Cotton statistical breakdown

Enhance89 said:
Here is a breakdown of his coaching career.

1995-1997

Head coach of Hastings College, where in 1995 he won the Nebraska-Iowa Athletic Conference and took Hastings to NAIA playoffs, and he was named Coach of the Year.

1998-2002

Offensive Line and OC at New Mexico State. In 1998, 2000, and 2002, they finished with a Top 25 offense. They were also ranked in the Top 25 in rushing for the 6 years he was there.

2004 as OC

Cotton coached at Iowa State. Here is a breakdown of each year he was there.

2004: 1328 Net yards rushing, 2876 net yards passing, averaged 4.9 yards per play, and they allowed 27 sacks (for reference, the National Champion that year, USC, allowed 50 sacks).

I was unable to find the exact year that Cotton was let go from Iowa State, but here are his stats from 2008 and 2009 (as far as sacks go and rushing yards).

2008

Net rushing yards:2207

Sacks allowed: 35

2009

Net Rushing yards: 1836

Sacks allowed: 42
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that stat pisses me off. its a big reason why our QB's were always speeding through their progressions and playing scared. they knew they had maybe 4 or 4.5 seconds to get rid of the ball.

Cotton did a miserable job on our o-line this year.

 
husker98 said:
Enhance89 said:
Here is a breakdown of his coaching career.

1995-1997

Head coach of Hastings College, where in 1995 he won the Nebraska-Iowa Athletic Conference and took Hastings to NAIA playoffs, and he was named Coach of the Year.

1998-2002

Offensive Line and OC at New Mexico State. In 1998, 2000, and 2002, they finished with a Top 25 offense. They were also ranked in the Top 25 in rushing for the 6 years he was there.

2004 as OC

Cotton coached at Iowa State. Here is a breakdown of each year he was there.

2004: 1328 Net yards rushing, 2876 net yards passing, averaged 4.9 yards per play, and they allowed 27 sacks (for reference, the National Champion that year, USC, allowed 50 sacks).

I was unable to find the exact year that Cotton was let go from Iowa State, but here are his stats from 2008 and 2009 (as far as sacks go and rushing yards).

2008

Net rushing yards:2207

Sacks allowed: 35

2009

Net Rushing yards: 1836

Sacks allowed: 42
Click to expand...
that stat pisses me off. its a big reason why our QB's were always speeding through their progressions and playing scared. they knew they had maybe 4 or 4.5 seconds to get rid of the ball.

Cotton did a miserable job on our o-line this year.
Click to expand...
Hd did do pretty awful however he had a young offensive line. Not making excusses because they did play well below there ability.

 
I'm not the biggest Cotton supporter in the world but you have to take all the stats from the past with a grain of salt...

When Barney came to ISU, Iowa State was coming off a 2-10 year where they totally sucked

2003 Stats: Rush Offense - 91st Pass Offense - 94th Total Offense - 109th

In 2004, Cotton had a freshman QB (Bret Meyer) and a freshman RB (Stevie Hicks) to depend on. Even so, Hicks gained over 1000 yards rushing and Meyer put together a good year behind decent protection as Iowa State improved to 7-5 with a trip to a bowl game

2004 Stats: Rush Offense - 73rd Pass Offense - 79th Total Offense - 91st

When 2005 rolled around, Hicks went down with an injury early in the season, forcing Cotton to depend almost exclusively on the passing game. Meyer (not the sharpest knife in the QB drawer some times) still managed to have a good year due to the emergence of Todd Blythe but he tended to tuck the ball and run at the first sign of pressure. ISU went 7-5 and again went bowling

2005 Stats: Rush Offense - 96th Pass Offense - 37th Total Offense - 76th

Finally, in 2006, Hicks again went down with an early injury and to add to the offensive woes, Blythe sat out half the season with a viral infection. Without reliable offensive weapons to turn to, Meyer took to his feet a lot, leading to a multitude of sacks and tackles for loss. 4 of the 5 O-linemen that began the season as starters were lost at various times during the season forcing Cotton to patch together whoever was available from week to week. The Clones ended up at 4-8 with no bowl, after which HC McCarney and his staff were let go. Cotton's kid was just getting ready to start his senior year at Ames High so Cotton opted to stay in the area in order to let his son finish his final year of high school

