Air-Raid Offense coming to Wisconsin

[Knight Shift]

Nice article on Longo. He's one I'm keeping an eye on to see how he does at Wisconsin these next couple years.

A couple points I've talked about above and elsewhere. Cold weather isn't an issue and you have to be able to adapt or get left behind.

From the article:

“If you’re not evolving and you’re not growing what it is that you’re doing,” Fickell said, “then you’re going to wake up and be completely behind in all things that are going on.”

The news broke Dec. 7 that Fickell was hiring Longo to run his offense. Leach, the coach at Mississippi State, died five days later.

“He was legitimately elated that we were going to the Big Ten,” Longo said. “He was interested. He usually doesn’t get that excited, but he was fired up that we were doing it.”

Longo trusts Fickell and believes the Badgers can win big. His one real concern was something others have expressed doubt about: Can the Air Raid flourish when the temperatures drop late in the season?

Knowledge equals power, so Longo set out on a fact-finding mission. He compared five seasons worth of game-day temperatures in Madison to those in Columbus, Ohio, where Ohio State uses an offense that relies on putting the ball in the air, and found the difference was negligible.

That’s all he needed to see. His next ticket was punched and he’s had no problem fitting in at a new program.

Wonder if Longo was contacted/interviewed for the RU OC job.
He left NJ after being HC at Parsippany Hills HS from 1996-99 and then OC at William Paterson 2000-01. After a stint at LaSalle in Philadelphia, he bounced around the midwest, then Slipper Rock, then Texas, Old Miss, and North Carolina.

This Oct. 11, 2022 article said:


"Probably considered the home run hire, Longo checks off a lot of boxes. The 54-year old is well-established, born and raised in New Jersey, got his start coaching in New Jersey (Parsippany Hills High School) and has deep Power Five experience (Ole Miss and now North Carolina).
From experience to recruiting to local ties, Longo checks a lot of boxes. Will he leave North Carolina? That might be a stretch.
Why it could happen: Longo is from New Jersey and has been rumored to be a candidate at Rutgers previously for other positions.
Why it won’t happen: Why leave North Carolina at this point when a possible Group of Five head coaching job could open up?"

https://rutgerswire.usatoday.com/li...ard-who-could-rutgers-football-be-looking-at/

 

[rutgersguy1_rivals]

Wonder if Longo was contacted/interviewed for the RU OC job.
He left NJ after being HC at Parsippany Hills HS from 1996-99 and then OC at William Paterson 2000-01. After a stint at LaSalle in Philadelphia, he bounced around the midwest, then Slipper Rock, then Texas, Old Miss, and North Carolina.

This Oct. 11, 2022 article said:


"Probably considered the home run hire, Longo checks off a lot of boxes. The 54-year old is well-established, born and raised in New Jersey, got his start coaching in New Jersey (Parsippany Hills High School) and has deep Power Five experience (Ole Miss and now North Carolina).
From experience to recruiting to local ties, Longo checks a lot of boxes. Will he leave North Carolina? That might be a stretch.
Why it could happen: Longo is from New Jersey and has been rumored to be a candidate at Rutgers previously for other positions.
Why it won’t happen: Why leave North Carolina at this point when a possible Group of Five head coaching job could open up?"

https://rutgerswire.usatoday.com/li...ard-who-could-rutgers-football-be-looking-at/

Don't know but if he does well at Wisconsin, I think HC spot somewhere will be next.

 

[kupuna133]

Wonder if Longo was contacted/interviewed for the RU OC job.
He left NJ after being HC at Parsippany Hills HS from 1996-99 and then OC at William Paterson 2000-01. After a stint at LaSalle in Philadelphia, he bounced around the midwest, then Slipper Rock, then Texas, Old Miss, and North Carolina.

This Oct. 11, 2022 article said:


"Probably considered the home run hire, Longo checks off a lot of boxes. The 54-year old is well-established, born and raised in New Jersey, got his start coaching in New Jersey (Parsippany Hills High School) and has deep Power Five experience (Ole Miss and now North Carolina).
From experience to recruiting to local ties, Longo checks a lot of boxes. Will he leave North Carolina? That might be a stretch.
Why it could happen: Longo is from New Jersey and has been rumored to be a candidate at Rutgers previously for other positions.
Why it won’t happen: Why leave North Carolina at this point when a possible Group of Five head coaching job could open up?"

https://rutgerswire.usatoday.com/li...ard-who-could-rutgers-football-be-looking-at/

My opinion but have discussed with people that know Longo. He would have come if offered prior to ole miss (Ash HC) and UNC. Not sure on this latest move.

 

[NickRU714]

The "we need an offense that works in the snow. Northeast teams cant have the same offense as the South" has ALWAYS been a terrible and uninformed argument.

1. The season ends Thanksgiving weekend. This isn't the NFL with games all December and then January playoff games. It rarely snows during games (which is why everyone remembers the WVU game. Exception that proves the rule.)
2. Let's suppose #1 is wrong and we do get snow every single year and 2 games are severely impacted consistently. Why would we design our offense around 2 out of 12 games? We are going to play worse in September, October and half of November just to prepare for 2 games in late Novemeber?

 

[nikoru09]

No, the biggest problem was the coaches couldn’t recruit the talent needed to make the system work effectively. It wasn’t the alignment, it was the alignees.

That was especially the case with Terry Shea, who was a successful OC at Stanford, and Chris Ash, who was a successful DC at Ohio State.

X’s and O’s, they were solid. Their recruiting left much to be desired.

That’s why I’m skeptical of those who are now claiming, “Replace Schiano with Air Raid Coach X, and Rutgers will win”.

It’s not so easy to recruit talent to Rutgers.

finally......the voice of reason....well done sir.