[forbidden]

This has been on my mind for a while(basically most of year), when I am hearing about ALOT of people saying HCTG needs to go, he's not a leader or a good HC. My thing to them would be this are you guys nuts, or something. I listen to his little press conferences and things and I never hear him place blame, maybe behind doors but of course not in the press(gets fined probably). He tends to say hey we are all human and make mistakes. Saying that leads me to this, yes he has made some errors in game time situations, IMO. But, the one thing I will say this, he seems to be a leader of MEN, and they find a way to get it done. Here are some points I would like to say i've seen in my time looking at him at LU.

*OBVIOUS he has found a way to get LU in the play-offs
*TMK he has only been blown out one time (FCS) Montana in 3 years, all his games minus UNC (3.5 qtrs strong) are close and winnable
*he is finding ways to get talented kids to come to LU and want to be here, not HAVE to be here
*seems he does make some ingame adjustments (more than some know)

The man is a good coach, again IMO. Now in saying that I will also be the first to say that yes improvements need to be made in areas as well, and the first would be Special Teams. It is my honest observation that we will LOSE a game because of our decision making on fielding balls. It is costing us way to much yardage.

[Purple Haize]

I don't think its 'many' people on this board. But it does come with the territory

[LUGrad2000]

Comes with the territory. We lost in the second round of the state playoffs this year and there have been some in my community wanting my entire staff fired. Good news about loosing Friday is that I may be able to swing going to the game Friday.

[prototype]

I would doubt that a majority of people on this board are/or/were looking for him to be fired.

I personally hate any movement, unless it's the only option we have.

But, if you are thinking you won't have anyone jump to that conclusion on a message board - you are dreaming.... That's what it is here for. Everyone loves playing GM and coach.

[jinxy]

Agreed. I think they mystery has been why we haven't added a seasoned special teams coordinator. Wimberly manned up and the defense responded this week.

[forbidden]

My thing is this, and its coming from the coach side of me that witnessed my team continually playing "safe" in the PR game and what we did was the coach would send a guy deep and if it wasnt kicked directly to him just started screaming safe and we lost field position kick after kick, till it ended up costing us a game in the play-offs, and the first thing he talking bout in the offseason is how many yards we lost in the kicking game by letting the ball hit the ground. Its the same exact thing that I see going on with 16 back there now. Just look at our PR avg this year, its ABYSMAL. This falls on the coaches for putting him in that situation, there is just no WOW factors in NONE of our return teams this year. Save me the speak about having former All Americans back there, because i look around at other teams and the guys back deep are freshman type kids who they are trying to get on the field in some way with game breaking ability, not young guys just being on the field to be there. The KOR team is not much better, its improved over the past two weeks or so but if you look at our starting position it hasnt been that great.

[BJWilliams]

I think I said this in another thread forbidden, but I would get them working with the JUGS machine more, hucking balls at various heights so they can work on ball tracking and getting in a position to make the return (or at least a fair catch)

[forbidden]

from what Ive seen its not even that, it looks like they wanna catch it but are afraid, or either being told "let it go" so they back up at last second ball hits ground we lose yards, or better yet be standing on the 10, it doesnt go over their heads but they run forward and the ball actually lands on the 10 where they left and they down it inside the 5. Standing on the 10 just stand their, signal fair catch, early if you have to then just catch the ball instead of losing yards and team starting inside the 5.

And this is not what I wanna hear people saying, oh they are young, they have to be coached. The kids they put back their are the same ones who were doing this in HS so they are very aware of the overall philosphies of when to and when not to catch punts. This is nothing "new" to these kids. Lets really just chalk this one up to needing better PR coaching.

[olldflame]

from what Ive seen its not even that, it looks like they wanna catch it but are afraid, or either being told "let it go" so they back up at last second ball hits ground we lose yards, or better yet be standing on the 10, it doesnt go over their heads but they run forward and the ball actually lands on the 10 where they left and they down it inside the 5. Standing on the 10 just stand their, signal fair catch, early if you have to then just catch the ball instead of losing yards and team starting inside the 5.

