With this said, why didn't Watson alter the offense to the strengths of the players he had instead of making them do things they are not suited to do?
Um, Watson did.
We opened the season being more open with our offense. Before Zac got benched, we were averaging over 28 pass attempts a game. We were being that hybrid "Spread Coast Offense" that Watson wanted us to be. Unfortunately when Zac began to crap the bed against better competition and our WRs showed an inability to get open or hold onto the ball, things had to change.
Even when he got Cody in, he tries to let the kid run the read-option, the only thing he really is capable of doing right now. Guy could not do it because our offensive line was so awful. As I've said before, Cody was not a quick move type of guy. He's the type of runner who builds up steam and once he gets going, he can fly. But with our offensive line opening no holes, he had no hope.
That idea was canned and Cody was put back on the bench since he had no chance at running OR passing.
When Zac came back, we relied heavily on the run. Although a bad idea since Burkhead was out and Helu wasn't healthy, we did it and were able to defeat Oklahoma.
Even after that victory we showed we needed to at least get teams out of the box. So for the Kansas game, we showed that we would get Zac outside the pocket to give him easier throws so his confidence wouldn't be in the crapper. Zac had back-to-back solid games (not outstanding) versus Kansas and KSU.
Against Colorado, admittedly our offense did not have a good game. Our ST and defense got us a nice lead, so Watson played it safe considering our offense was crapping the bed. It was safe and he did not want our offense to cost our defense. Not a sexy plan, but once the game got going it WAS the smartest thing no matter how much it wasn't pretty.
And finally against Texas, we attempted to use PA and those bootleg passes outside the pocket to get Lee his confidence. You watched the game, we all watched the game. Lee was running for his life. He had absolutely zero chance. And with Zac having MAJOR confidence issues, his game was over in a hurry. So again, we go back to the safe gameplan hoping Zac doesn't do anything stupid to cost us. Unfortunately he did make mistakes, which is why he was benched halfway through. But as Cody proved, his confidence doesn't match his passing abilities - AT ALL. Zac was the only QB we had, sadly. Our running game was going to need to spring a run, but our offensive line couldn't block for squat.
Look at it this way ..
QB - Witt transfers because he doesn't want to compete. Spano blows out his knee. We move a LINEBACKER to QB. We have a super stud practice play who gave us hope, but craps the bed once he got int he game. Who could have expected that?
RB - We kick a player off the team in Castille because he fries one too many brain cells. Helu busts his shoulder. Burkhead breaks a foot. Then we have to start a RB in Tray that was set to RS the entire season and was basically our 5th string RB. Meaning, unless some major ish happens, no way he was burning his RS. That ish happened.
WR - We graduate our top two WRs. Our backups had horrid hands and ran horrid routes. The rest were completely inexperienced and were not even given major practice reps until Gilmore had no choice but to bench guys like Curenski and Meno.
TE - McNeill has been banged up for a long time, but has manned up for a while. Young is a JAG and Cotton is still inexperienced.
OL - Aside from being a horrible coached technical group, we lost our best OL in Burkes. The rest of the guys were banged up throughout the season. Also guys like Marcel and Hickman had down years from what was expected of them.
It's like, what are you supposed to do in this situation? In all honesty, this year was absolute worst case scenario when you think of all the things that could go wrong. It all went wrong, and NO ONE could expect it. Absolutely no one.
To say Watson didn't try to adapt to his situation is flat out wrong. And for him to shoulder the blame in this is wrong as well which always leaves me shaking my head.
Watson is the absolute LAST of our worries on the offensive staff, but he is shouldering all of the blame.
Sad thing is, one day he will be gone. Then when the likely replacement comes in, we will all be doing :facepalm: