GAME ON

[BGSU33]

Somebody mentioned the Country Club mentality and lack of discipline. I go back to one instance when we first hired the guy as a sign of bad things to come, because he destroyed in 10 seconds what took years to create.

Babers walks into the team meeting room to meet the team for the first time. He walks in, and the team quiets down, sits up straight, and is listening for him to speak. They are giving him respect since he is the coach. His response is, "This isn't the military. You all need to relax." Welcome to the result.

I have thought about that exact thing before as well.

[Flipper]

Speaking of coaching...credit goes to Nick Monroe and Mike Mickens...they coached up Nick Johnson and Clint Stephens in a hurry and as a unit, I think the secondary showed the most in season improvement of any group we have. We lose some guys back there, but with Hunter, Johnson, Stephens and Watson coming back at CB to join Gourdine, Turner (who also got better as the season wore on) and Ballew at S, the secondary could be our strongest unit. We look awfully thin at DE and LB next year so the secondary better be ready.

[hammb]

Somebody mentioned the Country Club mentality and lack of discipline. I go back to one instance when we first hired the guy as a sign of bad things to come, because he destroyed in 10 seconds what took years to create.

Babers walks into the team meeting room to meet the team for the first time. He walks in, and the team quiets down, sits up straight, and is listening for him to speak. They are giving him respect since he is the coach. His response is, "This isn't the military. You all need to relax." Welcome to the result.

This is not fair and shows a complete disrespect for the differing styles go coaching.

Plenty of coaches have been successful without enforcing a military like atmosphere. Pete Carroll is a good example who preaches relaxation and fun...a true players coach.

Bottom line is that there are many ways to skin a cat. This style didn't work with clawson's players this year but that shouldn't be shocking considering it's a complete 180 from his coaching. There are definite questions about this staff right now, but this attitude that you cannot win by being offensive minded or without demanding military like discipline is just flat out wrong.

[factman]

It IS fair when you have guys huddling around heaters and having absolutely no interest in what is happening on the field for 2-3 possessions at a time. Some discipline needed to be enforced, rather it came from captains or coaches.
Similar to saying "we are ready" on Wednesday, and bypassing any work on Thursday. The staff sets the tone, and the tone they are setting is NOT working.

[BGSU33]

Somebody mentioned the Country Club mentality and lack of discipline. I go back to one instance when we first hired the guy as a sign of bad things to come, because he destroyed in 10 seconds what took years to create.

Babers walks into the team meeting room to meet the team for the first time. He walks in, and the team quiets down, sits up straight, and is listening for him to speak. They are giving him respect since he is the coach. His response is, "This isn't the military. You all need to relax." Welcome to the result.

This is not fair and shows a complete disrespect for the differing styles go coaching.

Plenty of coaches have been successful without enforcing a military like atmosphere. Pete Carroll is a good example who preaches relaxation and fun...a true players coach.

Bottom line is that there are many ways to skin a cat. This style didn't work with clawson's players this year but that shouldn't be shocking considering it's a complete 180 from his coaching. There are definite questions about this staff right now, but this attitude that you cannot win by being offensive minded or without demanding military like discipline is just flat out wrong.

I don't think Clawson ran a "military" style at all. But it certainly was disciplined. And seemed a lot more so than how things are ran now.

[footballguy51]

Somebody mentioned the Country Club mentality and lack of discipline. I go back to one instance when we first hired the guy as a sign of bad things to come, because he destroyed in 10 seconds what took years to create.

Babers walks into the team meeting room to meet the team for the first time. He walks in, and the team quiets down, sits up straight, and is listening for him to speak. They are giving him respect since he is the coach. His response is, "This isn't the military. You all need to relax." Welcome to the result.

This is not fair and shows a complete disrespect for the differing styles go coaching.

Plenty of coaches have been successful without enforcing a military like atmosphere. Pete Carroll is a good example who preaches relaxation and fun...a true players coach.

Bottom line is that there are many ways to skin a cat. This style didn't work with clawson's players this year but that shouldn't be shocking considering it's a complete 180 from his coaching. There are definite questions about this staff right now, but this attitude that you cannot win by being offensive minded or without demanding military like discipline is just flat out wrong.

I don't think Clawson ran a "military" style at all. But it certainly was disciplined. And seemed a lot more so than how things are ran now.

Exactly. I'm not saying there was a military atmosphere, only that he told the team that. The atmosphere was one where respect for authority existed and a general no-nonsense business attitude was observed. I'm not saying authority now is not respected (I'm not in the locker room to see that), but the no-nonsense business attitude appears to be lost. We were a team that knew we had a football game to play, or rather a war to win, and we went to war each week with winning as our goal. The players responded (or so it seemed) and we had a focused team on our hands.

Also, let me just throw out one other thought that I heard while at the game on Friday. A guy sitting two rows in front of me says, with about 7-8 minutes left in the game, "Clearly one coach made halftime adjustments." Remember when we knew we'd come out in the 2nd half and lay waste to teams? Now, it seems like we need a huge lead so we can hold on for a win after the other team adjusts and we do nothing.

[Flipper]

I don't think there's any one approach...hard assed vs player's coach vs something in the middle that works because you can find examples of each approach working. I don't think anyone can argue that the approach we've seen over the second half of the season hasn't worked here....our offense became vanilla and we became alarmingly easy to defend. The defense wasn't good enough to overcome the offensive shortcomings...although the offense didn't blow a huge lead to a crappy BSU team...the offense didn't let Kareem Hunt run free all night and the offense didn't let NIU convert more than half of their 3rd downs (10/19).

What strikes me about our team is that we didn't have answers..our coaches didn't seem to make ANY adjustments all year (unless you count limiting the playbook to like 5 plays as an adjustment) and the players didn't seem capable of rallying together. Travis Greene was ANGRY after that 4th and 2 pass to him on the sidelines that got blown up. I don't know if he was mad because it was a stupid play call, a poor pass that forced him to turn and run back to the ball before trying to head up field , or because he was hung out to dry with zero blocking. But he was ANGRY. Was anyone else? Were the coaches pissed about the stomping they took? More importantly....are the coaches capable of learning from their mistakes and righting this ship?

[footballguy51]

Perhaps he was angry because the play before he ran backwards and put us in the 4th down situation?

[hammb]

I a green flipper and that's the root of my annoyance with the criticism of the coaches this year. I've seen a lot of bitching about how defense wins championships and you cannot win with offense. I've seen bitching about how you cannot win by preaching your players have fun, etc. Then I've seen a whole lotta "I told ya so" when things have gone to s**t. Throw in a lot of comparisons to Gregg Brandon without any understanding of what Brandon's downfall really was...

I'm upset right now and not at all pleased with the direction this team headed. It has nothing to do with the offensive philosophy, which I still believe is the mathematically superior way to play football (and a helluva lot more fun to watch, IMO). I'm upset because this team proved to be mentally weak every time they faced some adversity in a game. They didn't adjust and they didn't rise up to the challenges. That goes for the players and the coaches, but of course a lot of mental toughness does from the coaching staff...and it wasn't there. I don't care what philosophy you of with it won't work if you're going to fold up and quit every time you face some adversity. You're also not going to wi. If your adjustments to a struggling qb are to go into a complete shell...I don't know if Knapke has any strengths that we could have played to, but if he doesn't we should have moved on...you cannot win with the play calling we had on offense.

The secondary played a little better as the season went on, but was brutally bad against Niu. The offense was hot garbage all year and I really expected to see some improvement as the year went on. The one thing I will say about this brand of football is you cannot win and it'll lead to ugly losses if you're not scoring points. It's like trying to play defensive ball control football and not being able to run the ball...it's a requirement of playing that type of game.

I think Babers will prove to be a good recruiter, and ultimately that was Brandon's real downfall. I'm hopeful that as he starts getting his own recruits in here we will see a much better product on the field. One thing is for certain and that is that this brand of football did not really work with this group of players. And when it didn't work right away the coaches showed very little ability to change things and make it work. They better recruit their asses off and sit back and realize they need to find some answers themselves as well.

