Razorback Football

[Son of Spam]

The analytics say you should go for it every time in the situation we were in there. 

Given that I just knew (as I'm sure everyone here did) that A) we were going to line up in shotgun and B) we were going to fail miserably, I was begging and praying that we would punt. 

We should never go for it on fourth down if that's the formation we're going to use. 

Not just that, but also running into where the defense shifts and is stacked. We also do this when it is not fourth down. I have never seen anything like it.

[bigpig]

More frustrating is how little Pittman can feel out a game.

He goes for it on 4th and short on the wrong side of the 50, gets stuffed, and then later, when we're even further down the field, often pusses out and punts on 4th and short because it didn't work the last time.

When he needs to go for it he doesn't, because when he didn't need to go for it, he did with a bad play call. Just maddening.


It's like hiring a plumber to wire your house*. He's been around home building enough to have a general idea what to do, but he has no idea the ins and outs and will probably just end up burning the whole place down.

(*Or it's like hiring an OL coach to make quick, intelligent decisions in high pressure situations.)

[red death]

Analytics only work if your coaching staff has a brain and doesn't run the same damn play over and over into the teeth of the defense. 

We can't blame the analytics for missing the variable that we have, outside of 4 years, been coached by lunkheads in the 21st century. 

Hell, just create us an AI coach.  Have it call the plays and prepare the team so Sam can snuggle up with the Huckabees and give our brain dead fanbase some more hokey yokel catch phrases and everyone's happy since it's the actual coaching football that Sam sucks at.

[egregious]

Sam would make a great maitre d' at the Catfish Hole.  He could really pair a beer with your hush puppies and would know all the plays on the jukebox, which they could add if they don't have one.

just thinking ahead

[Feral]

More frustrating is how little Pittman can feel out a game.

He goes for it on 4th and short on the wrong side of the 50, gets stuffed, and then later, when we're even further down the field, often pusses out and punts on 4th and short because it didn't work the last time.

When he needs to go for it he doesn't, because when he didn't need to go for it, he did with a bad play call. Just maddening.


It's like hiring a plumber to wire your house*. He's been around home building enough to have a general idea what to do, but he has no idea the ins and outs and will probably just end up burning the whole place down.

(*Or it's like hiring an OL coach to make quick, intelligent decisions in high pressure situations.)

Sam's inability to manage a game and corresponding struggles with situational football are evidence enough why you don't hire a career position coach as a head coach.

Simply put, the coordinators are the ones put in high pressure situations where the outcome is predicated on their gut feel and play call. The position coaches don't make that call and are shielded from that pressure.

Sam's been coaching ball for nearly 40 years and for the vast majority of that entire stretch of time he's watched someone else have to make in-game decisions and deal with situational game management. Hence why he struggles so much with it and why seemingly every choice he makes at a pivot point in a game comes up snake eyes.

TL;DR - don't hire a position coach, because they've never been put in a position were they've had to make decisions in high pressure situations.

[Thin Red Swine]

The analytics say you should go for it every time in the situation we were in there. 

Given that I just knew (as I'm sure everyone here did) that A) we were going to line up in shotgun and B) we were going to fail miserably, I was begging and praying that we would punt. 

We should never go for it on fourth down if that's the formation we're going to use. 

It wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that A&M jumped offside on purpose to set up 4th and 1, just knowing what was coming and that they'd get a short field as a result.

I don't want to give Dimbo that much credit, but someone else over there probably thought of it.

[jdcatty]

https://x.com/boardgeniuses/status/1710494535422275822?


This is a good follow on Twitter/X.  We should remember this.  But so should the coaches.  Our fans are not necessarily worse than anywhere else.

[egregious]

Our fans are not necessarily worse than anywhere else.

Following 2 completely unrelated teams proves that to me.  Of course, both the teams I follow have given their fans a whole lot to bitch about.

