Cue some Phil Collins to explain Dave Clawson's lose to UT

[MarkL]

Wow ... a lot of folks will be in some PT for a while after all the knee jerking in this thread ...

[BGWriter]

Wow ... a lot of folks will be in some PT for a while after all the knee jerking in this thread ...

If you peruse the various comments about Clawson and his weaknesses, and his record, I'd say the reactions have been far from knee-jerk. Most have been fairly thoughtful and backed with some statistics to prove the point.

The question now becomes: how long do BG fans want their program to be average to mediocre? Because that's what we are getting with Coach Clawson and his staff. He has no signature win in his time so far, and a very poor record against good (winning) teams.

Coaches that are going to win you championships typically do better by this time in their tenures with a school.

If this turns out to be yet another lost year (no MAC East title, another bowl loss), there's no reason to keep Clawson. None. Find another coach who can hopefully take the foundation laid by this staff and move it to the next level.

[Lord_Byron]

Wow ... a lot of folks will be in some PT for a while after all the knee jerking in this thread ...

If we'd have won, they'd all be jerking something else.

I think I've either gotten old or worn out over the years, but I agree with Schad that I'm not ready have the trigger pulled on Clawson just yet. I don't think that's accepting mediocrity, but is living with the reality that there has been improvement over the last three years.

I'd like to see what happens the rest of the way. If the team quits and mails it in, then there's a problem. If they step up and run the table, then it's different.

[CrazyFan]

Wow ... a lot of folks will be in some PT for a while after all the knee jerking in this thread ...

If we'd have won, they'd all be jerking something else.

I think I've either gotten old or worn out over the years, but I agree with Schad that I'm not ready have the trigger pulled on Clawson just yet. I don't think that's accepting mediocrity, but is living with the reality that there has been improvement over the last three years.

I'd like to see what happens the rest of the way. If the team quits and mails it in, then there's a problem. If they step up and run the table, then it's different.

I'm not advocating to fire Clawson today. I have no problem letting him finish out the season to see what he does as far as winning the East. BUT, if he fails to win the east and win the big games coming up he'll need to win to win the east, then I think its time for a change. This is the year everyone has been pointing at where we would/need to win the East. And he's one loss away from failing again on that objective. He can't win the big game. And back to an ALARMING stat I just saw on another thread that's he's 3-21 against teams with a winning record!! That's absolutely horrible. You really want to hold onto a coach whom has that kind of a track record??

[hammb]

In starting to think clawson is a great coach to come into a train wreck and clean it up, but I'm really doubting he'll ever get us where we want to go. It's been the same for his entire tenure. The offense is always boring, predictable, and has glaring execution failures. The defense can hold tough against the crap of the Mac but when faced with real competition they fold.

I think clawson has done a very good job cleaning up the mess that Brandon left but I'm now officially where I was on Orr a couple years ago. I understand why they won't fre him yet but he's not getting other big offers and he's likely not taking us anywhere either.

And I'm someone who had given him the benefit of the doubt for the arc the program has been on and was expecting him to field offers this year. I'm really disappointed that this is the performance that we see in what should be put up or shut up year.

[Schadenfreude]

I don't understand the anti-Clawson vitriol, especially since it comes just hours after some of you were speculating on what other more formidable program might snatch our coach up. The team I'm watching was 8-5 last year, 5-7 the year before that and 2-10 before that. I like that curve. Long term, I like the direction of the program.

Worst case realistic scenario, this team finishes the regular season 7-5. And I'm thinking 8-4 is more likely. No way you fire a coach for that, unless you are a clown like George Steinbrenner.

If I'm the AD, only thing I do is tell Clawson to keep his head up. Let him keep coaching and recruiting.

Yes, at some point, we need to go into Bloomington and Starkville and beat teams like that. Long term, that's where we need to get to. We definitely need to stop losing to Toledo on our field.

Given direction of the program, I'm willing to be patient. I think Clawson can get us there. And I think he still very much has a shot at winning the East. I doubt Ohio or Buffalo are quite as good as Toledo.

I would urge many of you to consider Frank Solich. After winning the East in his second year, he had two losing seasons in a row. I'm sure some down there wanted to get rid him at that point. But that would have been a bad move.

This is the attitude that I can not understand. Our fan base is satisfied with average teams.

The bolding above is mine.