2006 Stats: Rush Offense - 99th Pass Offense - 44th Total Offense - 81st

Cotton was able to come to a school with a meager budget for recruiting and improvements, take a young team that lacked as much talent as most of the opposing Big 12 teams and push them to two bowl games in three years after which Chizek came in and sent the team in a tailspin with his horrible head coaching. Injuries, especially to experienced backs, are what were Cotton's undoing at ISU...and the same thing appears to be the problem at NU.

 
Cy the Cyclone said:
I'm not the biggest Cotton supporter in the world but you have to take all the stats from the past with a grain of salt...

When Barney came to ISU, Iowa State was coming off a 2-10 year where they totally sucked

2003 Stats: Rush Offense - 91st Pass Offense - 94th Total Offense - 109th

In 2004, Cotton had a freshman QB (Bret Meyer) and a freshman RB (Stevie Hicks) to depend on. Even so, Hicks gained over 1000 yards rushing and Meyer put together a good year behind decent protection as Iowa State improved to 7-5 with a trip to a bowl game

2004 Stats: Rush Offense - 73rd Pass Offense - 79th Total Offense - 91st

When 2005 rolled around, Hicks went down with an injury early in the season, forcing Cotton to depend almost exclusively on the passing game. Meyer (not the sharpest knife in the QB drawer some times) still managed to have a good year due to the emergence of Todd Blythe but he tended to tuck the ball and run at the first sign of pressure. ISU went 7-5 and again went bowling

2005 Stats: Rush Offense - 96th Pass Offense - 37th Total Offense - 76th

Finally, in 2006, Hicks again went down with an early injury and to add to the offensive woes, Blythe sat out half the season with a viral infection. Without reliable offensive weapons to turn to, Meyer took to his feet a lot, leading to a multitude of sacks and tackles for loss. 4 of the 5 O-linemen that began the season as starters were lost at various times during the season forcing Cotton to patch together whoever was available from week to week. The Clones ended up at 4-8 with no bowl, after which HC McCarney and his staff were let go. Cotton's kid was just getting ready to start his senior year at Ames High so Cotton opted to stay in the area in order to let his son finish his final year of high school

2006 Stats: Rush Offense - 99th Pass Offense - 44th Total Offense - 81st

Cotton was able to come to a school with a meager budget for recruiting and improvements, take a young team that lacked as much talent as most of the opposing Big 12 teams and push them to two bowl games in three years after which Chizek came in and sent the team in a tailspin with his horrible head coaching. Injuries, especially to experienced backs, are what were Cotton's undoing at ISU...and the same thing appears to be the problem at NU.
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Fantastic freaking post!

A very fair assessment and the kind of perspective anti-Cotton people need.

 
Cotton Stat - the two previous staffs that he was on both got fired

FYI: Stevie Hicks was a Soph. in 2004 when BarneyBall made it's way to Ames.

 
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irafreak said:
Yes but how good were the offenses of those teams when he was hired?
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2002 373 YPG and 27.4 PPG

2003 345 YPG and 24.8 PPG

ISU did improve when he took over in 2004 but there was also in upgrade in talent that year as well. 2003 they were killed by what they lost from the 2002 team.

 
I beg to differ. The ISU offense was anemic before Cotton got here and improved immediately afterwards without a big injection of talent:

2003 B12 Rankings- Before Cotton

Passing Offense 9th - 177 ypg

Rushing Offense 9th - 120 ypg

Pass Efficiency - 12th

Scoring Offense - 12th - 14 ppg

Total Offense - 11th - 297 ypg

2004 B12 Rankings - Cotton's First Year

Passing Offense 8th - 187 ypg

Rushing Offense 8th - 142 ypg

Pass Efficiency - 11th

Scoring Offense - 11th - 21 ppg

Total Offense - 10th - 329 ypg

Not a vast improvement but the offense still managed to pick up a touchdown a game

