In Reply to: Yep. posted by Bruinfan4ever on September 01, 2024 at 08:29:23
much, much, much too early to reach that conclusion (although our proclivity to elevate loyalty in former UCLA players over experience and and skills to be a top caliber head coach continues to bother me of course). What's more I've always been skeptical of trying to operate a full NFL offense at the college level where the lifespan of any given QB is limited to his school years. Thought that when we hired Karl Dorrell to come in and run a west coast offense and I worry about that now).
But about Chip - his lack of recruiting emphasis and belief he could just bring in three star OLs and coach them up over a couple years to be successful high-level starters was a failure and he saw the writing on the wall with the talent we had especially on the O Line and in terms of the end rushers this season. He was desperate to leave Westwood before this season, pursued a number of different openings around the country and it wasn't until Ohio State decided to bring him in that he actually made it official which delayed hiring his replacement to the point where the candidate pool wasn't the deepest and the new HC's timing to hit the transfer portal was delayed too long.
Bieniemy is highly talented and experienced - though I hope his scheme isn't just too complicated for college systems (Garbers looked scared and trying to keep track of details in that first half - he was frozen - locked onto the primary receiver, failed to run even when it was wide open, panicked late in plays in the first half - he looked over whelmed until the second half) - and I thought Malloe's defense looked okay despite there being no real replacement for Latu and the Murphys which necessitates blitzing a good deal which diminishes the number of players available to put into a zone backfield scheme (as our talent level and lack of depth in the D Backfield limits how much we can play man D against a spread passing attack. The coordinators I think are good.
Foster was pretty conservative in his approach this first game but when your O Line can't perform, your options are quite limited. That's why this is a seriously transition year. How the staff does in the offseason re: the transfer portal plus its HS recruiting the next couple years will see what chance DeShaun has to succeed here in his first head coaching job. i truly have thought all along that 6-6 is likely this team's ceiling - if everything goes right. Iowa appears to have found some semblance of an offense to go with its overwhelming defense. LSU, Oregon and Penn State seem out of the question. SC should be good on offense and we'll see what their new DC can do with their defense.
You're likely right about the long term with a new HC who has never even served as a coordinator but give him a chance.
The Indiana game is huge for this season. If we lose that then it's basketball season early. But they have two weeks. Hopefully they will self-scout and be honest with themselves about all the problems as they played out yesterday.