Redbird Football Lands WR Notre Dame Transfer

[Total Red]

Probably a better term is perception but I still think the culture thing applies. I would be willing to bet that a large percentage of High School recruits are not very familiar with Matt Brown, Mike Glennon, Jake Kolbe or Tre Roberson. I also would bet quite a few of them have heard of Tony Romo, Jimmy Garappolo, Sean Peyton and Mike Shannahan (or his kids). Name recognition is powerful. Some of that cited passing success was under Beathard (Offensive Coordinator 2014-2015 and 2018-2020. In 2014 Beathard's offense set 15 single season school records. According to Goredbirds.com, Beathard had over 15 years experience as an FCS offensive coordinator. Compare that with both sets of Co-Offensive Coordinators. Just not as impressive and the offensive coordinator at ISU should be a desirable position for coaches on the FCS level. MVFC and a decade of good success. What does a recruit or transfer see when they are being recruited. In my business we have a saying, "their perception is your reality." Perception or culture, I still maintain it is a problem. Not all recruits are longtime Redbird fans. Those 2014-2015 seasons were a long time ago. Ancient history to current players.

We mostly agree. Both schools will try to play up what they have in recruiting and with EIU it is two NFL QB's. We have JRob, O'Shaun and others. It's likely in vain. I wouldn't be surprised if EIU doesn't produce another starting NFL QB in the next 100 years and it might be longer than that before the Redbirds produce a RB that gains a 1,000 yards in his rookie season. Recruiting is a lot of hard work and then some luck. We knew Robinson was good but he was largely ignored by the "majors" so no one other than his mother would have predicted it would turn out so well. We're looking for diamonds in the rough or needles in the haystack, however you want to describe it. Whether he comes from HS or another college we need a QB that forces the opposing D-coord to stay up late trying to come up with a gameplan to stop him. We haven't really had that since Tre. When the QB is capable of doing more then we'll see more fireworks from the offense.

 

[Dmills]

When we are talking about co-offensive coordinators we can't completely ignore the fact that Beathard resigned/left/was forced out (whatever you want to call it) in the fall. During a pandemic with a spring season approaching, the coaching staff opted for the co-coordinators (the least change for the players the better with the circumstances). It may sound like it was a lazy approach to go with considering we hired Ojuri just fine. It's hard to say whether the co-coordinators were meant as a long term solution or a short term one. I personally believe it was just a short term patch. This will likely be an interesting off season, hard to predict what changes may happen, but there is a chance we search for a long term solution at OC

 

[fourthandshort]

I keep hearing references to a philosophy or a culture where we just want to run the ball and play defense. That's nonsense. That isn't something the coaching staff has a desire to do. It's something the coaching staff has had to do at times based on personnel. Matt Brown threw for over 10,500 yards under Spack. Fans remember Tre Roberson and the great option running attack we had. Go back and look at Roberson's stats for the great '14-'15 season. Roberson had 3,221 yards passing and 1,029 rushing. This year they wanted to open up the offense. Jefferson passed 33 times for 280 yards against South Dakota in the opener but he threw four int's and we lost.

The 3 yards and a cloud astroturf (i.e. tire chips) evolved last season. We had a NFL RB and a strong defense. If we control the ball we were hard to beat. After QB Davis got hurt we had to double down on that philosophy but it was purely a matter of personnel.

If we can put a great passer under center we will throw the ball. I have no doubts about that.

FIFY


Chicken or egg debate ... in the end, Spack has never successfully recruited a HS QB that started as a SR or been a factor in MVFC. His best result was 2016 Kolbe .. who had a very promising start as a 1st year starter after Roberson. But he struggled in pocket that year, even while still throwing very effectively, and it derailed in 2017 ... he got better in pocket, but his pass game suffered a lot. At the time, I blamed co-OC Dickens and I think I was on target. But Dicken was an extension of Spack, and likely collapsed to Spack's will ... do not let QB lose a game for us. Which essentially means .. do not let QB try to win games for us.

So for Kolbes SR year, Brady Davis transfers in for 2018 .. and no, he didnt beat Kolbe out for the job - he was given it and that didn't work out either.

Matt Brown was prior regime recruit. Tre Roberson was FBS transfer, and just 1 of 3 transfers ( maybe more ?) to work out ... OK ST Barnett, Memphis Brad Davis .. both failed, though Davis started to settle down mid 2019.

I don't mean to look a gift horse in mouth. We are lucky to have Spack ... but if he wants to compete at highest FCS levels more consistently, he's got to figure out pass game. Many teams struggle with pass game once in a while. But look around MVFC. The only good team that struggles like us is UNI. NDSU, SDSU, WIU, SIU ... they all have regular QB/passing success .. then there is us and UNI.

Hard to ignore 12 years of QB recruiting (and developing) results, and transfer results only had 1 success.

 

[RBFANTOO]

When scanning the transfer portal I like to look for players that played HS football in Illinois but then went out of state for college. HS kids often want to get away but the home state schools look better on the rebound. Micah Jones didn't travel far - from Gurnee, IL to South Bend, IN, but still he's coming back to Illinois to join the Redbirds. At the QB position in the transfer portal is a player departing Duke named Chris Katrenick. Katrenick is from Algonquin, IL. Gurnee and Algonquin are both nothern suburbs. Katrenick has a very interesting re-tweet from last summer. Katrenick re-tweeted none other than Micah Jones. And if I'm not mistaken they are shown in this picture literally arm over shoulder with each other. I believe Katrenick is 5th from the right in the blue Duke t-shirt. Jones fourth from the right in the turquoise pants (bold wardrobe choice). So Katrenick and Jones may not be best friends but they do know each other. C'mon guys - how 'bout a game of catch in Normal?

Let's reunite them in Redbird uniforms.

 

[MadBird]

fourth, I won't quote your entire post, which I mostly agree with.

I've made this observation before - what I don't get is how Spack coached under Joe Tiller for so long and he says he admires Tiller and yet he didn't somehow get the "thing" that had so many good QB's and "progressive" offense that developed under Tiller. Drew Brees, Kyle Orton, etc. Guess every coach develops his own philosophy over the years, but that is one influence that sure would make Spack's production more successful.

Or he doesn't seem to have found an offensive coordinator he's comfortable with for the long term.

 

[Virginia Redbird]

Didn't Kevin Glenn shatter a number of CFL passing records? I doubt that he did so as a DB.

I was only referring to Tre not Kevin. Should have been more specific. Tre converted to DB not Glenn. Glenn never really had any NFL interest as a QB.

 

[Chi-bird]

My guess is that Spack converts him to a Jack LB.

 

[fourthandshort]

My guess is that Spack converts him to a Jack LB or Safety

FIFY .. and now you would have 98% chance of being correct.

 

[crazzymark]

Need.a.big ,fast and long receiver
.might be why grimes left and hope rogers develops his skills as well

 

[Chi-bird]

FIFY .. and now you would have 98% chance of being correct.