And this is not what I wanna hear people saying, oh they are young, they have to be coached. The kids they put back their are the same ones who were doing this in HS so they are very aware of the overall philosphies of when to and when not to catch punts. This is nothing "new" to these kids. Lets really just chalk this one up to needing better PR coaching.

We should give Bill Parcells a call. I don't think he is doing much right now. He had special teams coaches, but he always took on the punt returners as his special project, and the #1 thing he emphasized was if humanly possible, NEVER LET THE BALL HIT THE GROUND. The PR should be like a good centerfielder, using both sight and sound to get an instantaneous read on where the ball is going and then SPRINTING to the spot. He also spent a lot of time on the technique of catching a punt. He really didn't care if the guy was a huge threat to take it to the house, he just wanted someone who would do those things the way he wanted them done. I don't think his PRs ran too many back for TDs over the years, but the yards they saved by balls not hitting the ground and rolling way more than made up for that.

[Purple Haize]

from what Ive seen its not even that, it looks like they wanna catch it but are afraid, or either being told "let it go" so they back up at last second ball hits ground we lose yards, or better yet be standing on the 10, it doesnt go over their heads but they run forward and the ball actually lands on the 10 where they left and they down it inside the 5. Standing on the 10 just stand their, signal fair catch, early if you have to then just catch the ball instead of losing yards and team starting inside the 5.

And this is not what I wanna hear people saying, oh they are young, they have to be coached. The kids they put back their are the same ones who were doing this in HS so they are very aware of the overall philosphies of when to and when not to catch punts. This is nothing "new" to these kids. Lets really just chalk this one up to needing better PR coaching.

We should give Bill Parcells a call. I don't think he is doing much right now. He had special teams coaches, but he always took on the punt returners as his special project, and the #1 thing he emphasized was if humanly possible, NEVER LET THE BALL HIT THE GROUND. The PR should be like a good centerfielder, using both sight and sound to get an instantaneous read on where the ball is going and then SPRINTING to the spot. He also spent a lot of time on the technique of catching a punt. He really didn't care if the guy was a huge threat to take it to the house, he just wanted someone who would do those things the way he wanted them done. I don't think his PRs ran too many back for TDs over the years, but the yards they saved by balls not hitting the ground and rolling way more than made up for that.

Rule of thumb is that if the ball is inside the 5 (some say 10) yd line let it go because of the odds of going into the EZ.

[forbidden]

from what Ive seen its not even that, it looks like they wanna catch it but are afraid, or either being told "let it go" so they back up at last second ball hits ground we lose yards, or better yet be standing on the 10, it doesnt go over their heads but they run forward and the ball actually lands on the 10 where they left and they down it inside the 5. Standing on the 10 just stand their, signal fair catch, early if you have to then just catch the ball instead of losing yards and team starting inside the 5.

And this is not what I wanna hear people saying, oh they are young, they have to be coached. The kids they put back their are the same ones who were doing this in HS so they are very aware of the overall philosphies of when to and when not to catch punts. This is nothing "new" to these kids. Lets really just chalk this one up to needing better PR coaching.

We should give Bill Parcells a call. I don't think he is doing much right now. He had special teams coaches, but he always took on the punt returners as his special project, and the #1 thing he emphasized was if humanly possible, NEVER LET THE BALL HIT THE GROUND. The PR should be like a good centerfielder, using both sight and sound to get an instantaneous read on where the ball is going and then SPRINTING to the spot. He also spent a lot of time on the technique of catching a punt. He really didn't care if the guy was a huge threat to take it to the house, he just wanted someone who would do those things the way he wanted them done. I don't think his PRs ran too many back for TDs over the years, but the yards they saved by balls not hitting the ground and rolling way more than made up for that.

Rule of thumb is that if the ball is inside the 5 (some say 10) yd line let it go because of the odds of going into the EZ.

YOU are correct it def more than not the 10, and if over your head let it go. My thing is like OF said, lets STOP letting the ball hit the ground, whomever is back there. That alone has caused the offense a lot of undue and unnecessary stress. The return is the ez part the hard part is fielding the ball correctly, and this year it seems like its been a struggle, and I just don't want to have that be a reason we lose (anymore) games