Who would you pick to replace our OC/QB coach and why? (My pick: Mack Leftwich)

[50PoundHead]

Have to at least somewhat disagree. I think the "the OC is only doing what Fleck says" angle is heavily, heavily overplayed. Certainly any OC knows that Fleck wants to control the clock and minimize mistakes, but Fleck's not calling what the Gophers are going to run when it's 2nd and 7 from your own 28-yd line. The two clowns that are currently in charge of the offense are in over their head, a long ways over their head honestly.

The mistake this year was going into the season with BOTH a relatively unproven Quarterback AND an inexperienced OC calling the plays.

I think we're on different verses of the same hymn, but clearly the same hymn. I probably overstated or didn't really make clear what I was trying to say. Fleck isn't calling the plays, but I think he has very well-defined preferences that dictate overall game strategy and there is at least some trickle-down effect to what the OCs are calling. I agree 100% that the ball control angle is paramount in Fleck's thinking, but the game has changed a lot in the past five years and while ball control is still important, there are other elements that have increased in importance. Also agree 100% that having a new full-time QB and new play-calling team in the same year is bound to lead to some issues.

 

[upnorthkid]

I think we're on different verses of the same hymn, but clearly the same hymn. I probably overstated or didn't really make clear what I was trying to say. Fleck isn't calling the plays, but I think he has very well-defined preferences that dictate overall game strategy and there is at least some trickle-down effect to what the OCs are calling. I agree 100% that the ball control angle is paramount in Fleck's thinking, but the game has changed a lot in the past five years and while ball control is still important, there are other elements that have increased in importance. Also agree 100% that having a new full-time QB and new play-calling team in the same year is bound to lead to some issues.

this. Fleck is setting the run/pass balance and situationally what he wants to happen which he claims is similar to Jim Tressel (it's also what Schiano does at Rutgers). we predicate ourselves on winning TOP. We run a slow and plodding offense which requires you to execute all the way down the field to score TDs typically through a 10 plus play drive. College kids make mistakes more often unless you're at the talent levels of OSU or a team like NDSU in their glory years playing against teams far worse than you. He also employs this strategy on our defense, dictating that we will play soft, tackle well, and rely on the offense having to execute to score on us. The problem is you then have to execute all the way down the field with marginal comparative talent, and it gets real easy to mess that up resulting in settling for FGs and staying close with teams of inferior talent. Teams better than you will still execute and score unless you create turnovers (see UNC, Michigan). This strategy works when you're OSU or when you're playing teams of equal or lesser talent with hopes their mistakes will let you win, but it opens the door to lower teams to stick around if you also have one small hitch along the way.

To me, this simplistic offense is built for speed and we have an OL (and RBs) that will hurt teams in the 4th Quarter if we'd simply up our total play output. We don't really motion other than to flip our personnel to the other side. Let's the defense set and sit and rest while you inevitably run the clock down to 5 every snap. There are times to play tempo and move with the flow of the game, the same as there are times to be more aggressive and realize that 3 at the end of half isn't going to do it.

Maybe he will eventually grow, but I don't see it and this is going to be what he wants run as he thinks this wins you more games. It's going to take someone he respects to tell him he needs to adapt and change. Maybe your best bet is an older OC who's been around the block that he believes in, but I don't think someone with differing philosophical views is getting past the 1st round of interviews with PJ.

tl;dr: PJ dictates style based on coaches he thinks did a good job (Tressel and Schiano) and won't change to his detriment given the talent we will have here.

 

[balds]

After last week, throw a fortune at Kevin O' Connell.

I don't have a big problem with the OC.

We scored 31 in regulation and lost to NW.

We complete a simple pass, or see a massive hole, take two steps and dive for the first down against Illinois. Win those two and we're 7-2.

North Carolina game should've been really close. Many big plays were there down the field and the passes were wildly inaccurate. Not to mention the terrible throw to Spann-Ford for the pick deep in their territory.

Someone should add up all of the inaccurate passes to clearly open receivers and the dropped passes. I bet the number would be staggering.

