Mario/Butch as game day coaches

Applecane

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I’ve seen it said on this board that MC is not a good game day coach.

What the heck does that mean? Poor time management? Wrong decisions on 4th and one’s? Lousy substitution decisions? Settling for FGs instead of trying for TDs or vice versa?

What’s the evidence for this? Or is it just based on poison coming from Oregon fans?

Honestly, just trying to figure it out.

And while I’m at it: Why is it gospel, among some, that Butch was a poor game day coach? I’ve heard this many times over the years. But what games did he blow? What were his awful decisions?
 
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I think it also stems from the fact that he’s known as a recruiter. So the narrative is that sabag is the only one who can do both coach and recruit
 
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Keep in mind both Mario and Butch were both fairly new HC’s cutting their teeth. Saban cut his teeth at Mich St and was known as a recruiter vs a gameday coach. Urban cut his teeth at Utah and G5 before that, he was also known more as a recruiter. Dabo? Lulz straight recruiter that has gotten better with time. There used to be a term known as Daboing that is how bad he was.
I’ll take recruiters and team managers at the HC position, so long as their rolidex has some playcallers to call as assistants.
 
Keep in mind both Mario and Butch were both fairly new HC’s cutting their teeth. Saban cut his teeth at Mich St and was known as a recruiter vs a gameday coach. Urban cut his teeth at Utah and G5 before that, he was also known more as a recruiter. Dabo? Lulz straight recruiter that has gotten better with time. There used to be a term known as Daboing that is how bad he was.
I’ll take recruiters and team managers at the HC position, so long as their rolidex has some playcallers to call as assistants.
Butch wasn't a fairly new HC....It was his 1st time being a HC at any level.
 
If you look at the 2019 and 2021 seasons (last two full seasons), he lost 4 regular season games.

-In 2019 Oregon is beating Auburn but losses because his offense can't run out the clock, punts, and Auburn goes 60 yards in the last two minutes
-His loss to Arizona State in 2019, Oregon is within 3 points with 5 mins left. ASU has a 3rd and 19 at their own 19 yard line but they give up an 81 yard TD pass
-In 2021 Oregon is beating Stanford, has 1st and 10 on Stanford's 39 with 2:00 minutes left but they get back to back false start penalties, have to punt, and Stanford goes down to kick a field goal sending into overtime, where they lose
-Utah in 2021 is an absolute implosion

You can really only make a case that he had one regular season loss in two years that's completely inexcusable, the Utah game. The other losses were down to the wire games that execution doomed them. Now you can say that means he's not a great gameday coach but in those same years (2019 and 2021) Nick Saban lost to unranked Texas A&M and #15 Auburn.
 
Pat Narduzzi has the reputation as a poor game day coach, or at the very minimum, VERY conservative and not analytics driven. So here is an example of his braindead coaching, which occurred a whopping 4 days ago:

Pitt is hosting Tennessee this past Saturday. Tennessee is favored by about a touchdown, but Pitt starts the game out very well.

They are down only 21-17, and they get a stop very late in the half to get the ball back. Mind you, they receive the ball to start the 2nd half as well. Tennessee punts the ball to Pitt with 21 seconds to go in the half, Pitt has it on their own 37 yard line. What does every coach on earth do in this situation? Run the ball, and see what happens. If you get a big gain, maybe you call timeout and see if you can get into FG range. If you're stopped, let's go to the half, we're up 21-17 and getting the ball. AT MOST, you call a very quick, safe pass like a screen.

But what does the Nard Dog do? They drop back to pass, get sacked, fumble, Tennessee recovers, and they kick a FG at the gun to take a 7 point lead into the half instead of 4. And not only all that, but their QB gets knocked out of the game in the process.

Fast forward, the game winds up going into overtime, and Tennessee wins by 7.

Think Narduzzi would've liked those 3 points back?

This is an example of moronic coaching, and while Mario doesn't have this exact same dumbassery in his Hall of Shame trophy case, he has made some very curious (aka wrong) decisions somewhat like this to cost his team points and games.

And if you don't think it was that bad of a decision, here's what Narduzzi himself had to say about it:

"I'm a dumbass"
 
Nick Saban tried to beat Auburn with a 59-yard FG with :01 left. With a PK who had missed two or three other FGs, all much, much shorter. The kick wasn't even close, and Auburn ran back the missed kick for the winning TD with time expired.

Brilliant game day decision.
 
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I’ve seen it said on this board that MC is not a good game day coach.

What the heck does that mean? Poor time management? Wrong decisions on 4th and one’s? Lousy substitution decisions? Settling for FGs instead of trying for TDs or vice versa?

What’s the evidence for this? Or is it just based on poison coming from Oregon fans?

Honestly, just trying to figure it out.

And while I’m at it: Why is it gospel, among some, that Butch was a poor game day coach? I’ve heard this many times over the years. But what games did he blow? What were his awful decisions?
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I’ve seen it said on this board that MC is not a good game day coach.

What the heck does that mean? Poor time management? Wrong decisions on 4th and one’s? Lousy substitution decisions? Settling for FGs instead of trying for TDs or vice versa?

What’s the evidence for this? Or is it just based on poison coming from Oregon fans?

Honestly, just trying to figure it out.

And while I’m at it: Why is it gospel, among some, that Butch was a poor game day coach? I’ve heard this many times over the years. But what games did he blow? What were his awful decisions?
Butch DAW GAWD.

That is all. Close thread.
 
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