re: 2022 Recruiting Thread

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He changed his offense because everyone said he had too. That his offense was "figured out". It needed to be more balanced.

My biggest issue with him. He let the outside noise sway him. 90% of the people on this board was begging for a "balanced offense" after 2014.

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This stance would make sense if his pre-Auburn offenses revolved around running quarterbacks. This isn't even remotely accurate. His Tulsa offense was what he envisioned with Bo Nix types here at Auburn. Remember, he CAME to Arkansas as OC with Mitch Mustain as the "prize QB". Was Mitch Mustain a read-option QB? Uhhh, no.

His first offense here as OC was the Chris Todd offense. Again, zero QB running.

What REALLY happened is that what you saw in most seasons here was the "Gus offense". The Cam and Nick Marshall QB-option offense was the reluctant change for him, NOT the other way around. You want to know how you can confirm that? Look at the first ~3 games of the season with Cam in 2010: he didn't even KNOW that he could just build the offense around Cam's legs. He literally tripped into that success that season.

If anything, his problem seemed to be that he HIMSELF didn't want to be a "running QB offense guy". Like he was embarrassed that he had to resort to that.

But also, I've pointed it out before: that type of offense is extremely hard to put together. 2010 and 2013 were "perfect storm" type seasons where all the pieces were in place for him. What happened in 2014 when we lost the blocking? NicK Marshall was still here, but we weren't just running up and down the field on everyone.

quote:

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He changed his offense because everyone said he had too. That his offense was "figured out". It needed to be more balanced.

My biggest issue with him. He let the outside noise sway him. 90% of the people on this board was begging for a "balanced offense" after 2014.

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Gus should have kept running HIS offense and recruiting players for HIS system.

Tom Osborne ran the same thing at Nebraska for 25 years. Same formula.
Option QBs from Florida who were exceptional runners & decent passers.
Skill position players from California.
Local kids from Nebraska, Iowa & the Dakotas who were road graders.

What Tom Osborne didn't do was worry about developing a passing QB for the NFL. Nebraska was a 10-win, Top 10, NC contending team damn near every I can remember until he retired after the 1997 season...a season that the won the NC.

That's where Gus messed up. Gus read too much into the BS and stopped doing what got him the AU job...and it ultimately cost him the job, too.