 

[50PoundHead]

this. Fleck is setting the run/pass balance and situationally what he wants to happen which he claims is similar to Jim Tressel (it's also what Schiano does at Rutgers). we predicate ourselves on winning TOP. We run a slow and plodding offense which requires you to execute all the way down the field to score TDs typically through a 10 plus play drive. College kids make mistakes more often unless you're at the talent levels of OSU or a team like NDSU in their glory years playing against teams far worse than you. He also employs this strategy on our defense, dictating that we will play soft, tackle well, and rely on the offense having to execute to score on us. The problem is you then have to execute all the way down the field with marginal comparative talent, and it gets real easy to mess that up resulting in settling for FGs and staying close with teams of inferior talent. Teams better than you will still execute and score unless you create turnovers (see UNC, Michigan). This strategy works when you're OSU or when you're playing teams of equal or lesser talent with hopes their mistakes will let you win, but it opens the door to lower teams to stick around if you also have one small hitch along the way.

To me, this simplistic offense is built for speed and we have an OL (and RBs) that will hurt teams in the 4th Quarter if we'd simply up our total play output. We don't really motion other than to flip our personnel to the other side. Let's the defense set and sit and rest while you inevitably run the clock down to 5 every snap. There are times to play tempo and move with the flow of the game, the same as there are times to be more aggressive and realize that 3 at the end of half isn't going to do it.

Maybe he will eventually grow, but I don't see it and this is going to be what he wants run as he thinks this wins you more games. It's going to take someone he respects to tell him he needs to adapt and change. Maybe your best bet is an older OC who's been around the block that he believes in, but I don't think someone with differing philosophical views is getting past the 1st round of interviews with PJ.

tl;dr: PJ dictates style based on coaches he thinks did a good job (Tressel and Schiano) and won't change to his detriment given the talent we will have here.

You've done a better job than I did explaining what I see as an (not "the") issue. I don't psychoanalyze coaches, but when Fleck took over, I think he saw Wisconsin (then) and Iowa as the models as to how to win in the B1G. Iowa may as well be running the single wing, but Wisconsin is in transition. We'll see how it goes east of the St. Croix, but it appears Fickell wants to change things up (of course, Gary Andersen wanted to change things up as well and we all remember how that went).

Anyway, I don't have that big a problem with the stress on time of possession, but I would like to see more shuffling of RBs instead of seeing Taylor and Nubin carrying it more than 30 times a game. Defenses have become quicker and more physical and expecting an RB to get hammered 30 times a game just doesn't make sense anymore. If anything, I just think the current offensive scheme is just too mechanistic.

 

[upnorthkid]

You've done a better job than I did explaining what I see as an (not "the") issue. I don't psychoanalyze coaches, but when Fleck took over, I think he saw Wisconsin (then) and Iowa as the models as to how to win in the B1G. Iowa may as well be running the single wing, but Wisconsin is in transition. We'll see how it goes east of the St. Croix, but it appears Fickell wants to change things up (of course, Gary Andersen wanted to change things up as well and we all remember how that went).

Anyway, I don't have that big a problem with the stress on time of possession, but I would like to see more shuffling of RBs instead of seeing Taylor and Nubin carrying it more than 30 times a game. Defenses have become quicker and more physical and expecting an RB to get hammered 30 times a game just doesn't make sense anymore. If anything, I just think the current offensive scheme is just too mechanistic.

agreed. zero reason they can't be rotated in and out based on what we've seen running from each of them. health has clearly had a lot to do with carry breakdown this year
Nebraska: Tyler 10, Williams 6, Taylor 1
EMU: Taylor 33, Tyler 17
UNC: Taylor 22, Tyler 3
NU: Taylor 31, Williams 5
UL: Evans 15, Williams 15, Tyler 10
Mich: Evans 12, Williams 10, Tyler 6, Nubin 6
Iowa: Taylor 16, Evans 10, Tyler 9
Mich St: Nubin 40, Tyler 2
Ill: Nubin 19, Evans 8

 

[MplsGopher]

Sure, easy to blame defensive lapses as costing us the NW and ILL games. Easy to say we scored plenty enough points to win those games.

Just as easy to say this truth: both games the offense had exactly the ability to end the game, by executing on a reasonably executable play … and they failed to make the play.

