I know many of you will see who posted this and immediately dismiss it. It will in any case be my last post. Criticize to your heart’s content as I will probably be dead soon anyway. I am sure most of you will be heartened by this. I will be going into the hospital for my 3rd open heart surgery next week for a rapidly increasing ascending aortic aneurysm(near the heart) and have only about a 30% change of surviving. If I don’t have the surgery, I will not live to see next month according to my Cardiac Surgeon. My reason for going ahead with the surgery even though my odds of survival are slim are that my parents who are in their mid 90’s are not doing well health wise. My mother had a devastating stroke last week and I am their only source of financial support for the overwhelming medical bills they are coping with(she needs round the clock skilled nursing) and I owe it to them to go ahead with surgery, despite the long odds, so if by some miracle I do survive I will still be receiving my Military and Physician pensions and Social Security and be able to continue to financially support them as well as my disabled son.
Although this post may seem very critical of the Oregon Football program and is very painful to write, I have loved the Ducks for many years( I watched my first Duck Football Game in 1950), and fervently hope for their success. I have harped on this same topic for most of the season only to be routinely criticized and attacked. I now feel even more strongly about where the Oregon football program is headed. I can only hope that someone in authority in the Oregon athletic program may read this and make the difficult but necessary changes in the Football program before they dig it into a hole so deep it will take a generation to recover.
I have enumerated many times previously that the major problem that Oregon Football has and may well have in the foreseeable future is a competent O.C. that can manage a game plan and make adjustments throughout the game and at halftime. You can have the most talent and still lose repeatably( see USC, UCLA, Texas and other power 5 schools that perennially recruit elite talent but under perform year in and year out.
I recognized this in the first game of the season and am completely baffled by the inability or unwillingness of the Oregon Athletic program to get off their butt and fix this problem. Most of the Head Coaches at elite football schools(Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Michigan State etc. do not call their offensive plays or manage the offense but instead have enough sense to hire an experienced and competent O.C. to run the offense.
The opposite of this is that a team can have very mediocre talent year in and year out but still go to major bowls and compete with the best teams(see Boise State, Kansas State, Wisconsin etc. In this sense, coaching expertise trumps recruiting ability. Until WT recognizes that he is the problem, and that he does not have the skills to manage an offense, the Oregon Football program will continue in a slow death spiral. He certainly is a great Recruiter and a dynamic Head Coach and has assembled a top notch assistant coaching staff, but he is in way over his head as far as a Coach who can competently develop and manage an Offensive game plan.
The jury is still out in my mind about his coaching ability in general. I have failed to see much improvement throughout the season in his players(penalties, missed assignments, mental errors etc. I do concede that many of his players are quite young and inexperienced but I would expect to at least see some improvement as the season progresses, even with Burmeister.
A good example of a coach who can both Recruit and Coach well, although it is in basketball, is Dana Altman. Who would have thought he would, in a few short years, turn Oregon into a basketball powerhouse. Obviously we struck gold in his hire as he can both recruit and coach at a very high level.This is a very rare gift to have as either a Football or Basketball coach. To reiterate, Oregon needs an O.C. who understands how to manage a game or it won't matter how much talent we recruit. I hate to say this but W.T. is either very unintelligent or stubborn, but until he hires a competent O.C., Duck football will continue in a slow death spiral. If W.T. is unwilling or unable to recognize this, he should be fired. Mullens should be fired as well as he has to see the problem but has taken no steps to rectify the situation.
Having co-offensive coordinators like we do is a joke. We need one competent O.C. who alone is accountable for running the offense. We have had excellent O.C.’s in the past, even as recently as Helfrich and Frost, and I am sure that there are many other Coaches nationwide who would be available and thrilled with the opportunity to assume the role of O.C. at Oregon.
The longer this problem is allowed to continue the harder it will be to get the Football Program back on track.
Although this post may seem very critical of the Oregon Football program and is very painful to write, I have loved the Ducks for many years( I watched my first Duck Football Game in 1950), and fervently hope for their success. I have harped on this same topic for most of the season only to be routinely criticized and attacked. I now feel even more strongly about where the Oregon football program is headed. I can only hope that someone in authority in the Oregon athletic program may read this and make the difficult but necessary changes in the Football program before they dig it into a hole so deep it will take a generation to recover.
I have enumerated many times previously that the major problem that Oregon Football has and may well have in the foreseeable future is a competent O.C. that can manage a game plan and make adjustments throughout the game and at halftime. You can have the most talent and still lose repeatably( see USC, UCLA, Texas and other power 5 schools that perennially recruit elite talent but under perform year in and year out.
I recognized this in the first game of the season and am completely baffled by the inability or unwillingness of the Oregon Athletic program to get off their butt and fix this problem. Most of the Head Coaches at elite football schools(Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Michigan State etc. do not call their offensive plays or manage the offense but instead have enough sense to hire an experienced and competent O.C. to run the offense.
The opposite of this is that a team can have very mediocre talent year in and year out but still go to major bowls and compete with the best teams(see Boise State, Kansas State, Wisconsin etc. In this sense, coaching expertise trumps recruiting ability. Until WT recognizes that he is the problem, and that he does not have the skills to manage an offense, the Oregon Football program will continue in a slow death spiral. He certainly is a great Recruiter and a dynamic Head Coach and has assembled a top notch assistant coaching staff, but he is in way over his head as far as a Coach who can competently develop and manage an Offensive game plan.
The jury is still out in my mind about his coaching ability in general. I have failed to see much improvement throughout the season in his players(penalties, missed assignments, mental errors etc. I do concede that many of his players are quite young and inexperienced but I would expect to at least see some improvement as the season progresses, even with Burmeister.
A good example of a coach who can both Recruit and Coach well, although it is in basketball, is Dana Altman. Who would have thought he would, in a few short years, turn Oregon into a basketball powerhouse. Obviously we struck gold in his hire as he can both recruit and coach at a very high level.This is a very rare gift to have as either a Football or Basketball coach. To reiterate, Oregon needs an O.C. who understands how to manage a game or it won't matter how much talent we recruit. I hate to say this but W.T. is either very unintelligent or stubborn, but until he hires a competent O.C., Duck football will continue in a slow death spiral. If W.T. is unwilling or unable to recognize this, he should be fired. Mullens should be fired as well as he has to see the problem but has taken no steps to rectify the situation.
Having co-offensive coordinators like we do is a joke. We need one competent O.C. who alone is accountable for running the offense. We have had excellent O.C.’s in the past, even as recently as Helfrich and Frost, and I am sure that there are many other Coaches nationwide who would be available and thrilled with the opportunity to assume the role of O.C. at Oregon.
The longer this problem is allowed to continue the harder it will be to get the Football Program back on track.
