Can we stop with the "NFL caliber" QB stuff already? 24 TD to 24INT. Choppy footwork. Unsteady in the pocket whether it's collapsing or not.
He "has a big arm". Well congrats, but if you can't control it, it's useless.
Players Glad Dawson is Gone
- Thread starter FiveStarBBN
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He "has a big arm". Well congrats, but if you can't control it, it's useless.
You have to start some place, he wasn't getting any top D-1 HC job. Besides it was a familiar place where he knew he could hit the ground running, or passing.
As fas as Dawson goes, you can't conduct yourself the way he did with the press. You might be a hall of famer in your own mind, but for now you are nobody just trying to cut your teeth. You have to earn the right to act pompous and get away with it in press conferences.
I guess you missed my point. Evidently Stoops was the man calling the plays against Vandy.
Totally disagree. Barker is a redshirt FRESHMAN and played like it. Once he gets experience, he will be fine. I think you'll see a huge jump from this year to next year now that he knows he's the man
I would think they would just stay quiet or publicly thank him, but not go too much in either direction
I think it's pretty clear that Dawson is a scapegoat. It's also very clear that senior management has put Stoops on the hotseat. He is officially a lame duck coach because these situations rarely pan out.
I believe the handcuffing, I didn't see a lot of difference between Dawson and Brown and the common denominator is Stoops
Maybe so but to me PT's tweets only mean that he and Dawson were only parts of the total problems. I didn't believe it in the past but now it seems that there are a few player problems, which has to be deal with.
Crest, if we could duplicate Woody's record at OSU I'm all for it. I don't care if it's Air Raid or Three Yards and a Cloud of Dust...I just want UK to win.
Close enough although if stoops is going to run the offense, just leave the position open and hire a ST coach
If we could win that way I wouldn't care but I haven't seen us controlling the LOS very often down through the years.
I'm not saying that stoops didn't restrict his oc's... That why i think its very important that they get on the same page... If they need to switch to more of a pro set so be it. Running the air raid like this past year will not work. Get a guy that runs a offense like you want,and who knows how to run that type of a offense.. It doesn't work to take a air raid oc and make if run the ball anymore than it would if you took a pro set oc and make him run a air raid...
Three oc in 4 years isn't a great idea. But keeping a guy that will not produce what you need will not work either.. Its better to do it now with barker and wr then waiting a year.. Who ever it is has some very good explosive skill players.. Boom,Baker,Bone,Badet,Juice,Conrad,Greenwood,Richardson ect... That might get interest from a better oc then you think..
If you bring in coaches like Brown and Dawson, and get the offense that we had to endure, someone had to put the brakes on. I have no idea who might come here as OC but its not like we get to take our choice. I can't imagine a good coach coming here, he should be able to see that he won't be able to run his offense and more than likely Stoops is a lame duck.
I think Towles became Dawson's guy. Now he's publicly pumping him up. Maybe they try to pull a package deal somewhere?
And I think it's telling that you don't really even see anyone saying thanks/good luck etc. makes you wonder if he was as pompous/know it all to his players as he was the press?
And I think it's telling that you don't really even see anyone saying thanks/good luck etc. makes you wonder if he was as pompous/know it all to his players as he was the press?
A lot of crazy talk on this thread. If you think Mark handcuffed Dawson than you are crazy.
Mark is a DC, he wanted first downs and some sustained drives. I have heard that Mark wondered why same mistakes were made by PT, wondered why Drew Barker did not get some game time reps and play in ball games. Just what I heard some time around the Miss. St. and UT game, just a total disconnect and Stoops was asking some hard questions. Dawson did not think Barker was the guy, Stoops and a lot of the staff and players thought it was time for a shake up and needed to light a fire or do something different. It was time to see if they could make a change and create a spark. Stoops liked PT and knew the switch was going be end of his career.
Think he wanted to see progress and some improvement, guys complaining that same guys making same mistakes. Guys on staff felt like Dawson put OL in bad situations.
They have told some coaches and people last weekend that after further review the offense flat out cost them Fla, Vanderbilt and UL game. Coaches feel like if UK would have scored against UL in 3rd quarter that they would have run away from them, that was final straw, offense made one meaningless first down. That was it, pretty much everyone in agreement, coaches said if we could have scored a TD to answer than game would have been over. UP 2-3 scores with running QB. I am just saying what I heard go through rounds over weekend and this week. Just saying
I mean this offense was statistically worse than 2014, that is awful offense.
