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Taylor Stubblefield

The Franchise said:
What I’m saying is elite P5 WRs don’t need to be taught how to catch a football. These guys attend camps all the time and most are coached by guys who can help them with the SUPER BASIC task of catching a football.

And I absolutely believe most drops in games are mental. They’re not dropping easy passes because they’re trying to catch them with their feet. Same reason you see QBs who can’t miss in drills all of s sudden look clueless in live action. Or veteran kickers who can kick 40 yard FGs blindfolded in practice miss them with the game on the line.

Often when a WR drops a pass it gets in his head and the ball looks like a grain of salt in a cyclone coming at him. That’s been happening since forever. Having the “technical” skills to catch a football has little bearing on if you will do it in front of 70k screaming people especially after you already dropped the first one.

On top of all that, some dudes just have natural hands and some don’t. The ones who don’t will usually struggle to catch the ball consistently their whole career. It’s a little like accuracy with QBs. Most of the time you’re not going to improve a guy’s accuracy all that much once he gets to this level unless you install a dink and dunk offense where guys are 5 yards open every play.
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I think a coaching plays into this not in the technical side because most WR can catch but coaching comes in because it a WR gets a case of the dropsies it is a mental thing and you need a coach who can help them overcome that and help them build their confidence back up. WR are divas, no secret there. Someone has to be their shaman and get their energy and focus right.
 
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CanIt said:
I have followed Stubblefield's career because I am a big Purdue fan which led me to this board to see people reaction to the hire. I have a couple of thoughts and comments.

1. Stubbs was an undersized, slow (4.7) wide out who basically broke and challenged every Big 10 and National Record. You don't do that unless you are a technician especially when you 5'10 and run a 4.7
2. All of his moves, with the exception of Utah, have been for obvious promotions or because the HC who hired him was fired. Its not that he is a job hopping, it more that tenured HC hired him when they were on the chopping block.
3. He coached a few NFL WR...off the top of my head I know a kid at Wake played for the Ravens and I think he had a stud WR at CMU or the Illinois school he coached at.
4. This article about his being fired at Utah is interesting to me. It mentioned how the best WR on the team got hurt right before he got there and also how he was high energy and provided what seems to be useful feedback
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=3343976&itype=CMSID
5. How many 5* WR has Utah ever got? The HC there is a defensive guy. He probably hates the pass happy state of college football today. Honestly, if you're a 4 or 5 star WR why the heck would you go to Utah when you would certainly have offers from Washington, USC, UCLA (location alone makes that appealing), not to mention Texas, Oklahoma, gunslinging Ok St, Baylor Back then etc etc. Unless you're into Utah chicks then who would go to Utah with all the other options you would have. I know I wouldn't. Kids that go to Utah are the ones who are the left overs from the Big Schools.
6. Recruiting generally is coaches working together. The WR coach doesn't just recruit WR. So if recruiting sucks, it generally speaks to the staff in general not just the individual. Most schools coaches are assigned a geography so if Stubblefield had Atlanta, Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina for example (randomly picking places) imagine how hard that would be to recruit kids to Utah. I'm talking 4-5* kids. It's impossible unless the kid is desperate. Even if the kid is Mormon you don't have an in because they are going to BYU not Utah

I'm not necessarily making excuses for Stubbs but as someone who has followed his playing and professional career what I will say is that I have zero doubt he will make your receivers better. He was so talented at the things that are teachable that I am certain he can pass those on to players. As far as his recruiting ability, I agree that he is unproven. However, being unproven and being bad are not the same thing. Slap that U on his chest with a pass happy Offense and finally a good QB with Tate coming in and I won't be surprised if 2 years from now people on this thread are trying to bury it and eating crow. Quit whining and support your team. Best of luck unless you meet Purdue along your travels. Boiler Up!!
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Almost 30 pages *****ing about a WR coach. Some of y’all should be on Desperate Housewives.

If he doesn’t carry his own weight Manny will fire him end of season. I don’t think our receivers performance could’ve been any worse than it was this past season. Lazy route running, they couldn’t get separation, drops galore, high pointing the ball was non existent.

Now, we have a coach who supremely over achieved in his playing days. If he can translate even half of his technique to our guys he’ll have them playing much better than 2018. This ain’t the “we’re perfectly okay with failure” Richt regime anymore. Our WR room is loaded. Saddle up.
 
RC26 said:
Almost 30 pages *****ing about a WR coach. Some of y’all should be on Desperate Housewives.