 

[Arnold Babar]

this. Fleck is setting the run/pass balance and situationally what he wants to happen which he claims is similar to Jim Tressel (it's also what Schiano does at Rutgers). we predicate ourselves on winning TOP. We run a slow and plodding offense which requires you to execute all the way down the field to score TDs typically through a 10 plus play drive. College kids make mistakes more often unless you're at the talent levels of OSU or a team like NDSU in their glory years playing against teams far worse than you. He also employs this strategy on our defense, dictating that we will play soft, tackle well, and rely on the offense having to execute to score on us. The problem is you then have to execute all the way down the field with marginal comparative talent, and it gets real easy to mess that up resulting in settling for FGs and staying close with teams of inferior talent. Teams better than you will still execute and score unless you create turnovers (see UNC, Michigan). This strategy works when you're OSU or when you're playing teams of equal or lesser talent with hopes their mistakes will let you win, but it opens the door to lower teams to stick around if you also have one small hitch along the way.

To me, this simplistic offense is built for speed and we have an OL (and RBs) that will hurt teams in the 4th Quarter if we'd simply up our total play output. We don't really motion other than to flip our personnel to the other side. Let's the defense set and sit and rest while you inevitably run the clock down to 5 every snap. There are times to play tempo and move with the flow of the game, the same as there are times to be more aggressive and realize that 3 at the end of half isn't going to do it.

Maybe he will eventually grow, but I don't see it and this is going to be what he wants run as he thinks this wins you more games. It's going to take someone he respects to tell him he needs to adapt and change. Maybe your best bet is an older OC who's been around the block that he believes in, but I don't think someone with differing philosophical views is getting past the 1st round of interviews with PJ.

tl;dr: PJ dictates style based on coaches he thinks did a good job (Tressel and Schiano) and won't change to his detriment given the talent we will have here.

Tressel's offense also had 5 star players up and down the roster. Just don't make any mistakes and eventually the talent wins out.

 

[btowngopher]

Does a qb coach really make that much difference? Has there been a terrible qb that switched qb coaches and became great? I feel like QBs are born, not coached into existence for the most part. You want to see improvement then surrounding the qb with talent and having familiarity with the OC and plays will yield much more noticeable results in my opinion.

 

[btowngopher]

this. Fleck is setting the run/pass balance and situationally what he wants to happen which he claims is similar to Jim Tressel (it's also what Schiano does at Rutgers). we predicate ourselves on winning TOP. We run a slow and plodding offense which requires you to execute all the way down the field to score TDs typically through a 10 plus play drive. College kids make mistakes more often unless you're at the talent levels of OSU or a team like NDSU in their glory years playing against teams far worse than you. He also employs this strategy on our defense, dictating that we will play soft, tackle well, and rely on the offense having to execute to score on us. The problem is you then have to execute all the way down the field with marginal comparative talent, and it gets real easy to mess that up resulting in settling for FGs and staying close with teams of inferior talent. Teams better than you will still execute and score unless you create turnovers (see UNC, Michigan). This strategy works when you're OSU or when you're playing teams of equal or lesser talent with hopes their mistakes will let you win, but it opens the door to lower teams to stick around if you also have one small hitch along the way.

To me, this simplistic offense is built for speed and we have an OL (and RBs) that will hurt teams in the 4th Quarter if we'd simply up our total play output. We don't really motion other than to flip our personnel to the other side. Let's the defense set and sit and rest while you inevitably run the clock down to 5 every snap. There are times to play tempo and move with the flow of the game, the same as there are times to be more aggressive and realize that 3 at the end of half isn't going to do it.

Maybe he will eventually grow, but I don't see it and this is going to be what he wants run as he thinks this wins you more games. It's going to take someone he respects to tell him he needs to adapt and change. Maybe your best bet is an older OC who's been around the block that he believes in, but I don't think someone with differing philosophical views is getting past the 1st round of interviews with PJ.

tl;dr: PJ dictates style based on coaches he thinks did a good job (Tressel and Schiano) and won't change to his detriment given the talent we will have here.

I don’t think the offense is necessarily designed to string together a bunch of plays every drive. It’s not like they never try to take deep shots. I think it’s more a lack of big play personnel and execution this year that is hurting us.

