You HAVE to fire the OC after this game

Donate To GopherHole
hungan1 said:
That is because the Offensive Coordinator is not dynamic and imaginative. It may seem unfair to say, but I don't think he is a very good game film analyst and game planner. If you compare Kirk Ciarrocca's old interviews and Mike Sanford Jr's interviews, you can see how superior an OC Ciarrocca is. He game plans really well and positions the Offense effectively to win games based on the opponent's tendencies. He is legendary at special hours in the video room.

There is a reason PSU hire Ciarrocca away if you watch how he game plans in great detail. https://www.collegian.psu.edu/footb...cle_1bc0f110-2bec-11ea-b5ba-d7bc574f9cef.html

Will Ciarrocca want to return? Offer him whatever he wants. Access to private planes to go visit with his family?
Click to expand...
I was wondering the same thing. He’s currently an offensive analyst for West Virginia. Did Kirk leave on good terms with PJ?
 

Donovan said:
I was wondering the same thing. He’s currently an offensive analyst for West Virginia. Did Kirk leave on good terms with PJ?
Click to expand...
Yes. PJ was near tears. He is only a plane ride away.
 

Six to Eight said:
His press conference went something along the lines of "we didn't finish" (or ever really start, IMO) a few times, followed with some "we didn't execute", but mostly praised Illinois and their staff for playing well. He conceded that Tanner was "inconsistent" and that it would have been a different game with better kicking. But for the most part, he stuck to form and didn't criticize players.

Of course, none of the media asked any tough coach-related questions about playcalling, preparation, in-game adjustments, etc.
Click to expand...
Drives me nuts that no one called him out when he said that he thought they could make the offensive game plan work until there were 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Either he's a moron or a liar.
 


gopherdudepart2 said:
We have run zero middles screens, very few tunnel screens and limited wheel routies to our running backs all season. The tight end stick routes and dig routes were open all game as the Illinois free safety was playing deep all game. I know we are down on experienced running backs, maybe the Gophers just cannot execute those type of plays. We needed to move to tempo and hot routes a lot sooner than we did, with how tight the 8 man box was today. We could have clearly done some things to exploit what Illinois was doing on defense and refused to do so. This staff is awful at making in game adjustments, there is plenty of evidence over five season that if they face in game adversity they never rise to the occasion.
Click to expand...
PJ has lost - is it 18 of 19 when behind at the half? That would be a statement about adjustments.
 



topos said:
Did we ever try a screen pass?
Click to expand...
why do that when you can drop back and look deep with no check down, take a sack and look to punt? No answer to their game plan of 6 rushing and run blitzing.
 

Regarding the offense, to quote Jerry Kill’s daughter, “tough to watch”.
 

alaska said:
Agreed.....if the culture is to have continual let down games against the worst teams on your schedule, then we need to adjust. Winning is a culture too.
Click to expand...
Ya, 2019 sucked. I preferred the previous 55 years.
 



yea.. i'm not into this OC and that playcalling.. when players execute the plays at an elite level, its fine.. but when shit hits the fan.. there's zero creativity and flexibility and preparation.

3rd or 4th and 6.. we have 4 or 5 WR. Morgan has a 3-step drop and when he's locked to throw.. not a SINGLE WR was looking back. they were all on deep/long routes.

that's a big freakin problem.
 

Have to say, Doogie’s coverage of the game was pretty accurate. Not big on Sanford or the play calling. Huh.
 

upnorthkid said:
route combos are horrid, actions inspire no misdirection, we pass only in obvious situations which allows rushers to pin ears back, we snap the ball at a predictable time which allows DL to get jump on snap. So much of our offense is JV and relies on an OL that can just bulldoze teams. We're not going to be able to beat anyone who can stack the box, particularly if we only run route combos that finish with WRs over the middle. When we were successful with TJ and Bateman, we threw the ball outside. The play to Jackson pretty much the only time we threw outside was there, just overshot. I mean ffs, I could draw up 10 different route combos, which appears to be more than our offensive guru can come up with
Click to expand...
Well said.
 




Well, PJ has some tough conversations now. We'll see what he decides I guess.
 

What's the deal with lining Ko Kieft up as a receiver....just to run a draw. I was trying to figure out what that was supposed to accomplish and came up with nothing.
 


BTChamp said:
It's very similar to Coach O. Had Aranda and Brady as coordinators and had all sorts of records and a national title. They left and everything went to shit. Shows PJ's coordinators are everything. Rossi is a stud, Sanford is a dud.
Click to expand...
It's still more of a talent issue than anything. LSU's offense was loaded, look at how good Burrow, Jefferson, and Chase have been in the NFL so far and there was a ton of other NFL talent on that team. Same goes for the Gophers and the talent they had here in 2019.

Sanford is a dud, but Cirraocca and Brady haven't exactly had a ton of success on offense since leaving MN and LSU. Aranda has been a top defensive coordinator for a long time.
 