If he doesn’t carry his own weight Manny will fire him end of season. I don’t think our receivers performance could’ve been any worse than it was this past season. Lazy route running, they couldn’t get separation, drops galore, high pointing the ball was non existent.

Now, we have a coach who supremely over achieved in his playing days. If he can translate even half of his technique to our guys he’ll have them playing much better than 2018. This ain’t the “we’re perfectly okay with failure” Richt regime anymore. Our WR room is loaded. Saddle up.
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I like that you know enough about "Desperate Housewives" for this thread to remind you of "Desperate Housewives."
 
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CanIt said:
How is he bad at recruiting? Is he suppose to get 5* WR to come to Wake and Utah? Better yet Air Force and Illinois St? You have to put it in perspective. You're only as good a recruiter as the institution you work for, not to mention the Offense you play for. If you want stud WR you need a few things...a top 20 school, a pass happy offense, and a QB who can sling the rock. Hence why Oklahoma and Clemson have studs at WR.

As far as career progression. New Mexico was unquestionably a step up from CMU, and Wake Forest step up from New Mexico. Utah is clearly better than all of those so how do these steps not make sense??? Not to mention I'm pretty Utah was a top 20 program I think back then. Looking them up, They were 9-4 and 10-3 while Stubblefield was there. Cry all you want. The hire is made. Support your coach. Boiler Up!!!
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Too many people saying, "What do you expect him to do, get 5* receivers at Utah?" No, and I'm not judging him by that. He didn't get sh*t at Utah. We actually have Utah reporters saying he didn't get sh*t while at Utah.

What's more, he didn't develop a recruiting reputation anywhere. You don't seem to understand how college football works. Everybody knows who the next stud recruiters are, even at these small schools. That's why the next tier level schools go get them. That's why Kentucky went and snatched up Tee Martin from New Mexico, even though Martin hadn't landed any "stud" recruits. Within the recruits Martin did interact with, he's all they could talk about.

You know who nobody ever talked about on the recruiting trail? Our current WR Coach. People pretending like that doesn't say something about his recruiting, are fooling themselves.
 
mossmadness said:
Nothing else you wrote struck me as funny, let alone having any substance.
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Well you strike me as one who isn’t open minded worth a blood nickle and puts his fingers in his ears when someone has any sort of decent point.
 
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Well, just gotta hope Manny is trigger happy when it comes time to ****can underperforming assistants. It's okay to make mistakes as long as you correct them. And don't repeat the big ones
 
Thearchitect25 said:
Here is the article I was talking about where his receiver doesn't have good comments about him... Article Taylor Stubblefield
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Interesting. Thanks for the link.

Looking at the stats:

Before Stubblefield (2013)
Passing offense: 60th
Passing efficiency: 86th
Record: 5-7

With Stubblefield (2014-15)
Passing offense: 93rd, 106th
Passing efficiency: 61st, 73rd
Record: 10-3, 9-4

After Stubblefield (2016-18)
Passing offense: 78th, 49th, 78th
Passing efficiency: 93rd, 63rd, 69th
Record: 9-4, 7-6, 9-5


Looks like a whole lotta meh in general.

Coincidentally, the coach who replaced Stubblefield wasn’t retained by Bronco Mendenhall when he got the UVA job.

Anyway, we will all be keeping a close eye on Stubblefield.
 
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FreePawn said:
Well, just gotta hope Manny is trigger happy when it comes time to ****can underperforming assistants. It's okay to make mistakes as long as you correct them. And don't repeat the big ones
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In business you hire slow and fire fast.

If the some of these guys don’t work out Manny needs to pull the trigger quick.
 
Thearchitect25 said:
Here is the article I was talking about where his receiver doesn't have good comments about him... Article Taylor Stubblefield
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1. You should read the comments from the fans that go along with that article because it sure sounds like they think they had a horrible QB and simply bad receivers,

2. Oh and the Tim Patrick kid complaining in the article, yeah just looked him up and he didn't even play in 2015 when Stubbs was at Utah. He was injured the entire season. The kid was probably just frustrated because he couldn't get on the field.

3. Lastly, the other kid who was quoted in the article, Tyrone Young, yeah just looked him up too. In 2016, the year after Stubblefield left he had 10 catches the entire season and then was switched over to DB the last two years of his career.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Patrick
https://utahutes.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=753

Great article to base your opinion of your new coach on buddy. As I roll my eyes.
 