2005 B12 Rankings - Cotton's Second Year

Passing Offense 2nd - 240 ypg

Rushing Offense 10th - 111 ypg

Pass Efficiency - 3rd

Scoring Offense - 5th - 28 ppg

Total Offense - 6th - 350 ypg

Even with the injuries to Hicks and the O-line the ISU offense managed to have a banner year

2006 B12 Rankings - Cotton's Final Year

Passing Offense 6th - 216 ypg

Rushing Offense 10th - 102 ypg

Pass Efficiency - 9th

Scoring Offense - 11th - 19 ppg

Total Offense - 9th - 318 ypg

Injuries to Hicks and Blythe along with 4 out of 5 linemen showed up in the stats and led to the demise of McCarney, Cotton and the rest of the ISU staff but still statisically a vast improvement over three years.

Incidently, after giving McCarney, Cotton...et al, the boot, that genius hire Gene Chizek "led" Iowa State to:

Passing Offense 11th

Rushing Offense 10th

Pass Efficiency - 11th

Scoring Offense - 11th

Total Offense - 12th

We ended up 2-10 (just like in 2003) with worse conference rankings than before....hurray for that waste of a million dollars.... <_<

 
newearthhusker said:
Cy the Cyclone said:
I beg to differ. The ISU offense was anemic before Cotton got here and improved immediately afterwards without a big injection of talent:
Click to expand...
Meyer, Blythe, Davis = Better then the QB/WR combo in 2003. I know Danielson was there but he was no Blythe.
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Meyer was a questionable 2-Star recruit out of Atlantic, Iowa...Blythe was a questionable 3-Star recruit off a horrible Indianola, Iowa team...none of the big boys wanted either of them (even though Simpson was hot after Blythe and Morningside had the inside track to Meyer)...and Davis was prone to drop everything they threw at him. He caught 48 passes out of 200 that hit him in the hands.

With that in mind I guess you could add "good player development" to the list of Barney's accomplishments...along with ISU's first share of a B12 North title in 2004 (which was ISU's first...and so far, last) share of any title of any kind.

 
You can spin anything any way. But yards per carry and sacks allowed are probably the two best stats to look at to judge an offensive line. Passing yards is more of an indication of quarterback and receiver talent. Good QBs and receivers can still produce numbers with a bad offensive line. Look at Notre Dame this season... fairly average O-line and yet great passing numbers.

Cotton's ISU lines never got into the top 100 in YPC! I don't know how you can spin that positively. The highest they ever were in sacks allowed was 97th! That isn't good for any team, even Iowa St.

 
You throw in a bunch of freshmen and sophmores on the line because all your experienced upperclassmen go down with injuries then take out your best ball carrier with an injury and replace him with a couple of freshmen then face a blitz on every down because a lack of experienced linemen and backs forces you to throw on practically every play and see how many yards per carry and sacks allowed you come up with.

Like I have said before...lack of coaching ability didn't run Cotton out of ISU...injuries did.

 
I'm with cy on this one. Cotton hasn't had the best to work with. Right now we're really not sure what we have in the offensive coaches because we don't know how many of them were actually Bo's picks. I think there's too much clash in the offensive philosophy of these guys and Bo will map out what he wants and make changes if necessary. We need an identity first. I'm willing to give the staff more time if Bo is.

 
I'm not trying to compare Cotton with other Iowa St. line coaches, past or present. I'm simply looking at the appropriate stat categories and trying to find something that justifies him being an assistant on a top 20 FBS program. In his six years in the Big 12 (which includes three at Nebraska), Cotton's lines have never helped their teams YPC stats any higher than 40th in the country. That's pretty tough to excuse. Right now, we're playing with 3-star talent on the line. A decent coach gets them to play at a 3-star level. A good coach gets them to play at 3.5-star level. A great coach, 4-star level. I don't think anyone really even needs the stats to conclude that our line isn't even playing at a 3-star level right now. That's on Barney.

 
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