Turtle Soup-or, Look Who's Coming Back for Dinner
My adopted home-state Maryland Terrapins continue their long and proud tradition of making completely incomprehensible decisions to waste the talent within a short bicycle ride of campus in the DMV by hiring -- [checks notes] Michigan and Miami castoff Josh Gattis as offensive coordinator.
Guys. That's not what the title "offensive" is supposed to mean.
(Link to Washington Post article--first several articles free each month to non-subscribers)
This was reported a bit ago
Forget it, he's rolling
WAS IT OVER WHEN THE GERMANS BOMBED PEARL HARBOR? HELL NO!
I think we can cut a Marylander some slack, for his local take / angst about it.
I thought this was going to be a CFB Risk update.
Nope, just the nobody gives a shit about Maryland football and Josh Gattis update.
Happy to oblige. Lost a few players and a region, gained a bunch of territories. Head to the Caribbean, Mexico, South Beach or Hawaii and attack Ohio. Play CFB Risk.
Everyone deserves a third chance.
Well, we should be able to figure out what plays will be called by the Terps on most first and, prolly, second downs. November 18th. The announcers will do their best to hype the drama and recount the history.
Gattis is a mystery. He agrees to go to Maryland as OC with Locksley then instead goes for a shotgun marriage with Jim Harbaugh after dating for 24 hours, leaving Locksley empty handed. He came to Michigan as a speed and space guy but never really runs it either because he couldn't recruit to it or Harbaugh wouldn't let him run it. Then he quits in a huff over something and immediately pops up in Miami where he was arguably the worst OC in America. Summarily fired after one year and now turns back to Locksley who he should have been working for in the first place.
I'm sure Gattis is a good coach. But he sure seems to shoot himself in the foot by being both emotional and impulsive.
I’m not sure he is.
Then he quits in a huff over something and immediately pops up in Miami where he was arguably the worst OC in America.
And rode his Broyles Award out of town.
I think Gattis is a good WR coach. I think his career is showing he's a mediocre OC. Had debateable contributions to Alabama, got hired at Michigan, 'speed in space' never really materialized, and he seemed to lose influence over the offense every season as we returned to Jim's more manball roots, then went to Miami and was terrible. I don't think he's done anything good as an OC yet
I’m sure Gattis is a bad coach, or at least OC.
We are about to find out if the Locksley/Gattis success at Alabama was X's and O's or Jimmies and Joes.
I'm guessing it's both, but I lean towards the Jameses and Josephs.
Don’t forget the Nick. The one constant over 15 years of great results.
What month is this?
March 10th, 2023 at 11:23 AM ^
Smarch
Kidding aside, as a two-time Michigan alum and father to two current Michigan students, it's just incomprehensible to me the decisions that Maryland makes about its sports programs.
Their fans are rabid, like Michigan fans. They have wealthy supporters, like Michigan does. Even more than Michigan does, they have a rich talent base sitting in their backyard that regularly generates 5-stars in the revenue sports, and they lack any true neighborhood rival to challenge them for that talent.
And their fan base sits around and b*tches about how they should never have left the ACC. Huh?
I don't get it. I'll continue to go to Maryland home games--Michigan East--and join the other Michigan alums in dominating the stands. It's great to be a Michigan Wolverine. I just feel badly for them, and scratch my head. Doesn't make sense.
I've been to one Michigan game at Maryland. As you note, Michigan fans dominate the stands. Based on that alone, I'm not sure I agree that their fanbase is the same as ours.
I mean, they're right about the ACC. We don't want them here. They don't feel welcome or at home here. It's not like their football program has taken a huge step forward since they joined the B1G. Maryland is a basketball school, and the ACC is the best basketball conference in the country.
So yeah, I don't blame them for thinking they shouldn't have left the ACC. I wish there was a way to ship them back (along with Rutgers).
Maryland is a basketball school, and the ACC is the best basketball conference in the country.
The B1G has arguably been the best basketball conference over the past however many years, but I will agree that the ACC is a basketball-first conference (like the old Big East), whereas the B1G will always be a football-first conference.
I get why Maryland moved to the B1G--it was 100% about money, and the Maryland AD was especially hard-up at the time--and from the school's perspective, it was probably the right move (I think the gulf between the haves and have-nots in college athletics is only going to widen, and the have-nots probably have a pretty bleak future...). But that's little consolation for the average Terp fan, who lost all of the old ACC rivalries, etc.
Maryland basketball season ticket holder here. There is a segment of the fan base that was happy to leave ACC and not just because of the money. There was a strongly held feeling that the North Carolina schools dominated the administration of the conference and that Maryland always got the shaft. It did serve to create great animosity against UNC and Duke and they haven't developed any great B1G rivalries, although Turgeon-Howard kerfuffle had potential.
Maryland shouldn't have left the ACC because the football team is never going to be better than middling and their natural recruiting base is in the DMV/mid-Atlantic area and yet they're now mostly playing teams solidly in the midwest.
But they are here and I'm sure the $100M checks they'll be cashing from the newest TV deal will make paying the buyout for guys like Gattis when they fire Locksley in a year or two easier to swallow.
Maryland fans are rabid? Permit me to doubt. Living in MD for ten years I can confidently say I only met one whose passion matched that of an average Michigan fan.
Thanks for the info, but I won't use one of my free articles for March on something we knew last week.
My 0.02 anyway is that Gattis is not coming there to run "his" offense or call "his" plays. He'll work with a pretty decent WR room and in my tinfoil hat opinion, try to recruit Nycholes Harbor to transfer portal back home once the '24 Olympics are over.
Gattis is not a good OC. Winning the Broyles award only shows that awards have to go to someone.
I don't think we were that disappointed, all things considered...
Crazy how much he's fallen off reputationally in a year. When he left here we were all pretty disappointed, even if we didn't think he was the greatest ever
Exactly.
Speed in small space...
I feel like the wide receivers looked much better when Gattis was coaching them. Other than that I am not sure what he brought to the table.