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CanIt said:
1. You should read the comments from the fans that go along with that article because it sure sounds like they think they had a horrible QB and simply bad receivers,

2. Oh and the Tim Patrick kid complaining in the article, yeah just looked him up and he didn't even play in 2015 when Stubbs was at Utah. He was injured the entire season. The kid was probably just frustrated because he couldn't get on the field.

3. Lastly, the other kid who was quoted in the article, Tyrone Young, yeah just looked him up too. In 2016, the year after Stubblefield left he had 10 catches the entire season and then was switched over to DB the last two years of his career.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Patrick
https://utahutes.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=753

Great article to base your opinion of your new coach on buddy. As I roll my eyes.
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So the receivers sucked when he was there. That certainly doesn't help his cause, at best it just shouldn't be used against him since he didn't recruit them.

Seeing as the Utah receiver core apparently sucked so much due to the horrible talent the previous WR coach brought in, and since you are in a "looking up" kind of mood, can you look up and see what the receivers he recruited to Utah did at Utah? They obviously had a desperate need for receiver talent. I'd be curious to see how well he was able to address that while at Utah. Even if he wasn't there when they did do well, as long as he brought them in, I'd be wiling to give him credit for them. How did they do?
 
The Franchise said:
What I’m saying is elite P5 WRs don’t need to be taught how to catch a football. These guys attend camps all the time and most are coached by guys who can help them with the SUPER BASIC task of catching a football.

And I absolutely believe most drops in games are mental. They’re not dropping easy passes because they’re trying to catch them with their feet. Same reason you see QBs who can’t miss in drills all of s sudden look clueless in live action. Or veteran kickers who can kick 40 yard FGs blindfolded in practice miss them with the game on the line.

Often when a WR drops a pass it gets in his head and the ball looks like a grain of salt in a cyclone coming at him. That’s been happening since forever. Having the “technical” skills to catch a football has little bearing on if you will do it in front of 70k screaming people especially after you already dropped the first one.

On top of all that, some dudes just have natural hands and some don’t. The ones who don’t will usually struggle to catch the ball consistently their whole career. It’s a little like accuracy with QBs. Most of the time you’re not going to improve a guy’s accuracy all that much once he gets to this level unless you install a dink and dunk offense where guys are 5 yards open every play.
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Disagree with all of this. Catching a football is not super basic. There are specific techniques to it that I doubt anyone on this board fully comprehends, myself included. You're way oversimplifying the catching fundamental by assuming it's a binary one-size-fits-all approach of concentration=catch or no catch.

You say how a WR drops one pass and that snowballs into future drops. How is camp coaching supposed to help him in the middle of the season if he's having drop issues? That's exactly the scenario where you need a good WR coach. I'm aware of some good private/camp WR coaches - some are ex-Noles unfortunately - but we shouldn't rely on outsiders to develop our players.

Technical/fundamental skill is exactly what's required to execute in front of 70k screaming people. Coaches always tell their players to trust their technique when they're in doubt or struggling. A foundation of technique is the best confidence-builder. Ex. Tell a DB to "go cover that dude" and he might panic and get burned. Tell a DB to stay square in his pedal and anticipate route combinations and he can focus on that and execute.

QBs who struggle in live action struggle because of specific stressors like pocket pressure, coverage disguises, press coverage, etc. That's totally different from your mental midget WR theory. And regarding kickers, the Bucs just hired a specialist kicking coach and Bruce Arians said he did it specifically because kickers can get in a mental block where they need coaching to intervene. So again coaching matters in those scenarios and some Trooper Taylor has-been recruiter type is gonna do what to help?

Your "natural hands" theory is also bull****. Will Fuller had a high drop rate...until he didn't and tore up NFL defenses as a rookie. Leonard Hankerson dropped everything...until he improved his technique, broke out at Miami and had a solid NFL career. Concentration drops are a lot rarer than you think.

This is my last time addressing another CIS special fake fundamental horsecrap argument. I've seen it before with the "whyyyy are our DBs not loooooking back for the ball every tiiiime" idiocy so I know some of you just don't listen to reason and don't wanna learn.
 
mossmadness said:
So the receivers sucked when he was there. That certainly doesn't help his cause, at best it just shouldn't be used against him since he didn't recruit them.

