Minnesota offensive coordinator Mike Sanford has been named as a potential candidate for the Boise State head coaching gig.

[MplsGopher]

I agree there are some red flags on Sanford:
- Offenses generally have done worse once he takes over
- Stint at WKU (although I think being a head coach and coordinator are 2 different things - not sure I would judge him as our OC based off a failed head coaching gig)
- Job hopping

But I still think he should get one more "normal" year here before we decide. Funny thing is, he strikes me like if he does have success here, he'll parlay it into his next job. So, I think either way he won't be here very long.

Short of a miracle (someone else hiring him away), he will be. There's zero chance Fleck would demote him and promote Simon to OC, after one year. Fleck's ego isn't capable of that.

 

[MplsGopher]

Ex. A) Every QB he has coached in the last 5 years has gotten measurably and significantly worse

Ex. B) Every QB he has coached in the last 5 years has looked super uncomfortable all season long

Ex. C) NFL scouts looked at two years of Jordan Love tape and decided that he was still a 1st round QB after he threw 17 interceptions because they realized that his OC was an idiot

Ex. D) We all had eyes and watched the Gophers offense this year

He's bad at his job, get rid of him.

Morgan was throwing to a 1st round draft pick, CAB, and 2 5th year seniors. Minnesota's receiving corp was as good as it ever will be this year. If you can't put together a competent passing attack with that group, then it's on you.

Excellent, and depressing, post.

Naturally, GWG (who obviously has never played football in his life), comes back to make a fake claim that it was entirely Love's fault for every int thrown. He's a troll, don't waste your time.

 

[Word]

Excellent, and depressing, post.

Naturally, GWG (who obviously has never played football in his life), comes back to make a fake claim that it was entirely Love's fault for every int thrown. He's a troll, don't waste your time.

How much football have you played in you life?

 

[MplsGopher]

How much football have you played in you life?

High school varsity at a Twin Cities metro school, which I'm guessing is more than a decent percentage of those who post here. Not that it matters in the slightest. You?

 

[Word]

High school varsity at a Twin Cities metro school, which I'm guessing is more than a decent percentage of those who post here. Not that it matters in the slightest. You?

4 years of organized football but played soccer in high school. I don't think having played in high school makes much difference in being able to judge a college team. I never played hockey but it's my favorite sport to watch and feel like I can diagnose things pretty well. I couldn't teach someone to skate, but that's different than understanding a team's strengths and weaknesses.

 

[MplsGopher]

4 years of organized football but played soccer in high school. I don't think having played in high school makes much difference in being able to judge a college team. I never played hockey but it's my favorite sport to watch and feel like I can diagnose things pretty well. I couldn't teach someone to skate, but that's different than understanding a team's strengths and weaknesses.

Fair enough.

Just knew after watching the first three throws Love made, that GWG was lying. He's a troll.

 

[Word]

Fair enough.

Just knew after watching the first three throws Love made, that GWG was lying. He's a troll.

Disagree that he's a troll but you are entitled to your opinion.

 

[Unregistered User]

It's obvious that Schiano told Fleck to hire Smith, and he did.

Stop stating your opinion as fact.

 

[Mitu]

Man, the Sanford hate and Simon love after a season like 2020 is mind-boggling to me.

Simon called one game that Ciarocca led the game planning and scheming for. Yes, it was a good game, but getting myopic about it is silly. We have no idea about his ability to build and install schemes.

Yes, Sanford hasn’t been perfect. Some schematic items do need to be addressed. He did get better as the year went on. I think it’s hard to judge an OC based on a year during which there was no spring ball and very limited fall camp. Two projected OL starters out, lost a critical WR in TJ, etc.

The Jordan Love comparisons are frankly asinine. What folks also dont realize is that Love lost his entire OL, his WR1 and WR2, and his RB1. But yes, clearly one year of Sanford under Gary friggin Anderson is how we should judge him.

Let’s give the man a proper year before we’re ready to fire him.

 

[MplsGopher]

Disagree that he's a troll but you are entitled to your opinion.

Well you don't post on the OTB where he's a gross covid-denier/conspiracy sympathizer. I guess that should be "isolated" from a poster's sports forum persona, but it's difficult for me to decouple them.

 

[MplsGopher]

Stop stating your opinion as fact.

Never did. You're too dumb to recognize that. Not my fault

 

[MplsGopher]

Man, the Sanford hate and Simon love after a season like 2020 is mind-boggling to me.

Simon called one game that Ciarocca led the game planning and scheming for. Yes, it was a good game, but getting myopic about it is silly. We have no idea about his ability to build and install schemes.

Yes, Sanford hasn’t been perfect. Some schematic items do need to be addressed. He did get better as the year went on. I think it’s hard to judge an OC based on a year during which there was no spring ball and very limited fall camp. Two projected OL starters out, lost a critical WR in TJ, etc.

