Sunday, February 13, 2011

Kevin Rogers rumors

I've been wrong repeatedly throughout this process, so I will save the extensive post on Kevin Rogers once the announcement is official. But now there are a few people saying Rogers has been offered and accepted the job. Gene is in London this weekend, so I don't know if/when the official announcement will come. I'll tweet what I know in the meantime.


My gut reaction is that this is an improvement over Tranq but not the perfect fit. Rogers' track record is mixed at best, he's been away from play calling for a long time, he's been away from the college game for a long time, and he favored "dual threat" QBs in the past.


We'll see how this plays out. This post is not some hedge either. I've been right on some things before and wrong plenty of times. I am just passing on rumors that have legs, so take it for what it is worth. I am still holding out hope that this is wrong and my original Day post turns out to be true.

13 comments:

Benjamin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Benjamin said...

Bill,
I know you won't probably comment as to who would be the best fit, but is there any chance you could provide some analysis as to why Day would be the fit? After reading what everyone has said about Rodgers, I can't think of any major negatives with this. I'm curious as to why you're pressing Day so hard, when his performance over the last two seaons has been barely par.

blist said...

Hard to argue with Rogers - having coached in the northeast and worked with McNabb. Let's just hope he didn't pick up texting tips from Favre.
the fact the WRs often looked like they had The Thing's hands hurt Day, to me at least.

eagleboston said...

I find it very interesting that BC football has made a paradigm shift in then past decade. All throughout the 80's and 90's, BC was an offensive team and the defense was usually a poor tackling disaster unit. That has dramatically changed with the emergence of BC's defense, especially in the post-Ryan years, as the strength of this team. If we ever get the 2 units on the same page, we can win the ACC.

BC does not need a fancy spread offense to be successful. We need a coordinator that will keep the pro-style attack which will get us NFL-hopeful pocket passers. We need to use our O-line U rep to get the line blocking again and pound the football and then have our pro-style QB's make plays when needed and limit mistakes. We need to score in the 20's and let the defense do the rest.

This is what BC needs in an OC and I hope whoever they pick fits that mold. Stanford proved that an academic institution with a pro-style, smash-mouth attack and a great defense can be highly successful.

EL MIZ said...

whenever the announcement is official, i'd love a post reading what you see as the pros/cons of the new OC v. day (presuming day is not the eventual hire).

i just don't understand how such a lackluster year from the WR group can lead to such a desire for the 31 yr old position coach of the group. what am i missing about day? http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/day_ryan01.html. there's his bio.

starting QB at UNH for 3 yrs (OC chip kelly) > tight ends coach at UNH for 1 yr (OC chip kelly) > offensive graduate assistant at BC for 2 yrs > offensive graduate assistant at Florida (under urban meyer) > then 07/08/09/10 WR coach at BC. two best WRs from the BC era - b-rob and rich gunnel. his pedigree having worked with both chip kelly and urban meyer is certainly interesting but, once again, given the poor yr of the WRs, i don't think you can just hand the guy the job.

here is the kevin rogers bio:
http://www.vikings.com/team/coaches/kevin-rogers/98211720-e194-4fbf-ac70-9a7d2bb32aad


looking forward to the ATL breakdown.

Scott said...

This is a quality hire. I think people are overlooking some big positives, aside from the (critical) fact he did very well at Syracuse and Va Tech.

Don't forget that both Minnesota & Va Tech were "run-first" programs, that featured a power running game. HIs offense was meant to work big strong OL. That's a good fit for us.

Even though he liked mobile QBs, he always wanted and needed pass-first QBs. He wasn't working with dual threat running QBs, he still wanted his QBs to pass-first, which is fine.

He's more creative with this running game, and he's always done a good job using screens, boots, mis direction etc, to ease things for the RB. I think that's a positive.

He did wonders with Bryan Randall (a marginal recruit), got him to 69% completion rte and 2-1 TD/INT, that's pretty good.

