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The case for Dan Enos

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Best part about this hire is that we got a Bama coach on the staff. A Bama coach that knows the inner workings of that juggernaut recruiting machine. So when we want to start dropping big bags again for recruits, rest assured the NCAA will look the other way. The last thing Emmert wants is a scorned Saban disciple singing like a canary to the media about all of the illegal activity their darling cash cow is doing up in Tuscaloosa. We byke boys.
 
ghost2 said:
I live in Alabama (God help me) and when Enos' name first showed up as a candidate in another thread I kinda brushed it off as a pipe dream. This guy is one of the best football coaches in the country, hands-down. He is a major quarterback whisperer. Everywhere he's gone, the QBs put up ridiculous numbers. At Arkansas he groomed the two Allens (Brandon and Austin) to back-to-back 3000 yard seasons. We all saw what he did with Tua this year, and even had Hurts prepared to step in and win the SEC Championship game - Hurts looked more like a QB in that game than in any other during his career. This guy will get the absolute most out of the QB room.

Further, despite the internet mopery, he does NOT run a plodding offense. Is it "pro-style"? I guess, but a better term might be "power run/vertical pass." Here's a pretty good article on him at Arkansas: https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/a...ielema-plus-enos-match-made-offensive-heaven/

As you can see, Bielema is a run-first coach and so that's what Enos ran there. BUT, you can also see from that article (and others, I'll do a breakdown at some point too) that Enos likes to run out of passing formations and vice-versa. Will he line up in 5-wide sets every down? Probably not, but don't think for a second that this is a "3 yards and a cloud of dust" scheme. QBs have put up gaudy numbers in his offenses - so have running backs - and make no mistake, if Manny wants our offense to run tempo, Enos will run tempo. He's a brilliant offensive mind.

Briefly also, Enos can recruit, has head coaching experience, has been part of a winning and championship-level culture, and was literally on his way to being OC at Alabama before Manny poached him. The Roll Tide-rs down here are in shock that he's leaving. I don't believe the whole "if Saban wanted him he'd still be there" crap. Saban wanted him. So did Kirby. So did a lot of coaches. But he's now the Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach at Miami. And yes, in my opinion, it's a home run.
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Makes me harder than a tree stump!
 
PalyCane said:
This is the reality. He's never coached an offense as OC or HC that performed the way we hope his offenses at UM will perform. He's at best, a complete unknown in terms of his ability to coach up a top-25 scoring offense.

I understand that's he's a highly regarded QB coach, which is certainly a positive. And I understand that other top programs wanted him as OC, which is also a positive. But he has exactly zero years of fielding a potent scoring offense, finishing 27th in 2015, 57th in 2016 and 62nd in 2017 as OC at Arkansas. As HC at Central Mich his scoring offenses were ranked 83rd, 92nd, 63rd, 97th, and 82nd.

We are now hoping that a 50 year old offensive coach will do something at UM that he's never done before, which is to coach a top-25 scoring offense. He's only had one top-50 ranked scoring offense in eight years as HC or OC. That's concerning.
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Well said.
 
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DTP said:
Ehhh...not really. What works one place won't necessarily work somewhere else.
Take for example, Willie Taggart. His offense was lights out at WKU and USF. He took a step up in competition at Oregon and his offense took a step down in production. He took another step up at FSU and his offense totally tanked. Same exact plug and play offense. It's not like his talent got worse. If anything FSU has better players than anywhere he's coached. Now, he's totally scrapped his offense with the hope that Kendal Briles can work some magic.

It's also the reason I take offensive statistics that don't factor in strength of opponent with a grain of salt. Everyone knows the g5 conferences are full of teams that light up the scoreboard. But dropping 50 against Miami Ohio isn't the same as dropping 50 against Georgia. The lower level schools just don't have the athletes on defense that the big boys do. It's the reason why Chip Kelly's Oregon teams always looked so bad whenever they played anybody with NFL talent on the defensive line.
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Every fan that is blindly lamenting this hire because it's not an OC known for a trendy spread offense should be forced to rewatch every offensive snap of FSUs season this past year. That is exactly what Taggert brought to FSU and it was putrid. Getting a quality offensive coordinator is way more important than the scheme he runs.
 
gcane44 said:
Every fan that is blindly lamenting this hire because it's not an OC known for a trendy spread offense should be forced to rewatch every offensive snap of FSUs season this past year. That is exactly what Taggert brought to FSU and it was putrid. Getting a quality offensive coordinator is way more important than the scheme he runs.
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Well, I'm not exactly planting a flag for Enos either, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt until he can prove to me one way or another what type of coach he is. He wasn't my first choice but I'm not going to throw a fit either.

I'm still waiting for the offense that Tito Fuente runs at Virginia Tech to look anything like the one he ran at Memphis. Easier to score 40 against the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes than the Miami Hurricanes.
 
gcane44 said:
Every fan that is blindly lamenting this hire because it's not an OC known for a trendy spread offense should be forced to rewatch every offensive snap of FSUs season this past year. That is exactly what Taggert brought to FSU and it was putrid. Getting a quality offensive coordinator is way more important than the scheme he runs.
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Taggart is exactly why we should fear the hire.

