Fix the Offense

[Total Red]

Speaking of "They were set up for failure" (that was the exact quote from Coach Spack), I'd say Coach Petersen was put in a bad position at Illinois. He had to juggle transfer QB's due to injuries. They started the season with Brandon Peters and then they turned to Art Sitkowski. At the end of the season it was back to Peters. They finally got rolling in their final game. The Illini scored 47 points with 459 yards of offense against Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern. That was Peterson's final game as OC. Seems odd to get canned after a game like that.

 

[Birddog]

The comment about the previous Co-Coords on offense being put "in a situation to fail" caught my eye too. Most quotes are predictable but that one surprised me. I would have liked a follow up to better understand what Coach Spack meant by that comment. We can speculate but I'd rather hear it from him.

I’ll speculate.

2020 was a difficult financial year for the entire university including athletics. During that year, the OC was fired, a few months later the RB coach was not renewed. The result of these two departures was a freeing-up of salary money and they were replaced by, what I assume, were much cheaper, inexperienced assistants; and the OC position was cobbled together with current staff knowing there wasn’t a budget for an experienced OC. All this without a spring off season to adjust and prepare, but rather a quick turnaround to prepare a team for real games in a matter of weeks. Hence the reference to “a situation to fail.”

Then the WR coach position comes open after this season and more salary money becomes available, possibly along with an improved budget; making the new OC hire possible.

I recall hearing or reading an interview with the new AD where he said he really appreciated Spack’s attentiveness to budget issues. The AD has only been on the job a year so I speculate this is what he was talking about.

Again, just my speculation.

 

[Birddog]

I’ll speculate.

2020 was a difficult financial year for the entire university including athletics. During that year, the OC was fired, a few months later the RB coach was not renewed. The result of these two departures was a freeing-up of salary money and they were replaced by, what I assume, were much cheaper, inexperienced assistants; and the OC position was cobbled together with current staff knowing there wasn’t a budget for an experienced OC. All this without a spring off season to adjust and prepare, but rather a quick turnaround to prepare a team for real games in a matter of weeks. Hence the reference to “a situation to fail.”

Then the WR coach position comes open after this season and more salary money becomes available, possibly along with an improved budget; making the new OC hire possible.

I recall hearing or reading an interview with the new AD where he said he really appreciated Spack’s attentiveness to budget issues. The AD has only been on the job a year so I speculate this is what he was talking about.

Again, just my speculation.

Oh, and add to this, their most experienced quarterback decided to leave. And a young roster.

 

[MadBird]

The comment about the previous Co-Coords on offense being put "in a situation to fail" caught my eye too. Most quotes are predictable but that one surprised me. I would have liked a follow up to better understand what Coach Spack meant by that comment. We can speculate but I'd rather hear it from him.

Yeah, that's an interesting statement and sure makes you wonder. I looked back and:

On August 7th, 2020, the MVFC announced it had postponed the fall season and would play in the spring.
On August 14, ISU announced no fall games would be played (ie. the non-con games were off).
On Sept 22, ISU announced it would have 15 fall practices in preparation for the spring season, starting that day.
On Sept. 23, a press release was issued announcing that Beathard was no longer with the program and the co-OC's were appointed.

So, altho you'd think things were "in the works" before then as far as Bethard's status, I'm guessing Spack felt the need to appoint the new OC's prior to the start of the fall practice session on 9/22. Sooo, his hands were tied and even tho he parted ways with Beathard, there was no time to recruit a new OC and get him on board prior to the fall practices. And, since they paid Beathard's salary thru the end of 2020, there maybe was no dough to hire a replacement anyway?

So then, it was too late to recruit/hire a new OC prior to the Feb.20 football opener, so they went into the season with the new co-OC's.

Now, why they didn't decide to recruit a new OC prior to the fall is a mystery. Spack felt "obligated" to give the young co-OC's a chance to produce for a full season, since the spring season ended so abruptly? No money to do the hire in the fall? Too much change for the players to handle after the fall 2020 practices and spring season if a new OC was brought on board?

I'm speculating Total Red . . . . but what the hey??

Edit:
Birddog beat me in, he and I are pretty much on the same page.

 

[Total Red]

Those are interesting posts by Birddog and Madbird. I too could weigh in and speculate by extrapolating on known facts. If I did, it would overlap with what they had to say with a few new wrinkles. I'm usually among the first to stir the pot, but I think I'm going to sit this one out. It's a touchy subject but hopefully the issues of 2020-'21 are in the past. I prefer to look ahead but if Coach Spack ever decides to write his memoirs when his career is over, this is a chapter that I would read with great interest.

 

[topiarydan]

Nice hire - solid guy

 

[Virginia Redbird]

We don't know what went on behind the scenes of course. The only thing we know for certain I guess is it resulted in a Fall and Spring season of miserably pathetic offensive football. I agree with TR on that point...who wants to look back at that mess! One thing I wonder about. Mueller had a really solid year in an essentially one-dimensional attack offense. I wonder how he would have done if there had been a true passing attack for the defenses to have to contend with.

 

[TIMMY]

Speaking of "They were set up for failure" (that was the exact quote from Coach Spack), I'd say Coach Petersen was put in a bad position at Illinois. He had to juggle transfer QB's due to injuries. They started the season with Brandon Peters and then they turned to Art Sitkowski. At the end of the season it was back to Peters. They finally got rolling in their final game. The Illini scored 47 points with 459 yards of offense against Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern. That was Peterson's final game as OC. Seems odd to get canned after a game like that.

In that NU game, Pterers threw for 242 and the team ran for 231. It's amazing what some balance can bring to an offense.

 

[cubird]

Illinois was balanced all year, but averaged only 300 total yards per game.