IMO
Mark is a DC, he wanted first downs and some sustained drives. I have heard that Mark wondered why same mistakes were made by PT, wondered why Drew Barker did not get some game time reps and play in ball games. Just what I heard some time around the Miss. St. and UT game, just a total disconnect and Stoops was asking some hard questions. Dawson did not think Barker was the guy, Stoops and a lot of the staff and players thought it was time for a shake up and needed to light a fire or do something different. It was time to see if they could make a change and create a spark. Stoops liked PT and knew the switch was going be end of his career.
Think he wanted to see progress and some improvement, guys complaining that same guys making same mistakes. Guys on staff felt like Dawson put OL in bad situations.
They have told some coaches and people last weekend that after further review the offense flat out cost them Fla, Vanderbilt and UL game. Coaches feel like if UK would have scored against UL in 3rd quarter that they would have run away from them, that was final straw, offense made one meaningless first down. That was it, pretty much everyone in agreement, coaches said if we could have scored a TD to answer than game would have been over. UP 2-3 scores with running QB. I am just saying what I heard go through rounds over weekend and this week. Just saying
I mean this offense was statistically worse than 2014, that is awful offense.
IMO
I would not want to see Kiffin brought into a situation where there has been friction between the Head Coach and the Offensive Coordinator.
Charlotte was just a bad team. Don't count for the offense either. I'm not saying the offense was great but defense wasn't either.
Eliot is year three and still can't defend a running QB. Made no pre game preparations for the 2nd string Louisville QB according to Josh Forrrest. Wow. He's no. Better than Dawson IMO
I am so thankful Dawson is gone. If Towles thinks he is great then follow him to wherever he goes. The statistics show Dawson only produced 10 passing TDs. Towles completion % which should have went up in his 2nd year by 5% or more, went down 2%. Both QB's could not find open targets most of the time and to me, that's on Dawson. There should be one or two short field targets instead of everyone going long or 10 yard outs.
It was multiple times when asked questions during the season.
I haven't paid attention to anything he said from today. I'm sure it was all nice stuff. The mans looking for a job, he's going to be on his best behavior
How long arel some of you guys going to keep on giving the players a free pass?
Dropped passes, scattergun arm, missed assignments, not knowing they're on the special team, bone head penalties and missed blocks. The play calling could have been brilliant but who would know?
Other SEC teams have the same problems, here or there, but UK rosters have honed these problems into a fine art. They all are athletes but overmatched athletes against good teams.
Dropped passes, scattergun arm, missed assignments, not knowing they're on the special team, bone head penalties and missed blocks. The play calling could have been brilliant but who would know?
Other SEC teams have the same problems, here or there, but UK rosters have honed these problems into a fine art. They all are athletes but overmatched athletes against good teams.
1. The fact that 2015 offense was nearly 5pts a game worse than 2014 yet brought back that much was a bad job by offensive staff/Stoops/players all the way around. I have no problem with Stoops cutting bait on Dawson.
2. Stoops mistake was hiring a complete unproven OC in Dawson who was a figure head under Holgerson...but cutting bait on Dawson so quickly isn't something I can hold over Stoops head
3. As far as 3 OCs in 4 years...Brown left UK for a HC gig and more $$$... I don't find any fault in Stoops for Brown leaving..there is no tangible evidence that Stoops ran off Brown.
2. Stoops mistake was hiring a complete unproven OC in Dawson who was a figure head under Holgerson...but cutting bait on Dawson so quickly isn't something I can hold over Stoops head
3. As far as 3 OCs in 4 years...Brown left UK for a HC gig and more $$$... I don't find any fault in Stoops for Brown leaving..there is no tangible evidence that Stoops ran off Brown.
That was part of his problem. Walked around Nutter like he was Belechik and has not done squat as an OC at WVU or UK. No adjustments, no personality, hung with the same guys and did not make them accountable for mistakes. Cost us 3 games with his offense - Vandy and U of L for sure and Florida and Auburn possibly.
