"[L]ike a trained parrot"

by Nestor on Oct 7, 2007 9:17 AM PDT in Football

Bumped. Post written on January 31. GO BRUINS. -N

How do you know whether someone is a good coach? Well just the gauge the reaction of his team's fan-base when he goes somewhere else. I am sure many here can remember the reaction of Pitt's fan base when Howland announced he was leaving the Panthers to join our Bruins. It ranged from anger to despair. Same goes for Roy Williams when he left Kansas for UNC. So with that in mind it is really interesting to read the reactions from Nebraska fans, who just lost their OC - Jay Norvell - to UCLA. Here is one example of a Nebraska fan's perception of their former OC:

Norvell is like a trained parrot, always ready to put the blame on the players at every opportunity. Even if every loss was the players' faults (which it isn't), you simply don't put the blame on your players at every opportunity.

In any case, whose fault is it if a player doesn't execute a gameplan given a month to prepare?

A coach who is fond of playing the blame game. Well at least that means his philosophy is going to be in sync with the blamer-in-chief of the Bruin football program. More comments on Norvell (from the same posted linked above):

Norvell's only contribution on gamedays seems to be blaming players when anything goes wrong...he's certainly not helping Callahan make good adjustments. In short, I think Norvell sucks as a coach.

HT to What's Bruin, Dawg, who like rest of UCLA fans (which apparently even includes the toadies over at the Daily Bruin (via DD)) are not excited about the arrival of Norvell:

Frankly, this hire is uninspiring at best. At worst, Dorrell has hired an empty sheel of an offensive coordinator whom has no real game experience. Wonderful!

The West Coast offense is slowly going the way of the dodo bird in the Pac-10, and college football in general, and yet we continue to hitch our own horse to an offensive failure that defensive coaches have all but figured out. It's predictable. It's not just Dorrell's play-calling (although that has a great deal with it). Defenses have solved the WCO. That's why more innovative coaches have moved on to the Spread and QB Option offense.

Couldn't agree more with Jason. To be fair there are few Nebraska fans who may have some nice things to say about Norvell. But then again there are fans who are loyalists to a fault in every program. Case in program we can look at our program, where there are still people who believe the football program is heading towards the right direction under Karl Dorrell. Then again there were actually self proclaimed UCLA basketball fans who supported Lavin to the very last day in the name of staying loyal to the program. So I took those reactions with a grained of salt. The three games I saw Nebraska play this year were against Southern Cal, Oklahoma, and Auburn. And I'd rather trust my eyes, which saw why Nebraska fans might have had serious reservations about Norvell's contributions as the OC of their vanilla, boring, and predictable WCO.

We will try to keep an open mind about Norvell. And see how the offense turns out under him. But given Karl Dorrell's incredibly mediocre track record, it is hard to get excited about his latest hire, who doesn't have much on his resume to rebut the perception he was anything but a "trained parrot" at this previous job.

Anyways, "trained parrot" or not, Norvell with 10 returning starters on offense will be responsible along with Karl Dorrell for delivering a Pac-10 championship to Westwood next season. If he doesn't he should be looking for a new gig along with head coach this time in 2008.

UPDATE: Per Nebraska fans Norvell doesn't bring much to the table when it comes to recruiting either.

GO BRUINS.

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as a lifelong ucla AND nebraska fan...

i definitely have my reservations about yet another first-time playcaller. but having watched or listened to every nebraska game the past two seasons, i can say that norvell has done a very good job with zac taylor, taking a big, slow juco transfer, and turning him into the big-12 offensive player of the year. imo, nebraska is an example of the west coast offense actually working at the college level, as can be seen by them winning the big-12 north, and "restoring the order". now its just a matter of continuing to get the talent for that system. here, we supposedly already have the talent, especially at the receivers position, and ben olson is definitely a step up from zac taylor in natural ability. i'm looking at this hire specifically at the quarterback position, and hopefully as a new pair of eyes to rejuvenate our playbook. personally, i don't think i can stomache another season of waiting until our new coordinator "grows, and learns how to call plays", like i heard all last season.

by roney85 on Jan 31, 2007 10:59 AM PST reply actions

thanks for the post roney

that gives me some comfort. But what bothers me most is what I saw from the Huskers offense in the 3 games that I watched (it looked like a passive Dorrell offense).

Sure Zach had a great season number wise. But so did Drew Olson two years ago. And that season meant nothing to me because it ended up with a bitchslapping at the hands of Southern Cal basically maintaining UCLA's status as an underachieving (and somewhat of a laughing stock) program in college football.

I feel for you. Having to root for Callahan and Dorrell coached teams. Yikes.

by Nestor on Jan 31, 2007 11:03 AM PST up reply actions

I disagree, Roney

I worked the Auburn game (doing esoteric stats.) Nebraska looked like a juggernaut on its first drive. Then Auburn figured out the WCO, and it was like the old Eric Gagne came in on defense. It was really game over.

I agree with the take in Bruin Dawg to the effect that the WCO is an offense whose time has gone. It has been figured out.

Here's a prediction - we have lots of stats people who inhabit the BN. I would like to see how many three and outs we had, and where that stands with the rest of D1 football. Also, our 3rd down conversions. My sense is that WCO teams would not look good on those stats, but I may be way wrong.

Anyway, I think it would be nice if KD took his new OC and both of them went to some new locale.

by Fox 71 on Jan 31, 2007 1:47 PM PST up reply actions

Sounds like Dorrell's Type of Guy To Me

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Jan 31, 2007 11:45 AM PST reply actions

Where is the administration?

Where is DG and/or the rest of the now silent administration on the football program? It is frightening. I do believe they are all transfixed on BB now, and are giving FB nada attention. KD could hire a kindergarten teacher to run the offense and no admin. would blink and eye. I hope I am wrong.......
Bill

BillSouthBay

by Mensgym on Jan 31, 2007 2:55 PM PST reply actions

The Bruins offense is not a WCO

It really isn't. Because the plays aren't designed like a WCO, the pace is never staggered, there are few or no short pass plays, there are never pass plays on first down, etc. etc. But that said, even if it were a WCO, it wouldn't work, for many reasons including because we don't have good enough receivers, we're not playing the best quarterback we have, and the WCO is TOO EASY TO STOP! College offenses require deception to be successful. There is nothing in Dorrell's scheme that forces the Defense to hesitate at all (except the genius play-action calls on the 3rd and long... and hey, why is it always 3rd and long?)

The Bruins run what is simply a bad, slow, predictable offense. It has NEVER worked. Not even in the 10-2 season where we were down in most games to TERRIBLE teams and threw out the regular offense to chuck the ball 40 yards down field - which is as far as D Olsen could lob it. We were playing TERRIBLE teams, go lucky and won. Oh, until 0-60 Pac 10 DOORMAT Arizona DESTROYED us. And then PC flat out worked over Dorrell. Watch that USC game again - I don't know why Pete hated Dorrell so much, but he took advantage of every chance in that game to show the world KD had simply no idea what he was doing. And KD has learned very little since. And what little he has learned has all come at our expense.

As I've said before, it doesn't matter who the coach is, if you're running Dorrell's playbook, you're toast. Which is why Norvell was probably the best of the fools UCLA could get to take the job. Winners win, Dorrell has proven he is not a winner. So Guerrero, why is he still coach?

See you all at the Basketball Game tonight.

by greatgymnasticsschool on Feb 1, 2007 2:16 PM PST reply actions