Me: Given his connection to Jags and Logan, would Doug Martin actually take a job under Spaz and Gene?
Him: Very little chance.
That exchange shows the gossip and speculation is often a bad predictor. But now that Doug Martin is our new Offensive Coordinator, the question should be asked: why?
Why after picking Spaz over Steve Logan three years ago and scrapping his offense are we bringing in a Logan-disciple? Why are we changing offenses from a more prostyle to spread when we have been recruiting players into a prostyle scheme for three years. And why would a guy who clearly can get an inside opinion on all the nonsense that goes on between Flip and Spaz take the job?
When guessing about unanswerable questions, I revert to Occam's razor. My guess is that Gene and Spaz talked to a lot of guys and felt that Martin was the best candidate willing to take the job. Switching from prostyle to a more modern spread might lead to growing pains, but production was so bad there was no reason to lock into the other scheme. Also, I am sure Martin feels he can adapt his scheme to the current BC personnel. As for Martin taking the job...Jags and Logan both liked what BC represents and the type of kids you coach at BC. Logan's son even worked for Gene. Regardless of how things ended they probably spoke highly of BC as a program. Martin might know there are issues and Spaz is on the hot seat, but all things being equal, he is being well paid to coach at a BCS program.
There are a million things to analyze as far as what Martin will do, but these are my short Day 1 thoughts. Some are good. Some are not.
-- I like that Martin is a well know personality in Ohio. He won't be a key recruiter, but he can help our efforts, especially in Northeast Ohio.
-- I've always liked Martin's ability to find under the radar skill guys like Joshua Cribbs, Eugene Jarvis, and Julian Edelman.
-- I like that his offense has been pretty consistent. Martin is no Mike Leach, but I think he is our best OC since Steve Logan.
-- I wonder what he will want to do with the offensive line. Do we go back to a more strict zone blocking scheme?
-- Will the other staffers support him or does he have input on staff changes?
-- Why didn't the players know more about the pending change (see the twitter responses)?
-- How will we use our deep roster of Tight Ends?
-- Does he want a QB who can run or will he adapt year to year based on player's strengths (like Logan did with Ryan and Crane)?
I thought keeping Brock in place was the best solution for BC's 2012 season. Now I am talking myself into the Martin hire. If he can recapture any of the Logan magic, we could be a surprise team in 2012. But my fear is that his two new bosses Coach Flip and Coach Spaz will screw it up in some other way.
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19 comments:
thanks for the thoughts ATL. i had no idea about martin and appreciate the insight.
i think the biggest question for me is why was this guy coaching at new mexico state? coaching in las cruces in the WAC is not exactly the ideal spot for a guy who apparently had success in ohio.
here is the boston globe report:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2011/12/23/doug-martin-named-offensive-coordinator/ghe4b3mTua2MhCa8OhOQsI/story.html
i am cautiously optimistic about your optimism ATL. i thought you'd pan this move, but if you think it is a sleeper i have to say i'm semi-excited.
Good hire, and smart move by Martin. He gets into a more visible East Coast BCS program with little downside -- he can't screw up our offense any worse than it is right now. If the offense and Rettig shows improvement in 2012 but we don't win games, Spaz is likely gone and he has an inside track at the HC job.
Martin never had a winning record in 6 seasons at Kent State. At NMState I don't think had a winning record either. So this guy is not "winner winner, chicken dinner".
Also the notion that there was "Logan magic" is a very romantic notion , borderline fictional . Logan's BC offenses were not highly productive compared to true high powered offenses. Having Matt Ryan helped a little too.
I am happy Brock is out, And Martin does offer some hope for improvement. But he is also not a guy with the stature and credibility to be independant of Spaz. Rogers was that type and that led to disaster.
Bottom line: Spaz is still sucks and he is still the HC. And that really sucks
Jotting down reactions to the hire, to the blog post, and to the comments:
One reason he would come here: Our head coach was born circa 1948 and if he does a good job he could be in line to take over.
I'm with mod34b that Logan/Jags wasn't the offensive juggernaut ATL & other posters make it out to be sometimes. Matt Ryan had 4th quarter comebacks because we were losing with only few points on the board before the comebacks, and running that read-option play 25 times a game with Crane & Davis wasn't creative or enjoyable to watch.
On the other hand, I don't put too much weight on someone calling the same plays and make the same schematic decisions because they were on the same staff with Logan years ago. He's his own guy and has surely developed his own philosophies over many years of coaching. He may have taken great things from Logan, but might have also seen things he didn't like and won't copy.
