Ranking the Big 12 OC's

[kansas husker]

Rivals ranks the big 12 OC's Watson is fifth

 

Link

[husker B-rent]

i know people that only remember 2009 will rip that ranking but i would say that it is very very close to accurate and i would probably argue for 4th place...

[bleedNUred]

That's a good ranking considering the offense hasn't played to it's potential consistently at all.

[JTrain]

I think it's pretty silly. They name one game (Arizona) and say Watson is finally ready to show his stuff? Might seem like a reasonable thought if 2008 (or 2009) had been his first year in the big leagues. But the fact is, he's been an OC for a decade now, and his long-term results are mediocre. I have nothing against him personally-- he seems like an entirely likable guy-- but as an OC, he isn't very good. I know there is always a tendency to put way too much emphasis on the most recent game (for better or worse), and that seems to be the case here. But in reality, Watson should be ranked right around where his stats have put him for years now: 8th or 9th in the Big 12.

 

Now I can never rule out the idea of him having some sort of philosophical epiphany, or at least genuinely improving by a change in thinking or finding some viable offensive niche, but it seems unlikely.

[husker B-rent]

I think it's pretty silly. They name one game (Arizona) and say Watson is finally ready to show his stuff? Might seem like a reasonable thought if 2008 (or 2009) had been his first year in the big leagues. But the fact is, he's been an OC for a decade now, and his long-term results are mediocre. I have nothing against him personally-- he seems like an entirely likable guy-- but as an OC, he isn't very good. I know there is always a tendency to put way too much emphasis on the most recent game (for better or worse), and that seems to be the case here. But in reality, Watson should be ranked right around where his stats have put him for years now: 8th or 9th in the Big 12.

 

Now I can never rule out the idea of him having some sort of philosophical epiphany, or at least genuinely improving by a change in thinking or finding some viable offensive niche, but it seems unlikely.

 

offensive stats do not say everything about an offensive coordinator. you also need to look at opposing defenses as well as your own....

[REDSTEEL]

I think it's pretty silly. They name one game (Arizona) and say Watson is finally ready to show his stuff? Might seem like a reasonable thought if 2008 (or 2009) had been his first year in the big leagues. But the fact is, he's been an OC for a decade now, and his long-term results are mediocre. I have nothing against him personally-- he seems like an entirely likable guy-- but as an OC, he isn't very good. I know there is always a tendency to put way too much emphasis on the most recent game (for better or worse), and that seems to be the case here. But in reality, Watson should be ranked right around where his stats have put him for years now: 9th or 10th in the Big 12.

 

Now I can never rule out the idea of him having some sort of philosophical epiphany, or at least genuinely improving by a change in thinking or finding some viable offensive niche, but it seems unlikely.

[REDSTEEL]

I think it's pretty silly. They name one game (Arizona) and say Watson is finally ready to show his stuff? Might seem like a reasonable thought if 2008 (or 2009) had been his first year in the big leagues. But the fact is, he's been an OC for a decade now, and his long-term results are mediocre. I have nothing against him personally-- he seems like an entirely likable guy-- but as an OC, he isn't very good. I know there is always a tendency to put way too much emphasis on the most recent game (for better or worse), and that seems to be the case here. But in reality, Watson should be ranked right around where his stats have put him for years now: 8th or 9th in the Big 12.

 

Now I can never rule out the idea of him having some sort of philosophical epiphany, or at least genuinely improving by a change in thinking or finding some viable offensive niche, but it seems unlikely.

 

offensive stats do not say everything about an offensive coordinator. you also need to look at opposing defenses as well as your own....

So, what your saying is that there are 12 better DC in the Big 12 that are better then Watson? I'll agree to that.

[kansas husker]

I've created a detailed Spreadsheet detailing watsons career as oc. You will see the stat and next to it in () you will see the national rank for that stat. I've also color coded the spread sheet top 20 is blue, 21-40 is green 41-60 is yellow and 61< is red.

 

here is tht link where I got my stats.

 

His national number look better than his confrenace numbers however when you have that many statics it is very likely that some of them will fall out of the top 60 even in the best of years.

 

you do need a gmail sign in to few the spread sheet since I used google to make it.

[JohnnyOneNut]

I've created a detailed Spreadsheet detailing watsons career as oc. You will see the stat and next to it in () you will see the national rank for that stat. I've also color coded the spread sheet top 20 is blue, 21-40 is green 41-60 is yellow and 61< is red.

