Stitt-alicious
Brian has unleashed the Bob Stitt genie - so off to google I went to research the man. Here is an interesting USA Today story from 2 years ago. File for use if there is a house cleaning at end of the year. Or for those more risk averse - just marry Kevin Wilson with Stitt as his OC with Greg Mattison as his DC in 2015 and let's call it a day. (asterisk this with "we have all the wrong players for such a system blah blah" counterpoint: "begin recruiting petroleum engineers immediately")
LINK.
Takeaway quotes:
The best offensive mind you've never heard of was home Jan. 4, watching football way past his 7-year old son's bedtime. The Orange Bowl kept going later and later, the outcome long since decided, but Bob Stitt didn't want his family to miss a single snap. West Virginia just kept scoring and scoring, but even from 2,000 miles away in suburban Denver, Stitt couldn't help but feel a connection to one of the most important games of the season.
The Mountaineers eventually put up 70 points that night, running one play over and over that Clemson just couldn't stop. Stitt recognized the play immediately. He had invented it.
But we're gonna be Alabama and stuff...?
Alabama's traditional, straightforward approach may be the gold-standard formula for winning national championships, but there is undoubtedly a philosophical shift taking place in college football. More and more coaches are ascending the ranks from nontraditional backgrounds, bringing unique ideas and changing the fabric of the sport.
Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris, the nation's highest-paid assistant, was a high school coach in Texas as recently as three years ago. It took more than a decade of setting high school records in Arkansas before Gus Malzahn got a shot on the college level, where his wide-open offense almost instantly became the toast of the SEC. Chip Kelly spent 13 years toiling in anonymity at New Hampshire, honing an up-tempo system that has produced a 42-6 career record at Oregon. Hugh Freeze, a longtime high school coach in Memphis, blazed a trail of touchdowns from Lambuth, an NAIA school, to Arkansas State to a head coaching job at Ole Miss all in the span of four years.
Zoom zoom
And if you set out to discover who that next innovator might be, you'll invariably be led to a tiny engineering school nestled in the Rocky Mountain foothills where Stitt, 48, has built a consistent winner and done things offensively that programs like West Virginia, Texas A&M, Louisiana Tech and Cincinnati have borrowed.
Oh really?
Stitt says he'd be willing to move up as an offensive coordinator, but only if the head coach would give him total offensive control. It's not difficult to see why he's so well-regarded in coaching circles, especially by those who run wide-open offenses. At 6-3, Stitt is closing in on his 11th winning season in 13 years. In all but a few of those years, the Orediggers, who play in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, have ranked among the top-10 in Div. II in passing offense. This season, his sophomore quarterback Matt Brown is the nation's leading passer, throwing for 3,424 yards and averaging 34.5 completions per game.
Yes but Colorado School of Mines is full of big time athletes...
And all of this is happening at a school of 5,200 of engineering majors where the average ACT score is 29. His recruiting strategy is largely built around the school's petroleum engineering program, which plays well in Texas high schools.
Just like Borges...
At a place like Mines, which has almost no recruiting advantages, offensive creativity would be paramount. He didn't have receivers who could beat press coverage, so he became an expert on the back-shoulder fade pass. His offensive line couldn't block a quick nose tackle one on one, so he ran the option out of the shotgun, and it took a year for defensive coordinators to figure it out. He put in blocking schemes intended to give defenses false reads. He saved his best plays for red zone packages, figuring that his conversion percentage in those situations would be the difference between winning and losing games.
September 26th, 2014 at 11:04 PM ^
I don't know if I could deal with Michigan hiring Bielema.
September 26th, 2014 at 11:19 PM ^
September 26th, 2014 at 11:10 PM ^
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September 26th, 2014 at 11:11 PM ^
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September 27th, 2014 at 12:18 PM ^
June Jones is avaliable
September 27th, 2014 at 12:03 AM ^
In terms of non Michigan guys I think
- Briles has a 10 year contract at $3.4M per. Doubt he is going anywhere - he has a Weiss/Ferentz contract
- Bielema would IMO make Michigan mocked nationally. A guy who couldnt cut it in the SEC, and when he left Wisconsin people were HAPPY to see him go - and now is good enough for UM? He is a solid coach but holy smoke the perception on that one..
- Petrino has so much dirt on him I don't know how a "holier than thou" attitude that is around here works with a guy with that much baggage.
I think the realistic list is going to be from a group of these guys (I am excluding NFL guys and coordinators who obviously would make up another list)
The current head coaches at: Utah, BYU, ASU, Miss State, Duke, ECU, TCU.
The coaches at both Utah and Duke have been courted by Tennessee in the past and rejected that school's advances so may not even be realistic. A lot of these guys have similar backgrounds (but more historical data, good and bad) than guys hired last year at Texas and Penn State.