[WaywardMemphian]

Hiring that fraud Chad over Norvell is right up there with Heath over Self and Hatfield over Jimmah. And...here we are, coordinators getting into it with students via emails, it's Hootie Dale all over again.

[jdcatty]

Hiring that fraud Chad over Norvell is right up there with Heath over Self and Hatfield over Jimmah. And...here we are, coordinators getting into it with students via emails, it's Hootie Dale all over again.

Hatfield over Jimmy is not in the same league as the other two you mentioned.  Hatfield was a good coach who simply refused to change with the times.  Heath and Chad were never good coaches.

[piglosopher]

Heath and Chad weren't comparable either.

Chad reached epic levels of suckitude. There's a legitimate argument he's the worst P5 coach of all time.

[HOGSRUNWILD]

Heath and Chad weren't comparable either.

Chad reached epic levels of suckitude. There's a legitimate argument he's the worst P5 coach of all time.

Yeah, we can discuss coaches being bad, not ready, having flaws but Chad is another level.  I honestly believe that you could take a random football fan off the street and make them coach for 2 years and the results wouldn't have been worse than they were under Chad.  No joke.  I have never coached a day of football and if you made me head coach on the day that we hired Chad, the end result would have been better or at least not worse.  I can say that with 100% certainty.  Do you know why?  I wouldn't have known what I was doing so I would have thrown myself at the work, hired the best people available and made sure everyone else was working as hard as I was.  That insecurity of not being 100% confident would have driven me to work 20% harder than anyone else so I would know what I was doing.  The problem is that Chad thought he knew what he was doing and worked 50% LESS hard than anyone else.  I might have died from the workload, but they would have been more ready as a team.

Chad was dumb, lazy and arrogant.  All 3 are easily confirmed.  I would be surprised if he had a >90IQ.

[Guardrail]

Yeah, we can discuss coaches being bad, not ready, having flaws but Chad is another level.  I honestly believe that you could take a random football fan off the street and make them coach for 2 years and the results wouldn't have been worse than they were under Chad.  No joke.  I have never coached a day of football and if you made me head coach on the day that we hired Chad, the end result would have been better or at least not worse.  I can say that with 100% certainty.  Do you know why?  I wouldn't have known what I was doing so I would have thrown myself at the work, hired the best people available and made sure everyone else was working as hard as I was.  That insecurity of not being 100% confident would have driven me to work 20% harder than anyone else so I would know what I was doing.  The problem is that Chad thought he knew what he was doing and worked 50% LESS hard than anyone else.  I might have died from the workload, but they would have been more ready as a team.

Chad was dumb, lazy and arrogant.  All 3 are easily confirmed.  I would be surprised if he had a >90IQ.

This made me remember he used to leave the team every Friday to watch his son. He wasnt even present the very night before the games.

[HOGSRUNWILD]

This made me remember he used to leave the team every Friday to watch his son. He wasnt even present the very night before the games.

Yes.  I'm not joking even a little bit about doing a better job than he did.  I know that I would have until I died from exhaustion.  He had all the worst attributes you could imagine.  Dumb, lazy and too arrogant to fix the first two.

[bigpig]

Chad is a devout Aggie. It wouldn't surprise me if he deliberately tanked here to help his weird cult home team

[buff2.0]

Chad is a devout Aggie. It wouldn't surprise me if he deliberately tanked here to help his weird cult home team

Maybe don't hire a coach who's telling everyone his dream job is your division rival.

[Thin Red Swine]

Heath and Chad weren't comparable either.

Chad reached epic levels of suckitude. There's a legitimate argument he's the worst P5 coach of all time.

There's an argument?

[Piggielicious]

I would be surprised if he had a >90IQ.

not bad to make that kind of money off that IQ.

[jdcatty]

Folks, I know we were all upset about the way the A&M game went last week, but I am here to say, the A&M Defense is for real. 

[jdcatty]

There's an argument?

Don't forget John L.