The Jordan Love comparisons are frankly asinine. What folks also dont realize is that Love lost his entire OL, his WR1 and WR2, and his RB1. But yes, clearly one year of Sanford under Gary friggin Anderson is how we should judge him.

Let’s give the man a proper year before we’re ready to fire him.

Simon did the game plan for the Auburn game. Prove me wrong. You can't. He did every bit as much game planning during 2019 as KC did. Again, prove me wrong. You can't.


Paradoxically, the passing game got better after Bateman re-opted out. I do agree that "feels" correct, but I don't know what the stats have to say about that. Particularly Morgan's.

There are rumors on GH that Bateman was promised a certain number of targets and/or to be featured out of the slot, as that perhaps is his projected position in the league. No one can prove this to be true, and if it were, to what degree is it the fault of Fleck and/or Sanford for actually forcing it upon the offense. The crescendo of failure being the Iowa game.

Also no one here could say, for example, if something internally changed after the Iowa game. Eg, Fleck taking a bigger role, or giving a bigger role to Simon, or anything along those lines. It's a black box.


If Love/Utah State was the only datapoint, you'd have a halfway decent argument for dismissing that. But that is not the case, and you conveniently refuse to address the Western Kentucky debacle. How much better the team and offense did immediately prior to and after Sanford's arrival/departure. That they fired him after two years.


All that said, again, unless a miracle happens and someone else hires him away, it's guaranteed etched in stone that Sanford will be our OC for 2021. And I sure as hell don't want to just throw away that season simply to spite him and Fleck's nepotism. So, begrudingly, I have to root for Sanford to make a huge step change. (or for Fleck to, somehow, internally give more control to Simon and Callahan (who still the running game coordinator in 2020, also having served that role in 2019)

 

[Mitu]

Simon did the game plan for the Auburn game. Prove me wrong. You can't. He did every bit as much game planning during 2019 as KC did. Again, prove me wrong. You can't.


Paradoxically, the passing game got better after Bateman re-opted out. I do agree that "feels" correct, but I don't know what the stats have to say about that. Particularly Morgan's.

There are rumors on GH that Bateman was promised a certain number of targets and/or to be featured out of the slot, as that perhaps is his projected position in the league. No one can prove this to be true, and if it were, to what degree is it the fault of Fleck and/or Sanford for actually forcing it upon the offense. The crescendo of failure being the Iowa game.

Also no one here could say, for example, if something internally changed after the Iowa game. Eg, Fleck taking a bigger role, or giving a bigger role to Simon, or anything along those lines. It's a black box.


If Love/Utah State was the only datapoint, you'd have a halfway decent argument for dismissing that. But that is not the case, and you conveniently refuse to address the Western Kentucky debacle. How much better the team and offense did immediately prior to and after Sanford's arrival/departure. That they fired him after two years.


All that said, again, unless a miracle happens and someone else hires him away, it's guaranteed etched in stone that Sanford will be our OC for 2021. And I sure as hell don't want to just throw away that season simply to spite him and Fleck's nepotism. So, begrudingly, I have to root for Sanford to make a huge step change. (or for Fleck to, somehow, internally give more control to Simon and Callahan (who still the running game coordinator in 2020, also having served that role in 2019)

I dont think it’s remotely reasonable to compare head coaching and assistant coaching. Yeah, his stint at WKU was a disaster, but there are lots of OCs and DCs that are terrible HCs. Hell, Kevin Steele has run top 10-15 defenses at Auburn every year and his career P5 coaching record is something like 1-31.

Re: Simon, my point is that no one on this board knows what he did or did not do independent of KC. It’s absurd to say it was “his job to lose” because of one game he play called against Auburn. I’m not saying Sanford is the right guy, I’m reserving my judgement until 2021 on him. But putting all of the blame on a first year OC who had no offseason to install his offense is unreasonable.

 

[Some guy]

I dont think it’s remotely reasonable to compare head coaching and assistant coaching. Yeah, his stint at WKU was a disaster, but there are lots of OCs and DCs that are terrible HCs. Hell, Kevin Steele has run top 10-15 defenses at Auburn every year and his career P5 coaching record is something like 1-31.

Re: Simon, my point is that no one on this board knows what he did or did not do independent of KC. It’s absurd to say it was “his job to lose” because of one game he play called against Auburn. I’m not saying Sanford is the right guy, I’m reserving my judgement until 2021 on him. But putting all of the blame on a first year OC who had no offseason to install his offense is unreasonable.

For all we know, Fleck offered Simon the job and Simon didn’t want that big of a role right now for whatever reason.

 

[Some guy]

Man, the Sanford hate and Simon love after a season like 2020 is mind-boggling to me.