 

[Taji34]

Does a qb coach really make that much difference? Has there been a terrible qb that switched qb coaches and became great? I feel like QBs are born, not coached into existence for the most part. You want to see improvement then surrounding the qb with talent and having familiarity with the OC and plays will yield much more noticeable results in my opinion.

I think it does. Maybe you can't take a horrible QB and make them great, but I think you can take a horrible QB and make them average, and take an average QB and make them great. You can even take a great QB and make them a legend.

NOW, the question here would be that can a QB coach who isn't also the OC do this. How much of being a good QB coach is the ability to shape the play calling to highlight the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of a QB?

But I think there is a lot of QB specific things that a QB coach can work to improve to bring the level of a QB up. The hard work is identifying what specifically needs to be worked on, and finding effective ways of improving a QB in those areas. Things like footwork, throwing motion, and other mechanics stuff can be easy to identify and begin to address, but what about noticing how your QB breaks down under pressure, what decisions is you QB making in game situations, etc could be harder.

However, it seems like some QB coaches seem to have a history of producing good QBs regardless of the level of recruit, so I feel like there must be something there.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

So, I was going to try to compile a list of potential OC/QB coaches to pursue to replace our current OC/QB coach. That proved to be WAY more effort than I wanted to put into it so instead I'm going to open it up to the board to list who they think we should go after and why.

A couple of ground rules though:

1. Be realistic. We probably aren't going to be able to poach an OC from a current top 25 school, nor would we probably be able to poach someone from another P5 school.
2. They will still operate as OC AND QB coach. In my short stint trying to compile a list, I realized this is VERY common. Plus it makes it easier as we don't have to shuffle around other coaches.

My pick? Mack Leftwich, who is the current offensive coordinator at Texas State. His coaching history is as follows:

2016: UTEP – Student Assistant & Kirkland High School (El Paso) – Offensive Coordinator/QBs
2017: Lehman High School (TX) – Offensive Coordinator
2018: UIW – Graduate Assistant
2019: UIW – Quarterbacks Coach
2020: UIW – Quarterbacks Coach
2021: UIW – Quarterbacks Coach
2022: UIW – Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
2023: Texas State - Offensive Coordinator

His bio from the Texas State website sums up why I think he'd be a good choice pretty well:


Let's dive a bit deeper into the QBs his bio mentioned:

Jon Copeland:

Cameron Ward (transferred to WSU in 2022, started all of 2022 and all of 2023 so far):

Lindsey Scott Jr.:

And what about the current QB at Texas State? (I assume he's filling the QB coach role even though it's not listed, as there is no other coach listed as the QBs coach):
TJ Finley:


Safe to say, IMO, he can develop QBs.

In his 1 year as OC at UIW in 2022, they put up a cumulative 721 points in 14 games, averaging 51.5 points a game. That year their lowest scoring game was 31 points, and their highest was 73(!!) points. Obviously his offenses can score a lot of points too. Obviously these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, as this was in FCS where the level of talent of teams they played probably varied wildly. HOWEVER, as OC at Texas State this year, that high scoring trend has continued. So far they have scored a cumulative 281 points over 8 games played, averaging 35.1 points per game. Their lowest score so far is 13 points, while their highest score so far is 77. This is in the sun belt conference, so still not the stiffest of competition, but shows that his OC ability doesn't seem to be tied to a specific school or set of players.

This is quite a discussion. Thanks for all the work.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

I like Andy Kotelnicki at Kansas, too - fun team to watch. But PJ is so stubborn he won't be making a change anytime soon, either in OC or in his TOP offense. Maybe if next year is a disaster and it may be, he'll consider some changes. Quick striking teams like USC, Oregon win without TOP. We do need one person as OC - who is also a great QB coach. Athan needs some mentoring.

 

[MNfootballfan]

Does a qb coach really make that much difference? Has there been a terrible qb that switched qb coaches and became great? I feel like QBs are born, not coached into existence for the most part. You want to see improvement then surrounding the qb with talent and having familiarity with the OC and plays will yield much more noticeable results in my opinion.

