for poor coaching, planning and sideline management of the defense, offense and special teams. I realize ultimately it falls on the head coach, but when will CMS decide some changes must be made in order for KY to be successful. Looks like political correctness on the sidelines is the problem.
When do the assistant coaches get blamed
- Thread starter VFO
- Start date
Well, most of our woes are special teams and there is no ST coach, so that falls directly on Stoops. The OC and DC do deserve quite a bit of criticism, especially the offensive line coach.
Ultimately the responsibility of the performance of the assistants falls back on Stoops because he is the one that hired them and he is their boss.
What about the WR coach...Nobody ever mentions his name...Last I checked we have dropped quite a few balls this year yet the same guys keep running out on the field every game...my biggest complaint is why Conrad is not touching the ball at least 8-10 times a game?
Offense - has been terrible. Since Stoops has a defensive background, this is our most important assistant coach. If Dawson has been calling the plays, he needs to go. Simple as that. However, there is a lot of speculation that Stoops is not letting him run his offense. If so, it is on Stoops.
Defense - not great but respectable. Stoops and Eliot share the praise/blame for this one.
Special Teams - an abomination. We have no ST coach and it shows. This is on Stoops.
One thing for sure, some things need to change for us to be successful next year. If it is coaching changes, those need to happen the week following the regular season, bowl or not. If Stoops thinks he can fix this thing without firing coaches, he needs to come clean to the fans. We know there is something wrong. If he wants us to be "All In" next year he has to demonstrate that he too sees a problem and he needs to publically lay out his plan of action to correct it.
Defense - not great but respectable. Stoops and Eliot share the praise/blame for this one.
Special Teams - an abomination. We have no ST coach and it shows. This is on Stoops.
One thing for sure, some things need to change for us to be successful next year. If it is coaching changes, those need to happen the week following the regular season, bowl or not. If Stoops thinks he can fix this thing without firing coaches, he needs to come clean to the fans. We know there is something wrong. If he wants us to be "All In" next year he has to demonstrate that he too sees a problem and he needs to publically lay out his plan of action to correct it.
Assistants typically get fired/hired once or twice in the tenure of a HC (successful and unsuccessful tenures). A sure sign a HC is approaching the hot seat is a purge of assistants because self preservation is the first law of nature. Once you try & fail with multiple assistants, the general consensus is "the problem is not the assistant coaches--the problem is the head coach" and you get a pretty thorough house-cleaning of the whole staff (HC on down). Likewise, if an AD has multiple failed revenue-generating HC hires on his watch, sometimes the AD takes a walk with his outgoing HC & staff.
Dropped balls aren't on Mainord. We absolutely can't afford to lose him. He's one of about three or four coaches that are carrying their weight recruiting. It would be devastating to lose him.
Agree and Mainord has nothing to do with Conrad, that's Marrow. But since neither is a play caller who's targeted, what play is called, is on Dawson.
There are four coaches that we absolutely can't lose next year: Mainord, Scott, Marrow and Ansley.
I would be perfectly okay with all of the other coaches not being retained (won't happen but still).
Buh - signed a 1 year deal so I would be surprised if he is retained. We need a legit special teams coach with his spot. He needs to be replaced with a ST coach.
Schlarman - I'm indifferent because he has some studs coming in (they said he is the reason they are coming) because the guys he's having to work with now are baaaaad. Probably gets at least one more year.
Brumbaugh- not impressed with him. Would be okay with him not being retained.
Dawson - anxious to see these last two games and how they play out. Probably gets another year
Eliot- Will probably be retained but contributes virtually nothing. Doesn't recruit and doesn't seem to know what's going on play calling wise.
It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Buh let go AND one of the four coaches we can't lose get a better job offer and take it. I could really see Neal Brown coming after Mainord or Scott to bring one of them on as OC. If that happens, I think their spot should be filled with an experienced OC and have the co-OC titles. Three pretty realistic candidates for me are :
James Coley (Miami) - spread/west coast type offense, very multiple. Familiar with south Florida and Stoops
Bill Leg (Marshall) - runs a spread offense and is familiar with the south Florida area for recruiting.
Tony Peterson (LA Tech) - came from Marshall so is familiar with the high tempo spread offense. Also coached at Minnesota.
I would be perfectly okay with all of the other coaches not being retained (won't happen but still).
Buh - signed a 1 year deal so I would be surprised if he is retained. We need a legit special teams coach with his spot. He needs to be replaced with a ST coach.
