Shawn Watson..the only coach left for the "worthless!" Callahan era...enough said!!!
- Thread starter DallasHusker
- Start date
I don't think Shawn Watson can win - and I don't mean on the field or against Top 20 defenses, I mean with the fans. After reading post after post vilifying Watson for everything from preparation to his game plan to his comments to the press, I've come to the conclusion that many people are going to call for his termination regardless of his performance. If he runs "too many" running plays, he should be passing. Too many passing plays, why didn't we run. "Too many" zone reads, why not dives or powers or options. A balanced game plan, well he should have run or passed more. Etc, etc, etc. It wouldn't matter if the Huskers never lost another game under him, won 5 National Championships and scored 35 points a game - the fan base would still say he sucked ("I mean, if he was any good at his job the Huskers would be scoring 50 a game, sheesh") and needs to go. And the reasoning behind a lot of the ferocity of Watson-hatred is seemingly that he was under Callahan - and since Callahan is "Satan", then Watson must be as well.
Watson isn't perfect, by any means, but I'd say he's on par with or better than most O.C.s out there and looking around I'm not sure who we could pick up to replace him and see the instant results everyone seems to be wanting.
Watson isn't perfect, by any means, but I'd say he's on par with or better than most O.C.s out there and looking around I'm not sure who we could pick up to replace him and see the instant results everyone seems to be wanting.
NAILED IT! You are absolutely correct in everything you posted. There is a section of the fan base that will not ever ever ever be happy until Watson is gone, period, end of discussion. I'm not in that crowd but you nailed it.
sd'sker
Banned
this was basically our isu game. could have won, should have won, other team played well with a good/great gameplan, but we played a little flukie. it happens. just step it up.
bshirt
Banned
Regardless of performance??
2010 Texas - zero TDs
2009 Texas - zero TDs
2009 Oklahoma - "one" TD (we get the ball on their 5 yd line due to turnover)
2009 Virginia Tech - zero TDs
Blackshirt39
Special Teams Player
It comes down to discipline guys, and Watson doesn't coach it.
I think the biggest thing that most people are upset about with Watson and I'm one of them is that when we play those top defenses we don't see the adjustments made that most people would like to see made. When something isn't working you have to look at what will, and possibly expand your playbook, now I know that you have to consinder personnel when doing this, but when you become so predictable against one of the best defensive coordinators in college football you have to able to find a way to expand your offense and make changes.
You trot that out like that's some kind of proof that Watson is terrible. But it's really not. What that is proof of is that the offense did not execute well and likely mucked up what was called. How many fumbles did the Huskers have in those games, how many dropped balls, drive killing penalties, mis-reads, bad passes, etc. Watson can't plan for and beat every single one of these things - no coach can - and even if he could, as we saw in the Texas game the players will reach deep down and find a way to shoot themselves in the foot anyway. That's not to say he doesn't have a good share of the blame, but laying the whole pile at his feet is nonsense and replacing him doesn't make those things go away.
I do believe that there is an execution and discipline issue with the Huskers as coached by Bo, Shawn and Carl. While they are now playing, generally, with more fire and intensity than under Callahan, they make constant mental errors on both sides of the ball. The good news is that on defense, we are fast enough we can usually recover with out much in the way of injury. The bad news is that on offense, there is really no way to "recover" from these issues and they are going to sting us and keep stinging us until they get resolved. I don't know what the issue is or how to best address it, but it seems to be a team habit rather than solely a habit of the offensive side of the ball.
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Danimal
All-Conference
Two of those games are just ridiculous to point-out. In '09 Lee hit his guy in the endzone THREE times. Twice Holt dropped the ball(granted I disagreed that one was a drop) and Henry got called for holding on another. This year against Texas we had three td's dropped and onother dropped deep-ball that could've been a td.
huskerfan333157
Starter
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
lol, 09 oklahoma? You mean, where our offense scored only 3 points the whole game (remember our d got in int and returned it inside the 5 yard line)..09, poor execution? Doesnt poor execution fall on the offensive coordinator and not preparing them? How many games have we had "poor execution" on offense? 09 holiday bowl, oh you mean when we WENT under center? They were also just at 25th ranked, so they were a top 25 D. Has watson ever called a gameplan like that this year? We ran under center that game. 09 VT, we ran the ball pretty well that game, so ill give you that game, they were 14th in total defense and 56th in rushing defense but thats still a stop 25 defense. 09 missouri wasnt a top 25 defense, they gave up 370 yards of total defense..they were 64TH in total defense..I said "top 25 defenses" not top 75. 08 oklahoma? Of course our yards are going to be inflated because we were down by so much and they got out to the big lead. So the stats could be skewed and they kicked our butss that year, we couldnt keep up with scoring in the first half. 08 Texas Tech defense wasnt ranked in the top 25, so you cant use that as an example.In fact, their defense was ranked 43rd on nov 19. Virgina tech was a 19th ranknked defense so that is a good example. So we did well against 08 virgina tech and did well rushing against the 09 virgina tech. So you have had two good examples
huskerfan333157
Starter
Watson has horrible playcalling and doesnt change it up, he is very predicatble. Why run the same play when its going to get stuff? Oh so its ok for watson to run zone read on a fast defense that can stop it? Why not change it up?zoogies said:
huskerfan333157
Starter
Can you not grasp the fact that hes had limited success against good defenses..Wow, he has been piling it up on mediocre and bad defenses. His scheme works when youre playing a slower defense and faster oline, but it will not work on a defense that is faster than you that is keyed into it, thats just common sense. How long have we had the fumbling problem? How long have we had the drops? You are saying a coach shouldnt get blamed for that? Yes, its on the players but its also the coaches fault for not PREPARIN them enough or maybe not working on it as hard in practice. If its one game, then fine but its been a CONSISTENT problem and obviously hasnt changed yet.
huskerfan333157
Starter
oh you mean those dropped passes that were in 3RD AND LONG situations? Yes, Watson, good job you called a passing play where someone got open on 3RD AND LONG. I mean 3rd and long is always manageable. Lets face it, the dropped passes have always happened (you could blame the coaches for that considering its been a consistent problem.) If you look at the whole picture, you would notice that those passes happened because we were in 3rd and long so obviously he HAD to pass in that situation. Why didnt he do that in the beginning of the game, why didnt he do that on first down whent hey were cheating up to play the run (or second for that matter). Maybe watson needs to tell gilmore to work on catching more instead of telling gilmore to work on blocking more?
huskerfan333157
Starter
wow we played great against the 65th ranked defense..Thats the bottom half of division one. Good job, Watts, you called a great gameplan against a horrible D, I dont think anyone could have ever done that! Especially since their defense is extremely slow and t mart can outrun them!