Read the OP. His point is if Manny wants Enos to do certain things, Enos will do them, even if it's not what Enos naturally wants to do.

But that's exactly what happened to Taggart. Taggart was not running the "Gulf Coast" offense until well into his South FL tenure. Taggart believed in the West Coast style offense. He realized it didn't work anymore and he needed to adjust and start running these offenses other teams are running. Using a spread, motion, up tempo. And he basically started doing his best impression of them.

But it was never what Taggart wanted to do. At heart, he's not a "Gulf Coast" offensive guy. And so it makes sense why it failed for him. He's running a scheme that isn't "his" scheme.

Is that what we are going to ask Enos to do? "Just do what Locksley did last year." "Run more tempo, please." etc., etc. That's how you get Taggart.
 
PalyCane said:
This is the reality. He's never coached an offense as OC or HC that performed the way we hope his offenses at UM will perform. He's at best, a complete unknown in terms of his ability to coach up a top-25 scoring offense.
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It's not an unknown. He's never done it.
 
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DTP said:
Well, I'm not exactly planting a flag for Enos either, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt until he can prove to me one way or another what type of coach he is. He wasn't my first choice but I'm not going to throw a fit either.

I'm still waiting for the offense that Tito Fuente runs at Virginia Tech to look anything like the one he ran at Memphis. Easier to score 40 against the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes than the Miami Hurricanes.
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I agree with your sentiment. I'm in wait and see. Just like I was when Manny was hired as DC. There were a lot of warts and concerns. It worked pretty well. Not to say Enos will be a similar success story, but I see enough upside and positive to be on board with forming an opinion based on the actual results.

I'm just opposed and annoyed by the groupthink on here parroting the idea that anyone coming in with a modern spread offense is going be the magical answer to our offensive woes.
 
gcane44 said:
I agree with your sentiment. I'm in wait and see. Just like I was when Manny was hired as DC. There were a lot of warts and concerns. It worked pretty well. Not to say Enos will be a similar success story, but I see enough upside and positive to be on board with forming an opinion based on the actual results.

I'm just opposed and annoyed by the groupthink on here parroting the idea that anyone coming in with a modern spread offense is going be the magical answer to our offensive woes.
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Nobody is arguing that.

All we can do is judge the hire today by saying, "do these concepts lend themselves to offensive success?" And not offensive success if we just have 4* and 5* players across the board. But is it a scheme that's constantly putting pressure on the defense? We don't know if a QB that has arms is going to be successful and the "magical answer" to our QB woes, but we can also at least acknowledge that a QB needs to have arms to have any chance of solving our QB woes.

When Manny was hired as a DC, lots of people were concerned about the constant blitzing. BUT, everybody understood how his fast paced, attacking style defense might have success at Miami. You could see it from a schematic standpoint.

All any of us are asking is for somebody to point to his scheme and what it does that lends people to think it's going to be successful? Everybody could have answered that about Manny, even if you weren't thrilled with the hire. So far the best anybody has done is link a Football Study Hall article that talked about how dominating the OL at Arkansas was, which allowed them to just constantly keep the defense guessing and off balance. Which is great, if you think we're going to have that level of OL play.
 
I don’t know a lot about Enos, but here’s why I’m good with it...

More than ANY other coach at any position that we have had at UM in the past 17 years, Manny seems to get it.

He adapts, he innovates, he makes sense in interviews, he - more than ANY other coach we’ve had - seems to be one step ahead. The things we fans (rightly) have been complaining about - Manny gets, and addresses. Look at his halftime adjustments - he’s the best in-game coach we’ve had in 20 years. He knows what stresses a defense. He knows what shuts down a spread offense. He knows how to attack an o-line weakness.

He is informed and has shown that he’s nimble in his decisions. He knows this is his shot for greatness.

He’s not wasting time. He’s not settling. He’s not relaxing and laying back. He knows way more than any fan on this board about good offenses. I trust his judgment and self-assessment more than any other coach we’ve had in two decades.

If he’s sold on Enos, I’m sold on Enos.
 
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For those who are upset, forget the false reports about Fedora and Applewhite for a minute. Recall that Enos is replacing Mark and John Richt in their position duties.
 
TheEye said:
For those who are upset, forget the false reports about Fedora and Applewhite for a minute. Recall that Enos is replacing Mark and John Richt in their position duties.
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That isn't a high bar. My dead grandparents would have been an upgrade from mark and jon.
 
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Lokest said:
That isn't a high bar. My dead grandparents would have been an upgrade from mark and jon.
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You can't equate Dan Enos with your dead grandma now, can you? At least be happy this coach has a pulse.
 
TheEye said:
For those who are upset, forget the false reports about Fedora and Applewhite for a minute. Recall that Enos is replacing Mark and John Richt in their position duties.
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So because he's better than sh't that makes this a good hire? I wouldn't even call this an above average hire.
 
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