UAB's football program has plateaued. Changes need to made asap after Saturday's game, for recruiting purposes. We need a new OC/QB coach and a new recruiting coordinator. I hope Coach Clark can evolve and adapt because that's what needs to happen for him and UAB to reach the next level.
(11-22-2021 10:18 AM)blazers9911 Wrote: [ -> ] (11-21-2021 11:50 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote: [ -> ]It’s a dumb coaching philosophy and will continue to get us beat in winnable games.
Comments like this are the epitome of what is wrong with society today. One cannot have an opposing view or opinion without being called dumb. When your go to is name calling, the other side will not listen. I've emailed Coach Clark in the past and he has replied. Perhaps send him an email and see if he'll give you some insight?
This man took a bottom five college football program, and has us competing for conference championships year in and year out after helping resurrect it from the dead. While nobody on this board agrees with every decision he has made on the field, especially the past two years, it's hard to argue with the results. He isn't getting paid $1+ million a year because he doesn't know what he is doing.
Sub in backwards, overly conservative, and not based in analytics or statistic-based decision making. Does that make you feel better
Not going for it on 4th and inches is dumb. UTSA can’t score if they never get the ball back…..
The probability of them scoring is far less than punting to them with well beyond a minute left.
That’s what folks mean when they say you should play the percentages.
Shall we go back to the Rice game where he went for it on 4th instead of taking the field goal a time or two?
We lost by 6. That was dumb.
Another thing that’s dumb is blaming injuries in your secondary for losses when it was the offense that no showed in the Liberty and Rice games.
Coach Clark grew up with old school SEC football as his model. It's what he coaches. I'd rather that he had gone for it on fourth down, but putting the game in the hands of his defense is consistent with who he is. I'd just rather he had chosen to take the risk on 4th and put it in their hands if Debo couldn't get three inches, which seems a safe bet to me.
That's not my issue with Clark. It's who he is, and expecting something else is futile.
His attitude on penalties makes me crazy. I understand wanting to be aggressive on defense, to hit hard and intimidate the offense, and that sort of play will cost some penalty yardage. That's not my problem. The dumb penalties due to a lack of discipline are. Late hits out of bounds. Blocking out of bounds, which I don't think I have ever seen flagged happened twice. Spinning the ball. Taunting. DB's catching PI penalties repeatedly season after season because they hit without ever looking back for the ball.
Not tolerating penalties is also old schools SEC ball, and I don't know where his attitude comes from regarding that. I have seen many hard nosed aggressive defenses who didn't have them. We are simply not good enough to spot the other team a hundred yards a game without having it cost us losses. Few teams are.
This is well plowed ground, it's been talked to death.
The other thing is clock management, particularly late in the 2nd/4th quarter. Every time we get the ball late, we should be working the two minute drill, with the exception of when we are burning clock to end the game. A good two minute drill does not just happen, you have to work at it in practice and then use it in games for it to be well polished and reliable. Clark routinely lets the clock run in these situations, wasting the chance to add a field goal before the half, to pad the score, to practice that two minute drill.
Then the time comes that we need to go sixty yards late in the game with the pressure on, and we're not nearly as good at it as we could be. As big a believer in "practice like you want to play" as Clark is, I find this unbelievable. Add that if the offense is practicing it, the defense is getting practice reps against it.
I respect Coach Clark. I can deal with his approach to the game. What I can't deal with is that there are areas that are problems season after season and are never addressed, are not improved on. That's a poor job of self-scouting and self-analysis.
(11-22-2021 10:29 AM)BlazerGreen Wrote: [ -> ]UAB's football program has plateaued. Changes need to made asap after Saturday's game, for recruiting purposes. We need a new OC/QB coach and a new recruiting coordinator. I hope Coach Clark can evolve and adapt because that's what needs to happen for him and UAB to reach the next level.
I couldn’t have said it better. I think Coach Clark is CAPABLE of taking us to the next level, but has to change some thing, particularly on offense. I’d ask him to get rid of the dumb penalties, but hell, I’ve been asking that the past 3-4 seasons.
I think you will see come staff changes as I said two or three weeks ago.
That's a step in the right direction. Been needed for a few years now.
As much as I have said we need a new coordinator, the play calling the past 2-3 games have been much better. not perfect in any stretch but better.
I still think we need a change on the offensive side, new coordinator would go a long way - you can keep a run heavy offense and bring the offense up to date.
I think Clark can bring the program to a new level but it does seem like a lot to ask for him to change his philosophy to what take the program to the next level.
(11-22-2021 11:47 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: [ -> ]I think you will see come staff changes as I said two or three weeks ago.
-What is he going to do, give Les Koenning a 2nd chance? Seriously, I'd be surprised if he does not hire Grass, maybe a couple of other changes.
