Robinson post Urban Meyer)
-Players in place that don't match other systems/personalities/coaching styles
-Lack of continuity in strength training routines that retards development
-The overall quality of the experience for the players, who understand the financial side of things but develop relationships with these men and are genuinly hurt when they depart

Remember, it took five long, hard, grueling, tumultuous years to reach the level we find ourselves at. Clawson, the staff and the players did the work over time. The foundation was built and can sustain a coaching change, but too much change and the foundation gets shaky, gaps appear that aren't addressed because people are thinking about the next career move and cracks surface (pardon the excessive extention of that analogy).

Arkansas State football is sick of the coach-per-year approach and put in a $3 million buyout. Kentucky basketball tries to win every year and then start over. The results have been mixed and every other major college basketball program finds some redeeming value in stability and not making wholesale change the norm. We should take heed.

But would BG have gone through that really rough period had it made a better choice instead of hiring Brandon when Meyer left? Nobody is saying it is a perfect system, only that it CAN be a very productive one if it's done right.

What if BG had decided to go away from Meyer's staff completely with that hire and brought in someone totally new? Perhaps we wouldn't have seen the problems that cropped up, and the ultimate decline of the program that resulted in losing all those scholarships.

That's where having a good AD is crucial to the process, especially for a mid major school. He has to get these hires right the first time, because making a bad choice can set a program back quite a few years. For BG, those years kept piling on until we hit 21 before the ugly streak was finally broken this year.

[Falcon Commander]

JWagnerBlade ‏@jwagnerblade 9m
#BGSU football:

C'mon #Falcons fans, how can @CoachBabersBG have so few followers?

Give him a follow, won't you?

[Class of 61]

JWagnerBlade ‏@jwagnerblade 9m
#BGSU football:

C'mon #Falcons fans, how can @CoachBabersBG have so few followers?

Give him a follow, won't you?

Not sure what this is supposed to mean...if this is a "twitter" deal, I don't "tweet"...don't even know how.

[mscarn]

That's where having a good AD is crucial to the process, especially for a mid major school. He has to get these hires right the first time, because making a bad choice can set a program back quite a few years.

That's definitely huge. The warts grow malignant under a bad coach while a good one excises them. Kingston handled the process extremely well and the criteria he used to identify what BG needed and ultimately hire Babers was spot on.

[lookimrory]

I've been reading everybody's concerns about Babers, and I'd like to address him leaving.
If he does leave quickly, its because he made the program better. If its in better shape than it is now, we're in pretty good shape. However, Gregg Brandon won big here, but wasn't hired away, because he won with Urban's recruits. Even if Babers does really well in the first two years, I don't think he'll get hired away until years 4-5 (3 if he does really, really well), because he'll be winning with Clawson's recruits.

[Redwingtom]

JWagnerBlade ‏@jwagnerblade 9m
#BGSU football:

C'mon #Falcons fans, how can @CoachBabersBG have so few followers?

Give him a follow, won't you?

I followed him, but why would it be so important for others to follow him? He had only made 1 tweet total the last time I checked!

[Flipper]

Brandon almost left for UNLV...I remember going to the hockey game the Saturday night when those rumors were strongest and seeing a couple of guys in UNLV jackets...which could have just been a coincidence. What killed Brandon was Omar getting hurt and the 2005 team played soft and well below expectations...then the wheels came off in 2006. Coming off a bowl year in 2007, if 2008 had been the 10-2 MAC title year it should have been...Brandon might have landed a better gig.

If Babers lights it up here for two years...he'll get some offers. Look at Darrel Hazell, one meh year, one good year at Kent and Purdue's waving $2 million per at him

[BGWriter]

Brandon almost left for UNLV...I remember going to the hockey game the Saturday night when those rumors were strongest and seeing a couple of guys in UNLV jackets...which could have just been a coincidence. What killed Brandon was Omar getting hurt and the 2005 team played soft and well below expectations...then the wheels came off in 2006. Coming off a bowl year in 2007, if 2008 had been the 10-2 MAC title year it should have been...Brandon might have landed a better gig.

If Babers lights it up here for two years...he'll get some offers. Look at Darrel Hazell, one meh year, one good year at Kent and Purdue's waving $2 million per at him

This. If Brandon had REALLY "won big" while at BG, he would have left sooner. That never happened. He didn't win a MAC title, and he had some teams under achieve. There is no doubt in my mind that if Brandon's team had won the MAC in 2008, he would have been snatched up by someone.

Brandon was one of those cases that can kill a program at a mid major: wins just enough to keep his job, but not enough for the program to be elite. In the meantime, it gradually declines and, by the time the problems are discovered, it's too late. The program is set back at least 5 years, maybe more.