In my view, his mot impressive wrk in the NF was not guiding Farve 2009 season, but what he did with Joe Webb this year. Recall, Webb was a rookie targeted for WR, before forced into action this year. But somehow he got Webb ready, and marched all over the Eagles at season ending. That was impressive.

mod34b said...

Yikes....another 60 year old guy...on the decent in his career .... Making a few more bucks before retiring.....isn't BC prominent academically on retirement issues? Maybe Rogers, Spaz and Tranq are part of an academic study

But seriously, if this does not work, and work fast, BC football is in big trouble

Jamie M said...

The BC London alumni club organized an evening to meet Gene D. About 40 people came. Gene makes the rounds and introduces himself to everyone before giving a 20 minute talk on the state of the program. He's funny, personable and seems to really love BC.

At the end of the talk, he opens it up to Q&A. As he just flew 3,000 miles and was meeting us on a Friday evening, I didn't want to start the Q&A on a hostile note, but no one raised their hand for a solid 30 seconds so I jumped in. I thanked him for all the great work thru the years and for his leadership in moving us to the ACC. I then asked him about the comments from Mark Herzlich's dad about improving the experience for players and recruits. I asked him specifically about recruits having to sleep on the floor at freshman dorms when they visit.

Gene stated that he had read Herzy's dad's comments but he did not want to comment on them specifically. Gene was obviously not thrilled about the comments. Rather than elaborate, someone asked a softball question about tailgating and he moved-on.

Immediately after the Q&A, the assistant AD approached me about Herzy's dad's posts and I handed him the messages. I explained that Herzy's dad didn't mean for the posts to be a critique of Gene and that he retracted the post and issued a clarification.

Gene D then approached me and I asked him about the OC gig. He said that they offered Kevin Rogers the job and Kevin had accepted - Gene was hoping the deal was going to be finalized that evening. I didn't have the chance to ask why Rogers and not Day, but Gene seems to really his QB experience and success.

Anyway, that's the story from London. All you can really say after meeting Gene is that he's a helluva ambassador for the school.

EL MIZ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
EL MIZ said...

Mod34B wrote: "Yikes....another 60 year old guy...on the decent in his career ...."

You seriously can't distinguish this guy from Tranquill? Tranquill was lured out of his SECOND retirement, with his most recent NFL experience being the OC of the cleveland browns in 1993. He turned 69 a few months after his hire.

Rogers will be nearly a decade younger than 3rd and 9quill at the time of hire, and has been doing a strong job in the NFL. They aren't luring this guy out of Boca Raton. I liked Scott's post above on Rogers and his previous success with QBs, both in pro and college (McNabb, Randall at VA Tech). As he mentioned, Rogers' was likely instrumental in getting Joe Webb into shape as a legitimate NFL QB for the Vikings, who was drafted to play WR and more than held his own in beating the Philly Eagles this year.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=301228021

I like this a lot more than Tranquill and don't think they are even in the same ball park. Luring a QB Coach from the NFL who's recently had success and has done well in the last decade in college > Convincing a 70 yr old to un-retire again

lbkjj said...

Sounds like we have a news scoop from our London correspondent, Rogers it is!

mod34b said...

EL MIZ -- sure there are difference btw Rogers and Tranq.

But there are similarities too.

Main similarity: both were hired from the unemployment line (Rogers was fired last month)

both are well past their primes.

both in their 60s when hired and both are at or close to retirement.

neither could possibly be around long enough to build a program as each has/had a maximum shelf life of no more than 4 years. (Not too impressive to offensive recruits)

both hires are desperate, last resort hires because Spaz is a doofus who can't attract a serious OC.

both are on the decline, but, of course, Tranq's decline was must more pronounced. yes, Tranq was a a worse hire than Rogers, but that does not mean Rogers is a good hire.

Sure Rogers is an ok hire, but nothing too impressive. At this point, I'd give the hire a C+.

mod34b said...

Why do I get the feeling that the previously unknown "McDaid" is a fiction writer and just making up all this GDF stuff?

the "report" from London sounds like complete bullshit