Coordinator and position coach interviews

[KB21]

There's a lot that you don't understand about football (like all of it), but let's start with just your main fallacy here. You keep running around saying "pro-style offense" and screaming that the world is ending and our pets' heads are falling off. However, you don't even know what pro-style offense means. All it means is we are going to run plays out of multiple formations (hence the need to add a TE back into the equation) and we are going to use motion. That's it. It has no bearing on how much we run or pass the ball.

Are we going to run the ball more? Yes. No one passes the ball as much as Mike Leach did. There's nothing anyone can do about that. There's literally no one we could have hired that wasn't going to run the ball more than Leach did. That's a fact. The thing that remains to be seen is HOW much more we will run it. We'll just have to wait and see. You don't know and I don't know.

I know you wanted to keep the AR, but the pure Air Raid died with Mike Leach. It sucks, but we can't change it. Could we have stuck closer to the AR than what we did? Yes, for sure. But that in and of itself doesn't mean what we did is destined to fail. Pro Style is not a death knell for us
Good coaches exist across all schemes. All we can do is sit back and wait to see if we hired good coaches or not. Enough with the sky screaming already. It's useless. You can't change a thing and you just look crazy at this point. Suck it up, you tit.

Hmm. . I?m curious about something. How exactly do I not know what a pro style offense is when I am the only one who identified this offense as a pro style system?

The people who have questioned me on this have consistently denied the fact that this is a pro style system. They have consistently denied the fact that this is Jill McIlwain?s system. Barbay even sites, pro style coaches as his biggest influences in his career. Not only that, but he states that everything begins with the running game. When you have a coach who believes that everything starts with the running game, do you have a coach that is going to try to force the running game. That means he is going to run the ball against stacked boxes just to try to establish that aspect of the offense. You have a guy with two years of experience as a flea collar who has consistently called more runs than pass plays. He has never been a throw the ball to open up the running game type of coach.

Mississippi State should never run a run first offense again.

[Homedawg]

Hmm. . I?m curious about something. How exactly do I not know what a pro style offense is when I am the only one who identified this offense as a pro style system?

The people who have questioned me on this have consistently denied the fact that this is a pro style system. They have consistently denied the fact that this is Jill McIlwain?s system. Barbay even sites, pro style coaches as his biggest influences in his career. Not only that, but he states that everything begins with the running game. When you have a coach who believes that everything starts with the running game, do you have a coach that is going to try to force the running game. That means he is going to run the ball against stacked boxes just to try to establish that aspect of the offense. You have a guy with two years of experience as a flea collar who has consistently called more runs than pass plays. He has never been a throw the ball to open up the running game type of coach.

Mississippi State should never run a run first offense again.

Deflect deflect deflect

[Todd4State]

Hmm. . I?m curious about something. How exactly do I not know what a pro style offense is when I am the only one who identified this offense as a pro style system?

The people who have questioned me on this have consistently denied the fact that this is a pro style system. They have consistently denied the fact that this is Jill McIlwain?s system. Barbay even sites, pro style coaches as his biggest influences in his career. Not only that, but he states that everything begins with the running game. When you have a coach who believes that everything starts with the running game, do you have a coach that is going to try to force the running game. That means he is going to run the ball against stacked boxes just to try to establish that aspect of the offense. You have a guy with two years of experience as a flea collar who has consistently called more runs than pass plays. He has never been a throw the ball to open up the running game type of coach.

Mississippi State should never run a run first offense again.

Greg Davis- former OC at Iowa.

Not sure that we had a lot of options at OC honestly. We whiffed on several- including some Air Raid guys. The reality is Arnett is an unknown as a head coach at this time. Hard to land anyone just like Dan had a hard time finding DC's for awhile when he was starting out.

I think Arnett wants us to be pro style ultimately though. If Barbay doesn't work out or gets hired away I imagine that Ryan Lindley at San Diego State will be on the short list. Hopefully he could be a hybrid pro style/Air Raid guy.

To your point the run sets up the pass thought is going away in the NFL because of analytics. It's only a matter of time before that trickles down to the college game. Not there yet as that data is still relatively new.

