QB situation

[roguewarrior]

A legit QB fixes most woes on a bad team. I was a major believer in McD going into this fall. He was lights out in practice... the good part is we know it’s at least a competition now, all off season. There is a transfer from Syracuse due in in January, i Believe. Hopefully, Milton is healthy enough to go right away in January, and see what he has. Davis has skills, I think he needs to get better at the diagnosis and reads of the D, to gain coaches confidence? I think Keller needs a lot more time. It will all come down to this next year.... and learning how to tackle!

Edit: I think McDonald has a chance to learn, and maybe be what he has been in practice, in games. The WR’s ran some bad routes that led to at least one pick, and two that Made him look bad, that were total wrong routes.

[MarkL]

I saw some throws by McDonald in a highlight video of a 2018 BC game where he played late. His release was a little slow but nothing like the oversized windup we've been seeing. Small sample size of course.

I'm not sure what happened between then and now. Couple of baseless speculations here, take with appropriate grain of salt. He could be dealing with an injury that leads to him overcompensating in his throws. Or he could do an odd throw when flustered. I remember John Navarre at Michigan way back in 2002-03 had this odd sidearm he would fall back on when facing pressure. And then often would have the ball batted down which for a 6'6 QB shouldn't happen. Maybe similar for McDonald. I don't know, just spitballing here.

[BillyLP]

There is a transfer from Syracuse due in in January, i Believe.

Kinda missed this the first time reading through. Grad transfer or straight transfer? If it's a grad transfer I have to assume it's Tommy DeVito, which would be a pretty solid upgrade. He has a cannon and quick release.

[Tony4BG]

No. A walk on. Drew Gunther. Not sure why he didn’t transfer in this season but possibly BG was finally out of initials for this year.

[BillyLP]

No. A walk on. Drew Gunther. Not sure why he didn’t transfer in this season but possibly BG was finally out of initials for this year.

Ohhh right, right. I do remember this commitment coming through now that you say it.

[guest44]

So Bowling Green is bringing in a walk on quarterback from Syracuse? The Syracuse coached by Dino Babers? The coach that "used BGSU"? The same Syracuse that has no good quarterbacks actually playing? Boston College after replacing Addazio, went and got a grad transfer qb for the 2020 season. Are we sure our quarterback whisperer of a coach is actually any good at coaching quarterbacks? Tim Tebow was a decade ago, and that was Urban Meyer. At Bowling Green, he has played the three worst passing quarterbacks since Freddie Barnes ran wildcat. Atleast he and Loy could run.

I keep looking at Loeffler's resume for hope. In 2011 he was at Temple when they lost 13-10 to Matt Schilz and BGSU. In 2012 he coached Auburn to dead last in all offensive categories in the SEC. In what season was an offense he coached even explosive after his Tebow year? Virginia Tech under achieved in Beamer's final years, and Boston College fired the whole staff. I'm sure knowing Tom Brady had huge influence on Bob & especially Kit. We know Boston College a year before he was to be fired, somehow helped him land this job. In the end, Bowling Green hired a mediocre at best coordinator who then sold Bob & Kit on how much experience his staff would have. Experience is great. But, VanGorder was headed out of football, and Morrison was just taking care of a friend. At one point Jim Hermann from the Lloyd Carr era was coaching at BGSU for about three months. This staff has 200 years of experience, but can't even field a respectable team in all the most basic aspects. Loeffler might not even be a good quarterbacks coach in 2020, let alone a head coach. Say what you want about Jinks, and Jinks was a joke, atleast he brought a respectable quarterback along with him.

[Schadenfreude]

I keep looking at Loeffler's resume for hope.

No you don't.

[guest44]

I keep looking at Loeffler's resume for hope.

No you don't.

But, i did try. I didn't find any. 31-3 to Akron. The year will be 2024 and you will be blaming Loeffler for what has happened. You still want Carl Pelini as head coach?

[TommyG]

So Bowling Green is bringing in a walk on quarterback from Syracuse? The Syracuse coached by Dino Babers? The coach that "used BGSU"? The same Syracuse that has no good quarterbacks actually playing? Boston College after replacing Addazio, went and got a grad transfer qb for the 2020 season. Are we sure our quarterback whisperer of a coach is actually any good at coaching quarterbacks? Tim Tebow was a decade ago, and that was Urban Meyer. At Bowling Green, he has played the three worst passing quarterbacks since Freddie Barnes ran wildcat. Atleast he and Loy could run.

