Our new OC

[Matt3467]

Leach's offense didnt work at State. Leach was 13th, 9th, and 8th in the SEC in Scoring. I'm trying to understand the logic of some of these people. Makes no sense

Here's some reality:

The "Holloway up the middle" offense was better than any offense Leach had at State

Mullen's first four years were 9th, 10th, and 9th with two less teams in the conference until 2012 so the bottom. Afterwards his offenses were 8th, 10th, 2nd (found Prescott), 5th, 7th, 7th. Outside of one breakout year with Prescott his offenses in conference ranked in the bottom half. I also don't like comparing Leach's first year with covid and playing an all SEC schedule with Dan's first year as it doesn't seem right. Now we'll never know but had Leach coached here for 9 years I think we forget all about Mullen.

[dawgday166]

The stats are the stats.

Stats can be over or under emphasized as well as manipulated.

[KOdawg1]

Some of y'all are morons. Respectfully, of course.

This is a solid hire. He's been top 30 in the country the last 2 years. Balanced attack. Experienced play caller. I don't know what more you wanted.

Arnett has killed these hires. Brad Peterson, Bump, Friend, Turner, Barbay. Probably gonna keep Washington. Keeping Tony Hughes.

Helluva staff that keeps our momentum going. Let's ride.

[PikeDawg15]

Some of y'all are morons. Respectfully, of course.

This is a solid hire. He's been top 30 in the country the last 2 years. Balanced attack. Experienced play caller. I don't know what more you wanted.

Arnett has killed these hires. Brad Peterson, Bump, Friend, Turner, Barbay. Probably gonna keep Washington. Keeping Tony Hughes.

Helluva staff that keeps our momentum going. Let's ride.

I wouldn?t consider Will friend to be a killer hire, but other than that it?s pretty solid

[KOdawg1]

I wouldn?t consider Will friend to be a killer hire, but other than that it?s pretty solid

Friend is a good hire. If he weren't replacing Miller, people would be thrilled.

[mo7888]

Stats can be over or under emphasized as well as manipulated.

And they don't mean anything without being taken within context....

[Prediction? Pain.]

We were 9th in the SEC in Scoring O in Y2 of Leach. That's the bottom line. So no- that's "not working" to most people.

2015's Holloway up the middle was 5th in the SEC. So Holloway Up the Middle > Any Leach O at State

I'm talking SEC v. SEC games only. We were 5th in scoring offense vs. SEC teams in 2021. And 4th in total offense. And 3rd in 3rd down conversion %. Are those bad numbers? "Not working"?

You want to lump in non-con games (where Mullen almost never player P5 opponents), too? Ok. So how is 7th in the SEC in total offense in 2021 "not working" compared to Mullen's ranks in the same category in '12, '13, '16, and '17 when we finished 7th, 9th, 7th, and 6th?

And if you want to bring in national stats, cool, look at drive efficiencies. We gained more available yards per drive in Year 2 of Leach than every year of Mullen's tenure other than '14 and '15, and we scored more TDs per drive in Year 2 of Leach than every year under Mullen other than '14, '15, and '17. (And in '17, our rank was just barely higher -- 45th vs. 47th.)

Again, I don't see a reason to bash Leach's offense at this point. If you think that 2021's offense was a failure, then fine, we'll just have to disagree. Statistically it was as good as any offense Mullen put on the field save '14 and '15. But whatever. Dude's gone and isn't coming back. Talking about the potential success of our offense going forward has nothing to do with how much any of us liked or disliked Leach's system.

[mo7888]

I wouldn?t consider Will friend to be a killer hire, but other than that it?s pretty solid

The position hires aren't bad they're just lateral in most cases....a little down with Friend and up with Turner...

[dawgday166]

Again, I don't see a reason to bash Leach's offense at this point. If you think that 2021's offense was a failure, then fine, we'll just have to disagree. Statistically it was as good as any offense Mullen put on the field save '14 and '15. But whatever. Dude's gone and isn't coming back. Talking about the potential success of our offense going forward has nothing to do with how much any of us liked or disliked Leach's system.

Agree with this.

[CoachT14]

Check his losses out. He has some under 300 yds/game too. Not sure how the overall competition really compares tho. Hope I'm wrong but this do feel sorta like a JoMo hire to me some.

This is nothing like Jomo. Jomo was the beneficiary of talent advantages everywhere he went.