. Can we be sure it was dawson that called all three running plays??? I myself think Neal Brown got out while he could. I think stoops wants an offense like Alabama. Run to setup play-action! Problem is, qb's can't throw, linemen can't block, and receivers can't catch!! Somebody, anybody tell me what plays can be called given this!
What an asinine post....Hey, did you happen to notice Brown moved up to a head coaching job?? Do you think maybe THAT is why he left.
Every interview i've seen from Stoops he seems absolutely fair and level headed. If you think he is micromanaging the Offense and just lies to everyone when he says he puts the Offense in his OC's hands then you are living in a fantasy world. Every head coach has some input into his teams Offense. Stoops was no different. And the word is out statement in the coaching ranks therefore we won't get a decent OC is one of the dumbest things i've ever heard on this board. Where the hell do some of you people come from with this BS
Please note: In my reasons for abandoning the vertical passing game, I stated "we abandoned the vertical passing game for whatever reason--deplorable OL pass blocking, particularly at the tackle position, backs that couldn't or wouldn't pick up the blitz, receivers that wanted a different QB or suddenly developed hands of stone, or perhaps a head coach that meddled in the offense or all of the above".
I qualified the head coach meddling reference with "perhaps" because, unless you were on the sidelines listening to the play calling, you just can't know. Just like you can't know that Dawson called the "3 straight plays" in the Vandy game. For all you or I know, Stoops could have called all 3.
But what even a casual observer could determine is the OL was deficient, the receivers did develop hands of stone, the backs failed way too often to pick up the blitz and the vertical passing game simply disappeared. These points are inarguable!
This is the very reason Dawson was let go....my goodness....last year we had a first year qb in towles freshman wr baker,johnson,bone,and rb boom along with heard..very young offense that preformed better than they did one year later..
Plus if stools want to run more he needs to go away from the air raid..
Just stop and think,how many times was Conrad targeted??? Not near enough..that's just a glimpse of Dawson struggles...
I didn't like Dawson from day one. He thought he was a pretty boy and acted holier than thou with his smart *** answers to every question asked of him. But here we go again... players liked him, er no players didn't like him, er some players liked him and some didn't. Also, the players didn't get along, er the players did get along. In reality the football program is messed up and Stoops is grasping at straws trying to right the ship. This is the standard protocol for a program that's in shambles. Stoops buy out keeps him at UK for two more years so he's going to shuffle things around and have a few 'fall guys' to change things up and try to maintain the portion of the fan base he hasn't already lost. Mark Stoops is playing the 'coach on the hot seat' game and it's a game that seldom if ever works. If this excites you as a fan I'm happy for you.
^We had a lot of issues with the Offense. Until we are able to settle into a OC and have them stay more than 1-2 years it will continue to be a struggle. Look back at any situation where a HC has 3 OC's in a 4 year period and the results are not very good.
Hopefully Stoops can get an OC that mirrors his philosophy. Then recruit to that philosophy. If he wants to run the ball ala Alabama and LSU. IMO he needs to recruit backs that are between the tackle type backs that can carry the ball 20-25 time a game and remain healthy.
I would like to see an OC that spreads the field but can still run the football with some power. Similar to what Kiffin has done at Bama or similar to Urban Meyer. Both of those offenses can run the ball and still stretch the field with play action. They both also have good screen game as well using the tight ends. I just hope we get away from this air raid gimmick, sirens and all. JMHO
Hopefully Stoops can get an OC that mirrors his philosophy. Then recruit to that philosophy. If he wants to run the ball ala Alabama and LSU. IMO he needs to recruit backs that are between the tackle type backs that can carry the ball 20-25 time a game and remain healthy.
I would like to see an OC that spreads the field but can still run the football with some power. Similar to what Kiffin has done at Bama or similar to Urban Meyer. Both of those offenses can run the ball and still stretch the field with play action. They both also have good screen game as well using the tight ends. I just hope we get away from this air raid gimmick, sirens and all. JMHO
Stoops messed up going with air raid for three years and trying to tweak it to suit his defense. He took option three and made it option one regardless of what was going on out on the field. Air Raid coordinators don't have it in their language to run it x percentage of times a game and Stoops mentioned it several times. Short passes sets up long passes which sets up run. We wanted to run to kill clock instead of letting our short passing game be our defacto running game until we set up other things in the offense.
