I've had some time since Saturday to think about what has frustrated me the most about this season and specifically this offense, I've enjoyed reading other people's opinions and figured I would give mine.
The thing that is most frustrating is when Will Muschamp was hired, I remember Chris Clark push pinning a thread saying sources told him Muschamp would have a "run n gun offense" that was going to be fast tempo. Then all through the off season all we heard was how fast the offense was practicing, that they were going at a Guz Malzahn speed tempo. Muschamp in every interview that off season said he learned his lesson at Florida...it was to score points.
Immediately when Kurt Roper was hired everybody had their doubts...but because of all the things stated above, we were convinced Muschamp had learned his lesson and the offense was going to be creative and have tempo. This made us in our minds believe that the reason Roper failed at Florida was because he had a terrible quarterback (Treon Harris) and that one year isn't enough time to install an offense.
In Roper's first year at South Carolina everybody gave him a pass, he had basically all freshman players with Sean Elliot's offensive line. But this year there is no excuse for Roper, he has a top 5 quarterback in the SEC, immense talent at wide receiver and tight end positions, and an offensive line that up until last game, has been above average in pass protection. This alone should give us an offensive ranking within the top 100. It's not like we've played good defenses, only one defense we have played has been ranked in the top 50. All season I have been pissed that Roper calls way too quick and short pass plays (this is what killed us verse kentucky), and that the offensive line is giving good enough pass protection to call deeper route plays. He waits until the game where we don't have good pass protection due to injuries to call these type of plays, and you can tell it was because it was his only gameplan for the game, he couldn't adjust.
Roper seems like a guy who has a creative mind and an amazing playbook, but no feel for how to call plays during the game or find and attack an opponents weakness. Regardless one of two things is going to happen. Either we are going to beat Arkansas this week, have a decent offensive showing and finish the season out at 7-5, in this scenario Roper stays as offensive coordinator. Or we will lose to Arkansas, finish the season 5-7 and Roper will be fired. I honestly hope the first scenario happens, I really want the guy to succeed and prove the haters wrong. Either way everybody should now just stay calm, try to keep the negativity to a minimum, and support the team as much as they can. One thing I'm sure about is Muschamp is the coach that will bring us a championship, defenses win championships and once he gets the right offensive coordinator look out!!! It's going to take time tho, maybe even 8 years, I just hope Gamecock nation stays patient with him!
Also last thing, for those who say it's an execution problem, it's the coaches job to get the players to execute properly. If the players don't execute properly it's even a bigger sign there is a coaching problem!!! I remember in the Whammy days people would say it's not the coaches fault the players miss tackles, they can't make the tackles on the field only put them in position...well guess what we have good coaching now on defense and we miss very few tackles.
The thing that is most frustrating is when Will Muschamp was hired, I remember Chris Clark push pinning a thread saying sources told him Muschamp would have a "run n gun offense" that was going to be fast tempo. Then all through the off season all we heard was how fast the offense was practicing, that they were going at a Guz Malzahn speed tempo. Muschamp in every interview that off season said he learned his lesson at Florida...it was to score points.
Immediately when Kurt Roper was hired everybody had their doubts...but because of all the things stated above, we were convinced Muschamp had learned his lesson and the offense was going to be creative and have tempo. This made us in our minds believe that the reason Roper failed at Florida was because he had a terrible quarterback (Treon Harris) and that one year isn't enough time to install an offense.
In Roper's first year at South Carolina everybody gave him a pass, he had basically all freshman players with Sean Elliot's offensive line. But this year there is no excuse for Roper, he has a top 5 quarterback in the SEC, immense talent at wide receiver and tight end positions, and an offensive line that up until last game, has been above average in pass protection. This alone should give us an offensive ranking within the top 100. It's not like we've played good defenses, only one defense we have played has been ranked in the top 50. All season I have been pissed that Roper calls way too quick and short pass plays (this is what killed us verse kentucky), and that the offensive line is giving good enough pass protection to call deeper route plays. He waits until the game where we don't have good pass protection due to injuries to call these type of plays, and you can tell it was because it was his only gameplan for the game, he couldn't adjust.
Roper seems like a guy who has a creative mind and an amazing playbook, but no feel for how to call plays during the game or find and attack an opponents weakness. Regardless one of two things is going to happen. Either we are going to beat Arkansas this week, have a decent offensive showing and finish the season out at 7-5, in this scenario Roper stays as offensive coordinator. Or we will lose to Arkansas, finish the season 5-7 and Roper will be fired. I honestly hope the first scenario happens, I really want the guy to succeed and prove the haters wrong. Either way everybody should now just stay calm, try to keep the negativity to a minimum, and support the team as much as they can. One thing I'm sure about is Muschamp is the coach that will bring us a championship, defenses win championships and once he gets the right offensive coordinator look out!!! It's going to take time tho, maybe even 8 years, I just hope Gamecock nation stays patient with him!
Also last thing, for those who say it's an execution problem, it's the coaches job to get the players to execute properly. If the players don't execute properly it's even a bigger sign there is a coaching problem!!! I remember in the Whammy days people would say it's not the coaches fault the players miss tackles, they can't make the tackles on the field only put them in position...well guess what we have good coaching now on defense and we miss very few tackles.
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