(11-22-2021 10:13 AM)blazers9911 Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2021 08:59 AM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote: [ -> ]Not going for it was actually the right call. Do you really want to run a QB sneak with the game on the line in an offense where the QB doesn’t take direct snaps?
Statistically speaking it was not the right call. There was a significantly higher percentage of winning the game by going for it on 4th and inches. That being said, I understand the decision Clark made knowing his coaching philosophy. I never had a doubt we would punt that ball. As I've said before, my biggest issue at that point is we decided to rush 3 and let their QB do whatever the hell he wanted. Our defense was effective the entire second half, let the boys play their game at that point.
Great Post
If we decided to get a new OC (and maybe a separate QB coach as well) who would you want to go for?
I agree and say nay with Grass, he seems too similar to Clark.
Does anyone think Thompson’s Mark Freeman will make the jump to OC on a FBS team if he wins another 7A championship? Do you see him trying to go after the Troy or JSU job?
As for QB coach, I’m still hoping we could get Joe Webb if he’s willing. We already have former QBs on offensive staffs - Bryan Ellis (co-OC/receivers at WKU) and AJ Erderly (OC/QB at Northeast Mississippi Community College - also was at Southern Miss).
(11-22-2021 12:58 PM)blazerblazer Wrote: [ -> ]If we decided to get a new OC (and maybe a separate QB coach as well) who would you want to go for?
I agree and say nay with Grass, he seems too similar to Clark.
Does anyone think Thompson’s Mark Freeman will make the jump to OC on a FBS team if he wins another 7A championship? Do you see him trying to go after the Troy or JSU job?
As for QB coach, I’m still hoping we could get Joe Webb if he’s willing. We already have former QBs on offensive staffs - Bryan Ellis (co-OC/receivers at WKU) and AJ Erderly (OC/QB at Northeast Mississippi Community College - also was at Southern Miss).
How much coaching experience does Webb have?
(11-22-2021 11:47 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: [ -> ]I think you will see come staff changes as I said two or three weeks ago.
Good, it is needed. I hope we make an OC change, but I hope we're aiming higher than John Grass. Clark has shown he likes to hire his friends, but that would be a pretty meh hire. I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the staff, but I'd only bring him in as a position coach or analyst.
Even Rece Davis couldn't believe Clark didn't go for the 1st down. He just made a joke about it on Off Campus w/Mark Packer.
Vincent and Grass are the same guy. No, thank you.
Freeman is making $120,000 plus.
Go to UAB where the playbook is outdated and not allowed to be changed or stay at Thompson where he can recruit who he wants with the AHSAA not batting an eye?
(11-22-2021 04:34 PM)HiddenDragon Wrote: [ -> ]Even Rece Davis couldn't believe Clark didn't go for the 1st down. He just made a joke about it on Off Campus w/Mark Packer.
got a link?
(11-22-2021 04:35 PM)BlazinBham Wrote: [ -> ]Vincent and Grass are the same guy. No, thank you.
Freeman is making $120,000 plus.
Go to UAB where the playbook is outdated and not allowed to be changed or stay at Thompson where he can recruit who he wants with the AHSAA not batting an eye?
Freeman would be a great recruiter, if he were at UAB. I would not be surprised if Grass isn't already helping. That would explain why the offensive gameplan has been a little bit better the past 2 games.
(11-22-2021 04:32 PM)hooverblazer Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2021 11:47 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: [ -> ]I think you will see come staff changes as I said two or three weeks ago.
Good, it is needed. I hope we make an OC change, but I hope we're aiming higher than John Grass. Clark has shown he likes to hire his friends, but that would be a pretty meh hire. I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the staff, but I'd only bring him in as a position coach or analyst.
Grass was 72-26. He won his conference 7 out of 9 years. He went to the playoffs 6 times reaching as high as the championship game. That ranks above an analyst or position coach
(11-22-2021 04:35 PM)BlazinBham Wrote: [ -> ]Vincent and Grass are the same guy. No, thank you.
Freeman is making $120,000 plus.
Go to UAB where the playbook is outdated and not allowed to be changed or stay at Thompson where he can recruit who he wants with the AHSAA not batting an eye?
Vincent makes $266k so he could more than double his pay.
Also, I would've thought our coordinators were making more like $400k.
(11-22-2021 04:38 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2021 04:34 PM)HiddenDragon Wrote: [ -> ]Even Rece Davis couldn't believe Clark didn't go for the 1st down. He just made a joke about it on Off Campus w/Mark Packer.
got a link?
Gotta have Sirius/XM my man. Rece also picked UAB to upset UTSA, he said he should have went with Louisiana over Liberty.