[apollo]

I don't know if Babers will turn this around or not. The team definitely needs more discipline, but let's stop with the bring Clawson back nonsense.
Clawson recruited well with one of the top 3 facilities in the MAC and huge upgrades to the recruiting budget. He didn't lose many games to inferior opponents and he had an above average defensive coordinator.
He underachieved on the field and other than beating a injury riddled OU team back to back years and a great MAC Championship win. Other than that he never beat anyone who was worth much. He had the program in a good position heading into the year and deserves credit for that, but he certainly wasn't the next coming of Urban Meyer, and more than likely Wake Forest will be looking for a new coach when his contract runs out.
Next year will be a big one for Babers...I dont know if he'll ever regain the fan base unless he puts together another MAC Championship run, but time will tell.

[Schadenfreude]

One thing is for certain and that is that this brand of football did not really work with this group of players. And when it didn't work right away the coaches showed very little ability to change things and make it work. They better recruit their asses off and sit back and realize they need to find some answers themselves as well.

This is a good point.

I still remain hopeful that the issue is under center. We will presumably find out next season, when the program has more options (including, presumably, Johnson).

That said, I certainly hope members of the coaching staff aren't assuming that. They better be asking themselves some tough questions about this offense that they have installed. For example:

1. Can they consistently identify the talent needed to run it?
2. Can they adjust when they don't have the talent needed to run it?
3. Will it work consistently when the skies of November turn gloomy?

[kdog27]

Coaches can run their locker rooms however they like. I imagine there are countless examples of a lax locker room working and just as many of a strict one not working.

As much as I dislike them to this point, I'm not ready to give up on this coaching staff yet. I don't think it is fair to do that after one year. That said they have done next to nothing to impress me with this team. Winning the East really does nothing for me. 7 of the bottom 25 teams in football reside there, us included the way we played the last 3 weeks. The Indiana win was the lone bright spot for me this year. After that it was very unimpressive. Even in wins there were glaring problems that were eventually exposed this last month.

I never saw this group of players as a much of a team, they played like individuals.

It will be interesting to see how they look next year. They have their work cut out for them for sure.

[mscarn]

Coaches can run their locker rooms however they like. I imagine there are countless examples of a lax locker room working and just as many of a strict one not working.

As much as I dislike them to this point, I'm not ready to give up on this coaching staff yet. I don't think it is fair to do that after one year. That said they have done next to nothing to impress me with this team.

That's where I'm at as well. Uber-discipline (i.e. 'Falcon time'= 10 minutes early to all meetings, posture, etc.) is great as long as it works. Laid back and relaxed is great as long as it works. The approaches of Alabama and Ohio State towards winning games work swimmingly but so do those at Oregon and Baylor. Our conundrum is that we went from disciplined to relaxed virtually overnight and the latter didn't produce the same results. A group of players was used to one way of conducting business and had to adapt to an almost 180 degree difference.

I'll add another observation to those already mentioned: an offensive coach turned to the field and watching the defense instead of gathering his position group together on the bench and making adjustments. Babers frequently mentions that he learned a style of coaching from Art Briles that focuses on the positives and doesn't dwell on mistakes. The intentions are good but (as has been mentioned) does that approach also emcompass the levels of attention to detail and mastery of execution that are needed to succeed at this level?

Compounding the cultural change was a similarly massive scheme change that was aggressively sold as a formula that would produce immediate results. Babers tried to walk back the sky-high predictions in asides during press conferences about taking more than a year to get the production he desires, but by then the YouTube videos had been viewed and the thousands of people who saw an offensive annihilation of NIU last year were salivating for more of the same. The shock in witnessing the drop off in the latter half of the year would have been minimized had the expectations not been so high.

The issues have been maddening but there's enough of a track record of production from this staff to not write them off at this point. Plus, contractually speaking it's not like we have much of a choice.

[Falcon Commander]

h-m-m-m-m-m, we made the list...

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