Mario/Butch as game day coaches

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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.
Or Butch vs Defending NC coach Bowden in 2000...when Bobby the FB God, let valuable seconds run off the clock...that would've possibly given Munyon alot easier FG...
 
Let be honest, the first two games didn’t exactly put this talk to rest. I saw a team just going through the motions. Looking good half of the time then falling asleep the other half. I haven’t seen any explosions plays yet. I’m not being a downer, I just know what a great team looks like.
 
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Let be honest, the first two games didn’t exactly put this talk to rest. I saw a team just going through the motions. Looking good half of the time then falling asleep the other half. I haven’t seen any explosions plays yet. I’m not being a downer, I just know what a great team looks like.
I think some of the knock on Mario at Oregon was his teams often played down to the level of competition. We saw a lot of that on Saturday.

Examples at Oregon:
2018 - lost to a 5-7 Arizona by 30 points, beat a 7-6 Arizona State by 2
2019 - beat a 6-7 Washington State by 2, lost to a mediocre Arizona State
2020 (weird Covid year, only 7 games played) - losses to bad Oregon State and Cal teams
2021 - lost to a 3-9 Stanford team, struggled to beat some mediocre and bad teams (Cal, UCLA, Oregon State)
 
Those decisions should all be on a laminated note card at this point...
 
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.
Oregon state also beat him in a game that they shouldnt have been within 2 scores.
 
I recall being on the Metrorail heading back to campus. Fans complaining that Butch would run the ball even when no progress was being made. It would take him a few years to aquire the talent needed for conservative offensive play calling. Many of our fans complaining about Gattis do not acknowledge the similarities.
Fans in the 90s HATED Butch. That was the original Banner Plane, if you recall. “From Champs to Chumps! Thanks, Butch!”
Many people were upset that the uncreative playcaller, Larry Coker, was promoted to Head Coach.

Fast forward to today, you already see the complaints about Gattis and Mario. You will see more after losing games.

Thos who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Give Mario time to recruit his own team.
 
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I recall being on the Metrorail heading back to campus. Fans complaining that Butch would run the ball even when no progress was being made. It would take him a few years to aquire the talent needed for conservative offensive play calling. Many of our fans complaining about Gattis do not acknowledge the similarities.
Fans in the 90s HATED Butch. That was the original Banner Plane, if you recall. “From Champs to Chumps! Thanks, Butch!”
Many people were upset that the uncreative playcaller, Larry Coker, was promoted to Head Coach.

Fast forward to today, you already see the complaints about Gattis and Mario. You will see more after losing games.

Thos who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Give Mario time to recruit his own team.
Those fans were petulant and insolent.

They were liquidated.
 
How many decisions is a non-coordindator HC making over the course of a game?
4th down
TO's
trick plays?

He sure isn't calling an offensive play but for maybe on 4th down and even that is just to call for a run or pass, not the specific run or pass. Maybe he will tell the DC to blitz or not, or to run some prevent. My point being these are all important decisions but its probably a handful of decisions per game at most. So maybe the entire narrative of "bad/good game day coach" is overplayed and something more so for fans and media to talk about.
 
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?
I hear fans from other skools say that all the time...."he's a poor gameday coach". I don't understand that argument. Mario knows his X's and O's, he's won big games, his hiring process requires other to literally talk schemes for hours. I think its just bull**** talking points created by gaytors and holes.
 
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