I didn't read all of the posts, don't have time. Unfortunately, all of these symptoms have been there for the last three years. Just my opinion but I saw if for years at the HS level, the good coaches were very detailed and fixed problems, didn't let them go and keep repeating them
Special teams is a great example. We now have a great coach and it is showing up with results. The results are a product of excellent teaching of the much finer details of special teams play. Honestly all we see are the results on game day but during practice he is likely on kids if they are two steps to the left or right too far, not holding the ball just right or some very small adjustment. Good coaches do that all of the time.
Why did Dana stay with the Sat offense and not introduce his own? Where are the combo routes, natural pick plays, and more. Our WR room seems to be upgraded as many have pointed out but why aren't they getting open more? Too long routes, not crisp routes, poor adjustments between QB and WR.
Why do we keep making the same dumb calls inside the 10 yard line. If you bet 1st down would be a fade to the right you would win more often than not. Second play is EJ to the right where 5 guys are waiting. Then another pass and by this time the rush has overwhelmed DR and he panics.
Our D coordinator is just not good, regardless of where our Pass D WAS ranked. That was due to lousy opponents. My biggest complaints on his D are he can't consistently stop the run (so who cares if you HAD the highest ranked pass D), he does not secure the edge, he lives by the blitz and you saw the outcome of that against Minny on the screen on 3rd and long, and finally, our LB's are totally out of position and get arms on tacklers most of the time but no body. I do think we have a good LB coach and have seen good play there in the past so I am going to lay this at the DC's feet.
Our O line is just so horrible, I know HS coaches who could produce better results. I won't say we have AA players at every position but we are much better than we are showing. Where are all the other coaches who have coached OL? Didn't Rhule coach that position at one time?
I could go on but ultimately it comes down to Rhule. He is a communicator, pure and simple, not a coach in the pure sense of the word. If he was, he would be spotting problems with footwork and hand placement in practice and get it fixed. All the great coaches do/did that. Tom was famous for it, Saban would walk by a position group and notice something and get it corrected. We are aren't correcting anything.
Does anyone really think Minny has more and better athletes than we do? What they have is superior coaching during the week, planning against an opponent and game day management which our current staff does not have.
Lastly, I questioned if we could win consistently with Raiola as the QB. He makes us way too one dimensional and vulnerable. The opposing team really needs to stop one person on our team, Dylan. Think about it.