There might be a guy or two in Conference USA or something similar who gets hot this year by November as well to add to this list.
September 27th, 2014 at 1:45 AM ^
"making it" or "not making it" in the SEC. I've been keeping my eye on Arkansas this year and Bielema has already whipped them into a Wisconsin-like substance of run game death. They're gonna beat some big SEC team(s) this year. But I do agree with you that the narrative will probably be, "HE COULDN'T CUT IT PAWWWWLL, HAD TO GO RUNNIN BACK TO YANKEELAND."
I think Cutcliffe is a bit overrated. Yes, it was really tough job turning Duke from disaster to mediocre, but the jump from "mediocre" to division contender is more a product of the ACC Coastal being the worst pile of garbage in the Power 5 conferences.
Also GARY PATTERSON FROM TCU WOULD BE THE BEST THING EVERRRRRRRRR, but I dunno if he leaves TCU. He Moses'd them through the wilderness of mid majordom and back to a major conference as DC then HC there. But man he's by far the top defensive mind in college football, and he's not afraid to hire a creative OC. I believe TCU's invented or at least popularized the inverted veer. Not a lot of defensive head coaches would have that kind of offensive creativity going on.
September 27th, 2014 at 2:13 AM ^
I agree Bielema will probably be a solid coach down there but it will take time. LSU is very beatable this year - Wisconsin almost beat them and they just got beat at home last week, so I will be interested in how that game works out. Maybe that is the "Michigan coach bowl?!" or maybe its the Dan Mullen v Beilema game. Do we really want his wife up here as well?
Patterson's been at TCU since 1998 - that is an eternity in this day and age - and HC since 2000. He has had opportunities to leave in the past 4-6 years and has never hopped. He makes $3M+ as well so not like he is not getting paid and he is comfortable. Like Whittingham at Utah he has not enjoyed success early in a major conference but both were stalwarts in lower conferences and seem to be very well coached teams.
Cutcliffe I agree is in a horrid division. I looked over Duke's schedule and if they are legit this year they could be like Iowa could have been this year; among the worst 10-2 teams in the country due to schedule alone. But again, its DUKE (!) - only Spurrier has found success at Duke in the past 30 years. Cutcliffe also rejected Tennessee so maybe he wants to be a Dukie for life.
And the 2 guys from Utah are both Mormons - if you make a run at a Whittingham or Bronco out of BYU; if those are candidates you identify as what you want ... well you have an issue of taking them out of a very comfortable environment. Whittingham turned down Tennesse in 2010 and Bronco is a BYU guy thru and thru like Mike Gundy is at OK State.
So when you have your field of candidates it is not just who you want but who is truly available. It whittles down the list.
September 27th, 2014 at 2:09 PM ^
he's a Texas guy through and through and feels at home in the the state of Texas. He's turning Baylor into a national championship contender which is a big accomplishment given the program before Briles. He has been a HS coach in Texas then went to schools in Texas before becoming a HC at Baylor.
September 26th, 2014 at 10:57 PM ^
Let's get a coach for a small college with a real cool offense he invented.
What could go wrong?
September 27th, 2014 at 5:35 AM ^
Uh, you could kind of say the same about Beilein.
September 26th, 2014 at 10:59 PM ^
Love the thought, but it's never going to happen. No way the University gets rid of Brady to take a flier on a guy coaching at a lower level, especially running such an 'unconventional' offense.
That said, I would love him as OC. This guy is all the rage with guys like Bill Connelly who, you know, focus on advanced stats to inform their evaluation of performance. They've been writing about him for a few years now.
September 26th, 2014 at 11:07 PM ^
I'm not necessarily advocating this move, but this transition would be nothing like RR in 08.
September 26th, 2014 at 11:08 PM ^
September 27th, 2014 at 2:38 AM ^
September 27th, 2014 at 10:22 AM ^
If you wait around for a guy that fast in order to run this offense you'd be waiting forever. I'm just saying Michigan has a guy in house who could play that position really well.
September 27th, 2014 at 8:44 AM ^
September 26th, 2014 at 11:11 PM ^
Brian says it -> MGoBoard topic -> MGoBloggers mentions it to friends -> They mention it to other people -> It shows up in an MLive article somewhere -> Dave Brandon is asked about it in a press conference -> ....profit?
September 26th, 2014 at 11:39 PM ^
You skipped the part where Gregg Henson blogs about it but otherwise pretty much on point.
September 26th, 2014 at 11:11 PM ^
I LOVE college football because of this kind of innovation. It makes the game exciting and interesting to watch. I can't stand watching the staid, group-think NFL.