I would say they are. To beat on a broken drum, take a look at Mike Sanford... this is a very small sample size but enough to say something is up.

Jordan Love 2018 (No Sanford) 267/417 - 64% - 3567 Yards - 32 TD - 7 Int
Jordan Love 2019 (W/ Sanford) 293/473 - 62% - 3402 Yards - 20 TD - 17 Int

Tanner Morgan 2019 (No Sanford) 210/318 - 66% - 3253 Yards - 30 TD - 7 Int
Tanner Morgan 2020, 2021 (W/ Sanford) 250/433 - 57% - 4822 Yards - 17 TD - 14 Int

Obviously, we are very familiar with Morgan... 2019 - Johnson/Bateman, etc. Still there is a track record of Sanford making QBs regress.

I would be curious to see if a bunch of armchair quarterbacks like us see noticeable flaws with Kaliakmanis' throwing... I can assume that the coaches notice the same... coaches have two options - 1) Coach it 2) allow it.

I played college football at a smaller college in the Twin Cities and in my 5 years had 3 different offensive line coaches. Offensive line isn't quarterbacking but I can tell you flat out the coaching, points of emphasis, daily drills, etc were vastly different and you could easily tell who was a good coach and who wasn't. Not shocking, even as a college kid, I knew one of our coaches was far superior to other coaches... he is not a P5 offensive line coach making $600k a year.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Does a qb coach really make that much difference? Has there been a terrible qb that switched qb coaches and became great? I feel like QBs are born, not coached into existence for the most part. You want to see improvement then surrounding the qb with talent and having familiarity with the OC and plays will yield much more noticeable results in my opinion.

I agree with you. Maybe it's more that a good QB coach knows what to look for in a recruit?

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I would say they are. To beat on a broken drum, take a look at Mike Sanford... this is a very small sample size but enough to say something is up.

Jordan Love 2018 (No Sanford) 267/417 - 64% - 3567 Yards - 32 TD - 7 Int
Jordan Love 2019 (W/ Sanford) 293/473 - 62% - 3402 Yards - 20 TD - 17 Int

Tanner Morgan 2019 (No Sanford) 210/318 - 66% - 3253 Yards - 30 TD - 7 Int
Tanner Morgan 2020, 2021 (W/ Sanford) 250/433 - 57% - 4822 Yards - 17 TD - 14 Int

Obviously, we are very familiar with Morgan... 2019 - Johnson/Bateman, etc. Still there is a track record of Sanford making QBs regress.

I would be curious to see if a bunch of armchair quarterbacks like us see noticeable flaws with Kaliakmanis' throwing... I can assume that the coaches notice the same... coaches have two options - 1) Coach it 2) allow it.

I played college football at a smaller college in the Twin Cities and in my 5 years had 3 different offensive line coaches. Offensive line isn't quarterbacking but I can tell you flat out the coaching, points of emphasis, daily drills, etc were vastly different and you could easily tell who was a good coach and who wasn't. Not shocking, even as a college kid, I knew one of our coaches was far superior to other coaches... he is not a P5 offensive line coach making $600k a year.

I don't know where I stand on the issue, but I think Sandford's biggest issue was play calling. His "system" did not make any sense whatsoever and there was absolutely no cohesion between plays. It was just a random string of playcalls.

I don't know how much of it is coaching technique and how much of it is calling plays to put people into a position to succeed.

 

[Taji34]

My take on Fleckball is that on a base level it's a sound philosophy. If you limit the time your opponent has to score, you can limit the number of points they put up. But it relies on a few things:

1. Your opponent needs a lot of time to score. As we've seen, we've had games where we dominated TOP but still lost because other teams got big plays and scored fast. If you have a flaw on defense that your opponent can exploit to score fast, you're going to have a bad time if you can put up points to match.
2. You score points on most drives. You can eat up time all you want, but if you never put points on the board, then your opponent doesn't need to score much to win. This has been a BIG problem for us this year. We start a good drive, but settle for a FG, or don't quite get to FG range and have to punt.
3. You don't have to play catch up. If you are behind by more than a TD, you start to hurt yourself by taking too long to score. Sure, maybe your defense shores up and gets some 3 and outs and you have enough time to catch up, but that can be tough to do. Think about the northwestern game, they scored 21 points in a quarter. That sort of comeback does not happen in Fleckball because unless you have amazing field position, 3 full offensive drives may take too long to fit into a quarter, especially if your opponent starts to run time off the clock effectively (something we should have been able to do, but I digress).

