(02-12-2021 10:16 PM)Bigoldtackle Wrote:  Nope, nope and nope. It's all about the money. He's making SUBSTANTIALLY more as a position coach at Tennessee, than he made here as Offensive Coordinator, for crissakes. We got brutally wallet whipped once again, by a half-assed SEC program. Head east from the stadium to the president's office - that's where the problem lies, imo.

The university increased the salary pool for assistants / head coach as part of Bloomgren's arrival. I see no reason for them to increase it with the type of results we have gotten thus far. Not sure Mack had much positive or negative playcalling benefit anyways, given the preceding posts.

Mack is also a Tennessee native (albeit Memphis and not Knoxville), so I'm sure that was a draw for him. Coming to Rice was his first job west of the Mississippi.

(02-13-2021 12:20 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  

(02-13-2021 02:14 AM)Ourland Wrote:  That was the case when David Bailiff was coach, not now. Rice spent money to bring in a qualified coaching staff, for that much I give it credit. Jerry Mack is going to a place where the ball will be thrown all over the field. That's where he belongs. Mike Bloomgren will live or die by his offensive philosophy. Perhaps Mack is reading the tea leaves, as he should

They paid their last RB coach $575k. I doubt Rice goes higher than that for an OC. It’s a different level and not even close at this point.

I get that Rice isn't paying SEC money, but it must have been enough to lure him away from a head coaching position at NCCU, where he was very successful. That, or he left out of loyalty to Bloomgren, only to find that he's riding shotgun. It one or the other, or both.

(02-13-2021 01:11 PM)Ourland Wrote:  I get that Rice isn't paying SEC money, but it must have been enough to lure him away from a head coaching position at NCCU, where he was very successful. That, or he left out of loyalty to Bloomgren, only to find that he's riding shotgun. It one or the other, or both.

I think it's very much the latter. I think the money was probably close, as HBCU's don't usually pay their coaches much. But loyalty only goes so far, and you can only call down from the press box so many times and get overruled before you decide to head elsewhere.

I agree.

Again - nope. The money was substantially better, as in substantially. That's the reason he left. No question that coaching in the SEC is a step up as well, even tho he took a demotion from his coordinator position.

The good news is Coach Bloom has some excellent candidates to replace him.

Our assistant salary pool has jumped up for the Bloomgren regime. But it has jumped up to the top quartile of C-USA salaries. Not anywhere approaching SEC levels.

SEC schools can pay their coordinators more than our head coach, and pay their assistants more than our coordinators. That’s just what they are able to do with hundreds of millions in revenue rolling in every year. So, Mack took the money. Good for him. I think that this is going to turn out to be a blessing in disguise and that we are going to be better off. Bloomgren knows the offense has to get better.

Regardless of the money, we are clearly at a point where a position coach job at a p5 is considered a step up from a coordinator job at Rice. And frankly, Mack was probably seeing his reputation decline with the offensive production at Rice, so he has probably been looking for a chance to get out.

Agree again. It's a good move on his part. He has been coordinating an offense that's contrary to his offensive philosophy, and it hasn't worked, at least not yet. He's a smart man to get out. Now Bloomgren can promote an assistant who won't challenge him.

again - the "salary" is the step up. It ain't about Bloomgren, it's about the money.

He is making $400K at Tenn. What do we think he was making at RIce as the OC? Was it that much less?

I'm not sure why there is so much hand-wringing about a coach moving from Rice to Tennessee.

(02-17-2021 12:37 PM)AggieOwl84 Wrote:  He is making $400K at Tenn. What do we think he was making at RIce as the OC? Was it that much less?

about half that.

(02-17-2021 02:31 PM)Bigoldtackle Wrote:  

(02-17-2021 12:37 PM)AggieOwl84 Wrote:  He is making $400K at Tenn. What do we think he was making at RIce as the OC? Was it that much less?

about half that.

I agree that the move is about the money and not about Bloom... That said, despite the significant increase in money, it is a clear step down in responsibilities... so its not a 'no brainer'.

I read it as a big step up in pay and not much interest in him as an OC at either a g5 that would pay him more (and there are a lot who would), as a p5 OC which would have been an even greater step up.... or as a g5 or even FCS HC that paid better (not all FCS do, but some do).

So while I have no idea what the issue was, it DOES seem that he didn't find many takers for his skills as an OC.... and I'll let others decide (who may actually know) whether it was him, the HC, the players or just a poor mix of philosophies.... OR perhaps even just a chance to be closer to home.

Here's what I see as the issue with the Rice offense. When you have a system that does not fit the personnel available, you have to choose between changing your system to suit the personnel or keep plugging square pegs into round holes until you can recruit the right personnel.

I think the decision depends in part on the extent to which you believe that you CAN recruit the personnel you need to run your scheme. Both Bailiff and Bloomgren seem to have persisted in sticking square pegs into round holes with the expectation of being able to recruit the round pegs they needed. So far, neither was or has been able to do so with any consistency. Bailiff found lightning in a bottle a couple of times but could not sustain, and Bloomgren has yet to get to first base. Fred Goldsmith tailored his system to fit the talent we had, with Dinger a master at that. Ken Hatfield didn't really have to do that, because the talent he could recruit pretty well fit his system. Yes, he had to teach Josh LaRocca to run the option, but otherwise he was pretty much able to recruit what he needed. His problem was that his defense slowly fell apart after Wally Ake left.

I don't think that Rice can consistently attract the talent that Bailiff's approach required, and I don't think we can recruit the talent that Bloomgren's system requires at all. I think somebody like RUOwls could take what is here and develop it into what he needs.

Rice has to make do with smaller offensive linemen, or perhaps better doing the Fred Goldsmith thing and recruiting primarily defensive linemen and moving the ones who don't have the feet to play defense over to the other side of the ball. We are not going to get the primo quarterback like Andrew Luck, who went to Stanford despite family connections to Rice; the last one we got like that was Tommy Kramer 50 years ago. What we can get is the effective HS QB that TexasU and aTm and LSU say, "Come here and we will make you a safety," but we are willing to give him a shot at QB. I'm thinking of someone like Andre Ware, who was a HS veer/wishbone QB that Yeoman recruited to run the veer, but Pardee could make into a run-and-shoot QB. We have had some success recruiting running backs and receivers, and we should be able to continue that. I still think the best offense with that collection of talent is a triple option running game combined with a run-and-shoot or air raid or RUOwls's west coast passing game. We can run to set up easy passes, or we can throw to back you out of putting 8 in the box. The only way to stop our passing is to allow us to run. You take your pick, and we get the chalk last.

(02-12-2021 11:30 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Assuming we on this forum have a bead on the internal realities... and that is of course not assured... I would hope that any frustration Mack may have had would be made clear to Bloom, and that Bloom would want to address it. If not while he works for him, certainly as he's moving on.

+1