Please don't accuse me (and others who aren't jumping out of windows right now) of being satisfied with an average team.

We all want to get to the same place. Where we disagree is how to get there.

[mscarn]

This is Clawson's fifth team with 17 returning starters. Against Toledo it also had first year players (with talent, of course) at quarterback, running back, receiver, left tackle and right tackle, fairly unusual for a program with big expectations. These gaps in personnel have played a huge role in stymying the good-to-great progression we all anticipated.

Is it inexpereince, scheme or preparation? It's probably all three and none of them should be issues in Year 5.

Ohio and Buffalo will define whether Clawson's approach has been fool's gold or 24 karat.

[jpfalcon09]

One quote that sticks out to me is this one: "If I knew what the fix was, I'd fix it". That's in regard to slow starts. If I'm Kingston, I gently remind Dave that he was hired to be the one who "fixes" things. If the head coach is saying that about something that can and is correctable, then we're in trouble here.

[mscarn]

Clawson's teams NEVER come out and dominate anyone. They grind out wins against the bad teams, generally get spanked by BCS teams, and lose just about all of the games where the betting line is a few points either way.

You can't rely on second half adjustments every game and especially against good teams. 2 weeks to prepare for your rival who has beaten you 3 straight and you come out that flat? Inexcusable.

Some new issues now come into play:

1) If we crash and burn against OU and/or Buffalo will Clawson decide to stay ahead of the posse and take a BCS coordinator offer (like Tennessee in '08) or make another lateral move? His extention gives him security at BG for a long time and stagnation is riskier to his reputation than his employment. Will he want to stay and get over the hump or concede the MAC to NIU/Ball St. and move on to another challenge?

2) Elko's status as the presumed successor has taken a nosedive. One MAC job is already open and a couple others are likely to follow. If it's going to be an outside hire I don't want the second or third choice of another conference school. David Sayler, the Miami AD, knows Durkin from their overlapping tenures at BG and their fans are already salivating over the possibility of getting him.

[Globetrotter]

There is 0% chance we fire Dave Clawson. Absolutely none. I won't dive into whether or not we should because I don't really have an opinion. But if they can't fire a lameduck basketball coach they are not firing a football coach with a winning record and several years left on his contract. He will win 2 of the next four games and that will be enough by far to keep him on.

There is always next year with a young QB-RB-WR group...hey we get Gehrig Deiter.

[Beaker]

I'm not a fan of calling for someone to be fired and I have not done so before, but I have to agree with prior posts that say Clawson's continued employment here should depend on what happens the rest of the way this year. Yes, he inherited a mess and yes, he has done an admirable job in making this a much stronger program than it was when he started. I commend him for that. Not all coaches would have been able to do what he has done.

The aforementioned postives aside, 5 years is a fair amount of time to expect at a minimum, division titles or bowl wins. The failures in close games and against winning teams is documented and undeniable. What happened this week is inexcusable. We had 2 weeks to prepare to play our biggest rival on our home field with so much to play for and we came out dead flat to start, AGAIN and made mental mistakes that cost us a close game AGAIN. The players are to be faulted for things like sleepwalking thru 1st quarters, dropping passes and committing stupid, senseless penalties. The problem is, these things continue to happen week after week and when these mistakes continue to go uncorrected, then that becomes an issue of coaching.

This team has the talent that should allow them to at least win the East. If they are not able to make a transformation where they fix these issues and win the rest of the games on the schedule this year, then there needs to be a change in coaching. If not, then we may as well fly the flag of mediocrity and declare that it's not our goal to raise the program to a championship level. If the university/athletic department/fan base are not doing everything reasonably possible to win championships, then what's the point of going thru the motions?

With 9 days off to stew about it, I desperately hope that something clicks after what happened this week and we see a different team from here on out. One that runs the table and sees Clawson take us to the next level. Anything short of that will be failed expectations of what should have been a great season.

[jpfalcon09]

I'm not a fan of calling for someone to be fired and I have not done so before, but I have to agree with prior posts that say Clawson's continued employment here should depend on what happens the rest of the way this year. Yes, he inherited a mess and yes, he has done an admirable job in making this a much stronger program than it was when he started. I commend him for that. Not all coaches would have been able to do what he has done.