I keep looking at Loeffler's resume for hope. In 2011 he was at Temple when they lost 13-10 to Matt Schilz and BGSU. In 2012 he coached Auburn to dead last in all offensive categories in the SEC. In what season was an offense he coached even explosive after his Tebow year? Virginia Tech under achieved in Beamer's final years, and Boston College fired the whole staff. I'm sure knowing Tom Brady had huge influence on Bob & especially Kit. We know Boston College a year before he was to be fired, somehow helped him land this job. In the end, Bowling Green hired a mediocre at best coordinator who then sold Bob & Kit on how much experience his staff would have. Experience is great. But, VanGorder was headed out of football, and Morrison was just taking care of a friend. At one point Jim Hermann from the Lloyd Carr era was coaching at BGSU for about three months. This staff has 200 years of experience, but can't even field a respectable team in all the most basic aspects. Loeffler might not even be a good quarterbacks coach in 2020, let alone a head coach. Say what you want about Jinks, and Jinks was a joke, atleast he brought a respectable quarterback along with him.

This post is more research into Loeffler’s resume than Moosbrugger did before the hire.
I was kinda blah on Loeffler when he was hired. I did think getting coaches with more experience was good especially after Jink’s staff has so little. So far I was wrong on that part of it.
Guest44 brings up a good point.. lots of coaches have long careers because they have a lot of friends and fail from on job to the next. Especially in football you can get lucky as a coach and be in a great situation with talent and kinda fake your way to some success and build up some resume highlights. Don’t know if that is the case with this staff across the board, but that is the AD’s job to make sure it’s not.
If this thing keeps going south Bob should be out before another football hire is made. He had to get this hire right and there are no indications he did. Plus the way the baseball program was eliminated was a playbook on poor athletic administration.

[Schadenfreude]

I keep looking at Loeffler's resume for hope.

No you don't.

But, i did try.

No. You didn't.

All you do here is sow mayhem and hopelessness. That's why half the members of this board have blocked you.

[MarkL]

I'll post this without quoting someone who everyone blocks but as a general response. If you want to know the biggest reason to be hopeful in Loeffler, read this. Some relevant sections:

Last year's Wake Forest preview was titled, "I didn't realize an offense could be as bad as Wake Forest's was." Dave Clawson's first Wake offense was absurdly young and averaged 14.8 points per game and, per Off. S&P+, 11.1 adjusted points per game. It was easily the worst in the country.

Technically, Boston College's wasn't that bad in 2015. The Eagles averaged 17.2 points per game and, per Off. S&P+, 15.4 adjusted points per game. They ranked 124th, which meant that somehow there were four offenses worse. (Those four, which I am hesitant to name without involving the witness protection program: ULM, UCF, Charlotte, and Kent State.) They were bad at running and hideously bad at throwing.

When an Addazio offense regresses, it plummets. In his two years as Temple's head coach, he improved the Owls' Off. S&P+ rating from 95th to 64th, then watched it drop right back to 96th. And in three years at BC, he's improved it from 103rd to 30th, then watched it fall from 46th to 124th. An optimist would say that's good news for 2016 -- if nothing else, he's turned really bad offenses around before.

BC managed to lose four games while allowing 17 or fewer points, which is pretty difficult to do.

But seriously, it was a damn shame BC lost those Duke and Wake Forest games. The Eagles could have won 10-9 and 6-3, and they'd have been 5-1 and probably receiving poll votes ... while having scored 33 points in four games against FBS teams.

Loeffler has now been an offensive coordinator at four schools, all of which were basically asking him for a miracle. He came with Addazio to Temple in 2011 and was asked to fix an offense that hadn't been good since the 1970s. He succeeded -- as mentioned, the Owls improved from 95th in Off. S&P+ to a respectable 64th, and it powered a 9-4 squad.

Boston College's offense completely bottomed out in 2015. Loeffler was brought in to salvage an unsalvageable situation. In 2016, not much improvement. It is hard to completely makeover an offense in one day, especially if the same head coach with same general philosophy remains. But come 2017, they had an offense. The same preview by the same writer a couple years later.

