OT: Bob Stitt fired at Montanta

Submitted by Maizen on

Rough business: Bob Stitt goes 7-4 at Montana and gets fired after just 3 seasons after taking over a program that was on probation & digging out from ugly scandal.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 20, 2017

Couldn't hurt to hire him as an analyst or something.

FatGuyTouchdown

November 20th, 2017 at 5:22 PM ^

Montana went 7-4 last year, and were in the top 25 in FCS in just about every major offensive statistic including scoring offense, Red Zone Efficiency, Total Offense, First down conversion, yards per play, and were third in yards per completion with teams of at least 400 pass attempts. A lot of that is also brought down by the fact they were absolutely blitzed by Washington 63-7. The offense produced, just an odd firing in general.

FatGuyTouchdown

November 20th, 2017 at 5:47 PM ^

between demanding better results and actually hitting a full blown reset. Michigan is 102nd in Total Offense this year, and 82nd in Scoring offense, 111th in Passing offense, 112th in 3rd down conversion, and 35th in rushing offense, while having a horrible yards per carry, 102nd in Sacks allowed, 108th in completion percentage, and 111th in Passing efficiency as well. Those stats are absolutely dreadful. The defense is essentially in the top 10 in every single one of these categories. I'm tired of hearing about the youth on offense, the defense is younger and less experienced. I get it, losing Wilton Speight was a serious blow, but the play calling hasn't done the offense any favors either. I don't think it's unreasonable to demand a fix on the offensive side of things, because the defense has held up their end of the bargain.

FatGuyTouchdown

November 20th, 2017 at 7:20 PM ^

It's part of the game. If Brandon Peters was one of our two best QBs, then why did John O'Korn play before Peters was given the nod? Why did Michigan throw the ball 6 straight times in a monsoon against MSU with a backup? The playcalling is bland and uncreative. Sometimes it's downright confusing. I'm not saying this season is a disaster, but there needs to be some actual reflection on the offensive side of the ball after this season. 

blichtybcl

November 20th, 2017 at 9:22 PM ^

This season wasn’t a disaster due to a darn good defense and a favorable schedule. If this offense was coupled with an average or only “decent” defense, man this coulda been bad. On the flip side, if the offense could have just been “average”, we’d be staring at 10-1 right now.

B1G_Fan

November 20th, 2017 at 10:34 PM ^

I get it, it sucked to lose to Penn State and MSU... I mean reeeaaallly sucked losing to Penn State but, it wasn't a disaster at all. The defense didn't hardly lose a step even with all the new starters, freshman, red shirt freshman, I mean they looked really good most of the season. We saw a clear improvement in the o line and the offense as a whole has looked better than it did at the start of the season.

 The only bad loss was to MSU. Losing to then number 2 PSU and number 5 Wisconsin isn't a terrible thing. I'm excited to see this team next year and even more so the year after next.

FatGuyTouchdown

November 21st, 2017 at 2:42 AM ^

we should be seeing significant progress from the beginning of the season. The offense is completely stagnant. Again, Its not about winning and losing, it's about performance. I can handle losses just fine, but the offense was absolutely atrocious in the only three games that were really worth a shit on the schedule so far, and I guess Florida was before the tire fire so that was decent. 37 points combined against Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Penn State is bad. 

FatGuyTouchdown

November 21st, 2017 at 2:33 AM ^

the wins and losses. It's about performance. The offense has performed horribly all year, and after the first half of the season, the "only three returning starters" excuse kinda loses a lot of strength. The playcalling is bad, the development isn't terrific in certain areas, and there's a major disconnect between the offensive coaching staff as a whole. I'm sorry fans aren't allowed to criticize a certain performance of a team without being called a piece of shit, but fuck you dude and get off your high horse.

JFW

November 21st, 2017 at 10:29 AM ^

I would disagree that we haven't seen development. DPJ seems better. The Line is getting better at run blocking; quite a bit when they run gap. They still are bad at pass pro.

QB development kept getting reset. Speight hurt, start new with O'Korn getting the attention. O'Korn plays himself out of contention, start new with Peters.... 

Why did O'Korn start over Peters? Because at the time the data that the staff had (from practice) likely said he was better; knew the playbook better, and performed better in practice. 

Why throw so many times vs. MSU? Don't know. Maybe they saw something. Maybe they had an issue with the run game (an O lineman dinged so he didn't move as well). Again, we don't know. 

I'm 100% on board with your idea that the staff needs to reflect and figure this out. I disagree that we aren't developing; and think while we can make judgements based on the outside view we have those judgements have to be put into perpsective that we are, in fact, making underinformed opinions. 

The frustrating part is that we won't get the data we need to explain why some of these things happened. It would make everyone temporarily happy. 'Look, here is practice tape the week before MSU where Peters ran into his RB twice and bobbled the snap'. but that won't happen and shouldn't to a college kid. 

The heartening part is that Harbaugh has a very good track record, and we should be able to trust that; at least to the point where we give him the benefit of the doubt in an injury riddled season that kept us young. 

 

 

Ghost of Fritz…

November 20th, 2017 at 6:55 PM ^

I do not see how the Drevno/Pep/JH combo this year gets a good grade (even adjusting for youth on roster and QB injuries).

JH needs to decide if responsibilities need to be rearranged, or if someone is not a good fit, or at least how they can produce a better offense than 82d in scoring. 

Even with injuries and youth, 82d in scoring is atrocious, especially given that they lead the Big Ten and set a Michigan school record in 2016 in scoring per game.

OTOH, 8-3 itself is not that bad considering youth and injuries. 

And yes, there are people here and elsewhere on the internet calling for JH's firing based on 8-3 plus losing to rivals.  Crazy but true.

Weird thing is that they arrived at 8-3 with an elite D and an atrocious offense. 

umchicago

November 20th, 2017 at 8:28 PM ^

i would like him to take full control of the offensive playcalling.  i guarantee he was the guy calling the plays in 2015.  It was unpredictable and had a lot of creativity.

it's only become more bland the past two years as, imo, he has deligated more.  if guys like drevno and pep want to leave because they are not OC, then so be it.  give me some good position coaches to take their place.

i think the offense would be better for it.

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

November 20th, 2017 at 8:55 PM ^

the playcalling manufactured yards with WR screens, double fake center TE screen, double shift TE pass for 2 at MD, multiple FB dives and other constraints to move the offense when the talent/execution with the base offense couldn't.

Just the opposite this year.

FatGuyTouchdown

November 21st, 2017 at 2:37 AM ^

Take the Wisconsin game as an example. Wisconsin's QB and Receiver situation is similar to ours, but they do certain things to give themselves more leeway. That reverse to Pryor was a brilliant playcall, and it reminds me of last year when Wisconsin attacked Ohio State all game long with quick hitting jet sweeps and then counters off of said sweep. The Wisconsin Playcallers (Paul Chryst) recognize their weaknesses and work out from them. 

Yeoman

November 20th, 2017 at 9:57 PM ^

Montana played in seven national championship games in 15 years, and they've got the record for consecutive FCS playoff appearances (17). They won the Big Sky 16 times in 19 seasons (one of those they've since vacated).

They've had some serious issues with their program; getting talent to Montana hasn't been one of them.

 

youn2948

November 21st, 2017 at 9:20 AM ^

Paying players to go to Montana then getting caught is though?

Now they can't pay players via boosters and perks making it hard to get players.

 

"The boosters also provided players with such benefits as meals, a small loan, clothing, lodging, transportation and laundry services. In addition, the football team exceeded coaching limits when a student assistant performed activities allowed only for coaches."

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/07/26/ncaa-slaps-sanctions-against-m…

 

lilpenny1316

November 20th, 2017 at 5:18 PM ^

Dude is from Nebraska.  I hope to #noreligion that Nebraska does not hire Frost as HC and Stitt as OC.  Would give Wisconsin some competition, but I'm holding out hope some west coast NFL team hires Drevno and Harbaugh loads up the money cannon for Stitt.

Sopwith

November 20th, 2017 at 5:18 PM ^

Are there ADs out there who see the value in maybe, just maybe, letting a guy fill out a roster with 100% his own guys coaching the same system for 5 years and judging then?

 

missoulawolverine

November 20th, 2017 at 5:26 PM ^

Missoula, saw this one coming early this year. Yeah he took over a program with a lot of problems but montana gets a lot of talent from transfers. Its not michigam football but for them here it is. Plus he failed to take any local kids, not much available but they dont leave the state. That was peoples feelings towards him aswell

Ghost of Fritz…

November 20th, 2017 at 5:27 PM ^

from about mid-80s to 2009 Montana won 75-80% of their games (sort of like Michigan from 1970-2006). 

That is their benchmark.  Stitt was 21-14 in three years and lost 4 of the last 5 games. 

I guess they are looking for the next Bobby Hauck (80-17 record).