^Hey Wild,
As you said, it's generally good coaching practice to utilize the talents you have at your disposal. I completely agree.
What is your take on Dawson? This is what frustrates me about him. I generally try very hard not to completely judge someone on their first and only year body of work, but I'm struggling.
-Towles/Barker have a strength in their mobility, but Dawson goes out of his way to resist using it.
-We have 2 other RB's who are much more suited for goaline ability over Boom, but Boom generally gets the nod.....despite his poor conditioning to the fact that when they finally get down near the goal, he's gassed.
-etc.
To me that's not utilizing the talents you have to the best of your ability.
Well, I thought he was a good replacement in terms of following up on what Brown had started. IOW, not going to reinvent the wheel. He was not the play caller at WVA but their recent style of play seemed to be what Brown and Stoops were angling toward. So it looked like a good fit.
As far as "using your talent" I'm not sure what to say. My previous reference to "utilizing your talents" was IRF going outside your normal offensive philosophy to take advantage of a unique talent that happens to be on your team. My specific example was Bridgewater should have been allowed to pass the ball more during his time at UofL because he was very, very good at it. This is Stoop's 3rd year and while you may not have the players you really want (do you ever?) shouldn't you should be past the point of "doing something different" (e.g., QB run game) just to play to what you do have? FWIW, I say again this staff has really mishandled the QB situation since year one.
Towles has proven to be a mediocre at best passer. As I noted in another thread, really not much difference between him and Whitlow when you adjust for number of passing attempts. Consequently, his performance has limited the contributions of what was believed to be a good WR corp although they have been somewhat beleaguered by drops. Nonetheless, I really like Johnson.
So the only real offensive talent I see that they could "play to" is Boom Williams. He is a dynamic scatback type runner but probably not the best choice in the RZ unless going wide. Other RBs are "average" (meaning not near as good as Boom). Boom is averaging 12 carries/game. He is the real home run threat in the UK offense. I would try to get him up to about 20 carries/game (or more) if he can handle the load. One of those extra 8 carries might be a long one.
But, all in all, Cardinal fans fully understand the position Dawson is in. When your O-line is weak it is hard to make anything work on a consistent basis. All JMO.
Peace