Simon called one game that Ciarocca led the game planning and scheming for. Yes, it was a good game, but getting myopic about it is silly. We have no idea about his ability to build and install schemes.

Yes, Sanford hasn’t been perfect. Some schematic items do need to be addressed. He did get better as the year went on. I think it’s hard to judge an OC based on a year during which there was no spring ball and very limited fall camp. Two projected OL starters out, lost a critical WR in TJ, etc.

The Jordan Love comparisons are frankly asinine. What folks also dont realize is that Love lost his entire OL, his WR1 and WR2, and his RB1. But yes, clearly one year of Sanford under Gary friggin Anderson is how we should judge him.

Let’s give the man a proper year before we’re ready to fire him.

I get the Sanford hate because fans are fans and the offense was all time great last year and merely just above average this year.

I don’t get the Simon love.
Simon might not have made the game plan for the bowl, Fleck may have been hands on...we don’t know.

simon might have been asked if he wanted OC job and told Fleck he would rather be a position coach still....we don’t know...For as much as fleck claims to be hands off...Simon might want more autonomy to be wide open if he runs an offense...again, we don’t know

Fleck in working with Simon may have reasons he did want think Simon is a good fit, we don’t know.

 

[MplsGopher]

I dont think it’s remotely reasonable to compare head coaching and assistant coaching. Yeah, his stint at WKU was a disaster, but there are lots of OCs and DCs that are terrible HCs. Hell, Kevin Steele has run top 10-15 defenses at Auburn every year and his career P5 coaching record is something like 1-31.

Re: Simon, my point is that no one on this board knows what he did or did not do independent of KC. It’s absurd to say it was “his job to lose” because of one game he play called against Auburn. I’m not saying Sanford is the right guy, I’m reserving my judgement until 2021 on him. But putting all of the blame on a first year OC who had no offseason to install his offense is unreasonable.

Your point on WKU depends on how much Sanford had control over the offense. Some HC's still like to call the plays, though that is less common in college than the NFL (I think). But still, fired after only two years??

To your Simon point: then how was it possible for Fleck to anoint Joe Rossi as DC permanently, after "only" calling the remainder of the 2018 season games??

It's exactly the same thing. And why many people assumed Fleck would give the job to Simon, and were baffled when he didn't.

You could argue, like I'm sure someone got in Fleck's ear and argued, that Simon is too young and too inexperienced to be promoted to full-time OC. That I can buy. But to then go and hire Sanford?? With the record of performance he had? Oh man ...

 

[MplsGopher]

For all we know, Fleck offered Simon the job and Simon didn’t want that big of a role right now for whatever reason.

Yeah for all we know, Simon is actually Batman during the nights. Being a full-time OC would've just been too much on his plate, right now.

 

[BoatRacer]

When is the moving party? Lots of us here are ready!!!!!!!!! Mike take the fist offer!!!
Oh please take Bob Diaco to your new team as well. I want to see these two on the same team. Dream Team coaching. Failing upward!

 

[#2Gopher]

Short of a miracle (someone else hiring him away), he will be. There's zero chance Fleck would demote him and promote Simon to OC, after one year. Fleck's ego isn't capable of that.

Do you really think that Fleck has an ego where he would allow someone to stay in a position if it brought the defense/offensive down?

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Do you really think that Fleck has an ego where he would allow someone to stay in a position if it brought the defense/offensive down?

My feelings exactly.

Sanford is not running the program. Fleck is the head coach.

Fleck has shown that he will replace a coordinator who is not performing to a certain standard.

So, we have to assume that, if Fleck felt Sanford was hurting the offense, then Fleck would do something about it.

And Fleck is coming from an offensive background - so he is certainly qualified to determine whether the offense is being run to his satisfaction.

in short - (assuming Sanford does not leave for another job) - as I see it, Sanford will be the OC as long as Fleck wants him to be the OC. So, if you're mad at Sanford, better reserve some of that ire for the guy who brought Sanford into the program and continues to employ him.

 

[Word]

I get the Sanford hate because fans are fans and the offense was all time great last year and merely just above average this year.

I don’t get the Simon love.
Simon might not have made the game plan for the bowl, Fleck may have been hands on...we don’t know.

simon might have been asked if he wanted OC job and told Fleck he would rather be a position coach still....we don’t know...For as much as fleck claims to be hands off...Simon might want more autonomy to be wide open if he runs an offense...again, we don’t know

Fleck in working with Simon may have reasons he did want think Simon is a good fit, we don’t know.

Simon would have taken the job. I know someone that knows the Simon family well. Take that for what it's worth.

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

Minnesota's yards per game rank in the B1G since 2011.

2011 - 12th (last)
2012 - 10th
2013 - 11th
2014 - 9th
2015 - 12th
2016 - 11th
2017 - 12th
2018 - 9th
2019 - 4th
2020 - 5th

Sanford's offense was ranked only one spot lower in the B1G than last year, even with a significant loss in talent and a limited offseason. It's the second highest the Gophers have finished in the B1G in the last decade.

