OT: Auburn fans unhappy with OC Scot Loeffler

Submitted by markusr2007 on

Following 13-17 loss to Vanderbilt and 1-6 start, Auburn OC Scot Loeffler is under fire by Auburn fans for his play calling.  Loeffler's post game interview and Auburn fan comments here.

Auburn has lost it's starting QB (5-star So. Kiehl Frazier) to injury, and the replacements Jr Clint Moseley and Fr. Jonathan Wallace are both playing very poorly.   Loeffler was hired by Chizik to install a pro-style, power run offense, scrapping the spread option shotgun offense of recent years.

Here was an interesting media interview with Loeffler earlier in the Auburn preseason - comparing Tim Tebow and Tom Brady - an usual question by the media, but anyway.

FreddieMercuryHayes

October 22nd, 2012 at 7:22 AM ^

Did anybody expect a seamless transition when going to Malzahn's super spread to a pro-style offense? Auburn has had issues every year even in the year they lucked into Newton and Fairley; those players just masked the issues. Blaming a first year coordinator is as ridiculous as when RR laid 2008 at the feet of Schafer. The only consistent in all of Auburn's sub-par years is Chizik.

clarkiefromcanada

October 21st, 2012 at 11:22 PM ^

Scot Loeffler was a popular coordinator last winter after leading Temple's (Temple!) offense under Steve Addazio to reasonable success in the MAC and a bowl win. Temple's teams last year ran the hell out of the ball...passed when absolutely necessary, sometimes...and ran the ball some more.

They also had a good defense.

Last year, Scot Loeffler had Bernard Pierce doing the running for him and the mostly reliable and Tebow like Chris Coyer at QB at Temple. Pierce is doing okay in the NFL now and Coyer is seeking his 'inner Tebow' each week (with on and off success).

I doubt that Loeffler has lost his ability to call a game or that the SEC is so overwhelming...but he doesn't have the RB/QB combo he had at Temple...

Auburn fans delude themselves that National Championships are theirs (when they don't compensate the QB at $200k per year).

saveferris

October 22nd, 2012 at 8:49 AM ^

Sounds a lot like the hullabaloo going on in East Lansing, where Spartan fans want Dan Rouchar's head.  The Spartan fans next to me in the stands on Saturday kept bitching about Rouchar's play-calling.  Eventually I turned to him and the conversation went something like this:

Me:  "You keep criticizing Rouchar, but didn't he coach offenses the past few seasons that performed pretty well?  He didn't get stupid in just one season didn't he?"

Sparty Fan:  "Yeah, but he had Cousins and Cunningham to bail him out."

Me:  "So your real issue is that your offensive talent this season has dropped off a cliff, which is really a recruiting issue, which really falls back in Dantonio's lap, doesn't it?"

Sparty Fan:  "I still think Rouchar sucks and want him gone."

I shrugged my shoulders at that point and went back to watching the game at that point.

saveferris

October 22nd, 2012 at 11:22 AM ^

I mean every Spartan fan to a man seems to want to pin this whole disaster of a season on Rouchar and not acknowledge that the past 4 years were an aberration and that the rivalry is slipping back to the old pattern of the past.  The Spartan fans I've talked to literally think that they begin another 4 year win streak starting next season and that Dantonio is going to own Hoke in the long run.  You point out how their past success had more to do with coaching chaos and a huge experience gap created by player attrition and that the massive recruiting deficit that MSU is facing against U of M and Ohio is about to assert itself and they just think we're rationalizing.  It's hilarious.

It should be fun to see how stupid Dantonio gets over the next 5 years in the eyes of the fanbase.

bacon

October 21st, 2012 at 11:24 PM ^

It's an f'in shame that they spent all that money and they're only 1-6.  I guess Pro-style players who can run a power offense cost too much these days.  

Cromulent

October 21st, 2012 at 11:26 PM ^

Following Gus Malzahn is not the best of career moves. Following Gus Malzahn and trying to install an offense diametrically opposed to the traits that Gus Malzahn selected for in his recruits is *really* not a good career move.

And finally, running Gus Malzahn out of town and replacing him with an OC that will need at least two years to get some suitable talent to run an offense is legally actionable malpractice.

jmblue

October 22nd, 2012 at 8:27 AM ^

He was our DC in both 1995 and '96. 

As for the above comment, I don't remember people being too upset with Carr's position coaches (aside from perhaps Andy Moeller on the OL).  It was the coordinators who got a lot more flak.

markusr2007

October 21st, 2012 at 11:35 PM ^

was probably a very good one.  

Arkansas State is 4-3 and their offense is already ranked 35th in YPG.

Malzahn could never have foreseen this situation, but next year he could get consideration for not only the Auburn job (Chizik may be toast, but can  the Auburn AD even afford to fire him?), but perhaps the Arkansas HC job in Fayetteville too after John L. Smith leaves. Malzahn first major coaching stint was for Houston Nutt at Arkansas.

As for Loeffler, he is a proven QB coach and would probably get a nice job someplace else.

 

 

Lionsfan

October 21st, 2012 at 11:48 PM ^

I liked EDSBS' take on Gus Malzahn:

Bailing: He lived. In comparison, what Gus Malzahn has survived is piddling, but comparable in terms of timing. Malzahn was hired in a cheap recruiting ploy at Arkansas, then thrown clear into the arms of Todd Graham at Tulsa. Malzahn's offenses thrived, but fate intervened again as Malzahn opted to move to Auburn, and thus both missed the Todd Graham Pitt disaster and met up with Cam Newton. After one non-Cam season at Auburn, Malzahn then took the oddball move of going to Arkansas State. This looked very strange until Auburn imploded this year and Arkansas got Petrino'd, and now Gus Malzahn is 3-3 at Arkansas State, comfortable and in line for interviews as a head coach in the offseason.