 

here is tht link where I got my stats.

 

His national number look better than his confrenace numbers however when you have that many statics it is very likely that some of them will fall out of the top 60 even in the best of years.

 

you do need a gmail sign in to few the spread sheet since I used google to make it.

 

 

Good info. It's sad to see there's only one year he was in top 20 in points scored...and a lot of red on the board as well. It's good to see the facts show what we already knew intuitively: that Watson is overrated.

[zoogs]

I've created a detailed Spreadsheet detailing watsons career as oc. You will see the stat and next to it in () you will see the national rank for that stat. I've also color coded the spread sheet top 20 is blue, 21-40 is green 41-60 is yellow and 61< is red.

 

here is tht link where I got my stats.

 

His national number look better than his confrenace numbers however when you have that many statics it is very likely that some of them will fall out of the top 60 even in the best of years.

 

you do need a gmail sign in to few the spread sheet since I used google to make it.

 

 

Good info. It's sad to see there's only one year he was in top 20 in points scored...and a lot of red on the board as well. It's good to see the facts show what we already knew intuitively: that Watson is overrated.

 

How can a guy be overrated when 90% of posters are ripping him to shreds week in, week out?

 

Give him a break, he was at Colorado all those years. While he's been here, he's done a good job giving us an offense that helps us to win. In particular, making hay out of nothing. We had no business fielding any kind of an elite offense in 2008 with our skinny noodle-armed QB and Todd Peterson and Nate Swift as our receivers - but we did a lot of damage with those guys, and that's credit on them in addition to Watson. In 2009, we really had nothing, and we won 10 games. Even a world class defense can't do it on their own; we needed an offense that put us in a position to win. So what we saw last year was really a shorthanded offense eschewing the glitzy pass plays to just try to grind it out and hold out enough so that once we got a lead, we held on to it. And it worked.

 

Obviously that's no OC's Plan A going into the season, or Shawn would've ran that from game 1 instead of having to realize first that the guys couldn't execute (Iowa State...:/)

[kansas husker]

I've created a detailed Spreadsheet detailing watsons career as oc. You will see the stat and next to it in () you will see the national rank for that stat. I've also color coded the spread sheet top 20 is blue, 21-40 is green 41-60 is yellow and 61< is red.

 

here is tht link where I got my stats.

 

His national number look better than his confrenace numbers however when you have that many statics it is very likely that some of them will fall out of the top 60 even in the best of years.

 

you do need a gmail sign in to few the spread sheet since I used google to make it.

 

 

 

 

Good info. It's sad to see there's only one year he was in top 20 in points scored...and a lot of red on the board as well. It's good to see the facts show what we already knew intuitively: that Watson is overrated.

 

How can a guy be overrated when 90% of posters are ripping him to shreds week in, week out?

 

Give him a break, he was at Colorado all those years. While he's been here, he's done a good job giving us an offense that helps us to win. In particular, making hay out of nothing. We had no business fielding any kind of an elite offense in 2008 with our skinny noodle-armed QB and Todd Peterson and Nate Swift as our receivers - but we did a lot of damage with those guys, and that's credit on them in addition to Watson. In 2009, we really had nothing, and we won 10 games. Even a world class defense can't do it on their own; we needed an offense that put us in a position to win. So what we saw last year was really a shorthanded offense eschewing the glitzy pass plays to just try to grind it out and hold out enough so that once we got a lead, we held on to it. And it worked.

 

Obviously that's no OC's Plan A going into the season, or Shawn would've ran that from game 1 instead of having to realize first that the guys couldn't execute (Iowa State...:/)

 

 

+1 keep in mind there is a reason why T.O. and Bo support him so strongly, there is also a reason why he was Saben's frist choice for Alabama. I doubt all these great football minds are wrong

[bshirt]

I think it's pretty silly. They name one game (Arizona) and say Watson is finally ready to show his stuff? Might seem like a reasonable thought if 2008 (or 2009) had been his first year in the big leagues. But the fact is, he's been an OC for a decade now, and his long-term results are mediocre. I have nothing against him personally-- he seems like an entirely likable guy-- but as an OC, he isn't very good. I know there is always a tendency to put way too much emphasis on the most recent game (for better or worse), and that seems to be the case here. But in reality, Watson should be ranked right around where his stats have put him for years now: 8th or 9th in the Big 12.

 

Now I can never rule out the idea of him having some sort of philosophical epiphany, or at least genuinely improving by a change in thinking or finding some viable offensive niche, but it seems unlikely.