IMO the evolution is this. Yes, TOP can be your primary formula to winning the game, but you need to have a fallback for those situations where that is failing you. What does this mean? You need the ability to drive down the field and score fast when the situation calls for it. Even if PJ tried to do that now, I don't think our OC could gameplan that effectively.

That's why I trended toward someone whose offenses put up crazy numbers. It's easy to take someone who can do that, and dial them back to control TOP most of the time but let them loose when needed. It's hard to take someone whose primary offense is low scoring, TOP based and throw them into situations where they have to find a way to put up points fast.

 

[swelna]

Does a qb coach really make that much difference? Has there been a terrible qb that switched qb coaches and became great? I feel like QBs are born, not coached into existence for the most part. You want to see improvement then surrounding the qb with talent and having familiarity with the OC and plays will yield much more noticeable results in my opinion.

I think a bad QB coach definitely can bring a QB down, unsure if a good QB coach can provide the same amount of lift.

 

[Jack jones]

Y

I think it does. Maybe you can't take a horrible QB and make them great, but I think you can take a horrible QB and make them average, and take an average QB and make them great. You can even take a great QB and make them a legend.

NOW, the question here would be that can a QB coach who isn't also the OC do this. How much of being a good QB coach is the ability to shape the play calling to highlight the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of a QB?

But I think there is a lot of QB specific things that a QB coach can work to improve to bring the level of a QB up. The hard work is identifying what specifically needs to be worked on, and finding effective ways of improving a QB in those areas. Things like footwork, throwing motion, and other mechanics stuff can be easy to identify and begin to address, but what about noticing how your QB breaks down under pressure, what decisions is you QB making in game situations, etc could be harder.

However, it seems like some QB coaches seem to have a history of producing good QBs regardless of the level of recruit, so I feel like there must be something there.

You can’t make children salad out of chicken shxx.

 

[BigSchmidty17]

And an inexperienced QB coach...

So, I was going to try to compile a list of potential OC/QB coaches to pursue to replace our current OC/QB coach. That proved to be WAY more effort than I wanted to put into it so instead I'm going to open it up to the board to list who they think we should go after and why.

A couple of ground rules though:

1. Be realistic. We probably aren't going to be able to poach an OC from a current top 25 school, nor would we probably be able to poach someone from another P5 school.
2. They will still operate as OC AND QB coach. In my short stint trying to compile a list, I realized this is VERY common. Plus it makes it easier as we don't have to shuffle around other coaches.

My pick? Mack Leftwich, who is the current offensive coordinator at Texas State. His coaching history is as follows:

2016: UTEP – Student Assistant & Kirkland High School (El Paso) – Offensive Coordinator/QBs
2017: Lehman High School (TX) – Offensive Coordinator
2018: UIW – Graduate Assistant
2019: UIW – Quarterbacks Coach
2020: UIW – Quarterbacks Coach
2021: UIW – Quarterbacks Coach
2022: UIW – Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
2023: Texas State - Offensive Coordinator

His bio from the Texas State website sums up why I think he'd be a good choice pretty well:


Let's dive a bit deeper into the QBs his bio mentioned:

Jon Copeland:

Cameron Ward (transferred to WSU in 2022, started all of 2022 and all of 2023 so far):

Lindsey Scott Jr.:

And what about the current QB at Texas State? (I assume he's filling the QB coach role even though it's not listed, as there is no other coach listed as the QBs coach):
TJ Finley:


Safe to say, IMO, he can develop QBs.

In his 1 year as OC at UIW in 2022, they put up a cumulative 721 points in 14 games, averaging 51.5 points a game. That year their lowest scoring game was 31 points, and their highest was 73(!!) points. Obviously his offenses can score a lot of points too. Obviously these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, as this was in FCS where the level of talent of teams they played probably varied wildly. HOWEVER, as OC at Texas State this year, that high scoring trend has continued. So far they have scored a cumulative 281 points over 8 games played, averaging 35.1 points per game. Their lowest score so far is 13 points, while their highest score so far is 77. This is in the sun belt conference, so still not the stiffest of competition, but shows that his OC ability doesn't seem to be tied to a specific school or set of players.

