Coaching, wining, and losing...
- By HoorayDucks
- First Duck Club
- 42 Replies
I've probably been the foremost Mark Helfrich apologist on this forum. I'd like to tell you why that's the case.
I started my college football career at the junior college level. My first year at JUCO we had one of the program's most successful seasons and finished with a bowl victory and ranked in the California JUCO system. (IIRC, if it wasn't for future Ducks star Maurice Morris we would have gone undefeated in league play; random fact: I had no shot at tackling that dude in space). Our second year we were an overall more talented team, had, basically, the same coaching staff, but because of a few key injuries, things really went south, attitudes soured (the team lacked leadership from the players--me included) and we had a losing season. Same coaches, dramatically different results.
I continued playing at a college in South Carolina. We had a talented team, we played hard, but we just didn't have depth. When injuries hit at the wrong positions, we ended up with some liabilities on the field, including at QB one season. Two years after I left, with the same coaching staff in place, the team won the conference championship, the first ever for the college. Same coaches, dramatically different results.
My dad and my brother are football coaches. They've coached for elite teams with championship potential (including Linfield College), and they've coached in Oregon high school state championship games (& the top division!). They've made playoff runs, and they've had close to winless seasons. Same coaches, dramatically different results.
Many of my buddies from college that continued into coaching have experienced the same. They've gone from heal, to hero, and back to heal again in a couple of seasons. I suppose it's the nature of the business: same coaches dramatically different results.
I know it doesn't look like it right now, but I see a ton of coaching talent on the offensive side of the ball for Oregon. While we might perceive some coaches as guys with a proclivity to crush beer cans on their heads, our guys are thinkers and students of the game. Further, Helfrich has developed a culture where guys compete and care about one another--that's been apparent in interview after interview from players and recruits. I know they ran out of gas in the 4th quarter against the Beavs, but Helf had these guys playing hard, even without any hope for a bowl game. And given this season's dramatic fall from the heights of college football prominence, that says a lot (you should take that into account in your assessments, Scott Reed!
).
Overall, we played hard even when we didn't have much to play for.
To me, it's clear that we're a year away from excellence at QB and on the offensive line and we shouldn't take too much of a dip (talent-wise) at other offensive skill positions next season. The future is bright on the offensive side of the ball.
The only question is, can we turn it around on D? No one knows the answer to that question for sure, but we've seen dramatic improvement on that side of the ball this season. We'll have almost everyone back on D next year, too. I think with a little more patience, we'll see dramatically different results with the same coaches.
Give Helf one more year!
I started my college football career at the junior college level. My first year at JUCO we had one of the program's most successful seasons and finished with a bowl victory and ranked in the California JUCO system. (IIRC, if it wasn't for future Ducks star Maurice Morris we would have gone undefeated in league play; random fact: I had no shot at tackling that dude in space). Our second year we were an overall more talented team, had, basically, the same coaching staff, but because of a few key injuries, things really went south, attitudes soured (the team lacked leadership from the players--me included) and we had a losing season. Same coaches, dramatically different results.
I continued playing at a college in South Carolina. We had a talented team, we played hard, but we just didn't have depth. When injuries hit at the wrong positions, we ended up with some liabilities on the field, including at QB one season. Two years after I left, with the same coaching staff in place, the team won the conference championship, the first ever for the college. Same coaches, dramatically different results.
My dad and my brother are football coaches. They've coached for elite teams with championship potential (including Linfield College), and they've coached in Oregon high school state championship games (& the top division!). They've made playoff runs, and they've had close to winless seasons. Same coaches, dramatically different results.
Many of my buddies from college that continued into coaching have experienced the same. They've gone from heal, to hero, and back to heal again in a couple of seasons. I suppose it's the nature of the business: same coaches dramatically different results.
I know it doesn't look like it right now, but I see a ton of coaching talent on the offensive side of the ball for Oregon. While we might perceive some coaches as guys with a proclivity to crush beer cans on their heads, our guys are thinkers and students of the game. Further, Helfrich has developed a culture where guys compete and care about one another--that's been apparent in interview after interview from players and recruits. I know they ran out of gas in the 4th quarter against the Beavs, but Helf had these guys playing hard, even without any hope for a bowl game. And given this season's dramatic fall from the heights of college football prominence, that says a lot (you should take that into account in your assessments, Scott Reed!
).Overall, we played hard even when we didn't have much to play for.
To me, it's clear that we're a year away from excellence at QB and on the offensive line and we shouldn't take too much of a dip (talent-wise) at other offensive skill positions next season. The future is bright on the offensive side of the ball.
The only question is, can we turn it around on D? No one knows the answer to that question for sure, but we've seen dramatic improvement on that side of the ball this season. We'll have almost everyone back on D next year, too. I think with a little more patience, we'll see dramatically different results with the same coaches.
Give Helf one more year!