Schlarman - I'm indifferent because he has some studs coming in (they said he is the reason they are coming) because the guys he's having to work with now are baaaaad. Probably gets at least one more year.
Brumbaugh- not impressed with him. Would be okay with him not being retained.
Dawson - anxious to see these last two games and how they play out. Probably gets another year
Eliot- Will probably be retained but contributes virtually nothing. Doesn't recruit and doesn't seem to know what's going on play calling wise.
It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Buh let go AND one of the four coaches we can't lose get a better job offer and take it. I could really see Neal Brown coming after Mainord or Scott to bring one of them on as OC. If that happens, I think their spot should be filled with an experienced OC and have the co-OC titles. Three pretty realistic candidates for me are :
James Coley (Miami) - spread/west coast type offense, very multiple. Familiar with south Florida and Stoops
Bill Leg (Marshall) - runs a spread offense and is familiar with the south Florida area for recruiting.
Tony Peterson (LA Tech) - came from Marshall so is familiar with the high tempo spread offense. Also coached at Minnesota.
Interesting OC list especially Leg and Peterson. I have watched Marshall several times this year and Kentucky fans would absolutely go crazy over an offense like that, and they have no trouble finding some really top talent to play in it, for a non P5 school. Every time I watch Marshall I think "dang if they can have an offense like that why can't Kentucky?" Who knows maybe we can.
Being devils advocate here...if the rest of the assistants are responsible why is he not responsible for the guys that play for him... If he is the one that is responsible for recruiting these wide receivers why did he recruit them if they can't catch the ball... see how that works... He works with these guys everyday... The same guys keep making the same mistakes over and over why are they playing because he is responsible for the guys that are put on the field during games...you see I dont think any one on this sraff should be exempt from criticism... The closest one that I can see is the tight ends coach and his position has the best player on the team and they won't throw the guy the damn ball... you see I am of the opinion that Stoops is in over his head it is not going to get this job done
What you need to realize is that if Stoops really dosen't know what he wants offensively , but he sure dosen't want what these guys have because he had one in NB and it didn't work with he and stoops...I'm afraid Stoops is wanting an old school running clock eating O...Unless he can recruit OL like Ala does he is doomed here
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How many of the assistant coaches get served up as sacrificial lambs to cover the *** of the head coach does not really have any effect on whether I buy tickets or not. Even the OC and the DC are not high enough on the food chain to cause me to not buy tickets.
Now, the head coach. That is different (see: Joker). But not just yet with this one.
Slugger, this comes right back to the OC!!!
It's going to be interesting to see how productive our WR's are this next game. If you sense a bit of concern in my statement, (are WR's
dropping balls deliberately or just not giving a 100% effort).???
That thought has crossed my mind!!!
Remember it was Drew Barker that played a MAJOR ROLE in the recruitment of our skill players & then helping to hold those recruits in the fold!!! There is no disputing that promises were made early on by the staff, that Drew would get a chance play a series or two.
Those same promises were made for the first four or five games into the season. As a result, we have heard rumblings of dis-content in the locker room!!! Am I a conspiracy fan???
If - IF any of this has any degree of truth(???), it could have had a bearing on the results that we have been witness to!!!
One other observation that I have made is the blocking, or lack thereof by our WR's. I harken back to the LSU Game of last season & the Clean- yet hard block by Baker and his subsequent benching for the next game!!! That act by the coaching staff sent a powerful & strong message to the team!!! " WE WANT OUR TEAM TO PLAY WITH AGGRESSION AND EFFORT", yet when we demonstrate those qualities, we are punished!!!
Again, is that a conspiracy statement????? It surely is open to conjecture!!!
Not to be a fly in the ointment but last year at this time half the posters on this board were calling for Neal Browns head because he was not using our all-american QB-to-be correctly. Neal Brown had Towles running to much and was a bust at OC, he should go!
Instinctively playing the "Tough SEC Schedule" card is a little harder this season considering we drew teams from the bottom of the West, plus an East with a down Missouri, an in turmoil Georgia and a South Carolina team that the coach quit on in the middle of the season.
The list of teams we got to avoid this year includes: Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss and Texas A&M.
Obviously our schedule this year was technically SEC, but not really what people typically have in mind when they cite anything about "SEC quality".
At what point do we stop using the "we're young" excuse? Most of these guys have had at least 22 games now. As far as experience, that isn't young IMO.
Just because they're sophomores, I don't consider them young due to their playing experience.
Just because they're sophomores, I don't consider them young due to their playing experience.