Jim Colletto the OL genius

by Nestor on Feb 8, 2006 9:13 AM PST in Football Comment 8 comments

Of course everyone is to busy screaming getting excited during last 24 hours over the hire of supposed OL genius Jim Colletto and promotion of Jim Svoboda to OC. People are particularly fired up over the hiring of Colletto as our new OL coach. At first blush - reading his resume - the hire sounds impressive. But more you get to find out about his experiences as either a head coach or OC or OL coach at places like Baltimore, Notre Dame, and Purdue the more question comes up. First lets take a look at ND. The guy was an OC under one of the worst head coaches in the history of Notre Dame football, Bob Davies. Here is the scoop from one of the bloggers who follow Notre Dame football closely in Midwest (emphasis mine):

Notre Dame Rushing

I noticed today in the Tribune (link via NDNation.com that the man who I personally (though inconsequentially, I'll admit) hold responsible for the utter collapse of the Notre offense is the Offensive Line coach for the Baltimore Ravens. One, Jim Colletto.

After the resignation of Lou Holtz, Davie hired the supposed 'offensive genius' (it all depends on your allocation of emphasis) Jim Colletto of Purdue (who hadn't won a game against the Irish in 6 years) to be the offensive coordinator. After you've beaten him 6 years in a row, why hire him? He then promptly fired Joe Moore as the offensive line coach, publicly saying he was too old to coach and embroiling the University in a costly and embarrassing lawsuit. That was bad enough.

Compounding the problem was that for the first time in a long time, Notre Dame found itself consistently kicking field goals after having a first down and goal. It was a nightmare. We fire him, we get sued, AND we can't score from the 5 yard line. Notre Dame's offense is still trying to climb out of the triple digit rankings inflicted upon it following Lou's departure.

No, I am not bitter. Not at all.

I wish him all the best - just away from any teams for which I cheer.

Wow. And of course everyone is doing jumping jacks over how he is an NFL head coach and how he had a great season with the Baltimore Ravens. Well he was sooo great that the Ravens fired him and looks like for good reasons. From a blog closely following the Baltimore Ravens (emphasis mine):

After finishing 31st in total offense, the Ravens continue to clean house.

This week, the newest victim was offensive line coach Jim Colletto. Colletto's been the offensive line coach for the past six seasons, but he has failed to get the talented group to play up to their potential. Watching Boller run for his life has become a fixture on Ravens' game days, and Billick has apparently had his fill of it.

My fondest memory of Colletto's influence and control over the line, however, came last season in Baltimore against the Titans in the first round of the playoffs. That was Orlando Brown's two personal fouls, the second of which practically cost the Ravens the upset win.

And Colletto had the gall to be upset over being left out of consideration for the offensive coordinator position.

Wow. And people are jumping over this NFL retread who by the way as I pointed out in the comment thread did not win a single game against arch rivals (Arizona and Michigan) during his tenure as an OC under John Cooper. And his record at Purdue as a HC was not all that flattering either:

The Boilermakers' best finish under Colletto was the 4-5-2 in 1994.

Purdue's last winning season was 1984, when Colletto was an assistant and the Boilermakers finished 7-5 with a loss to Virginia in the Peach Bowl.

During his five years as head coach at Cal State-Fullerton, he compiled a 17-38-1 record. His best year there was 5-7 in 1978.

Colletto has a losing record against every Big Ten team. Against Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan, he is 0-11. Colletto also is 0-6 against Notre Dame, one of Purdue's biggest rivals.

Yikes. So the main thing this guy excels in - losing in big games. I guess that is a perfect fit for Dorrell's staff. And here are some Bruin fans celebrating the hiring of a career loser as the sings of Dorrell knowing what he is doing in helping to resurrect UCLA football.

For the record - I do think the promotion of Jim Svoboda from QBs coach to OC was a good move. Svoboda has shown us something in his two seasons in Westwood - which resulted in DO's great season this year. He appears hungry and not the from school of same old crap of Donahue football. But right now the Colletto hire is not looking great given all the information is out there. It is signaling a return to same old (no pun intended here) crap. Again not exactly a dynamic move by Karl Dorrell in bringing in this career loser, yet everyone on other message boards are celebrating this as some kind of brilliant CEO move. Anyways ... thank God for Howland. GO BRUINS.

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No need to get your knickers in a twist

The guy was hired as just the OL coach. Not sure exactly where that is in the coaching heirarchy, but I bet its pretty low. And, even if there are some questions about his past, his resume is pretty darn good for an OL coach. I haven't canvased the subject, but I'm willing to bet a fair number of graduate assistants, former players without experience, etc. get this kind of gig fairly often. Bottom line, we can't expect elite college/pro talent to be filling these kinds of roles, and all things considered, this move seems at least fine.

by TJay91 on Feb 8, 2006 9:14 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Acutally ...

