In Reply to: Maybe true, but respectfully disagree with your last point... posted by BabyBear on September 18, 2024 at 20:23:48
"Foster came to UCLA under Mora, and the RB situation improved right away, as well as at Texas Tech under Kingsbury"
Mora had the top two all-time leading rushers in school history (J. Franklin and Paul Perkins) before Foster became RB coach. Foster was not RB coach for either. It's not like Mora didn't have some good backs and DF came in and made some dramatic impact.
In 2016 we were 127th in rushing yards nationally. After Foster came on board in 2017 (under Mora) we were 115th. Chip's first year (Foster's 2nd) we went to 85th. Chip's second year we went to 81st. Chip's third year we were 12th. Then 14th, 6th, and 16th. Today, through two games, we are 122nd. I don't know what this does or doesn't say about Foster as a RB coach, but I conclude that Chip knew how to run the ball.
In 2015, Texas Tech was 40th in rushing offense nationally. They had a guy run for 1492 yards. In 2016, after Foster came on board, Texas Tech was 123rd in rushing. Their top rusher ran for 428 yards on the season. Again, I don't know what you can conclude about Foster as a RB coach from this one year, but the RB situation most definitely did not "improve right away" when he came on board.
So yeah, I am gonna deny him credit. I'd say he made no impact at TT, and rode Chip's coattails at UCLA. Why did the Raiders hire him? I don't know. The NFL hires bad coaches all the time.