Appreciate the great posts in this thread - I posted similar concerns right after the Purdue game and you would have thought I shot someone on 5th Ave
I cant imagine a scenario where Ash ask Kill to take a co-coordinator job. His MO was to get here and get time of possession in our favor - like the Washington game and keep the scores more competitive. Washington is 6-8 points away from making the playoffs and 14 points away from being undefeated, so they were as good as advertised, and we controlled time of possession by 38 -22 against a top 10 defensive line.
My concern is what happened in the latter half of the season. We had the same offensive line blocking (sans Maetti who has a great future), so while you can make a case that they were inconsistent this year, they are at least average BIG caliber. We have a RB who by most commentators will be playing on Sunday and 3 other backs who were all serviceable BIG backs and we had several heralded receivers,all of whom regressed as the year went on. Gio was healthy with the exception of 2 games and we all saw what he did last year against Minnesota and Indiana when he was healthy - a 122 passer rating with 220 and 258 yards respectively. There is no doubt that Gio is a smart kid, had better weapons this year and supposedly a coach who is light years ahead of Mehringer, how was he allowed to regress so much.
The only answer I can think of, is play-calling. When you are constantly putting your QB in bad situations, his numbers are going to suffer. When you play smash mouth football lining up against Penn St and Michigan St and the entire stadium knows that you are running up the gut on 1st down, and the majority of the QB's attempts are 3rd and long, and with an O-line that is supposedly better at run blocking than pass blocking, how much blame can you give the QB. At the very least, as a few have suggested,. we need a QB coach/passing game coordinator given that we will have our best QB room ever next year but with a lot of youth. A passing game coordinator can work with route running and communication, both of which seemed to be MIA under Jerry Kill this year. More importantly, if we supposedly have all this great team speed next year (Melton, Hayek's, Wormley, **JONES*** Blackshear Lacewell Izien Bailey), put them in a position to make plays - how many jet sweeps, mis-directions, tunnel screens etc did we run this year. It will be a long time, if ever, that we recruit at the level of a Wisconsin or Iowa, and that type of line recruiting is whats needed to compete with a Jerry Kill offense. In lieu of that, Rutgers needs to re-invent themselves, and literally take elements of what Mehringer wanted to do last year but didnt have the players and a bit of what Kill wanted to do this year in time of possession, but was so predictable that he turned our offense into a liability
The following stats, which are again, the MAIN reason why Kill was bought in show why he needs to either hire a co-coordinator or be out by next year if he cant fix it - TIME OF POSSESSION and PLAYS RUN
Purdue 32 minutes and 85 plays from scrimmage
Rutgers 28 minutes and 55 plays from scrimmage
Michigan 37 minutes and 71 plays from scrimmage
Rutgers 23 minutes and 47 plays from scrimmage
Maryland 31 minutes and 69 plays from scrimmage
Rutgers 29 minutes and 64 plays from scrimmage
Penn St 28 minutes and 52 plays from scrimmage
Rutgers 32 minutes and 59 plays from scrimmage
Indiana 33 minutes and 71 plays from scrimmage
Rutgers 27 minutes and 57 plays from scrimmage
Mich St 48 minutes and 89 plays from scrimmage
Rutgers 12 minutes and 33 plays from scrimmage
Based on what Jerry Kill was bought here to do, one would say that the Purdue game was actually a disaster and if not for all their penalties and drops, it would have been an easy blow-out for Purdue. The Maryland and Penn St games - especially the first half of Penn St, left me feeling more hopeful that we had turned the corner but the last 2 games of the season really exposed the vanilla playbook that he was using and anyone who saw just a few hours of film, knew how to game plan for what was coming.
I have not once been in the camp that Ash should be in a hot seat, and fully agrees that he needs at least 2 more years to be judged and those expectations do NOT include a Bowl next year unless we find a fix on offense. However, we will have a top 6 BIG defense next year, Ash showed me a lot by turning special teams from a liability into an asset, so with the CONTINUITY that 95% of this board craves, the offense HAS TO BE NEXT, and he doesnt get a pass next year
Here are some of the following that I need to see
a) new WR coach who is a excellent recruiter (remember, Jerry Kill mainly does on-campus recruiting due to health issues)
b) QB coach/passing game coordinator
c) potentially 1 or 2 grad transfers to shore up the offensive line or a WR/RB similar to Gus/Duwop
d) Ash's play it safe and keep the game close for recruiting HAS TO CHANGE. I still maintain that he lost this team when he punted from the Indiana side of the field on 4th and short in a 17-0 game with everything on the line. If Ash doesnt believe in his team, why should they play hard fo him. His conservative use of the clock and unwillingness to take risks leaves the defense exposed and as we have seen in most games, we can stay competitive until the second half, when our defense just gets gassed
in 2018, he should not be coaching to keep it close and show progress to recruits so I believe all of the above are critical. If he chooses to put all his eggs in the Jerry Kill basket, then he has to live with the decision. i think Ash is a good man who has a great work ethic and is smart enough to keep evolving and making changes. How he handles the offense in 2018 and probably 2019 will dictate how much longer he will stay a Head Coach