[dawgday166]

This is nothing like Jomo. Jomo was the beneficiary of talent advantages everywhere he went.

Good point.

[Prediction? Pain.]

Pain is great at the advanced stats. I think sometimes he puts too much trust in them though

All hail the mighty stats!

Nah, dude, I know that I don't know much about much aside from whisky and Pink Floyd. But I do know that when someone says that some football team sucked at scoring points or moving the ball, that should usually mean that they didn't score many points or move the ball. When the statements of suckitude -- and, bear in mind, what I've been seeing the past week or two on this board aren't just statements of suckitude, but grand, unequivocal statements of abject failure like "the offense didn't work" or "the offense was atrocious" or "Will Rogers is incapable of playing well against SEC teams" -- are flatly contradicted by facts, then I get all riled up like an internet dweeb defending the honor of Captain Kirk against the hordes of Picard loving fanboys.

[Commercecomet24]

All hail the mighty stats!

Nah, dude, I know that I don't know much about much aside from whisky and Pink Floyd. But I do know that when someone says that some football team sucked at scoring points or moving the ball, that should usually mean that they didn't score many points or move the ball. When the statements of suckitude -- and, bear in mind, what I've been seeing the past week or two on this board aren't just statements of suckitude, but grand, equivocal statements of abject failure like "the offense didn't work" or "the offense was atrocious" or "Will Rogers is incapable of playing well against SEC teams" -- are flatly contradicted by facts, then I get all riled up like an internet dweeb defending the honor of Captain Kirk against the hordes of Picaard loving fanboys.

Awesome post! Have some rep!

[Cooterpoot]

Lol... Every hire so far was lateral at best with the exception of Turner.... and we've seen this Offense before and it didn't work with a blue blood but you think it's gonna work here... uh huh...

Did you see the air raid be Alabama for 3 years? It was awful.

[Cooterpoot]

Bartoo thought JoMo was a HR hire. I trust Pain way more than Bartoo.

And Morehead had a great offense because of the elite players. There are no elite players at App State.

[Cooterpoot]

If by "didn't work," you mean "was in the top third of the SEC in scoring offense, total offense, and 3rd down conversion % in SEC games in Year 2," then you're absolutely right.

Yeah, we dropped off some in Year 3, but we were weren't so bad that it "didn't work." I posted a bunch of stuff yesterday about how we were still roughly at or just below middle-of-the-pack in the SEC in several metrics.

Also, "Holloway up the middle" scoring offense in SEC games: 6th in the SEC. Airbone 2021 scoring offense in SEC games: 5th in the SEC.

But that last point is misleading. Dak's senior-season offense was better than Will's sophomore-season offense in many ways. 16th in F+ offense vs. 27th. Granted, the 27th ranking in Leach's second season was higher than every offense Mullen fielded at State other than '14 and '15, but whatever.

No need to bash Leach at this point. Arnett's got his man and I'm stoked to see what he does here.

And it went backwards this year with the whole damn team returning for the most part. The Leach Air Raid dominated lazy DCs and teams with defensive deficiencies. He ate those up.

[mo7888]

Did you see the air raid be Alabama for 3 years? It was awful.

We had the same amount of wins against Bama with the AR as Mullen and JoMo combined...

And for the record anyone could see that the version we ran with Will wasn't what ML preferred nor was it where the offense was going... Costello is what he wanted (a big armed QB that could stretch the field vertically and laterally) and when he couldn't be patient enough to take the short patterns they were there Will ended up being our best option. Then you look at the guys we recruited after Will all of them had stronger arms and ability to make a few plays with their feet.... that's where we were going..

[StarkVegasSteve]

Funny enough, we have played against Barbay before...2018 opener vs SFA

[Prediction? Pain.]

Funny enough, we have played against Barbay before...2018 opener vs SFA

I saw that, too. Another interesting note about that game is that it was his first game ever as a college OC.

[StarkVegasSteve]

So I'll deep dive later in the night on the offense but just a cursory look at the last two years:

1. If the run isn't established, we will not win.

2. We are still going to throw the ball 30-35 times on average. There may games where we only throw it 20-25 but by and large the QB is still going to have plenty of opportunities to throw.

3. Will, or whoever is at QB, cannot be a statue in the pocket. They'll have to step up in the pocket at times and there will be times where play design will dictate pocket movement.