Two plays from the first half. One is a good call but is not run well by the players on the field. The other is poor coaching and not understanding what the Illinois D was doing
The first is the 4th down and short call with Kramer at QB. This should have been 6 pts. if Cole actually ran to the opening and not just went straight ahead. One thing I don't understand about the play though, (it wouldn't have made a difference), but our best blocking TE is Ko and our worst one is Brevyn, yet on this play Brevyn is the one in the game. I don't like what Sanford has done with the offense, but this play isn't on him.
The second play is a third down and medium. 1 back, 1 TE slot left, and 3 WR, 1 right and 2 left. From the way Tanner sets up he looks like his first read is the no. 2 WR to the top side, who doesn't get past the defender very quickly because the defender is in an off position. Just takes too long for it to happen. The defender over our TE blitzes leaving Ko wide open, except Tanner isn't looking there nor does he see the blitz. Should have been an easy throw to Ko for a first down. This to me is a coaching issue and having our QB lock in on 1 WR target first rather than seeing the field and what is going on.

 

Guys I got a dream last night that PJ will send off Mike Sanford today. He said they mutually parted ways. Simon will take over as real OC. and Kirk will be back as QB coach. 🥳🥳🥳
Then I work up.😆
 

BoatRacer said:
Guys I got a dream last night that PJ will send off Mike Sanford today. He said they mutually parted ways. Simon will take over as real OC. and Kirk will be back as QB coach. 🥳🥳🥳
Then I work up.😆
Click to expand...
Was it a wet dream?
 

GFBfan said:
Two plays from the first half. One is a good call but is not run well by the players on the field. The other is poor coaching and not understanding what the Illinois D was doing
The first is the 4th down and short call with Kramer at QB. This should have been 6 pts. if Cole actually ran to the opening and not just went straight ahead. One thing I don't understand about the play though, (it wouldn't have made a difference), but our best blocking TE is Ko and our worst one is Brevyn, yet on this play Brevyn is the one in the game. I don't like what Sanford has done with the offense, but this play isn't on him.
The second play is a third down and medium. 1 back, 1 TE slot left, and 3 WR, 1 right and 2 left. From the way Tanner sets up he looks like his first read is the no. 2 WR to the top side, who doesn't get past the defender very quickly because the defender is in an off position. Just takes too long for it to happen. The defender over our TE blitzes leaving Ko wide open, except Tanner isn't looking there nor does he see the blitz. Should have been an easy throw to Ko for a first down. This to me is a coaching issue and having our QB lock in on 1 WR target first rather than seeing the field and what is going on.

Click to expand...
Thanks for the effort of making this. I'd wanted to see a replay of that Kramer run on 4th down for a while because everyone I was watching the game with was flummoxed on why he didn't just make 1 cut and score. That clip pretty much showed that. The problem is he's not a RB -- he's a backup QB whose job is to go out and get 2 yards. He usually does, but sometimes he doesn't. But man, that one yesterday HURT.
 

BoatRacer said:
Guys I got a dream last night that PJ will send off Mike Sanford today. He said they mutually parted ways. Simon will take over as real OC. and Kirk will be back as QB coach. 🥳🥳🥳
Then I work up.😆
Click to expand...
You must have sharted in your sleep.

 
Last edited:


Zero chance.

No one is getting benched. No one is getting fired.


Ride or die
 




I've said this after each of our wins the last few weeks. I didn't belabor the point because I wasn't going to spend the majority of my time on GH talking about the negative things, but Mike Sanford is a bad OC.

The run game is fine, but the passing game never accentuates our players strengths and is absolutely NOT in sync with our running game. I'm not trying to be clever, but it's like a kid playing Madden who is just picking fun plays (they'd go wishbone, to 5 wide).

Part of the reason the passing game worked so well in 2019 is because our running game put so much pressure on the LBers and Safeties (and vice versa). To me, it was a glaring red flag when we changed from running slants to deep ins on the play action.

The slant was so effective because to the safeties and LBers, it looked EXACTLY the same (OL shooting out, fake handoff, etc.). It works with the slant because it's so quick that the OL fire out just like it's a run play. You can't do that on deeper routes. You really can't do that while getting the TE involved (when the TE releases, it's a good tell that you're not running).

That's just one example, but it's throughout all of our offense. Tanner is a lot of things, but he doesn't have a huge arm. Half the time his check downs are to the WR on the far side of the field, meaning he still has the throw the ball 20-30 yards (horizontally) to CHECK DOWN. The NFL that's easy. Tons of decent college QBs would struggle with this.

We have a SR QB, we have a plethora of good RBs, we have some talent at WR, and we might have the most experienced OL in the history of college football. Our offense shouldn't struggle like we did against Miami, Illinois, and Bowling Green. A lot of this is on the players (no excuses here), but Mike Sanford is a really bad OC.
 

Sanford Jr. officially needs to go. Why has Sanford joined a new CFB program almost every year? Perhaps because he’s a fraud? Fleck has to do it. I think defenses like Iowa and Wisconsin could make yesterday’s 6-point performance look like The Greatest Show on Turf. I hope I can look back on this post and laugh at myself as having a bad take. I understand that we’re without Mo, Potts, Bryce, Wiley transfer, etc. It sucks. At some point you have to pass the ball a bit and have some creativity in play-calling. Diversify. It’s so sad to see this coordinator make Tanner look so inconsistent. Sanford Jr. has plenty of average-at-worst talent in CAB, D Wright, Jackson, Spann-Ford, etc. Maximize their talent by getting the rock to them via the air!
 

Jordan Love is playing like he’s being coached by Sanford again. Yikes!
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom