re: What is Grubb missing as a play caller?

quote:

---

When I watch him call a game, it doesn't really feel like he has a plan. I see no real cohesiveness in his playcalling.

---

You are exactly right!!

quote:

---

This is my biggest complaint with Grubb. When I watch him call a game, it doesn't really feel like he has a plan. I see no real cohesiveness in his playcalling.

---

Well, as to what he’s missing as a playcaller, I’ll just post a few quotes from Mike Macdonald all from right after when he fired Grubb. I think it all will make total sense and explain a lot.

"We don't want to reinvent our offense every week so we have to have a core identity. We're going to be a physical unit. We're going to run the football and we want to have answers for the QB and keep it consistent for him".

“don't randomly call plays, understand playcalling”

"We need to be really good at core concepts, fundamentals… We have to have core identity, not randomly choose what looks interesting on the call sheet.”

“We want our offense to be a physical unit and dictate terms of the defense, play complementary football and get the ball to our playmakers frequently and in space, and let our quarterback play fast. So we just decided to go in a different direction.”

… the Seahawks are ranked 8th in total offense up from 18th under Grubb. They are 10th in rushing this year, up from 29th.

A brain and guts to take a shot

quote:

---

underestimating the havoc having Geno Smith as QB

---

Geno threw for 4,320 yards and had a 70% completion percentage in 2024. Interceptions were high. Basically boiled down to be a top 5 QB in the league that year.

Any other season if agree, but Geno was great in ‘24

quote:

---

and doing nothing to force the defense to run side to side early in games to soften them up for runs between the tackles and deep shots later. Kiffin and Sark did that masterfully.

---

That presupposes you can block the edge and keep the backside gap from getting just waltzed though.

We couldn’t reliably do both on the same play.

so i had another thought pop n my lil brain. i fully admit to being a conspiracy theorist.
what if grubb really isnt as bad as myself and others think? what if he and ckd understood that a house cleaning needed to take place on the offensive side? what if they walked a fine line of wins vs low production and ugly offensive output vs making the cfp and even getting a win. but ending on a note that leaves no doubt what needs to happen. had ckd stepped onto campus and immediately started clearing house of the so-called highly touted players cns had left, there wouldve been a mutiny of major proportions.
yes i know, TL/DR, lol

Everyone is saying a run game but he had it in Seattle and didnt use it.

There are times to just put the phone down. This is one of them.

They were doing the best they could, hampered by the lack of correct personnel to do it.

Their failure as I see it was trying to make our personnel fit what they wanted to do in the hopes they could successfully learn it or execute it.

They couldn’t on a consistent basis.

KD/Grubb have an issue that Saban and CoachBryant never had to deal with in depth and certainly not in their 1st two years in T-town.

With the flaming portal and the 30%+ turnover across all leagues and massive $ on top of that, you no longer have the true ability to build a player for 3 years to be what you need him to be. If you adapt your play style too much to the players you have today, they may or may not still be there tomorrow.

In building consistency of play, most to the kids need acouple of years to grasp and be able to apply the rules without thinking. OL often take longer.
If you alter the system every year to the players on hand, it is very hard for the short cycle teams of today to stack learning year to year and become proficent.

My guess is you will have to fill short timer execution holes with portal guys that already have enough proven capability and are better able to asseimilate new systemic rules more quickly.

You have to identify young protential and fight to hold onto it long enough for them to begin to excell. The better they get the more expensive they become to hold onto or with more time in house you have to hope the kids build bonds to keep them together fighting for the guy standing next to them. Rental player rarely have the time to build those bonds unless you were able to purchase them early enough to experience time in the pot with their buddies.

Intelligence