[Pancho]

I'll second cooter and also vote c u n t. by a landslide

[Todd4State]

We don't have the personnel to be run first IMO- for 2023. Marks couldn't even make it through fall camp without getting injured. Price is good. Pittman is an unknown JUCO guy that we're hoping is Vick Ballard 2.0.

We do have Will Rogers who is an accurate QB who takes care of the ball. Which is a good thing. We have several very talented WR's in Robinson, Roberson, Tulu, Walley, Zavion, and Harvey. And now we've added a four star TE in Goede. Then Mike Wright is a dual threat QB we could use in spots.

If we're running the ball 50% of the time with our current personnel we're not maximizing our talent for 2023. We'll see what Barbay does with it.

[BlackSailsDawg]

We don't have the personnel to be run first IMO- for 2023. Marks couldn't even make it through fall camp without getting injured. Price is good. Pittman is an unknown JUCO guy that we're hoping is Vick Ballard 2.0.

We do have Will Rogers who is an accurate QB who takes care of the ball. Which is a good thing. We have several very talented WR's in Robinson, Roberson, Tulu, Walley, Zavion, and Harvey. And now we've added a four star TE in Goede. Then Mike Wright is a dual threat QB we could use in spots.

If we're running the ball 50% of the time with our current personnel we're not maximizing our talent for 2023. We'll see what Barbay does with it.

I some what agree with this. I get many of the points made by several. Even KB. I don't think we are going to get an OC that all of the sudden changes his concepts though.

[Prediction? Pain.]

We don't have the personnel to be run first IMO- for 2023. Marks couldn't even make it through fall camp without getting injured. Price is good. Pittman is an unknown JUCO guy that we're hoping is Vick Ballard 2.0.

We do have Will Rogers who is an accurate QB who takes care of the ball. Which is a good thing. We have several very talented WR's in Robinson, Roberson, Tulu, Walley, Zavion, and Harvey. And now we've added a four star TE in Goede. Then Mike Wright is a dual threat QB we could use in spots.

If we're running the ball 50% of the time with our current personnel we're not maximizing our talent for 2023. We'll see what Barbay does with it.

With Arnett and Barbay both emphasizing how personnel dictates play calls and "scheme," I wouldn't be surprised at all if they're on the same page with you. Barbay's two years of OC experience in the FBS gives us a pretty small sample size. But it's worth noting that in his lone year at Central Michigan, they shifted from a 60/40 run-pass split in '20 to a 54/46 run-pass split in '21. And in '22, the pass side of App. St.'s run-pass split very slightly increased from '21 -- from 58/42 to 57/43 -- even though they lost four of their top five receivers from '21 (including three seniors with over 800 yards apiece) and returned two RBs who each rushed for over 900 yards in '21. (I also note that even with those two dudes back, the carries got spread out among way more dudes in '22. Wonder why?)

That still leaves a question about the ideal that Barbay is going to strive for in recruiting going forward. Get the best guys you can across the board and then tailor the offense around them every year? That seems odd. But then again, maybe not totally. Compare our "style" under Mullen in '09 and '10 to '12 and '15 to '17. And then maybe add in Florida in '19 and '20. Those offenses all looked pretty different.

So maybe at least for '23, maybe we're going to see something closer to 60% passes, like Mullen ca. '15, when our run-pass split in SEC games was 43/57 and we threw it 43 times a game. For what it's worth, that 60% mark is also roughly what other pass-heavy offenses were doing last year, like WKU and Georgia Southern.

[Dawgface]

And change that up based on what the defense is giving up. I have no problem with 45/55 run if we are popping them in the mouth and they can't stop it.

Agree. And I think that is what we will do in reading between the lines on what Arnett and Barbay have said. But on average based on our personnel I think we will end up 60/40 next year. I?m excited to see how all this plays out.

[mo7888]

We don't have the personnel to be run first IMO- for 2023. Marks couldn't even make it through fall camp without getting injured. Price is good. Pittman is an unknown JUCO guy that we're hoping is Vick Ballard 2.0.

We do have Will Rogers who is an accurate QB who takes care of the ball. Which is a good thing. We have several very talented WR's in Robinson, Roberson, Tulu, Walley, Zavion, and Harvey. And now we've added a four star TE in Goede. Then Mike Wright is a dual threat QB we could use in spots.

If we're running the ball 50% of the time with our current personnel we're not maximizing our talent for 2023. We'll see what Barbay does with it.