Corollary: If Gus Malzahn suddenly leaves a bus you are riding, you leave with him. That bus is about to explode.

From the Alphabetical, http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2012/10/9/3480156/college-foot…

markusr2007

October 21st, 2012 at 11:48 PM ^

He's a coordinator, not an HC.

He was co-DC with Duane Akina for Texas' national title team in 2005, but as HC at Iowa State Chizik went 5-19 in 2 years.  For Iowa State football, Chizik was actually a step down from Dan McCarney. That says it all right there.  

I'll NEVER understand what the hell Auburn's AD saw in Chizik as an HC. The NC season with Newton and a good defense seemed to justify the case that Auburn had struck gold with the hire.

But in 2012 I don't see Auburn winning any more SEC contests..  They should beat New Mexico State and Alabama A&M, but no guarantees man, Auburn is that bad.

Hard not to call a 3-9 finish for Auburn already (worst since 1998).

I can't believe it may cost Auburn something like $7 million to get rid of Chizik.

 

Johnny Blood

October 22nd, 2012 at 9:22 AM ^

I believe he was the Auburn DC under Tuberville for a period (including their undefeated season where they were left out of the BCS championship)... so they saw him as "coming home".

I'm not saying he's a good coach (he's absolutely not), but just answering why they were willing to take a chance on him after his awful Iowa State performance.

stephenrjking

October 22nd, 2012 at 1:02 AM ^

Depends on who he hires. It has always been true, but it has become more and more apparent that a head coach's success is a direct function of the staff he associates himself with. Chizik (who must be credited with bringing Malzahn on board) is a textbook example of this. So are the most recent two head coaches at Michigan.

Offensive guys do well if they get a good defensive coach to give their offense time to come together. Urban Meyer didn't exactly set the world on fire when he went to Florida, but he had great coordinators (cough, cough) and great talent on defense that allowed his early Gator teams to win when the offense didn't perform up to snuff.

Frankly, that's exactly what is happening in South Bend this year.

lexus larry

October 22nd, 2012 at 8:57 AM ^

It can be argued that the budget for said staff can ALSO have a huge influence on exactly who the staff will be.  Watching some of the Borge-iosity, it's pretty unfortunate that a talent of the level of Denard is being utilized far below his particular skillset.  (My brother, a fan, but not frequent enough visitor to games, marveled at forcing DR into a WCO QB role, when he's clearly ill-suited for it.  How I wish the "we won't force players into schemes they're not suited for" was an actual truth instead of another bit of coachspeak...)

If an AD suggests here are two wheelbarrows of money, go hire THE BEST staff, does Borges get invited?  It's understood there are loyalties to staff, etc.  But with the money to pull in ANYONE you want, regardless of cost, makes it a VERY different proposition.

I've commented elsewhere, the stinginess of the Michigan AD regarding football coaching staff has been an albatross keeping those teams from mid-90's to 2007 from being Alabama-esque in terms of being elite and staying there.*  (*Elite does NOT lose games in September, or to Minnesota, or get blown out by Iowa during homecoming.)

TyrannousLex

October 22nd, 2012 at 11:18 AM ^

So your position is that when UM fired RR, it should have hired a staff based on the talent of the current players to succeed within the system that the new staff uses?

Now clearly Borges is not running a zone read spread, but i'm seeing a few more zone read plays called than is normal in a WCO. So i think what you're trying to say is that if RR had to go, then he should have been replaced with another spread coach or at least one that would hire a spread OC? And this is because Denard had two more years of eligibility?

It's not just coachspeak, but having an OC run a new system is a lot like forcing your players into a system for which they're not suited. So as an administration you have to make a decision; changing the system may see a few years of subpar performance as players matriculate and/or learn the new system. RR probably didn't get that chance, but he probably would have if he had managed to win a few more games during the transition.

BTW, the first QB Hoke/Borges recruited was classified as a tweener that has the skill set to potentially succeed in either a pro-style or a spread offense.

lexus larry

October 22nd, 2012 at 11:59 AM ^

I know who Bellomy is...curious to see if he gets meaningful snaps and experience this year, and what kinds of plays are called while he's in (see numerous posts/threads on the topic blasting/loathing/adoring his "stats" to date).  College football is rife with results where teams rise high riding the upperclassman QB, who plays 90%+ snaps, and then the drop-off-a-sheer-cliff outcome after said senior QB graduates/uses up eligibility.  Have a succession plan in place, and as we've coachspoke...the expectation is to the position, not the player.

Another comment, not particularly in response to your post, the "wait 'til Al gets his QB - Shane Morris."  So what?  Seems quite a few comments out there about the kid should red-shirt in 2013.  Then what?  Wait another year, until Morris is a R-So or R-Jr until the offense really takes off?  That means 2015 is when we can expect to take on anyone, anywhere, and win.  WOOF!

As very many others farther down this thread are commenting, fans are/can be stupid.  What aggravates is to make a commitment* to change, and bail after 2-3 years of really awful and ugly infighting/backbiting.  And unhappy results abound, on-field and off.  (*not really a commitment)

But thanks for the reply...always interested in what others think/say.  Not alway easy to summarize succinctly.

M-Wolverine

October 22nd, 2012 at 2:35 PM ^

Wasn't the complaint this weekend that we ran the zone read too many times, and too predictably? Not sure how much of anything Saturday was West Coast Offense, but whatever.

MGlobules

October 22nd, 2012 at 4:55 AM ^

they decided to go all manball but do not have the personnel. Just dumb to think anyone turns it around in a year, even two. 

Of course fans call for the OC's head; that's what fans do. Fans are fickle and impatient.