Unexplainable coaching blunders

[Coach34]

The Polk thread got me to thinking about this. Not leaving campus to recruit is unexplainable to me for a college coach. It should result in automatic termination. And he didnt for his last few years. Name some other blunders that caused huge ramifications- not just losing a game.

Standsbury not practicing his zone offense before the first game of the season- causing us to lose to Rider- and had us on the wrong side of the bubble in 2010.

Jackie running the QB on the last play of the game instead of taking a knee- and Fant got hurt causing our season to spiral farther downward

Mike Price using the school credit card at a strip club

Others?

[FlabLoser]

Does Croom get an automatic bye from this thread?

Punt from the 30. Go for it on 4th down, get first down, then on the same drive don't go for it on 4th and short. Put your 1st string punter in punt block practice - punter injured and out for the year.

[Will James]

Batting Renfroe leadoff would have me call for Cohen's immediate termination*

But lets see... Small Fish

Broomfield on Alshon Jeffrey
DH'ing Tyler Fullerton in an SEC game


Trying to think of Big Fish...

George O'Leary lying on his resume
Mike Rice throwing basketballs
Rick Neuheisal gambling

[msstate7]

Mullen not running the ball with ducre and Dixon once we got the ball to the goalline against lsu 2009. We were pounding them to get there and got cute which cost us the game. This loss cost us a bowl and to keep suffering through lsu's dominance over us.

[CadaverDawg]

Just MSU?

If not, then Coach O definitely makes the list with his going for it on 4th down to help spark our comeback win in the Egg Bowl that year. What year was that? When Pegues ran the punt back for a TD late?

Or better yet, Ole Miss's decision to hire O period.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=txlOreGZ4oo

[CadaverDawg]

How about the QB sneak by Tyson Lee instead of bringing Relf in? Doesn't this have to be one of our biggest blunders ever in football. That would have beaten LSU, and we never do that.

[Bo Darville]

Croom running Norwood against Arkansas in the north end zone on the last play of the half with no timeouts. Prevented the clock stoppage and cost us points. Huge coaching blunder. Bastard couldn't manage a clock.

[Bo Darville]

Stansbury allowing Bost to remain on the team. Period.

[Pollodawg]

Non MSU: Les Miles telling Jefferson to spike the ball with a second left.....Then denying all knowledge of it later. Total chicken shit move.

Mullen: Not bringing in Relf on the goal line verses the Yellow Pants. We could have ended the Corndog streak then and there instead of having to wait to demolish the emaciated Defense they're gonn have this season.

Another for Mullen: Not challenging that BS penalty on Lee being over the line verses Houston when replay clearly showed that he was a good foot behind the LOS still.

Tubberville: During his first seas at Auburn, he had a lead on State, and rather than punt the ball from his own endzone, opted for a safety. If I am not mistaken, we came back beat them by 2. Wasn't the final score 18 to 16 in '99?

[Todd4State]

Les Miles really is a lucky man.

Think of the coaching blunders against LSU:

1. Dan not giving the ball to Dixon.

2. Derek Dooley having them stood up on an apparent goal line stand to win the game. BUT WAIT- Tennessee had 16 or 17 guys on the field- they get penalized and LSU gets the ball closer and then gets a TD.

3. Nick Saban costing himself a perfect season by repeatedly allowing his kickers to try long field goals against LSU. How many did they miss? Wasn't it like three or something? Whatever happened to once bitten twice shy?

4. Tyrone Nix playing prevent defense against Jacksonville State. Which for all intents and purposes should have ended his career there- but there were Army All-Americans at Madison Central and South Panola, which meant he got to stay and fuel a dumpster fire.

5. Arkansas continually throwing on Louisiana-Monroe last year- WHY? Just run it, run the clock and get the hell out of there.

[Todd4State]

Non MSU: Les Miles telling Jefferson to spike the ball with a second left.....Then denying all knowledge of it later. Total chicken shit move.

Mullen: Not bringing in Relf on the goal line verses the Yellow Pants. We could have ended the Corndog streak then and there instead of having to wait to demolish the emaciated Defense they're gonn have this season.

Another for Mullen: Not challenging that BS penalty on Lee being over the line verses Houston when replay clearly showed that he was a good foot behind the LOS still.

Tubberville: During his first seas at Auburn, he had a lead on State, and rather than punt the ball from his own endzone, opted for a safety. If I am not mistaken, we came back beat them by 2. Wasn't the final score 18 to 16 in '99?

I'm not so sure Tuberville's thing was a blunder. We had so much momentum, we were going to win anyway. We were getting the ball back in good field position either with a punt or a free kick. The only reason you could say that was maybe a bad move was because it meant we didn't have to kick a PAT to win it. Which of course, we got a celebration penalty after the game winning TD, so the extra point would not have been a chip shot for us. I think Westerfield makes it, but it would have been slightly tougher.

[Homedawg]

Non MSU: Les Miles telling Jefferson to spike the ball with a second left.....Then denying all knowledge of it later. Total chicken shit move.

Mullen: Not bringing in Relf on the goal line verses the Yellow Pants. We could have ended the Corndog streak then and there instead of having to wait to demolish the emaciated Defense they're gonn have this season.

Another for Mullen: Not challenging that BS penalty on Lee being over the line verses Houston when replay clearly showed that he was a good foot behind the LOS still.

Tubberville: During his first seas at Auburn, he had a lead on State, and rather than punt the ball from his own endzone, opted for a safety. If I am not mistaken, we came back beat them by 2. Wasn't the final score 18 to 16 in '99?