Is it really fair to criticize the coach based on the record of NM State? I mean, its NM State, not UCLA or Ole Miss with better resources, conference affiliation, and all that.
Hopefully the players gel with Martin and we see improvement. It still needs to start with the offensive line no matter what play is being called from the booth.
I don't like this hire, just because I think the real motivation is buying Spaz 2 more years. Your post has talked a little sense into me, but I'm still not happy.
This hire does not make sense. If the hire is meant to implement the spread offense then it sucks. The spread is lame. Boston College needs to maintain its tradition of running the ball and throwing off play action to TE. We have gotten away from passing to the TE for 3 years until the Miami game this year.
If MArtin is going to run a traditional offense then the hire makes even less sense. How confident should outsisde observers be in him being able to coach a traditional offense when he is a spead expert.
That being said if can score points and win games then I will be happy.
However, I second what others have said in that our offensive line needs to improve dramatically in order to be successful
i wonder if we'll see kevin rogers take a job to coach anywhere, since he is clearly not coming back.
i don't think this move buys spaz any time at all. this is the second or third straight OC that he has hired? (i can't remember if tranquill was his decision, i think it was). tranquill was horrible and rogers was an unmitigated disaster. if the offense sputters this season there are no excuses -- spaz vetted guys and chose martin to be the coach. if we go 4-8 next year spaz (and martin, and the rest of the staff) will be shown the door.
I watched the video interview with Martin talking about his new position at NMSU. Martin was talking about implementing the "West Coast Offense"--not "The Spread".
I think anyone looking for spread-type fireworks will be disappointed.
I expect to see "dink & dunk" passing with multiple draw plays and, for added excitement, an occasional counter.
Until we #fireSpaz and #fireGDF, we will not see any offensive "explosiveness".
This hire doesn't make much sense to me, so we'll have to wait and see. Does this mean that Brock is gone?
Doesn't Gene DeFlipoleon have some kind of ties to Kent State? Martin's record there wasn't all that sterling.
Puzzling for sure.
We have some very good players with experience coming back. If the medical redshirts come back we could be pretty good facing a tough schedule next year.
Unfortunately, this hire doesn't give me a lot of excitement. I'd rather have seen Brock stay on as move to this guy. I don't see that Martin is any better than Brock.
Hoping for an up and comer was out of the question. I hope Martin isn't a yes man and that he will prove my gut instinct wrong.
Anyway - I played golf yesterday and today - 75 degrees in SC. :-) I hope Gene and Frank were chilly going out for lunch today. I hope they retire to Florida soon.
While I liked Logan's passing attack and the fact that he extended the field by often going deep, the run game under Logan was not impressive, particularly in Year 1. Ryan had to do it all as the O-line adjusted to the zone blocking and the running backs were just not that good (no fault of Logan's as they inherited TOB's backs). In Year 2, it took him way too long to figure out that Harris was better than the much-heralded Haden.
Still, Logan was much better than our recent OC's and probably better than Bible. Here is hoping BC can return to offensive productivity with Martin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84eE4nF2SGk
from his youtube interview:
"very much a west coast style throwing team."
"intermediate throwing game where we'll make a living"
"throw to set up the run"
"lots of shifts, motion changes, different formations"
he said "i want to have our best players on the field" so i'd be interested to see a QB competition next spring with rettig, bordner, and christian suntrup. also interested to see what RB emerges and how he utilizes the trio of andre williams, kimble, and finch.
Sun trip has got a spring training and a season under his belt. He could make thing tough for Rettig.
Watching Baylor and West Virgnia in hoops.
Heslip playing serious minutes and hitting jumpers and Kevin Noreen passing and setting screens.
Two BC recruits tearing it up at legitimate top 25 hoops programs.
What a goof. Who said Skinner wasn't recruiting?
With Heslip, Noreen, and Evan Ravenel I think we would be better this year with Skinners guys than with who we have now.
Heslip would have ben a fan favorite. The students would have related to him.
He is hitting shots from everywhere and running the huddles between freethrows.
Goal #1 for 2012. BC needs to score more than 20 pts per game and our FG kicker needs to be someone we never see but rarely. Whoever can make that happen is The Man. Merry Christmas, everyone. (Happy Holy, Eagle Nation!)
Martin's hiring is consistent with the rest of the BC football program -- nothing to get excited about.
Martin's hiring is consistent with the rest of the BC football program -- nothing to get excited about.
From here in St. Louis, I am looking for feedback on Christian Suntrup who redshirted at QB. He is from St. Louis Chaminade as is David Lee and Bradley Beal both stars for b-ball at Florida.
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