Its kind of a big deal. Colletto is going to have big role in how we develop the talented OLs we are bringing in this class. His track record as an OL coach with the Ravens and what he did at South Bend under Bob Davies is pretty disconcerting. Much of this WCO Dorrell is trying to build is based around the play of OL. And Colletto will have a key role in it. That is why his less than stellar track record at the places he coached are reasons for concern.

by Nestor on Feb 8, 2006 9:18 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Seriously...

... he's just going to be the OL coach. And, from his resume/experience, it looks like he will be able to handle the duties just fine (and maybe quite well). No disrepect to linemen out there, but it's not the most complicated position in the universe. And this guy has a ton of experience, including long stints in this same role.

And, I must say I'm not sold on the real gravity of any "concerns" about this fellow. Sour grapes from bloggers covering a teams that didn't meet their expectations don't move me particularly. If someone was going to hire Dorrell, and asked you about your opinion, you'd probably shit your pants telling that person how bad he sucks, when the real assessment is probably that he's a mediocre (or better) coach who looks to be (or may not be, we'll see next year) improving on the job.

That all said, what kind of guy did you expect them to hire for a lower level coaching position? You were all over the DC hire because he didn't have experience, or long tenures at jobs, and this guy certainly has that. And, even those who find his past disconcerting, and are willing to assign him all of the blame from any failures of teams on which he coached, should see that this was an good way to cheaply add NFL experience to assuage recruits concerned about such things.

by TJay91 on Feb 8, 2006 11:45 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

ND Fans

The consensus of the ND fans that I work with (and there are a ton of them in Chicago), as well as over at ND Nation seems to be that Colletto was an awful coordinator, but that he was a pretty good offensive line coach for a running oriented team. Take that for what it's worth.

As for the Ravens' line failing to live up to its potential, didn't they have a 2,000 yard rusher a couple of years ago? Yeah, they must have really sucked. And they're blaming the O-Line coach for a player's personal fouls? What the hell? Also, Baltimore actually allowed seven more sacks this season than last season, so whoever they hired sure did a bang up job himself.

I would be a lot more concerned if this guy was a coordinator, but I don't think this is something to really make a big deal about.

by LA Seitz on Feb 8, 2006 10:34 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

OL coach/OC?

He was a pretty good OL coach for a running oriented team? Well that's even more reason to be comforted as we are looking for Ben Olson, one of the best QB recruits ever to come in Westwood lead an offense which we are hoping would open up lot more. And yes he did have one 2,000 yard rushing season by Jamal Lewis. But having Ogden to run behind sure helped. I just think this hire isn't all that exciting and should be subjected to some questioning. That's all - we are not going to blindly accept all the party line propoganda that come from Morgan Center - which is what you see going on in other messages. I have emailed the bloggers from BlueGraySky to opine in on Colletto. I think we are going to see a post on Colletto from ND bloggers by tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

by Nestor on Feb 8, 2006 10:38 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Well you can't have it both ways

But having Ogden to run behind sure helped.

When their did well, all the credit goes to the linemen, but when they do poorly, it's all the coach's fault? That's not particularly fair.

And like it or not, UCLA is still a team that is going to run tehe ball a lot, or did you not watch the Sun Bowl? If they can establish the run, it makes their passing game that much more effective. We're not talking about Mouse Davis' Houston teams. It's still a balanced offense that struggles to be effective when they can't run.

And anyway, what OL coaching hire has EVER been that exciting? We're talking about the assistant to an assistant!

by LA Seitz on Feb 8, 2006 12:01 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

pardon the typo

When their did well

Should say "when they did well"

by LA Seitz on Feb 8, 2006 12:02 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

We will see

How this turns out. As far as I am concerned moving up Svoboda was a good move, bringing in a proven loser (at college level) like Colletta was not an inspiring one. It is good to look into these guys backgrounds beyond the standard, boilerplate press releases. It tells us a lot about kind of individuals Dorrell brining in to this program. Anyways ... lets see if these guys can win 9 games, beat SC, and actually have a football season that means something. Winning shitty bowl games over shitty Big-10 teams, not finishing down the stretch in recruiting, losing key coaching personnel, and then bringing in mediocre ones to relplace them - not the way to bring about good feelings in a mediocre football program.

by Nestor on Feb 8, 2006 12:16 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs