To say that Mizzou has a tough time firing any of its guys would be an understatement. However, we did get to see the obvious growing pains of a first year coordinator. This time we saw it on both sides of the ball. It sucks. Fans often see the new coach fail to stop a 3rd and medium or get stuck in a red zone and suddenly the new guy sucks worse than the guy he replaced. The same fan usually had the same complaint about the previous regime.

Here is the question I would pose. Do you think the problem is more scheme or talent oriented? The reason I ask is outside of the 3 1/2 minute outburst Nebraska had against us (arg), I haven’t seen much there. In fact, as the season went along, the offense seemed to regress and face it, this isn’t a strong defensive league. I wasn’t aware of any major injuries until I saw this article. To your defense’s credit, you still managed to win. Against Texas I was suprised Lee wasn’t ordered to just take a knee on each play and then punt, ala The Waterboy. If it were me, I’d have a hard time wanting to keep Watson. Even if it were purely talent based, teams need to show improvement on a week to week basis.

but I wonder if he’s really a fit. Things were great last year, but this year….UGH! Lose him or keep him, either way we’re taking a chance. I think it boils down to “who are we and who do we want to be.” Watson wants to sling it around. We hear so much about having to run the ball to win. We’ve done neither very well this year and I wonder if there isn’t a conflict in philosophy between who we are and who we want to be. I wonder if Watson will get any job offers this year and if he’d be more likely to take them. Cotton? That’s another story. 2 scholly kids on the team and it seems the only way to lose him would be to promote him. Next OC? I shudder to think.

Don’t forget the dynamics involved with two of Coach Cotton’s sons on the roster now in Ben & Jake. I don’t think that would necessarily mandate a decision one way or another, but it could certainly have an impact in the locker room.

Also, just some anecdotal evidence in support of Barney. I was on a tour of the facilities when I was back in town for the K-State game, and he was still in his office after 9pm. I have no idea what he was working or what kind of hours coaches typically keep, but he was clearly putting in some effort.

It’s hard to tell if Watson’s system is too complicated for tis level, or if the kids are just not talented enought this season. It’s pretty damn hard to run anything when your kids can’t block, complicated or not. If the deal is that these kids are just not talented enough, then we shouldn’t risk upsetting the apple cart as a “quick fix” Neither Cotton or Watson can play for these guys on the field. Not to mention that between the 2 coaches, we have 3 coaches sons on the team. Not that it would be like Hawkins at CU, but still.

I f the case is that the kids are good players, but the system is just not fitting well…then yes, by all means give Watson and Cotton their last warnings.

If you read my Fanpost on 2010, you will see that what we really need is just a little bit of patience. This year was all about getting the defense to work like a machine. Did that. Now I think we need a bit of time to get the offense worked out and settled. Let Lee and Green battle it out again for the QB spot, focus on blocking, and for God’s sake don’t fire 2 coaches after a 9(10)-4 season!!!!

This hodgepodge of coaching philosophies is not cutting it. This team and coaching staff need to find an identity, then recruit players to run that system.

What exactly does the offense do well? Anything?
Currently it seems that NU is running an offense that has the sophistication of a high school team. There is no window dressing in formations, or movement to create deception. And even with the watered down system NU still looks to be poor at execution. They are poor in production.

I’m not buying the O-lIne was recruited by Callahan argument as much. Watson has adjusted the offense to meet personal, (or at least has tried) I would expect Cotton to adjust his techniques as well. Again what does this line do well? And why are they unable to do anything well?

Is change needed? After this year I would say yes. Is the needed change just more experience at key positions, and talent upgrade at others? Is that change removing a coach or two? Is it just finding an identity?

If I had to guess, and I am, I’d say that NU is going to try and follow the SEC model. Strong, fast defense, with a pro style power running game that has enough of a passing attack to stop opposing defense from loading up the box (like now). I’m thinking similar to LSU, and Bama.

I don’t know that I don’t want this team to run a spread system. We know how to defend it better than almost anybody, so why not use that to our advantage? If you can find something within that system that is virtually undefendable our defense would be the perfect defense to try it against.

Watson, if retained, needs to get on the same page as his players and figure out what they do well and run with it.

I honestly think o-line play was not nearly as bad as everyone seems to think. Asking 6-7 blockers to block 8-9 people is asking a lot. Without threat of the pass, why should defenses respect it?

Our offensive woes lie strictly on quarterback play. You can’t keep a defense honest without the passing threat. If you go back and watch, when Lee had 3+ seconds to pass the ball he either a) overthrew the receiver, b) severely underthrew the receiver, c) threw to the wrong color jersey, d) threw behind his receiver, or e) (also least likely) hit his receiver in stride.

The quick slant is the most basic play a quarterback can make. It a) keeps the defense from blitzing the corner and b) keeps the linebackers on their heels. Lee never got into enough of a rhythm with his WRs to make it work which, I believe, shows exactly what was wrong with this offense all year.

I saw throughout the season is that there was no leader on the offensive side of the ball. I don’t see the spark provided from any member of the offensive squad as there was last year provided by Joe Ganz, Todd Peterson and Nate Swift. Coaching can only do so much, but in the heat of battle you have to have a leader in the huddle who can practically will their team into the end zone.

I can’t imagine another year of pitiful offense. I saw absolutely nothing from this pair that would cause me to bring them back. Enough already, there are too many top notch successful college coaches that would die for the job. I saw no imagination, no a glimmer of ingenuity. Send them both packing and bring in a innovator.

Here a list to start from:
Jim Grobe,Bobby Johnson,Jim Leavitt or Mike Riley

Of Course:
Turner Gill would have been my pick but if ya snooze ….. you get buggered!