I think Stitt is an excellent recruiter.
But he can't coach at this level.
How many years do we want to watch this Stitt for him to learn how to excel at this level?
Go back and look at the early on posts by UMGriz75 - He consistently said that Stitt's record at Mines was not that great. Yes he has a creative offensive mind. But it takes more than that to win at the top levels.
He has his handpicked guy in Semore and we have consistently come out at the beginning of the games giving up TDs on long passes. There are some games (NAU) where we never were able to make adjustments and stop those long passes. Our opponents often made us work the ball down the field with small gains. The old bend but don't break mentality. Semore wanted to bring in an aggressive gambling style of defense. That is exactly what we have and I'm kind of hoping for the old ways right now. They score so quickly that we will always win TOP. Winning the TOP isn't the goal. Scoring more points than your opponent is.
It doesn't take a genius to see that we have been outplayed on ST in almost every game we have played this year. A stool cannot stand on 2 legs and a football team needs good offense, defense and special team play to win somewhere beside WA-Griz. We have one of the best open field, game-breaking runners I've seen since the days of Heidelberger and Segars. JLM needs to be returning kicks next year. Even if means that we can't throw 100 bubble screens a game to him. We have lots of good receivers. We have no open field runner that compares to JLM. In fact, if I remember correctly he had one of the best punt returns I've ever seen earlier in the year.
Offensively - Stitt finally learned that no matter what the odds say, you cannot consistently go for it on 4th down, especially in your own half of the field. The risk/reward of the momentum of getting it versus not is just too much to make it worthwhile most of the time. I look at coaches like Nick Saban and Urban Meyer and they understand the importance of field position.
One more year. Last year, after we beat NDSU at home, I had a private conversation with someone who knows a lot more about football and coaching than I ever will. He told me that we won't know about Stitt until his third year. Then he will have his team and players in place. He was very optimistic, as was I. I will talk to him again at some point, but I have lost my confidence that Stitt can excel at this level. And I don't think it is because he doesn't recruit the talent to succeed.
We'll know at this time next year. I hope to God that I'm wrong and we are well on our way to a deep playoff run by the time we get to the Brawl 2017. But you are what your record says you are. And Stitt's record says he is a very average head coach.
But he can't coach at this level.
How many years do we want to watch this Stitt for him to learn how to excel at this level?
Go back and look at the early on posts by UMGriz75 - He consistently said that Stitt's record at Mines was not that great. Yes he has a creative offensive mind. But it takes more than that to win at the top levels.
He has his handpicked guy in Semore and we have consistently come out at the beginning of the games giving up TDs on long passes. There are some games (NAU) where we never were able to make adjustments and stop those long passes. Our opponents often made us work the ball down the field with small gains. The old bend but don't break mentality. Semore wanted to bring in an aggressive gambling style of defense. That is exactly what we have and I'm kind of hoping for the old ways right now. They score so quickly that we will always win TOP. Winning the TOP isn't the goal. Scoring more points than your opponent is.
It doesn't take a genius to see that we have been outplayed on ST in almost every game we have played this year. A stool cannot stand on 2 legs and a football team needs good offense, defense and special team play to win somewhere beside WA-Griz. We have one of the best open field, game-breaking runners I've seen since the days of Heidelberger and Segars. JLM needs to be returning kicks next year. Even if means that we can't throw 100 bubble screens a game to him. We have lots of good receivers. We have no open field runner that compares to JLM. In fact, if I remember correctly he had one of the best punt returns I've ever seen earlier in the year.
Offensively - Stitt finally learned that no matter what the odds say, you cannot consistently go for it on 4th down, especially in your own half of the field. The risk/reward of the momentum of getting it versus not is just too much to make it worthwhile most of the time. I look at coaches like Nick Saban and Urban Meyer and they understand the importance of field position.
One more year. Last year, after we beat NDSU at home, I had a private conversation with someone who knows a lot more about football and coaching than I ever will. He told me that we won't know about Stitt until his third year. Then he will have his team and players in place. He was very optimistic, as was I. I will talk to him again at some point, but I have lost my confidence that Stitt can excel at this level. And I don't think it is because he doesn't recruit the talent to succeed.
We'll know at this time next year. I hope to God that I'm wrong and we are well on our way to a deep playoff run by the time we get to the Brawl 2017. But you are what your record says you are. And Stitt's record says he is a very average head coach.