+1

[Really Clark?]

Ben Arbuckle from Western Kentucky would have been a better hire for this reason.

A guy with 1 year OC experience and who was an assistant high school coach 2 years ago to come into this league as an OC? No way can you make that decision. He may end up being good, time will tell but extremely too risky of a chance to bring him in.

[KB21]

A guy with 1 year OC experience and who was an assistant high school coach 2 years ago to come into this league as an OC? No way can you make that decision. He may end up being good, time will tell but extremely too risky of a chance to bring him in.

It would have been well worth the risk to maintain the pass first Air Raid scheme. I mean, we hired a guy with only 2 years of coordinator experience whose only experience at the power 5 level is as an off the field assistant.

[BlackSailsDawg]

A guy with 1 year OC experience and who was an assistant high school coach 2 years ago to come into this league as an OC? No way can you make that decision. He may end up being good, time will tell but extremely too risky of a chance to bring him in.

I think they are both risky. I have not looked at a ton of games he has called. I did watch the LSU and Mizzou game in 2021 when he was at CM to see what he would dod against better talent. I went through the plays after watching it too. There were 39 passing attempts to 31 rushing at LSU. Some series, were runs with 3 and out. Some were all passes. But they did try to establish the run and got down by 21 within the 1st quarter which led to more passes.



It was different vs Mizzou. They threw 4 times to 1 rush on the opening drive and continued that until they were up.



To me the game plan vs LSU was horrible. Against Mizzou was way better. A CMU is not going to rush it well against LSU and that was what they tried to do. Against Mizzou, they opened up the run game by making them respect the passing.

[Really Clark?]

It would have been well worth the risk to maintain the pass first Air Raid scheme. I mean, we hired a guy with only 2 years of coordinator experience whose only experience at the power 5 level is as an off the field assistant.

3 years experience. He was OC at Stephen F Austin for a year as well. 10 years of college on the field experience > than 2 years. Barbay has as more OC experience much less overall coaching experience on the college level than Arbuckle's entire college coaching career. You can't spin the experience level between the 2 of them. It's not even close.

[KB21]

3 years experience. He was OC at Stephen F Austin for a year as well. 10 years of college on the field experience > than 2 years. Barbay has as more OC experience much less overall coaching experience on the college level than Arbuckle's entire college coaching career. You can't spin the experience level between the 2 of them. It's not even close.

I still would have hired him or promoted Hollingshead over hiring Barbay.

[PMDawg]

I still would have hired him or promoted Hollingshead over hiring Barbay.

One of an infinite number of reasons you are not now, nor will you ever be, paid millions to make that decision.

Don't let the fries burn.

[TrapGame]

I still would have hired him or promoted Hollingshead over hiring Barbay.

Yeah, cause Clemson and Bama were falling all over themselves to hire Hollingshead. There's a reason we hired another OC and didn't promote from within.

[Really Clark?]

I still would have hired him or promoted Hollingshead over hiring Barbay.

Well I'm sure you would, but your delusions run deep though. Kittley was the only possibility we considered from that branch, correctly btw, and he wasn't leaving TT. You could not consider the other 2 you want for this league at this point and time in their careers. Foolish idea

[KB21]

Well I'm sure you would, but your delusions run deep though. Kittley was the only possibility we considered from that branch, correctly btw, and he wasn't leaving TT. You could not consider the other 2 you want for this league at this point and time in their careers. Foolish idea

So, instead of pursuing another Air Raid coach, we decide to pursue a coach with limited experience as a play caller who comes from Jim McElwain's pro style system. A system that was a complete disaster at Florida when McElwain was the coach there.

[mo7888]

I still would have hired him or promoted Hollingshead over hiring Barbay.

I would have taken either over Barbay as well, but I have to admit that ZA's statement about us not changing much in the passing game and how we'd be foolish to do so does give me hope that we'll see him match his system to the players we have. So while I still have some intrepidation, I'm more willing to let it play out than I was.

[mo7888]

Yeah, cause Clemson and Bama were falling all over themselves to hire Hollingshead. There's a reason we hired another OC and didn't promote from within.

Literally makes no sense...Clemson and Bama weren't and currently aren't falling over themselves for Barbay either...