For 2.5 straight years, BC had maybe the worst offense in the power conferences. But midway through 2017, with two freshmen in the backfield, the Eagles emerged from their funk.
Funny how scoring points makes life easier, huh? BC won five of six to end the regular season and now returns almost every weapon from that breakout.

A RB named AJ Dillon emerged as a major running threat. 1600 yards, 14 TDs and that was after a slow start. He entered 2018 as a fringe Heisman candidate.

The offense became competent and dangerous. It was a complete salvage job. That sounds like the ticket needed here after three years of utter program destruction at all layers.

Now does that mean Loeffler is going to work out in the long run? I don't know. He has been brought in to work miracles and he worked a miracle at his last stop. No telling if that will translate from OC duties to HC. But I can see the mindset that led to Loeffler. Find a guy who can salvage the unsalvageable.

And FWIW since the poster I'm responding to is a big fan, Jim McElwain left an absolute mess at Florida. Even lied about getting death threats from Florida fans in order to make a story other than his program mess. Dan Mullen was brought in to salvage that mess. So you can also see why someone would pass on McElwain. Also the CMU job opened a week before Loeffler was hired so for all you know McElwain was more interested in a far better situation at CMU.

[hammb]

So Bowling Green is bringing in a walk on quarterback from Syracuse? The Syracuse coached by Dino Babers? The coach that "used BGSU"? The same Syracuse that has no good quarterbacks actually playing? Boston College after replacing Addazio, went and got a grad transfer qb for the 2020 season. Are we sure our quarterback whisperer of a coach is actually any good at coaching quarterbacks? Tim Tebow was a decade ago, and that was Urban Meyer. At Bowling Green, he has played the three worst passing quarterbacks since Freddie Barnes ran wildcat. Atleast he and Loy could run.

I keep looking at Loeffler's resume for hope. In 2011 he was at Temple when they lost 13-10 to Matt Schilz and BGSU. In 2012 he coached Auburn to dead last in all offensive categories in the SEC. In what season was an offense he coached even explosive after his Tebow year? Virginia Tech under achieved in Beamer's final years, and Boston College fired the whole staff. I'm sure knowing Tom Brady had huge influence on Bob & especially Kit. We know Boston College a year before he was to be fired, somehow helped him land this job. In the end, Bowling Green hired a mediocre at best coordinator who then sold Bob & Kit on how much experience his staff would have. Experience is great. But, VanGorder was headed out of football, and Morrison was just taking care of a friend. At one point Jim Hermann from the Lloyd Carr era was coaching at BGSU for about three months. This staff has 200 years of experience, but can't even field a respectable team in all the most basic aspects. Loeffler might not even be a good quarterbacks coach in 2020, let alone a head coach. Say what you want about Jinks, and Jinks was a joke, atleast he brought a respectable quarterback along with him.

Worth mentioning that Loeffler inherited a worthwhile, if not stellar, group of MAC QBs, and either A) couldn't keep them in the program, or B) ran them off in favor of his own QBs.

All he had to do was come in and develop the QBs that were already here, we didn't have a QB talent problem under Jinks (although Jinks kept recycling QBs in the hopes of hitting lightning in a bottle, they could all play a little). Hell we haven't had a QB talent problem here since Clawson had to play Freddie Barnes at the position. But boy howdy do we have one now.

[BillyLP]

Hell we haven't had a QB talent problem here since Clawson had to play Freddie Barnes at the position. But boy howdy do we have one now.

Wasn't that during Brandon's last year that Barnes played QB? When Anthony Turner was suspended a game or two for weed?

[guest44]

Bowling Green could have had Jim McElwain way before Central Michigan even made a decision. He was in Ann Arbor going through the motions collecting his buyout from Florida. Bowling Green could have had him before Carl Pelini finished coaching out the season. I'd be more worried about why Scot Loeffler hadn't been anywhere for more than 3 years, than anything about the roster left at Florida. Every coach in the SEC gets fired in the Nick Saban era. Speaking of McElwain he is developing his freshman QB while going either 3-3 or 4-2 this season. But, atleast we got the coach who took BC from horrible to decent, while the entire staff was still fired. Lets hope Babers returned the favor and just gave us the walk on program savior.

[MarkL]

Got it. Moosbrugger should have known that BC would fire the coaching staff ... after the 2019 season ... in 2018. Now you're criticizing Moosbrugger for not owning a time machine.