transfer2BGSU wrote:factman wrote:RWT.....you should find a way to sit down with Coach Clawson for a few minutes and talk offense.........you would be amazed. He took the time to do that with 3-4 of us a week or two ago and I think we went thru about a dozen napkins drawing diagrams etc. Our offense will be fine, given time to get people in place and establish some depth. Some of the things that people have complained about, including some of your concerns, just happen, because a player(s) makes a mistake, and he is not a "throw them under the bus" type coach.
Plus listen to what the coach says.
Tyler Sheehan played 3 quarters his freshman year. Had they not burned his redshirt that year, guess who would be the QB this year?
Coach said that if a freshman can't be on the two-deep roster, then there is no reason to burn the redshirt on the player. Give him the year to adjust and learn the system. Don't reward the player with playing time when they're not ready to play. We are not mortgaging the future for this season.
It is amazing the things Clawson will tell you if you ask him. He loves to talk football. Go to the coaches show on Monday nights. Like Factman said, he draws up plays on napkins and tell you what type of players we are looking at recruiting. He won't hide from you.
And this stuff is EXACTLY why I think Coach Clawson will succeed here. I think he's got a great football mind, he's great with the fans/media, and I think he knows what it takes to win. He built winners at 2 stops at the 1AA level, and the MAC isn't all that different from that level of football.
This year was going to be a rebuilding year from the beginning. We were playing a ton of youth and an overall lack of depth across the board. Then we get our senior RB injured, our starting QB playing with a bum throwing shoulder (and missing a couple games), and our OL (which was already playing below expectations) gets hit hard by injuries as well.
This team is just flat out not ready to compete at this level. It's too young, too thin, and too beat up. The early season play got my hopes up as the year went on, but unfortunately injuries have really taken their toll and prevented us from seeing the development that we had hoped for as the year went on.
Obviously I do have a few concerns. I'm a little upset to see the overall lack of intensity that we've seen at times this year. It seems that if the team has a couple things go wrong early and falls behind they start to hang their heads and get walloped. Of course this is not really that uncommon for a young team that really doesn't have any strong upperclassmen leadership. I think that lack of upperclass leadership is a big issue. Typically a young team will at least have a couple seniors that are playing and leading the group...this year's team doesn't really have any seniors out there playing well enough to rally around. I had hoped Geter could be that guy, but the blocking in front of him wasn't that great, then he got hurt.
The other concern I have is that I think Clawson wants to run a pretty complex system. We saw in all of his stops previously that his offenses generally struggle until he gets the mix of players he wants. I think he wants a more powerful OL that can actually open holes in the running game in the traditional sense...we have NOT had that sort of system in place here in a long time...our OL has always been about agility and pass blocking in year's past. I think he also wants to push the ball downfield with the passing game. Again this requires QBs & WRs to be versed in the system and on the same page. It also requires a QB that can drop back and recognize what he's seeing and get the ball to the right spot. One thing that is lost is that our previous spread system was a VERY easy read system for the QBs and WRs. It made things simple and we were able to keep plugging new guys in and having some success. I think Clawson's system is more of a thinking man's system, and more traditional in its approach. I also think that if he gets the talent where he needs it then it can be a very successful system and build a more well rounded offense than what we had in year's past.
Unfortunately it will take a bit for us to grow into that offensive system and succeed. One thing that I do know, if we have success with that sort of offensive system we'll start to see BG players playing on Sundays again. The system we had for the last 7 years was successful but it was also absolutely AWFUL in terms of developing talent for the next level. I'm sure if you're not an NFL fan you don't really care, but I think that's a pretty big selling point to recruits. If you get guys to the next level it's gotta be a pretty big selling point when you're recruiting against the rest of the MAC.