And so it breaks my heart to think that my beloved Wolverines won't be a part of it because the powers that be keep insisting on trying to recreate 1997 while the rest of the CFB world passes them by. Even Alabama is not resting on its manball laurels.
September 26th, 2014 at 11:24 PM ^
And here you touch on the crux of the issue.
1. Do you run pro-style offense and send many players to the pros?
2. Or newer offenses that don't rely on 320 lb linemen and a Tom Brady style QB?
To answer my own question, with Alabama recent success, most ADs are thinking #1.
September 27th, 2014 at 5:40 AM ^
Most? There are a ton of unconventional offenses out there. Besides a few ADs in the upper echelons, I don't think anyone is wed to a pro-style offense.
Also, of course you can win with Alabama's style, though their defense has usually been better than their offense anyway, but it's not like Urban's Florida teams were that long ago.
September 26th, 2014 at 11:13 PM ^
I don't really like him but I like him more than Dantonio or Narduzzi. He has Midwestern ties to recruiting. He runs the same type of offense that Hoke is trying to install so we wouldn't have to deal with the square peg in the round hole situation. He hates Ohio and Urban Meyer and he wouldn't have to deal with the stress of the SEC west.
September 26th, 2014 at 11:17 PM ^
Butch Jones is another guy who I think would fit great here but I want to see evidence that he's turning it around at Tennessee. Bielema is starting to make arkansas resemble Wisconsin and I think he would do well with Green, Smith, Isaac, and Weber.
September 26th, 2014 at 11:51 PM ^
Let's say Butch Jones is a success. He is currently paid at a rate just below Sumlin. Why would a successful SEC coach leave a 100K stadium, with a blue blood program in a top conference with a program he just went through the hell of rebuilding, to go to a new rebuild job in a 100K stadiun, with a blue blood program in a not top conference?
I don't get the logic of people saying we're going and getting guys from Tennessee. That is different from going to get a guy from Vanderbilt or Utah or Ole Miss. Tennessee is basically Michigan of the SEC along with Georgia and Alabama.
If he is a success in rebuilding Tennessee he has a potential top 10 team in a conference the nation respects on the side of the SEC that is weaker (away from the West) and has a hell of a program, tradition, history to go on the road to sell. To recruits in the part of the county that are just frankly better at football, and who by and large prefer to play in that conference over any other. And will get paid by Tennessee who again is not Wake Forest, North Carolina State, or Ole Miss.
Why leave a successful rebuild at one the top 10 all time winningest programs in the best conference in America to go to a new rebuild and all its headaches and pressures again? Because "it's Michigan fergodsakes?" No -that's not how it works.
September 26th, 2014 at 11:51 PM ^
Because this is Michigan fergodsakes...
September 27th, 2014 at 10:12 AM ^
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September 27th, 2014 at 12:28 AM ^
He has a variation on a tunnel screen that Texas A&M is using to great effect this year. Spavital calls Stitt a genius:
http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/texas-am-aggies-better-…
Would love to have him as HC of Offense. Turn everything on that side of the ball to him. (Oh, and get someone besides Ferrigno to coach special teams, please.)
September 27th, 2014 at 12:30 AM ^
promising, innovative upcoming coaches. But I think M is too staid/hidebound to elect one.
September 27th, 2014 at 6:45 AM ^
Michigan hired the offensive guru in RR and now it seems like they are trying to get as far away from that as possible because it didn't work out, at least on the defensive side.
September 27th, 2014 at 8:12 AM ^
I know he just started with Wisconsin, but I remember thinking that he was a great hire. Previously, he had done a nice job turning around Utah State.
I don't think he's regarded as being an offensive innovator, so he isn't likely to be a board favorite, but his history indicates that he's a good coach.
I'm not sure if we could steal Wisconsin's coach - or what the B1G backlash would be (remember how salty Bielema got when Urban stole one of his recruits?!) - but I think this guy should be considered as a replacement for Brady (if the Harbaughs won't come).
September 27th, 2014 at 8:48 AM ^
It wasn't too long ago we were turned down by a coach from Rutgers. (back when Rutgers wasn't better than us).
Our's is not necessarily a dream job.
September 27th, 2014 at 10:32 AM ^
While I appreciate Brian's work, I feel like he is just setting me up for disappointment. If (when) the coach profiles start coming, he'll put together an exciting list of offensive innovators that gets me dreaming. The crash back to reality will be that much worse when we hire Cam Cameron or Scot Loeffler.
September 27th, 2014 at 11:02 AM ^
I love the idea of Stitt or someone similar, but people need to stop assuming Mattison will just stick around. He's made it clear time and time again the only reason he's coaching here is because of Hoke. Not sure if OP was serious or not, but so many have people have thrown it out there it's getting ridiculous. I love me some Mattison, but if Hoke's gone, he's gone.