A Boston College sports blog capturing the highs and lows of being a BC fan living 1,000 miles from Chestnut Hill.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Rogers from a Notre Dame perspective
I asked the Notre Dame fans from the defunct Irish blog Blue-Gray Sky for their thoughts on our new Offensive Coordinator Kevin Rogers. What follows is a string of quotes from them. Please note I am not cherry picking what they wrote.
I have to confess I have very little immediate recall on Rogers, other than embarrassing clips like this:
I always blamed Davie and not any of the offensive coaches.
The offense was good enough in 1999 to win all those close games.
The Rogers offense was effective at times, but horrible in others. He ran far too many qb draws, so many that it was easily predictable. 2nd and 3? Qb draw. 3rd and long? Qb draw. First and goal inside the five? Qb draw. 3rd and 78, qb draw... U get the picture...
"Failed Expectations"
The guy was brought in to make Jarious Jackson and Carlyle Holiday the second comings of McMabb and instead installed a vanilla offense with no sense of clock management. It always seemed like he had all the pieces but he could never really put them together. Now, how much of that is Rogers and how much is Davie? Couldn't tell you. However, we were unnecessarily mediocre under him, I will say that much.
I remember shotgun with 2 backs being a big part of what we did.
The straight-armed, telegraphed hand-off never bothered me. What bothered me was using the straight-armed, telegraphed hand-off without a counter play or play action off it.
I can't wait until Rogers calls Y-hide to beat us at home, and ND fans everywhere explode because they knew it was coming, but Kelly admits they didn't see it in any of the tape/film in preparing for the game.
I remember a common knock being our lack of an offensive identity. Shotgun, option, wishbone, power I . . . we were like the menu at one of those greasy fast food joints that tries to serve every conceivable kind of food.
Really, we had some amazing players on that team and a smattering of cleverly designed/called plays here and there.
If you ask some offensive players from that era they'll tell you that they believe (as Rogers believed) that he was often hamstrung by Davie, who was too hands-on for his own good.
Its funny to look at the careers of people like Rogers - if you took out his ND tenure, you'd think he was a pretty decent offensive coach, given his success at places like Syracuse and Va Tech. As fans, we often joke that people "didn't forget how to coach when they got to South Bend," but for someone like Rogers I really wonder if that's true...
Straight-armed telegraphed running plays
Here's how every Notre Dame running play looked under Rogers.
1) QB gets the ball from center and turns in the direction of the running play 2) QB extends arms out as far and as straight as possible towards RB 3) QB walks towards running back until RB takes ball.
It should be noted that this was especially ineffective on long-developing run plays. I remember it being explained at the time as making it as easy as possible for the backs to handle handoffs or something. It completely telegraphed every play. If ND didn't do this sequence, they weren't running the ball. Bleh.
He's a victim of staying at ND for a year too long. He was offered the OC job under Stoops and stayed, getting tuition and stuff for his kids covered. Ditto a few other big ones. He was offered a few small head jobs but didn't go, and I think he was offered the Rutgers job as well.
Instead of waiting to see where the dust settled after they pulled the plug on Davie -- who I can confirm absolutely bludgeoned the offense, including some technique issues many people talk about -- he took a job with Frank Beamer the next day, even though it was a position coach job and a really stubborn decision. From there he took the reins on some offensive stuff, but was stuck behind Steinspring, who's a complete idiot.
The negativity of ND Nation and how sour it went really wore on him, his family, everybody.
He did a pretty good job w/the Vikings O, interviewed for the OC position w/the Bears, but they gave it to Martz, and then this year happened, hence him needing a new job. Went back to college I'm assuming because of the labor situation, and I suspect he'll do well at B.C.
VaTech fans seem to think it's a good hire. As does HD. Maybe QB draw will be the new run up the middle, but for the time being, I pumped for the hire. (Plus, they're ND fans. Can't trust anything they say. Right Observer College?)
"I always blamed Davie and not any of the offensive coaches."
"If you ask some offensive players from that era they'll tell you that they believe (as Rogers believed) that he was often hamstrung by Davie, who was too hands-on for his own good."
"Instead of waiting to see where the dust settled after they pulled the plug on Davie -- who I can confirm absolutely bludgeoned the offense, including some technique issues many people talk about -- he took a job with Frank Beamer the next day, even though it was a position coach job and a really stubborn decision. From there he took the reins on some offensive stuff, but was stuck behind Steinspring, who's a complete idiot."
I'm not sure how you blame anything in that video on the OC...
1. He doesn't call timeouts. 2. He's not the one who audibled at the line. 3. He's not the fullback who miscommunicated the audible to the guys behind him. 4. He's powerless to make the players on the field hustle to the line and snap the final play.
As for Rogers, I'm going to give him a clean slate. I'll judge him on what he does at BC, given a year or two to install his offense.
Remember that the Bob Davie era was ND's initial fall from its Holtz era heights so every ND fan is overly critical of that time.