Actually the tubby deal was smart. The only move he could make at the time. And the reason we only won by 2 was because we didn't attempt the pat and took a knee to prevent the block and return. Had it been tied I don't think that would have happened. I'm fairly certain anyway.

[Pollodawg]

Meh, ok then. I concede on Tubbs now that I think about it. I still think Miles telling Jefferson to spike with a second left was the stupidest coaching decision ever not made by Larry Templeton.

[Political Hack]

1) letting Relf call the option left with 2 plays left on the clock against Auburn. Pass... then run. We wasted a play.

2) Does LT hiring Croom count as a "coaching blunder?"

3) on side kick to start the 2nd half of the Super Bowl... it's not a blunder because it worked, but it was boneheaded.

[MaroonState]

Jackie punting the ****ing ball to Derek Abney!!

[Political Hack]

Jackie punting the ****ing ball to Derek Abney!!

I've never been a "^^^^^^THIS^^^^" poster, but ^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^.

[MaroonState]

Just had to get that off my chest if you couldn't tell.

[FISHDAWG]

the Kang - firing Joe Lee Dunn

[Duke Silver]

Stansbury: Keeping the same 5 of Varnado, B. Johnson, Benock, Bost and Stewart for the last 10 minutes and OT against LSU in 2ot game... Never brought in Ravern, Osby, or Turner in that time.

Cohen: bunting Slauter twice vs Samford when Wes Rea was lead runner both times

Cutcliffe: trying to go the length of the field against nation's top defense in under a minute in '99

[Ronny]

..Sly Croom & raise you a Dan Mullen:

#1 Florida comes to Starkville. Tebow is their QB.

MSU is backed up in its own territory, around the MSU 27 yard line.

It's 4th down; Mullen doesn't punt away...that move is "too predictable." Instead, Mullen calls a fake...Robert Elliot gets the ball, prompty slips down (which is the perfect metaphor for Robert Elliot's MSU career).

That meant Tebow & gang had all of 27 yards to go in order to score a TD.

What a daunting task for the #1 team in the nation with a Heisman QB to have to travel 27 yds for a score.

For pulling a shenanigan of that magnitude, a real football school would have fired Mullen after the game.



Mullen, who helped the Gators win two of the last three national titles as offensive coordinator, felt his team needed a big play down 16-13 midway through the fourth quarter.

He called for a fake punt on fourth and 2 from the Bulldogs 27 and watched Robert Elliott take the pitch from the punter on the reverse and appear to run for daylight. But Elliott stumbled as he tried to make a cut.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=292970344

Edit to add:

Cohen calling in Holder to "shut down" Auburn when MSU had a 6 run lead.

That move doesn't top Mullen's fake punt, but it's close.

[MidTNDawg]

the Kang - firing Joe Lee Dunn

If you knew what happened to discipline that season due to JLD your complaint would be not firing JLD mid-season.

[FISHDAWG]

was team discipline JLD's fault ? ... not being cynical here - I always thought he was a scape goat

[Coach34]

was team discipline JLD's fault ? ... not being cynical here - I always thought he was a scape goat

No, it was time for JLD to go. He didnt recruit, left early...he just lost the fire

[FlabLoser]

..Sly Croom & raise you a Dan Mullen:

#1 Florida comes to Starkville. Tebow is their QB.

MSU is backed up in its own territory, around the MSU 27 yard line.

It's 4th down; Mullen doesn't punt away...that move is "too predictable." Instead, Mullen calls a fake...


How should we play against a #1 team when we are steep underdogs? Play them straight up and hope to out-execute them?

[Will James]

Cohen: bunting Slauter twice vs Samford when Wes Rea was lead runner both time

That game had me pissed off for a while.

[Ghost of Hank Flick]

2006 at Georgia. We're down 27-24 with under a minute to play and somehow Henig completes a couple passes that get us out from deep in our own territory to inside the UGA 25. Croom elects not to call a timeout, but rolls Henig (who had just come back from a broken collarbone) out and he fumbles, we lose. If you're not going to call timeout and make sure Henig knows what to do, then throw it in the middle of the field, call time out and attempt the field goal.

[Ronny]

How should we play against a #1 team when we are steep underdogs? Play them straight up and hope to out-execute them?

On your own 27, you toss the football to a very overrated Robert Elloit on a sweep, hope your overrated Robert Elliot can beat to the corner the speed of the #1 team in America, (which becomes a moot point when your very overrated Robert Elliot slips down), & continue your game-winning drive with now only 70 yards to go.

This is what any sane coach would do, of course.

While we are on the topic of stupid moves by MSU coaches, yet another tribute to our illustrious Ron Polk:

How about the time we were playing some small Louisiana school at their place in baseball, were ahead of them by something like 8 runs in the bottom of the 9th, they kept getting hit after hit on our closer, yet Polk refused to pull our closer, & they ended up winning.

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned in the thread. But this one that will live on in Ron Polk posterity.

[FlabLoser]

2006 at Georgia. We're down 27-24 with under a minute to play and somehow Henig completes a couple passes that get us out from deep in our own territory to inside the UGA 25. Croom elects not to call a timeout, but rolls Henig (who had just come back from a broken collarbone) out and he fumbles, we lose. If you're not going to call timeout and make sure Henig knows what to do, then throw it in the middle of the field, call time out and attempt the field goal.

Henig had a guy open in the endzone and he would have probably completed it - except the LT blocked down and let the DE run around him unmolested to blind side Henig.