Mike Scherer Interview

I'm still with Odom. He may not get it working, but it won't be for lack of busting his arse.

This train went off the tracks, but he deserves a chance to get a locker room full of his guys. He knows football. He just needs to learn what it takes to be a head man.

I think there is little doubt that the buy in was very low and these guys were not doing what they were supposed to.

It sucks that we are here in football also, but you have to give the guy a chance to get his guys in and what he wants to run put on the field.

I do t think he forgot what he knew about football, and he was a hot coordinator that was moving up whether here or elsewhere.

I still think he's got the ability to be a good coach. This year went wrong, horribly wrong, but I still believe in his ability and his want to. I think he'll make changes when he needs to and try to do what's necessary to get things fixed. I'm willing to give him the chance to do so.

D-Line ZOU got in their heads. Ship talked before the season about feeling like he could be a counselor. They were asked to do something different than what they had been doing. Seeing the results of mentally not doing what they needed to.

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Anyone here ever been around a bad record team? This is what happens.

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And it doesn't always mean that it will get better with more effort from all players.

I said from game one that the players mainly on defense were not buying in. People want to complain about Odom but he can't make players play. Who knows how many guys on the current roster he would actually want on his team. Funny thing is most posters blamed a lot of these guys for being protesters and locker room cancers but defend there play. I have seen some posters on here say that Odom is soft on his players. Reality is that he is tougher with them. I still see him out on that field coaching the guys up and holding them responsible. Guys like Tucker McCann he has handled differently but that guy is all about the mental game. Scherer said early on that no one bought in. Now people here are actually getting it. all this does is hurt draft stocks for guys like Charles Harris. Coaches will look further into this and find out that he doesn't take change well.

So when Scherer was constantly out of his gap against LSU, so much the commentators take time to replay him out of position, is that because he is not buying in? Or is it because the new scheme requires him to maintain a gap and take on a pulling guard, something hes never done at Mizzou?

As the startin "Mike" LB, I'm sure he has a good football IQ. But he has spent 3 years pursuing and tackling. when the ball is snapped, it's hard to put away 3 years of acquired instincts. It's a pretty heavy indictment on players to assume they are not buying in or don't have the IQ for a sport they have played for years at a high level.

There aren't many players better than Khalil Mack in the NFL, and look how bad he struggled with Ken Nortons R&R scheme.

You couldn't be more wrong. You see it all the time with coaching changes in the NFL. Scheme changes are difficult because you have to rely on a different set of criteria. In an attack scheme, the DL is in control of the attack. He puts his hand down knowing what strategy he will employ. In Gap control he's taught to not penetrate past the OL's heels , remain in his gap and respond to keys. He has no control he only responds.

If you've been recruited because of your quick first step and speed and now you're not supposed to penetrate past the OL's heels, that really can be difficult to accept. If you're a smaller quicker LB, who now has to maintain a gap even with pulling guards blocking you, that's not gonna be easy.

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As the startin "Mike" LB, I'm sure he has a good football IQ. But he has spent 3 years pursuing and tackling. when the ball is snapped, it's hard to put away 3 years of acquired instincts. It's a pretty heavy indictment on players to assume they are not buying in or don't have the IQ for a sport they have played for years at a high level.

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So then it falls back on coaching.

Good coaching doesn't try force a scheme on ill-suited personnel.

I mistakenly thought Barry Odom arrived at his Memphis defense out of neccessity, because he didn't have the DL horses to run the Mizzou scheme - and maybe he did.

If he did and then fell in love with his own creation to the point of forcing it onto a defensive culture and personnel ill-suited to it, shame on him. It could cost him his job and the program dearly for years.

So he showed an understanding of his personnel on hand and created his defense accordingly. Good coaching.

I'm sure this happens on defense too, but you always hear about the bullheaded HC or OC who installs his offense or makes 40 people learn his verbiage rather than grafting his playbook into the language the team already knows.

Navy... Do you think he made the correct choice based on the personnel on hand here? Or was it a toss up?