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Kurt Roper Evals

jamesleefrom843

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Dec 26, 2014
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I just want to start by saying I've been very critical with Coach Roper's play calling on gamedays. I have let it be known that I was less than impressed with year 1 of our offense...

With that being said, let me rain him with some high praise. Coach Roper has recruited/had us in the conversation with/lead group for the following QB's this season:
-Dakereon Joyner
-Tyler Slough
-Joe Milton
-Re-al Mitchell
-Jarren Williams
-James Foster just to name a few.

Point is: With the exception of DJ...many of these were 3* QB's that initially were written off by some of us on the board as "Another 3 star". Most of these QB's got a huge rating bump, including Tyler Slough into Rivals 250. This entire list of guys were invited to the Elite 11. My point is: Kurt Roper spotted many of these guys before they blew up on the national radar. He has a great eye for talent.

The only question now is will he develop them? We have only seen 1 season of his offense. With the high-caliber talent/solid evals I've seen to-date; I'm willing to give Coach Roper the benefit of the doubt. I believe with Coach Wolf taking over the OL, Jake maturing, & the skill player talent we have that we can be a dynamic offense this season. Here's to hoping we put up a plethora of points this season because Lord knows, we are going to need it!
 
Well said...I know there were a lot of play calls last year that left most of us fans scratching our heads. BUT I believe 90% of the problem is personnel. We continue to get the right players in his system, keep developing, and those same play calls will make him look like a genius. Its amazing how great players make great coaches and vice versa.
 
Yeah I don't think you can judge Roper and our offense on year 1. We had major personnel issues including lack of experience, injuries at key positions, lack of depth, etc. Bentley (I believe) and others have said that the playcalling was very limited intentionally last year due to all of the youth and inexperience. I'd expect to see more of what we saw vs USF this coming season and I honestly think our offense has the chance to be one of the most dynamic offenses we've had in quite some time.
 
It was said after the season that Roper was not able to use a large portion of his playbook because of the youth and inexperience of the personnel. I would think that with Jake, Deebo, Rico, and others having a full year plus a spring and fall under Roper's guidance, we should see a lot more variety in play calling for this year. I have faith in Roper, because I saw what he was capable of at Duke. Many say that he was simply running Cutcliffe's offense, which may be true, but Roper still was the one calling the plays, so he should get credit for that. Of course, many of our "fans" are ready to fire anybody after a quarter around here if they don't win national titles, but that's another topic for another conversation.
 
Kurt Roper was only given 1 year at Florida & has only had 1 full season here. As long as we gradually show improvement, I'm all for him staying around. I agree with @piketc1991 @disneydoug
@kevinchalk50 At least I was reasonable in saying I'll give him a pass on his first year. He's recruiting high-caliber players & our skill positions have been greatly upgraded.
Kurt Roper also didn't have Bryan McClendon, Bobby Bentley, & Eric Wolford recruiting on his staff at UF :)
 
I was very irritated by his play calling early in the year with bmac but I think it was in large part because of our crappy OL and the fact the bmac couldn't be a downfield threat in the passing game so he was very handcuffed.

Once Jake stepped in, the offense opened up more and more each week it seemed. Still some frustrating calls, but a lot of good calls in there too. Bad OL and and a bad QB totally cripple an OC so I think we should view him with a clean slate going forward.
 
I just want to start by saying I've been very critical with Coach Roper's play calling on gamedays. I have let it be known that I was less than impressed with year 1 of our offense...

With that being said, let me rain him with some high praise. Coach Roper has recruited/had us in the conversation with/lead group for the following QB's this season:
-Dakereon Joyner
-Tyler Slough
-Joe Milton
-Re-al Mitchell
-Jarren Williams
-James Foster just to name a few.

Point is: With the exception of DJ...many of these were 3* QB's that initially were written off by some of us on the board as "Another 3 star". Most of these QB's got a huge rating bump, including Tyler Slough into Rivals 250. This entire list of guys were invited to the Elite 11. My point is: Kurt Roper spotted many of these guys before they blew up on the national radar. He has a great eye for talent.

