Arkansas hires High School Head Coach as Offensive Coordinator..
- Thread starter TerryP
- Start date
A Hog's view of the situation...
Just wanted to give my two cents worth on the situation.
First, Gus Malzahn has coached at three different high-school classifications during his career and has won state championships at all three levels. His teams at Hughes and Shiloh Christian consistently defeated teams at higher levels often by embarrassing margins. His offense at Hughes (his first head-coaching job) did run a power I offense but he developed his current spread offense at Shiloh Christian in the mid-90's.
Most Hog fans realize that the jump between high school and the SEC is huge but yet many have been clamoring for the UofA to hire him for several years. He has published a book on his offensive philosophy and often spends the summer months on the lecture circuit (including stops at some NCAA campuses) explaining his system.
With all that said, it is understood that it is a HUGE risk to hire him as a coordinator. But most fans are willing to take the chance because most of us feel that we have no chance for a championship running HDN's vanilla attack. If you watched our team on a consistent basis, you'd notice what we've been seeing since HDN's first two years with Stoerner at the helm: passes in the middle of the field are non-existent, running the ball on 3rd down and 10+ yards to go, running 5-yard patterns on 3rd and 10, all timeouts wasted before the end of the 1st qtr (see the Hogs/Tide game in Tuscaloosa this year), no quick slants over the middle, fans cheering an incomplete pass downfield because they're so rare......
Personally I'm satisfied with the move. Either you can coach and gameplan or you can't. I'm confident that Malzahn will quickly prove that he can. To me, the big risk is whether our offensive line coach, Mike Markuson, will work well with Gus. Markuson has had much input into the offensive gameplan in the past and now he'll have to take orders from a former high-school coach. How well those two work together will tell the tale whether this experiment succeeds or not.
Later.
Just wanted to give my two cents worth on the situation.
First, Gus Malzahn has coached at three different high-school classifications during his career and has won state championships at all three levels. His teams at Hughes and Shiloh Christian consistently defeated teams at higher levels often by embarrassing margins. His offense at Hughes (his first head-coaching job) did run a power I offense but he developed his current spread offense at Shiloh Christian in the mid-90's.
Most Hog fans realize that the jump between high school and the SEC is huge but yet many have been clamoring for the UofA to hire him for several years. He has published a book on his offensive philosophy and often spends the summer months on the lecture circuit (including stops at some NCAA campuses) explaining his system.
With all that said, it is understood that it is a HUGE risk to hire him as a coordinator. But most fans are willing to take the chance because most of us feel that we have no chance for a championship running HDN's vanilla attack. If you watched our team on a consistent basis, you'd notice what we've been seeing since HDN's first two years with Stoerner at the helm: passes in the middle of the field are non-existent, running the ball on 3rd down and 10+ yards to go, running 5-yard patterns on 3rd and 10, all timeouts wasted before the end of the 1st qtr (see the Hogs/Tide game in Tuscaloosa this year), no quick slants over the middle, fans cheering an incomplete pass downfield because they're so rare......
Personally I'm satisfied with the move. Either you can coach and gameplan or you can't. I'm confident that Malzahn will quickly prove that he can. To me, the big risk is whether our offensive line coach, Mike Markuson, will work well with Gus. Markuson has had much input into the offensive gameplan in the past and now he'll have to take orders from a former high-school coach. How well those two work together will tell the tale whether this experiment succeeds or not.
Later.
Coordinator is not the bottom, more like the middle. It's 1 step down from head coach, unless the Asst. HC title is considered.Bamabuzzard said:
Wonder how long he will last if MM goes to ND? I think it'd be safe to say that NUTT has been NEUTERED! The position CHN has been put in, is worse than being fired! Can't say I hate it for him, though.
I think everyone should look at this hiring as what it is. It's merely a way for Houston Nutt to keep his job. Like the Hog fan said, it's what the fans wanted and it will most likely bring the top rated QB too. Therefore, it buys more time for Houston Nutt as the head coach. If they don't win next year, he can use the excuse that he was installing a brand new offense and breaking in a new QB.
CHN's best talent is saving his own ***.
CHN's best talent is saving his own ***.
Thanks for the input, FayetteHog. I think you hit on the key element here -- how well the staff works together. If CHN doesn't welcome GM, and if the other coaches don't buy in to his offensive schemes, his chances of succeeding are pretty slim.FayetteHog said:
Ya want ours? :eek2: :eek2:FayetteHog said:
He's an accomplished author as well. Matter of fact, you can buy his video on coaching technique from the same places that you can get Gus's masterpiece videos.
:biggrin: :biggrin:
Really no worse than Toobervile hiring a H.S coach (Ensminger) whose son was a QB and just happened to commit to the Barn this year. Of course, he was hired a year before his son graduated from H.S. Nobody yet knows exactly what Coach Ensminger coaches.
Too many on this board are assuming that since a guy coaches in high school, he is not as football smart or football wise as those who have been coaching in the colleges or the pros. Alot of guys get their start into D-1 coaching by playing at big time programs then then becoming a GA at that school or some other school, then getting a position, job, and continually moving up the ladder. Other guys go onto playing careers in the NFL and then return to college to begin their coaching career. Some are hired strictly in the good ole boy network of coaches or as we say just recycled through the network. And then there are guys who have been coaching on the HS level all of their careers, I feel some of the best coaches are on that level but for some reason or another they are not given the opportunity to go to the next level. If this guy becomes successful at Arkansas look for more hirings like this. Personally, I would have liked to see someone like Rush Propst, Joey Jones, etc. get a shot at Alabama with the offense.
Yes, but how any major (BCS) college offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators have ZERO college experience (either as a smaller college coach, as a position coach, or whatever)? Most of them aren't given the keys to an SEC offense straight out of the high school ranks, especially if have they have no previous coaching coaching on their resume.TiderMan said:
I don't know that Propst's ego would allow him to step down to a position coach or even coordinator at the college level. He would be after the HC job and IMO be hard for a HC to manage. Joey Jones has a sweet deal making a ton of money at the HS level.TiderMan said:
It's not his "smarts", or lack of, that is being questioned. It's the huge gap that exists between a HS coach, and a CFC at any level, much less D-1, and certainly SEC. He might make it, but talk about your longshots!
Dixiedawg said:
I'll hold my right to "laugh" after we play them next year. Because I'd hate to laugh now and their *highschool* offense dismantle our defense. The game is still played and decided on the field. Let's actually beat them and stop their offense before we start laughing at anybody.
In addition I don't think we have any room to *laugh* at anybody's offense. See Auburn, LSU, MSU, Ole Miss and various other games in the 2005 season. That in itself should stop the laughter.
I agree with Buzzard. My first reaction to this was that Nutt did it in abject panic, but then I started learning a little more about the new dude and he does seem to understand the game. This will either turn out to be a brilliant move or an unmitigated disaster. We'll know next September.
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