So, I was going to try to compile a list of potential OC/QB coaches to pursue to replace our current OC/QB coach. That proved to be WAY more effort than I wanted to put into it so instead I'm going to open it up to the board to list who they think we should go after and why.

A couple of ground rules though:

1. Be realistic. We probably aren't going to be able to poach an OC from a current top 25 school, nor would we probably be able to poach someone from another P5 school.
2. They will still operate as OC AND QB coach. In my short stint trying to compile a list, I realized this is VERY common. Plus it makes it easier as we don't have to shuffle around other coaches.

My pick? Mack Leftwich, who is the current offensive coordinator at Texas State. His coaching history is as follows:

2016: UTEP – Student Assistant & Kirkland High School (El Paso) – Offensive Coordinator/QBs
2017: Lehman High School (TX) – Offensive Coordinator
2018: UIW – Graduate Assistant
2019: UIW – Quarterbacks Coach
2020: UIW – Quarterbacks Coach
2021: UIW – Quarterbacks Coach
2022: UIW – Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
2023: Texas State - Offensive Coordinator

His bio from the Texas State website sums up why I think he'd be a good choice pretty well:


Let's dive a bit deeper into the QBs his bio mentioned:

Jon Copeland:

Cameron Ward (transferred to WSU in 2022, started all of 2022 and all of 2023 so far):

Lindsey Scott Jr.:

And what about the current QB at Texas State? (I assume he's filling the QB coach role even though it's not listed, as there is no other coach listed as the QBs coach):
TJ Finley:


Safe to say, IMO, he can develop QBs.

In his 1 year as OC at UIW in 2022, they put up a cumulative 721 points in 14 games, averaging 51.5 points a game. That year their lowest scoring game was 31 points, and their highest was 73(!!) points. Obviously his offenses can score a lot of points too. Obviously these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, as this was in FCS where the level of talent of teams they played probably varied wildly. HOWEVER, as OC at Texas State this year, that high scoring trend has continued. So far they have scored a cumulative 281 points over 8 games played, averaging 35.1 points per game. Their lowest score so far is 13 points, while their highest score so far is 77. This is in the sun belt conference, so still not the stiffest of competition, but shows that his OC ability doesn't seem to be tied to a specific school or set of players.

Thanks for putting this together and that's a lot of research. I'm not going to go that deep into it but I like Charlie Weis Jr. out of Ole Miss. Has the pedigree with his dad being a head coach and growing up in theat environment, is currently the QB coach/Assistant at Ole Miss as I mentioned. Has shown success at all previous stops, even if they were brief, plus seems to have been learning from some of the best along the way. Oh, and a psychology major/degree type of guy which I like. Lastly, I think he would be run first yet more dynamic in what our offense can do. Could help recruit as well.

 

[Some Day...Maybe]

Any OC PJ hires has to agree to and listen to what PJ desires. Probably in that order. No matter who the OC is...on game day PJ is going to choose one running back to get 30 to 40 carries. (one example) There is no discussion...the OC calls PJ's plays for that RB.

PJ selects the QB and barring a trip to the hospital, whoever PJ picks in the spring as his starter will never leave the game for the entire season. (example two)

So, any OC we hire will look a lot like the last guy.

I would argue the last 2 have been quite a bit less qualified and effective than the first one.

 

[Some Day...Maybe]

I remember reading someone mentioning that no seasoned, successful coach/OC would want to work for Fleck. I'm starting to think that might be true, based on his last 2 hires. Seems like he wants a young guy he can mold.

I'm starting to think Harbaugh will be back next year. I guess it will depend on these last 3 games. Perform well in 2 of them, maybe even 1, and he'll be back. Basically win 1 or 2. Lose all 3 and he'll probably be gone.

 

[Taji34]

I really hope we learn soon that Harbaugh will not be with the team next year....

We need a proven commodity at OC/QB coach, not someone who hasn't done either before....