I hpoe his clock management skills are not as poor as they remember because I've honestly never seen anybody worse at that task than Spaz, so we could really be in for something. Obviously clock issues are correctable, but they've been going on for two years (+ the Muffler Bowl) with Spaz with no signs of improvement --- and actually signs of the opposite, see, e.g., the Duke game last year that Spaz seemed to be trying to lose with the way he dealt with the end of the game.
Spaz will love the poor end of half clock management.
Seems like a mixed bag review, here's my concern:
"I remember a common knock being our lack of an offensive identity. Shotgun, option, wishbone, power I . . . we were like the menu at one of those greasy fast food joints that tries to serve every conceivable kind of food."
In my view, this was a huge problem with Tranq. I hope this is an incorrect reading of Rogers.
Patrick - several days ago El MIZ said "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."
Tremendous nickname. Too bad we ever hired the guy.
i like what i see from rogers (from the HD interview):
What’s your offensive philosophy? How would you describe your style?
KR: I think it depends on what your talent level is, what your strengths are. Obviously everybody wants to be wide open and throw the ball all over the field and run trick plays, and things like that. You’ve got to fit the round peg in the round hole. Find out what you’re capable of doing and go from there. I feel like I’ve had a lot of experience in a lot of different aspects, whether it’s running the option or the West Coast offense, a lot of different directions.
Is that entirely up to you?
KR: Well, the head coach has the final say, and I’m going to really lean heavily on the offensive assistants here. I’ve heard nothing but great things about them and what we’re capable of doing here and what direction we want to go.
i would expect them to rely heavily on montel/andre williams next year, mixing in a lot of play action and some other pass plays that fit what rettig does well already.
Posts
11 comments:
VaTech fans seem to think it's a good hire. As does HD.
Maybe QB draw will be the new run up the middle, but for the time being, I pumped for the hire. (Plus, they're ND fans. Can't trust anything they say. Right Observer College?)
"I always blamed Davie and not any of the offensive coaches."
"If you ask some offensive players from that era they'll tell you that they believe (as Rogers believed) that he was often hamstrung by Davie, who was too hands-on for his own good."
"Instead of waiting to see where the dust settled after they pulled the plug on Davie -- who I can confirm absolutely bludgeoned the offense, including some technique issues many people talk about -- he took a job with Frank Beamer the next day, even though it was a position coach job and a really stubborn decision. From there he took the reins on some offensive stuff, but was stuck behind Steinspring, who's a complete idiot."
Someone get GDF on the phone. A couple of ND fans don't have a high opinion of our new OC. WHY WERE THESE ND BLOGGERS NOT CONSULTED?!?!?!
I'm not sure how you blame anything in that video on the OC...
1. He doesn't call timeouts.
2. He's not the one who audibled at the line.
3. He's not the fullback who miscommunicated the audible to the guys behind him.
4. He's powerless to make the players on the field hustle to the line and snap the final play.
As for Rogers, I'm going to give him a clean slate. I'll judge him on what he does at BC, given a year or two to install his offense.
Remember that the Bob Davie era was ND's initial fall from its Holtz era heights so every ND fan is overly critical of that time.
I hpoe his clock management skills are not as poor as they remember because I've honestly never seen anybody worse at that task than Spaz, so we could really be in for something. Obviously clock issues are correctable, but they've been going on for two years (+ the Muffler Bowl) with Spaz with no signs of improvement --- and actually signs of the opposite, see, e.g., the Duke game last year that Spaz seemed to be trying to lose with the way he dealt with the end of the game.
ND was already going downhill munder the Pipsqueek Holtz.
Judging by what Spaziani let 3rd & 9quill do or not do - it seems as though the HC is hands off with his OC.
Rogers can win the praise or shoulder the blame all on his own.
Spaz will love the poor end of half clock management.
Seems like a mixed bag review, here's my concern:
"I remember a common knock being our lack of an offensive identity. Shotgun, option, wishbone, power I . . . we were like the menu at one of those greasy fast food joints that tries to serve every conceivable kind of food."
In my view, this was a huge problem with Tranq. I hope this is an incorrect reading of Rogers.
BJK --- I don't think I've seen your 3 & 9quill nickname before. It's tremendous.
Hello Patrick - It is a tremendous nickname, but I'm not the originator.
I saw it awhile back and I'll find it so we can give the proper credit :-)
Patrick - several days ago El MIZ said "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."
Tremendous nickname. Too bad we ever hired the guy.
thanks BJK.
i like what i see from rogers (from the HD interview):
What’s your offensive philosophy? How would you describe your style?
KR: I think it depends on what your talent level is, what your strengths are. Obviously everybody wants to be wide open and throw the ball all over the field and run trick plays, and things like that. You’ve got to fit the round peg in the round hole. Find out what you’re capable of doing and go from there. I feel like I’ve had a lot of experience in a lot of different aspects, whether it’s running the option or the West Coast offense, a lot of different directions.
Is that entirely up to you?
KR: Well, the head coach has the final say, and I’m going to really lean heavily on the offensive assistants here. I’ve heard nothing but great things about them and what we’re capable of doing here and what direction we want to go.
i would expect them to rely heavily on montel/andre williams next year, mixing in a lot of play action and some other pass plays that fit what rettig does well already.
Post a Comment