Tuesday October 06, 2009

Dabo's Dual Roles

Dabo’s Dual Roles
It’s Tuesday and I was hoping to shake the sting of losing to a bad Maryland team but no such luck. I can’t shake this feeling.

Maryland is still an awful football team and Clemson still lost to the Terps Saturday. Until I see otherwise, this offense still is a major concern. Maryland is still one of the worst defenses in the ACC.

I guess it does little good to sit around and mope about that game so I was sitting here trying to think of a way to write a blog that might provide some insight and some positive contribution.

Because none of us are qualified to analyze every detail of the program, it becomes difficult. I am a sports talk show host, a fan and a writer of a daily blog. I am not trained to break down the assignments of each offensive linemen. I do not have access to the techniques taught to the running backs. I do not get to see the wide receivers in their daily practice drills. None of us do.

However, I can see five false starts on offense against Maryland. I do see multiple drops each game by the wide receiver corps. I do see game after game of missed tackles. I can tell when a field goal travels between the uprights.

The players jumped off sides, dropped balls and missed tackles and field goals but is it the players fault of the coaches?

The other thing I can do without formal training is form ideas or opinions about what I would like to see from a program. I love Dabo and think he is a breath of fresh air. I am glad he is the head coach here but I fundamentally disagree with a couple of things he has done so far.

First, I don’t think a head coach needs to be involved in the play calling or signaling in of plays. That goes for Dabo, Urban Meyer, Mack Brown, Nick Saban and any other head coach.

In my opinion, the head coach has too much going on throughout the week and the game to be worried about individual plays. I think the head coach needs to manage the game not the individual plays. The offensive staff meets, watches film and develops a game plan throughout the week. The head coach has to meet with the media, meet with the support staff, meet with the trainer, meet with the seniors and others throughout the week. He does not have time micromanage the program. The head coach should hire coordinators and let them call the plays.

Co-coordinators don’t work either. I have watched a bunch of programs through the years fail partly because of co-coordinators. In essence Clemson has co-coordinators on offense with Billy Napier and Dabo both involved in play calling. To me this is an example of too many cooks in the kitchen. With co-coordinators accountability is hard to come by. How are we to know who is responsible when two guys are calling plays?

Clemson’s offensive problems are multiple. Fans don’t want to hear it but they are young at wide receiver, young on the offensive line and young at quarterback. The staff is inexperienced at wide receiver, quarterback and offensive coordinator. The head coach is inexperienced as well. To me that is a lot of youth and inexperience on one side of the football.

The real answer in play calling is execution. Every play works if properly blocked and executed. There would be no issue with Dabo and Napier sharing duties if the offensive line was able to block more effectively. But co-coordinators at least provide us with a sense of accountability.

Another issue is identity. We are five games into this season and 12 games into Dabo’s tenure and I still am not sure what the offensive identity is. To me the best gameplan I saw in those 12 games was the South Carolina game last year where Chad Diehl was the full back in a package that featured a lot of the I-formation. Diehl punished South Carolina and the Tigers pounded the football right at South Carolina. Unfortunately, we have not seen a lot of Diehl or the I-formation since.

Some have suggested Dabo and Napier don’t see eye to eye on the direction of the offense. I think Dabo wants to spread the field but Napier wants to run the I-formation. If that is the case then there is a problem.

I think Dabo needs to decide if he is the head coach or the offensive coordinator. I also think he needs to decide if Clemson is a spread team or an I-formation team. Who are we on offense? Who is in charge of the offense? The offense is broken and someone needs to fix it soon.

Also I think the next time there is an opening on the offensive side of the ball, I think Dabo needs to add experience. In the meantime, let the offensive coordinator run the show on offense and the defensive coordinator run the show defense. The head coach needs to be able to manage the game.

I think Dabo has the makings to develop into a terrific head coach but he has to be willing to recognize some of these issues. I criticized Mark Richt at Georgia when he was calling the plays as the head coach. Richt realized it is too difficult to do and has turned the play calling over to Mike Bobo.

Speaking of Georgia, Vince Dooley was one of the last head coaches that was also the athletic director at his school at the same time. I could not imagine doing both jobs today. I think we will see the same thing when it comes to head coaches and play calling.

I could be wrong and don’t claim to have all of the answers. However, my gut tells me that if Clemson wants to be successful on offense in the future then co-coordinator roles have to change.

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