The only question now is will he develop them? We have only seen 1 season of his offense. With the high-caliber talent/solid evals I've seen to-date; I'm willing to give Coach Roper the benefit of the doubt. I believe with Coach Wolf taking over the OL, Jake maturing, & the skill player talent we have that we can be a dynamic offense this season. Here's to hoping we put up a plethora of points this season because Lord knows, we are going to need it!

I think the biggest offseason addition that Roper needed the most was Coach Wolf. While I am not saying that means we are a juggernaut next year, its hard for any offensive coordinator to look good when he runs screens where the entire OL whiffs on blocks, running plays where Lineman are pushed back into the backfield, and passing plays where blitzing LBs and Solid D-Lineman are constantly running free...sure we needed more depth and talent, but the biggest thing that hurt him was the OL...I do not expect that to be a problem anymore and expect Roper's Offense to look very different in the near future depending on how quick a turnaround Wolf and Co can make.
 
Personally, I'm excited as hell to see what this offense is supposed to look like, and I think we'll see much more of that in year two. We'll still be handcuffed by inexperience in the OL to some extent, but when you run a multiple offense like Roper's, the QBs ability to check into the right play at the LOS is really the most important factor. With everyone saying Jake's grasp of the concepts is light years ahead of last year, we should see a severe reduction in negative-yardage plays, which will keep us out of 2nd and long and 3rd and long. Those down and distances are where the problems arise.
 
At UF, Roper doubled the offensive point production in his one season. We were very limited the 1st half of the season last year. Poor O-line play, inexperience at other key positions. Tight ends missing blocks on edge rushers and blitzes, running backs whiffing on many blocks which resulted in sacks. Second half, much better QB play, better production from running backs and so we almost doubled point production. Scored plenty in Bowl game. We will be much better across the board at the skill positions this season. We might be in several track meet games this year.
 
I just want to start by saying I've been very critical with Coach Roper's play calling on gamedays. I have let it be known that I was less than impressed with year 1 of our offense...

With that being said, let me rain him with some high praise. Coach Roper has recruited/had us in the conversation with/lead group for the following QB's this season:
-Dakereon Joyner
-Tyler Slough
-Joe Milton
-Re-al Mitchell
-Jarren Williams
-James Foster just to name a few.

Point is: With the exception of DJ...many of these were 3* QB's that initially were written off by some of us on the board as "Another 3 star". Most of these QB's got a huge rating bump, including Tyler Slough into Rivals 250. This entire list of guys were invited to the Elite 11. My point is: Kurt Roper spotted many of these guys before they blew up on the national radar. He has a great eye for talent.

The only question now is will he develop them? We have only seen 1 season of his offense. With the high-caliber talent/solid evals I've seen to-date; I'm willing to give Coach Roper the benefit of the doubt. I believe with Coach Wolf taking over the OL, Jake maturing, & the skill player talent we have that we can be a dynamic offense this season. Here's to hoping we put up a plethora of points this season because Lord knows, we are going to need it!
The play calling was dumb downed because of new verbiage. Those guys had to learn and they could only learn so much at a time. The playbook will be more open this year and beyond.
 
Yeah I don't think you can judge Roper and our offense on year 1. We had major personnel issues including lack of experience, injuries at key positions, lack of depth, etc. Bentley (I believe) and others have said that the playcalling was very limited intentionally last year due to all of the youth and inexperience. I'd expect to see more of what we saw vs USF this coming season and I honestly think our offense has the chance to be one of the most dynamic offenses we've had in quite some time.
Correct, when you can't execute your basic base offense plays because of personnel issues then it doesn't matter what a play caller calls. We we're in that position a lot last year.
 