Not that big a deal, fans making way too much of continuity. If bad offense than bad next year as well.
Oklahoma looked pretty good with new OC this year, Alabama last year with Kiffen played QB that was a Sr. that had not played any. Did OK. Tom Herman took over Houston this year with new offense, they did ok.
If it's broke fix it, quit for the sake of longevity continue to go with someone that cannot get it done or is good at his job. Dawson was not good at his job period.
Bill Curry had Tommy Bowden's offense, than he ran Bill McCartney's Colorado offense which was variation of veer and wishbone with multiple throwing options with Pookie Jones, Uzelak was combo of both.
That is change, the offense everyone runs and Mark wants is pretty much same thing. No big deal on this.
IMO
Not true from what I saw and have heard through various people. The fact that the defense looked like they knew what was coming was alarming. The fact the Air Raid has automatic calls as far as run plays when 6 are in box or 6 in box with a safety creeping up to make it look like 7 front.
Problem was defense was disguising their men in box or fooling our guys, frustrating. These automatic calls when you have 3rd and 6 and we run the ball, looks like they only had 6 in box but in reality the Defense was disguising forcing UK's hand to run and really knowing the call. Air Raid and Mumme only had a few plays etc. There are Automatics that OC or QB calls when the clock is running down, really played into Defense's hand.
I was at UT game and they waited until last 5 seconds to disguise or wait until Dawson surveyed defense and called play, they just fooled UK. Pretty amateurish if watching. I mean predictability.
Team was fed up.
Agree with this. The air raid uses quick swing passes as runs. Mumme loved to go sideline to sideline early in the game to wear out defensive fronts. He use to talk about that philosophy a lot. That was a very affective way to use the clock and move the chains. Getting defensive linemen moving latterel make them less affective especially late in 3rd and 4th quarters. This allowed them to run right at them late in games because the Dline were gassed and not as quick as they were from having to run sideline to sideline for nearly 3 quarters. Even though they called it the air raid we didn't run it for the last 3 years. The closest thing we came to running the air raid was the sirens after a touchdown.
So did Dawson suck at play calling or did Stoops interfere too much? You can't have it both ways. I hope we get better, but always be careful what you ask for.
As a practical matter, everyone throwing out huge names for this OC job should get over it, because it would take someone that is an absolute idiot to leave a top tier job to come to Kentucky to be an OC, especially at this point. While plenty of our misguided fans make fun of UL for being a "stepping stone" job, UK is a place where coaches go to die. I only remember one coach getting hired away from UK since Bear Bryant. We don't lose coaches, we fire them for losing. We eventually have to give a guy more than a couple years of rope.
As a practical matter, everyone throwing out huge names for this OC job should get over it, because it would take someone that is an absolute idiot to leave a top tier job to come to Kentucky to be an OC, especially at this point. While plenty of our misguided fans make fun of UL for being a "stepping stone" job, UK is a place where coaches go to die. I only remember one coach getting hired away from UK since Bear Bryant. We don't lose coaches, we fire them for losing. We eventually have to give a guy more than a couple years of rope.
The issue was how predictable Dawson was. Everyone knew what plays were coming before we snapped the ball. I knew the plays that were coming before the ball was snapped.. There were way too many times to count this season that I called the play that was coming before it was snapped, I feel like almost every time I was correct thru out the entire season. If I can tell you what plays are coming before the ball is snapped. Then SEC coaches can definitely tell what the play is before it is snapped. A truly pathetic OC we had this last year. Our offense was running almost the same concept as the year before just a new man calling the plays at a way less efficient rate. It's not like our offense had to learn an entire new offense that people keep claiming every time they mention it was Dawson's first year. So what if it was his first year, it's not like they went from an air raid to a pro style. They went from an air raid to an air raid (if you wanna call it that). I don't see how difficult it is to adjust to that. But people here will do there damndest claiming that it was his first year and that our team had to learn a whole new offense as the reason for his and our struggles. Those misguided fans also don't know squat about the sport of football. I just don't understand why there are so many of them. Like seriously is it really that hard to transition from an air raid offense to an air raid offense? Or is that Dawson was just an atrocious OC that the players didn't like? I'm gonna go with my gut and pick the latter.
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