While Karl Dorrell is looking for his latest scapegoat er I mean an offensive coordinator, Tom Cable's name is coming up a lot. Cable of course ditched the Bruins and recruits after signing day last season by abruptly leaving for the Falcons. Now he is back on the market thanks to former Falcons' head coach Mora eyeing Willingham's job in Seattle.
Anyways I am not sure whether bringing back Cable would a great idea. DumpDorrell questions the notion of Cable being some kind of offensive guru:
But lets be realistic about a couple of things: Cable is not a guru like some Dorrellistas are making him out to be, second comings don't always turn out as hot as they are expected to be, and Cable will bolt (again) after next season ... just like Walker will (unless he is offered Dorrell's job which would be a mistake). And the deal is not done yet.
Cable 1 did vastly improve the offense after Axman turned in one of the worst performances in UCLA history. He did have the benefit of 3 play-makers who bailed him out at the end of games in `05. They boosted offensive production numbers to elite levels because of the ground they had to cover to come back. How would Cable have done THIS year??! He bolted when he saw what was coming, just like he will bolt again when in `08 we lose nearly the entire starting team. Leaves a big question mark on his record.
I am actually not sure whether our offense really improved under Cable. First of there was no where to go but up after the disastrous tenure of Axman, who KD also scape-goated just like his latest OC. Sure the over all production in terms of yardage went up in 2004 and then in 2005. However, was Cable really all that good?Cable 1 did vastly improve the offense after Axman turned in one of the worst performances in UCLA history. He did have the benefit of 3 play-makers who bailed him out at the end of games in `05. They boosted offensive production numbers to elite levels because of the ground they had to cover to come back. How would Cable have done THIS year??! He bolted when he saw what was coming, just like he will bolt again when in `08 we lose nearly the entire starting team. Leaves a big question mark on his record.
If we look back to the 2005 season (the much hyped "10 win" season) we will see how our opponents were out scheming our offense game after game until the talents of 2LiveDREW ignited those desperate fourth quarter come backs.
Think back the first halves of Washington, Washington State, Cal, and Arizona games. The mediocre defenses of those teams were holding our offense in check through most of the first halves. If you go back and watch those games you will see a pattern in which our running pattern (despite having MJD and Markey) were going nowhere in first halves as there were constant run up the middle. And it seemed like the coaches were not making adjustments that had an immediate impact right after the half time intermission.
If you watch the 2005 season games again, you'd see a UCLA offense not coming out of the gates and clicking in all cylinders during conference games. You also would have a hard time seeing adjustments the coaches were making on offense during second halves of those games until the desperate times in fourth quarters. Thanks again to those opposing coaches (thank you Doba, Harris, Willingham, and Tedford for punting straight to one of greatest return man in the history of Pac-10) who were using that classic prevent defense, and we were riding the heroics of 2LiveDREW.
So I am not sure how people are getting the impression of Cable being some sort of a difference maker as an offensive coordinator.
I think Cable could be an improvement in the area of OL coaching because currently we are saddled with another retread like Jim Colletto. But that's really about it.
BTW another name that has come up on the offensive coordinator coaching search is Cleveland Browns QB coach Rip Scherer. As Dump Dorrell points out his record screams mediocrity:
Scherer has been around since the '70s hopping from one job to the next, mostly assistant jobs on the offensive side of the ball ... too numerous to list, but check out his bio if you're interested. He did have a couple of head coaching jobs, starting out at Div 1AA James Madison ('91-'94), putting together 2 good seasons in 4, going 29-19. He apparently parlayed that small program success into a Div 1A mid-major head coaching job with Memphis from `95-'00. He stunk it up there going 22-44 in those 6 years.
After the head coaching thing didn't seem to work Scherer went back to the offensive coordinator position first with Kansas ('01) then Southern Mississippi ('03-'04). Kansas went 3-8 the year he was OC and they scored a grand total of 182 points in 11 games, barely over 16 ppg and almost 80 points less than they scored the year before. At Southern Miss, the team he joined in `03 won 2 more games than the year before but the offense scored only 11 more points, or less than 1 point more a game. In `04, the team won 2 less games than the `03 team but they scored a whopping 16 points more, or barely 1 point more a game.
Going back through all his OC experiences (Alabama `87, Arizona `88-'90) the story seems the same, no big impact or a decline in offensive production. Not sure what people see in this guy, why he keeps getting hired. Maybe he is a better position coach ... hard to say. Still, it's hard to believe that Dorrell would even interview this guy, especially after he tried to convince the faithful that he can hire "a great candidate that can lead us on offense." Whatever.
Sounds like another mediocre retread like Collettto. Whatever.After the head coaching thing didn't seem to work Scherer went back to the offensive coordinator position first with Kansas ('01) then Southern Mississippi ('03-'04). Kansas went 3-8 the year he was OC and they scored a grand total of 182 points in 11 games, barely over 16 ppg and almost 80 points less than they scored the year before. At Southern Miss, the team he joined in `03 won 2 more games than the year before but the offense scored only 11 more points, or less than 1 point more a game. In `04, the team won 2 less games than the `03 team but they scored a whopping 16 points more, or barely 1 point more a game.
Going back through all his OC experiences (Alabama `87, Arizona `88-'90) the story seems the same, no big impact or a decline in offensive production. Not sure what people see in this guy, why he keeps getting hired. Maybe he is a better position coach ... hard to say. Still, it's hard to believe that Dorrell would even interview this guy, especially after he tried to convince the faithful that he can hire "a great candidate that can lead us on offense." Whatever.
The only acceptable and reasonable move I see in this scenario is Dorrell taking over complete responsibility of OC duties, so once and for all he will not be able to scape goat any one else for his pathetic offense which has produced 3 mediocre (out of his 4) seasons. May be Dorrell can bring in Cable to coach the OL and perhaps fire Colletto (hey one more person KD can scapegoat), but it is him who should take the ultimate responsibility for his boring, unpredictable, and mediocre West Coast offense.
No more scape goats.
GO BRUINS.