And this is the guy you want to get rid of after only 1 season...

 

[Some guy]

Minnesota's yards per game rank in the B1G since 2011.

2011 - 12th (last)
2012 - 10th
2013 - 11th
2014 - 9th
2015 - 12th
2016 - 11th
2017 - 12th
2018 - 9th
2019 - 4th
2020 - 5th

Sanford's offense was ranked only one spot lower in the B1G than last year, even with a significant loss in talent and a limited offseason. It's the second highest the Gophers have finished in the B1G in the last decade.

And this is the guy you want to get rid of after only 1 season...

Getting 4th in the big ten last year was a lot better than 5th this year.

Indiana and northwestern teams that are 2-3 in the big ten this year wouldn’t have been too 6 against the 2019 big ten. The conference simply wasn’t as good this year IMO

 

[Some guy]

Simon would have taken the job. I know someone that knows the Simon family well. Take that for what it's worth.

They have no idea even if they know them pretty well. Unless Simon is telling people outside the program the program’s business.

I don’t doubt he may have wanted it. But it’s all speculation

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

Getting 4th in the big ten last year was a lot better than 5th this year.

Indiana and northwestern teams that are 2-3 in the big ten this year wouldn’t have been too 6 against the 2019 big ten. The conference simply wasn’t as good this year IMO

Indiana was 3rd in YPG last season. Neither Indiana nor Northwestern were ahead of the Gophers this season.

 

[Some guy]

Indiana was 3rd in YPG last season. Neither Indiana nor Northwestern were ahead of the Gophers this season.

I’m just talking generally, not about offenses only.

Having the 4th best offense in a big ten with 4 legit top 12 teams (Ohio state, penn state, Minnesota, Wisconsin) and 6 legit top 20 (add Michigan and Iowa) feels better than having the 5th best offense in a conference with one legit top 10 (Ohio state) and 4 legit top 20 teams (northwestern, Indiana, Iowa)....final standings/rankings aren’t done...but just watching the games I don’t think 2020 Indiana finishes any higher than 4th in the east in 2019.

 

[Unregistered User]

Never did. You're too dumb to recognize that. Not my fault

You made a declarative statement. That was stating your opinion as fact.

And please, stop trying to insult me, or hit on me. You're not very good at either.

 

[Spaulding!No!]

I don't know, man. Morgan went from world beater QB who knew where his receivers were at every step and threw the ball before the route had developed under KC, to constantly confused, slow to make decisions, and inaccurate under MS.

He's 20. It's not like he peaked athletically. Something was very wrong with that offense even though it was still pretty potent with Mo.

You never want a revolving door at OC, but last year wasn't pretty.

All of our qbs come down to earth. It’s not the OCs vault every time

 

[Mitu]

Your point on WKU depends on how much Sanford had control over the offense. Some HC's still like to call the plays, though that is less common in college than the NFL (I think). But still, fired after only two years??

To your Simon point: then how was it possible for Fleck to anoint Joe Rossi as DC permanently, after "only" calling the remainder of the 2018 season games??

It's exactly the same thing. And why many people assumed Fleck would give the job to Simon, and were baffled when he didn't.

You could argue, like I'm sure someone got in Fleck's ear and argued, that Simon is too young and too inexperienced to be promoted to full-time OC. That I can buy. But to then go and hire Sanford?? With the record of performance he had? Oh man ...

Yeah, it seems like the HC gig at WKU was too much too soon for Sanford. But we’re talking about two years out of his entire career. He’s also the person who coached DeShone Kizer to be pretty damn good at Notre Dame. I suspect Fleck believes that good OCs need to be QB coaches as well, which I disagree with.

That being said, it’s pretty ridiculous to compare Rossi’s situation to Simon’s. Rossi coached the entire defense for multiple games and demonstrated a massive turnaround. That definitely earned him the role. Simon had sole responsibility for one game.

 

[Word]

Your point on WKU depends on how much Sanford had control over the offense. Some HC's still like to call the plays, though that is less common in college than the NFL (I think). But still, fired after only two years??

To your Simon point: then how was it possible for Fleck to anoint Joe Rossi as DC permanently, after "only" calling the remainder of the 2018 season games??

It's exactly the same thing. And why many people assumed Fleck would give the job to Simon, and were baffled when he didn't.

You could argue, like I'm sure someone got in Fleck's ear and argued, that Simon is too young and too inexperienced to be promoted to full-time OC. That I can buy. But to then go and hire Sanford?? With the record of performance he had? Oh man ...

Rossi didn't just have those games with the Gophers. He was DC at Rutgers for 2 years. Bad comparison for Simon's situation.