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I dont think the big time college coaches have enough time to coach the fundamentals. You either have those down or you dont. Spring and summer football are about conditioning and repetitions.

I'd love to see some smoke leading to fire around this idea.

I can't agree more. If a great hire is just there waiting to be had just go for it. We could easily miss out on A tier candidates while we're "leaving no stone unturned".

I don't disagree. Charles has been talking for a couple years about OBD being better off going to the portal for its QB rather than trying to grow them. Given this new landscape, are star HS QBs now better off going to second-tier programs with good OC and QB coaching in place in order to get playing time and development in hopes of transferring to a top-tier program? Seems like this is becoming the more common pattern...

Pretty much. Of course top tier teams will still recruit a blue chip QB each year simply because other recruits (WRs, RBs, etc.) will follow and build the recruiting class. If they develop into a solid starter, great! If not, an experienced incoming transfer takes over.

Good point. So those programs kind of become like Minor League Baseball teams, but for college football. All of those programs are our feeder schools.

Smell my feet, Give me some of that fresh Duck meat?

Things I like about Locksley are his success as a coordinator/QB coach, supposedly a good recruiter, not likely to be poached/looking for a head coaching job soon, so he could stay a while, bringing some stability to the staff. He'd be available to start soon (maybe as an analyst for the rest of the season), and he has some familiarity with Lanning. He checks a lot of boxes IMHO.

Trick or Treat?

Why can't we do better in the short term than Jay? And if we wait until the end of the season we'll be competing against Michigan A&M and other elite schools for a coordinators. So it wouldn't be the worst decision to hire a permanent replacement before the end of the season.

Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result is some people's definition of insanity. You can take the existing playbook that has a lot of variety in it and call a very different game than Drew and Jay would have. Terminology issues can be solved with a decoder ring approach. Crash course, ready by Ohio State. Could still be a temporary gig.

AI could make quick work of a terminology decoder ring. Put a translator in the loop if you have to. If a guitarist can join a band in the middle of a world tour an OC can join mid season.

Wishful thinking on the part of the "burn it down" sect? I think the D has been demonstrating an ability to grow. It may benefit from minor tweaks, but a completely reboot/overhaul seems unreasonable at this point. It's obvious that a moderately serviceable offensive could result in a major boost.

The support staff migration is historically not unusual... Except at Oregon, prior to the ending of the Helfrich era.

Why would anyone think Hampton is being replaced? The defense has been pretty solid.

At least we know the playoffs won't get in the way🤪

While hiring a new Offensive Coordinator mid-season rarely works, bringing in a highly qualified outside analyst or two would be a massive win. Instead of a total system overhaul, fresh eyes could immediately help clarify exactly what isn’t working. They could provide the game-planning savvy and in-game adjustments this coaching staff clearly lacks. Sadly, there is zero indication that the front office is even considering this. When a system is fundamentally broken, you need objective, outside perspectives to diagnose the issues and find actionable fixes. Continuing with the same echo chamber isn't going to change the results.

Nowhere to go but up?

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? 😟

Johnson has been up in the booth sitting next to Mehringer the entire season.

I don't think developing QBs has died. I do think that development of QBs has largely been offloaded to other programs (like lower tier P4 or G6) and the richer programs take them through the transfer portal in year 3+.

Why do people think you can just bring in another play-caller from somewhere outside the program the week before a game, also Locksley or most other coaches would wait until the end of the year to join a staff. I don't think I've heard of anyone joining a staff midseason and starting to call plays right away. It makes no sense to bring someone in right now from out of the blue. Johnson is a stop gap for a season that is already over, it's not like he's going to get the job for next year.

DL knows he has to get this hire right and hopefully he's learned his lesson about performing a proper nationwide search for suitable candidates. I'm betting he's going over that list of guys he's met/watched over the years from the Saban/Norvell/Smart coaching trees but I hope Mullen is helping by hiring an outside firm to assist with the candidate search. I doubt we're going to get any clarity or see any public progress over the next few weeks. It's more important to get the hire right than getting a hire quickly. That being said, he doesn't have unlimited time. He probably has until December to announce a new hire.