The aforementioned postives aside, 5 years is a fair amount of time to expect at a minimum, division titles or bowl wins. The failures in close games and against winning teams is documented and undeniable. What happened this week is inexcusable. We had 2 weeks to prepare to play our biggest rival on our home field with so much to play for and we came out dead flat to start, AGAIN and made mental mistakes that cost us a close game AGAIN. The players are to be faulted for things like sleepwalking thru 1st quarters, dropping passes and committing stupid, senseless penalties. The problem is, these things continue to happen week after week and when these mistakes continue to go uncorrected, then that becomes an issue of coaching.

This team has the talent that should allow them to at least win the East. If they are not able to make a transformation where they fix these issues and win the rest of the games on the schedule this year, then there needs to be a change in coaching. If not, then we may as well fly the flag of mediocrity and declare that it's not our goal to raise the program to a championship level. If the university/athletic department/fan base are not doing everything reasonably possible to win championships, then what's the point of going thru the motions?

With 9 days off to stew about it, I desperately hope that something clicks after what happened this week and we see a different team from here on out. One that runs the table and sees Clawson take us to the next level. Anything short of that will be failed expectations of what should have been a great season.

It all comes down to the coaches instilling the belief in the players that they can win, and I've yet to see that. They can't close a big game and make just enough mistakes to lose. I'm not going to rip on college players who obviously will not be playing pro football, so it falls on the coaches for me. They're paid good money to address the issues, correct them and most importantly, be accountable.

I heard nothing but the same excuses from Clawson after the loss Saturday and that's what really gets me fired up. You've lost four straight to your rival and you act all ho-hum about it, and then refuse to take any sort of responsibility for it. It suggests to me that the coaches are okay with losing games so long as the players make some sort of concerted effort and make it look good. There's only so many ways you can dress up a pig before people stop thinking it isn't a pig. Anything other than winning out and going to Detroit is a lost season at this point, and if that's too unrealistic of expectations then the program will forever be stuck spinning its wheels as a middle of the road MAC program that is happy with 7-8 wins and a sub-par bowl bid.

[thewebboy]

There is always next year with a young QB-RB-WR group...hey we get Gehrig Deiter.

We've said we have a veteran team, but we have underclassmen at most skill positions. Johnson/ Green/ Houston/ Moore/ Dieter, we get 2 more years with this group practicing and playing together.

You know coming into this year I really thought "this is our year". Then I look around the MAC and see NIU and Ball State dominating. Lynch and Wenning are senior leaders on those teams. If we get the championship anything can happen, but those are 2 quality teams. We lucked out not having to play them in the regular season.

I'm just as critical as anyone with the coaches. They've had a pass the last 4 years and haven't been under much scrutiny. Let's see how they respond. In my opinion there has only been 2 "must win" games during the last 4 years (Kent and Toledo). Every game is must win now. Win out and we'll all shut up. Lose even once and watch us turn on you.

[Beaker]

We are very fotunate to have Johnson, particularly. That kid has been outstanding in his first year as a starter. He doesn't turn the ball over and he makes plays with his arm and his feet. More times that not on Saturday, he was running for his life due to a breakdown in the protection. I couldn't count the number of times he scrambled away and ran for a first down or kept the play alive and gave the receiver a chance to make a catch, which unfortunately, they didn't always do. He's completed almost 2/3 of his passes on the season and I would love to know what his completion percentage would be without all the dropped passes.
He seems like a tough kid too. He had to be helped off the field after taking a hard shot near the North endzone, but was able to recover and get back in there.

You can point to a lot of reasons we didn't win this week, but the play of our quarterback was not one of them.

With Lynch and Wenning gone next year, I don't think there will be a better QB in the conference.

[BGSU33]

There is always next year with a young QB-RB-WR group...hey we get Gehrig Deiter.

We've said we have a veteran team, but we have underclassmen at most skill positions. Johnson/ Green/ Houston/ Moore/ Dieter, we get 2 more years with this group practicing and playing together.

You mean we "hope" to have two more years of these guys. After losing starting underclassmen in Cooper and Samuel this past year, I won't bank on anything. Yes, I know that doesn't happen often and those cases were somewhat unique, but I thought we had a pair of stars in both of them for years to come and they're both elsewhere now. That is why when you're close, you want to get the job done now. For years we keep talking about "next year." Well guess what, "this year" is "next year." Last year we were talking about what we had this season. I'm tired or holding out for future hope and ready to close the deal already.