Well said...I know there were a lot of play calls last year that left most of us fans scratching our heads. BUT I believe 90% of the problem is personnel. We continue to get the right players in his system, keep developing, and those same play calls will make him look like a genius. Its amazing how great players make great coaches and vice versa.
proper reading of coverage by players ( no going to be specific) would have led to a much better season last year even with our poor line performance. I have hope for vast improvement in line performance but in reality it will take 2-3 yrs on the o-line
 
Very little of the play book was implemented last year. Also, they purposefully didn't change up snap counts that much. By the end of the year, teams knew what we were running and had our timing down too.

I think a caller to a radio show asked why the offense wasn't as good as it was at Duke. Roper responded that the caller hadn't seen first year film. So, don't give up on Roper yet. Although he was at UF for only one year, the offense averaged about 13 points more per game. Muschamp believes he would still be coaching UF if he had hired Roper earlier.
 
I just want to start by saying I've been very critical with Coach Roper's play calling on gamedays. I have let it be known that I was less than impressed with year 1 of our offense...

With that being said, let me rain him with some high praise. Coach Roper has recruited/had us in the conversation with/lead group for the following QB's this season:
-Dakereon Joyner
-Tyler Slough
-Joe Milton
-Re-al Mitchell
-Jarren Williams
-James Foster just to name a few.

Point is: With the exception of DJ...many of these were 3* QB's that initially were written off by some of us on the board as "Another 3 star". Most of these QB's got a huge rating bump, including Tyler Slough into Rivals 250. This entire list of guys were invited to the Elite 11. My point is: Kurt Roper spotted many of these guys before they blew up on the national radar. He has a great eye for talent.

The only question now is will he develop them? We have only seen 1 season of his offense. I was beginning to think this post was written by GamecockPastor because you were having a tent revival about Coach and the offensive potential. :) I am a believer! Pass the plate and amen brother. :). Nicely written and Covfefe brother!
 
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I just want to start by saying I've been very critical with Coach Roper's play calling on gamedays. I have let it be known that I was less than impressed with year 1 of our offense...

With that being said, let me rain him with some high praise. Coach Roper has recruited/had us in the conversation with/lead group for the following QB's this season:
-Dakereon Joyner
-Tyler Slough
-Joe Milton
-Re-al Mitchell
-Jarren Williams
-James Foster just to name a few.

Point is: With the exception of DJ...many of these were 3* QB's that initially were written off by some of us on the board as "Another 3 star". Most of these QB's got a huge rating bump, including Tyler Slough into Rivals 250. This entire list of guys were invited to the Elite 11. My point is: Kurt Roper spotted many of these guys before they blew up on the national radar. He has a great eye for talent.

The only question now is will he develop them? We have only seen 1 season of his offense. With the high-caliber talent/solid evals I've seen to-date; I'm willing to give Coach Roper the benefit of the doubt. I believe with Coach Wolf taking over the OL, Jake maturing, & the skill player talent we have that we can be a dynamic offense this season. Here's to hoping we put up a plethora of points this season because Lord knows, we are going to need it!
Nice post! Thank you
 
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I just want to start by saying I've been very critical with Coach Roper's play calling on gamedays. I have let it be known that I was less than impressed with year 1 of our offense...

With that being said, let me rain him with some high praise. Coach Roper has recruited/had us in the conversation with/lead group for the following QB's this season:
-Dakereon Joyner
-Tyler Slough
-Joe Milton
-Re-al Mitchell
-Jarren Williams
-James Foster just to name a few.

Point is: With the exception of DJ...many of these were 3* QB's that initially were written off by some of us on the board as "Another 3 star". Most of these QB's got a huge rating bump, including Tyler Slough into Rivals 250. This entire list of guys were invited to the Elite 11. My point is: Kurt Roper spotted many of these guys before they blew up on the national radar. He has a great eye for talent. The only question now is will he develop them? We have only seen 1 season of his offense.
:);)
Pfunk Cock said:
I was beginning to think this post was written by GamecockPastor because you were having a tent revival about Coach and the offensive potential. :) I am a believer! Pass the plate and amen brother. :). Nicely written and Covfefe brother!
 
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Everything from OP tells me why he seems to be a great QB coach, but says little about being a OC.

Going into last season, the OL was said to be the strength of the offense if not the team. By the end, the OL coach is gone. So where is the problem? With the OC or the OL? I think Roper runs a system that did not fit the personnel on the line. He makes the interior guys pull on about every play. These guys were always a step slow in the pull and would not get to their blocks. It got to the point, that the line was cheating with their stance to get to the spot faster, which tipped off the play. A cluster all the way around. Did not help that we was telegraphing plays to the point that Clemson's LB were calling them out at the line of scrimmage even with Bentley running to the sideline to get every play.

So who is at fault? The line for not being athletic enough? The OL coach for not teaching them to be athletic enough? To me their is a difference between getting beat on a block and not being there to make the block. Not being there is a mental error or a situation where it was not possible to get to the spot. That is on the coach calling the play, which leads me to believe that Roper should have adjusted his style to match

I do not see the personnel getting demonstratively better, I hope Roper mixes up the block scheme to match what they got
 
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Everything from OP tells me why he seems to be a great QB coach, but says little about being a OC.

Going into last season, the OL was said to be the strength of the offense if not the team. By the end, the OL coach is gone. So where is the problem? With the OC or the OL? I think Roper runs a system that did not fit the personnel on the line. He makes the interior guys pull on about every play. These guys were always a step slow in the pull and would not get to their blocks. It got to the point, that the line was cheating with their stance to get to the spot faster, which tipped off the play. A cluster all the way around. Did not help that we was telegraphing plays to the point that Clemson's LB were calling them out at the line of scrimmage even with Bentley running to the sideline to get every play.

So who is at fault? The line for not being athletic enough? The OL coach for not teaching them to be athletic enough? To me their is a difference between getting beat on a block and not being there to make the block. Not being there is a mental error or a situation where it was not possible to get to the spot. That is on the coach calling the play, which leads me to believe that Roper should have adjusted his style to match

I do not see the personnel getting demonstratively better, I hope Roper mixes up the block scheme to match what they got
The offensive line was said to be the most experienced and hence was hoped to be the strength. With Zandi as the starting left tackle (not bashing him) that should have been an indication that we were in trouble. He did a fair job as extra tight end and then right tackle but it was a great ask to place him at left tackle and I commend him for accepting the challenge. With inexperienced playmakers and a very ineffective offensive line, you cannot blame an offensive coordinator for limiting what he could effectively call during games. If you do not have the confidence that your team can have any success running the entire package. Then you have penalties on top of that. He has yet to have time to prove or disprove his ability to call a great game as of yet. I did see an explosive offense at the end of the year, aside from Clemson game, and like what promise that may represent for the coming season.
 
Everything from OP tells me why he seems to be a great QB coach, but says little about being a OC.

Going into last season, the OL was said to be the strength of the offense if not the team. By the end, the OL coach is gone. So where is the problem? With the OC or the OL? I think Roper runs a system that did not fit the personnel on the line. He makes the interior guys pull on about every play. These guys were always a step slow in the pull and would not get to their blocks. It got to the point, that the line was cheating with their stance to get to the spot faster, which tipped off the play. A cluster all the way around. Did not help that we was telegraphing plays to the point that Clemson's LB were calling them out at the line of scrimmage even with Bentley running to the sideline to get every play.

So who is at fault? The line for not being athletic enough? The OL coach for not teaching them to be athletic enough? To me their is a difference between getting beat on a block and not being there to make the block. Not being there is a mental error or a situation where it was not possible to get to the spot. That is on the coach calling the play, which leads me to believe that Roper should have adjusted his style to match

I do not see the personnel getting demonstratively better, I hope Roper mixes up the block scheme to match what they got

I think you are overplaying the preseason assessment that was made when the OL was considered to be the strength of the team, as was the case for most posters on this forum. The OL was not determined to be the strength going into the season because it was loaded for bear...it was considered to be the strength because on paper, it appeared to be that way because it was the unit returning the most experience.

Essentially what that meant was it had the least amount of question marks. If you remember, we did not have any knowns at RB, none at WR, none at TE, and nothing on the defense...so basically the OL was winning the tallest midget contest going into the season.

As the year went on, with the development at certain positions and the rise of playmakers who showed potential in preseason but could not be counted on until they showed it on the field, it was eventually realized that the comments about the OL did not reign true...I do not think in any way that that fell on Roper especially when Elliot was the only coach in the program who was not new to his specific unit. The results of the OL were all on the OL Coach, and probably partially also so on the former S&C coach as well.
 
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To me their is a difference between getting beat on a block and not being there to make the block.

So to clarify here... you're saying that guys were not getting into place in time last year and not actually getting beat head-to-head on blocks??

I'm pretty sure I saw guys getting manhandled and/or standing around looking clueless as defenders ran by them as often, if not more often, than guys just not getting into position in time. But hey, that's just me.
 
So to clarify here... you're saying that guys were not getting into place in time last year and not actually getting beat head-to-head on blocks??

I'm pretty sure I saw guys getting manhandled and/or standing around looking clueless as defenders ran by them as often, if not more often, than guys just not getting into position in time. But hey, that's just me.
Can't hide from the camera. That film doesn't lie.
 
Hello GC1. I miss our game threads. I have another series for you to watch on Netflix. The last kingdom. It has two seasons and I am hooked. I got through them in two days . A network program on FX Fargo. Very good and entertaining.
Me, too. I'll check it out, thanks! There's a new Bloodlines season out and I recently watched The Keepers, a true crime documentary about the unsolved murder of a nun in 1969 in Baltimore. I have to say parts were not easy to watch but I made it through.

Now, back to the topic.
I believe with Coach Wolf taking over the OL, Jake maturing, & the skill player talent we have that we can be a dynamic offense this season.

100% agree with this. ^^^^^
 
Me, too. I'll check it out, thanks! There's a new Bloodlines season out and I recently watched The Keepers, a true crime documentary about the unsolved murder of a nun in 1969 in Baltimore. I have to say parts were not easy to watch but I made it through.

Now, back to the topic.
I believe with Coach Wolf taking over the OL, Jake maturing, & the skill player talent we have that we can be a dynamic offense this season.

100% agree with this. ^^^^^
I'm binging on Bloodline as well as House of Cards new seasons :)
 
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So to clarify here... you're saying that guys were not getting into place in time last year and not actually getting beat head-to-head on blocks??

I'm pretty sure I saw guys getting manhandled and/or standing around looking clueless as defenders ran by them as often, if not more often, than guys just not getting into position in time. But hey, that's just me.

No, I am not saying that. There is plenty of blame to go around, but missing a block is completely on the kid. Not getting there could be his fault because he was not fast enough and could not be his fault because coaches knew he was not fast enough. There is more uncertainty. Roper like to pull tackles to come across and pick up back side DEs. There are a lot of ways that can go wrong that has nothing to do with the tackles ability.
 
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I'm binging on Bloodline as well as House of Cards new seasons :)
House of cards has new season? Wow thanks. Big fan . Thanks for the tip on bloodlines. It is in my list but I have not watched yet and I will check out keepers as well. Netflix season during our sports break. Please keep the suggestions coming folks. I need my Netflix money to be well spent
 
House of cards has new season? Wow thanks. Big fan . Thanks for the tip on bloodlines. It is in my list but I have not watched yet and I will check out keepers as well. Netflix season during our sports break. Please keep the suggestions coming folks. I need my Netflix money to be well spent
Just came out May 31. As a matter of fact: look down the line at threads I started. There's an entire Netflix show suggestion panel. Let me dig it up for you. You're welcome!

Edit: I can't find it. Paging @uscbeckham
 
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PLAY CALLING LOL. POOR GUY WAS PLAYING W JAKE ASSES AND FRESHMEN. HAD NO CHOICE IN CALLING PLAYS. I SUGGEST YOU GENIUSES GO GET FOOTBALL 101 FOR IDIOTS LOL
 
I just want to start by saying I've been very critical with Coach Roper's play calling on gamedays. I have let it be known that I was less than impressed with year 1 of our offense...

With that being said, let me rain him with some high praise. Coach Roper has recruited/had us in the conversation with/lead group for the following QB's this season:
-Dakereon Joyner
-Tyler Slough
-Joe Milton
-Re-al Mitchell
-Jarren Williams
-James Foster just to name a few.

Point is: With the exception of DJ...many of these were 3* QB's that initially were written off by some of us on the board as "Another 3 star". Most of these QB's got a huge rating bump, including Tyler Slough into Rivals 250. This entire list of guys were invited to the Elite 11. My point is: Kurt Roper spotted many of these guys before they blew up on the national radar. He has a great eye for talent.

The only question now is will he develop them? We have only seen 1 season of his offense. With the high-caliber talent/solid evals I've seen to-date; I'm willing to give Coach Roper the benefit of the doubt. I believe with Coach Wolf taking over the OL, Jake maturing, & the skill player talent we have that we can be a dynamic offense this season. Here's to hoping we put up a plethora of points this season because Lord knows, we are going to need it!

I am right there with you as I was one of the guys in the stands who would threw up his hands and say "Why on 4th and inches would we be in the gun" or "Why would we call a quick slant on 3rd and 1, can our line not hold a block long enough for the back to fall forward for a yard". But as the season began to unfold, I grew to learn that Coach Roper was bound by the fact that our OL was awful & so his play calling had to be a lot more conservative; if Coach Wolf can get some good guys in here up front, I trust that Coach Roper is going to have the offense clicking just fine.
 
I was very irritated by his play calling early in the year with bmac but I think it was in large part because of our crappy OL and the fact the bmac couldn't be a downfield threat in the passing game so he was very handcuffed.

Once Jake stepped in, the offense opened up more and more each week it seemed. Still some frustrating calls, but a lot of good calls in there too. Bad OL and and a bad QB totally cripple an OC so I think we should view him with a clean slate going forward.
No doubt the playcalling was iffy...also no doubt it had nothing to do with kr....he had one hand tied behind his back and it blowed my mind seeing people dog kr last yr.....i feel certain we will all be pleased to hold on to him....patience and gamecock central fans dont go hand in hand
 
It was said after the season that Roper was not able to use a large portion of his playbook because of the youth and inexperience of the personnel. I would think that with Jake, Deebo, Rico, and others having a full year plus a spring and fall under Roper's guidance, we should see a lot more variety in play calling for this year. I have faith in Roper, because I saw what he was capable of at Duke. Many say that he was simply running Cutcliffe's offense, which may be true, but Roper still was the one calling the plays, so he should get credit for that. Of course, many of our "fans" are ready to fire anybody after a quarter around here if they don't win national titles, but that's another topic for another conversation.

Solid post, and I agree. I'm a huge Cutcliffe fan, and the fact Cutcliffe hired Roper on 3 separate occasions speaks volumes to me. The only thing I would add is it will be critical to develop some consistency on the OL. I realize I'm not exactly breaking news with that comment though.
 
PLAY CALLING LOL. POOR GUY WAS PLAYING W JAKE ASSES AND FRESHMEN. HAD NO CHOICE IN CALLING PLAYS. I SUGGEST YOU GENIUSES GO GET FOOTBALL 101 FOR IDIOTS LOL
C2AAMCLVQAESU6Z.jpg
 
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Connor Shaw said he learned more about football from Roper than anyone else he has ever been around his whole life.....and his father was a coach, and that includes Spurrier. If you don't understand that, then there's nothing else much to say.
 
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