 

100% correct.

 

Expecting him at this stage of his career to improve greatly is highly unlikely at best. He does ok with 5th year qbs coupled with a decent/strong running game. Anything less than that though.....well, not so hot.

 

Let's face it. Nice guy or not Cally/Coz wasn't allowed to continue huge failure here and neither should SW. Coaching at NU (or any other Div1 cfb program) is not a welfare or social program.

[deedsker15]

also, watson didn't call plays during the callahan years...

[zoogs]

also, watson didn't call plays during the callahan years...

 

At which time we were screamin' for Watson to call the plays instead of Callahan. Games where Watson had playcall duties for a half resulted in commentary like "When Watson was calling plays, we moved the ball. Then CallaEGO took back over again and that's when we started sucking."

 

It really is just a matter of finding reasons to hate on a guy because you want to, or build up a guy just to tear another one down. I'm no less guilty of this than anyone else though.

 

Callahan was a failure as a coach here, but I think most of us can agree that he made a pretty sweet transformation of the offense, getting us to a high level in a short time for such a total philosophy shift. He stocked the OL for us - people have argued against this, but compared to what we had then, he gave us a quick turnaround and had an EPIC OL class lined up in '07 before his job security went down the same way as all those recruits eventually did. More importantly, he coached the OL well. When he got here, that pipeline was in shambles. By the time he was on his way out, people were looking at Brandon Jackson tape and saying, "Well, he got the benefit of running through all those wholes supplied by that big Nebraska OL, he won't have that luxury in the NFL" - as if the pipeline never died. He's the running game coordinator, OL coach, and assistant head coach for the Jets now, and oft cited as one of the best OL coaches in the league. So for all his failings as a college HC, he definitely knew his stuff extremely well. And it's not a huge surprise that the OL dropoff we experienced happened after Barney came back to "teach".

 

But then the question is, how much of that credit should go to Watson. I think everyone's take on that depends on whether they like Watson or not. I like the guy a lot, so I consider Watson a branch off the Callahan tree - he definitely deserves some of it, and our beloved QBs Ganz and Taylor would be the first to speak up for him. Some Husker fans treat Callahan as some kind of evil object, anything he's ever touched should be regarded with shunned. I'm not really that superstitious. He was not the right head man for this organization, that's it. He's extremely good at coaching offenses up, and the fact that he recruited Wats here, groomed him to be OC, and mentored him, should be a big plus for Watson. Instead, people are treating Watson like he's got this black mark of doom on him. Doesn't make sense.

 

 

What do you want an OC to be? Smart? He is extremely (so was BC). Dumb? I guess there's some movement among Husker fans to just pound it down their throats for 400 yards a game without any effeminate, cutesy 'strategy' stuff, but that's just not in the realm of reality. A guy who plucks highly skilled athletes out of his pocket and dresses them up for game day? That's a team effort and not on the OC. So you can't really blame Watson when our injury-riddled line can't block a lick, or when our best WR gives Texas Tech a free six points without even thinking that it might be a fumble, etc, etc. That's not even all on the coaches, because frankly a JV high school player should know better. Can you really knock Watson for not being imaginative enough with the O, when you saw the kind of boneheaded plays those guys made last year? That was not a team that was going to handle some clever offensive schemes to outwit the other team, and certainly not a team that was going to just physically impose its will. Not until the end of the year anyway.

 

I think people also have unrealistic expectations, sometimes, for our OC. They figure anyone who's a good OC will step into any situation and churn out Top 5 offenses. Not really the case. It's all in what you got to work with. With what we had last year, who better than Watson? Barney Cotton?

 

To me, it seems that Watson is getting the kind of flak reserved for OCs who underachieve with the talent they have. That's not something that Watson has done in his time here. You don't look at Zac Taylor or Joe Ganz and say, "That's a top-notch QB, Nebraska should be doing more with a guy like that behind center." Instead you go can only look back and say "For real? This guy that barely gets a tryout with the league, that nobody else really wants behind center for them, did all of that at Nebraska, with Nate Swift, Todd Peterson, and Menelik Holt?"

 

A shut-down D with an incompetent O gives you eleven more games of Iowa State last year. Bo, Wats, and co. realized then we needed to go Plan Z on offense and shut everything down, which was ugly, but the only thing that gave us a fighting chance.

[RedDenver]

I think this discussion highlights the worst part of Husker fans - they are never truly happy with any result.