Seeing as the Utah receiver core apparently sucked so much due to the horrible talent the previous WR coach brought in, and since you are in a "looking up" kind of mood, can you look up and see what the receivers he recruited to Utah did at Utah? They obviously had a desperate need for receiver talent. I'd be curious to see how well he was able to address that while at Utah. Even if he wasn't there when they did do well, as long as he brought them in, I'd be wiling to give him credit for them. How did they do?
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I did look up Utahs talent and here is what I found. Let me break this down for you nice and simple.

2018 - Utah had a total of two 4* recruits. One was a WR. This season he played in 14 games and had 13 catches for 179 yards.
2017 - Utah had a total of three 4* recruits. None were WR
2016 - Utah had a total of three 4* recruits. None were WR
2015 - Utah had ZERO 4* recruits
2014 - Utah had one 4* recruit. He was not a WR.

Stubblefield was there in 2014 and 2015. Point being, 4* dudes don't go to Utah. We need not even mention 5* dudes. This was not a Stubblefield issue. That is a Utah issue. No one is making Utah **** unless Urban Meyer decided to go back there and that ain't happening.

In 2018 alone Miami had one 5* and fourteen 4* recruits (two were WR). Last season alone Miami brought in almost double the 4-5* guys that Utah has in the past 5 years combined. You are comparing apples to oranges.

During the same span of time as I listed above when Utah had 9 -->4-5* recruits, MIAMI HAD 47!!!! The talent comes to Miami. Let me ask you a question. Why has Utah been better than Miami during the past 5 years when they have considerably less talent? Clearly, What you need is coaching so be happy you have a technician as a WR coach. Now imagine what happens when you actually win some ball games and don't get blown by 32 by a middle of the pack B1G team in your bowl game. Winning cures all buddy. You have the talent. You need the coaching.

Nine 4-5* recruits for Utah vs 47 for the U. Coral Cables vs Salt Lake City. Miami Chicks vs Utah Chicks. South Florida weather vs Utah weather. Uncle Luke and the Rock vs well I can't even name a Utah alumni. Oh yeah Alex Smith. All that in your favor and Utah is still better. Maybe Miami's problem is you want the glitz but don't want to put in the work.
 
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CanIt said:
I did look up Utahs talent and here is what I found. Let me break this down for you nice and simple.

2018 - Utah had a total of two 4* recruits. One was a WR. This season he played in 14 games and had 13 catches for 179 yards.
2017 - Utah had a total of three 4* recruits. None were WR
2016 - Utah had a total of three 4* recruits. None were WR
2015 - Utah had ZERO 4* recruits
2014 - Utah had one 4* recruit. He was not a WR.

Stubblefield was there in 2014 and 2015. Point being, 4* dudes don't go to Utah. We need not even mention 5* dudes. This was not a Stubblefield issue. That is a Utah issue. No one is making Utah **** unless Urban Meyer decided to go back there and that ain't happening.

In 2018 alone Miami had one 5* and fourteen 4* recruits (two were WR). Last season alone Miami brought in almost double the 4-5* guys that Utah has in the past 5 years combined. You are comparing apples to oranges.

During the same span of time as I listed above when Utah had 9 -->4-5* recruits, MIAMI HAD 47!!!! The talent comes to Miami. Let me ask you a question. Why has Utah been better than Miami during the past 5 years when they have considerably less talent? Clearly, What you need is coaching so be happy you have a technician as a WR coach. Now imagine what happens when you actually win some ball games and don't get blown by 32 by a middle of the pack B1G team in your bowl game. Winning cures all buddy. You have the talent. You need the coaching.

Nine 4-5* recruits for Utah vs 47 for the U. Coral Cables vs Salt Lake City. Miami Chicks vs Utah Chicks. South Florida weather vs Utah weather. Uncle Luke and the Rock vs well I can't even name a Utah alumni. Oh yeah Alex Smith. All that in your favor and Utah is still better. Maybe Miami's problem is you want the glitz but don't want to put in the work.
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Huh? I never said anything about 4* or 5* players, so I have no idea why you’re babbling about that?

You said Utah’s WRs sucked. They sucked before, during, and after Stubblefield. So he shouldn’t get the blame for that. He can’t make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t. That’s fair enough. We will put the these horrible receivers on the previous WR coach that identified them and brought them in.

What I’m asking is what receivers did Stubblefield bring in to address this problem? If you don’t have any talent at a position, the solution is to bring in talent? Who did he bring in? How did they do? Even after him, as long as he recruited them, we’ll give him credit. I don’t care what their star ranking was. How did the guys he picked to help this dire WR situation, perform at Utah?
 
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