BYU - Navy - GT

Skeptic

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Navy's Ken Niumatalolo will be in Utah today, "talking" to the Brigham Young people about its football job. He has made clear the job has not been offered, and at the same time it would be his dream job if offered. Two boys played football there, they recruit heavily with their missionary work, and he is a devout Mormon. He has now won more games than anybody at Navy, including his mentor, Paul Johnson, and is career and ought 8-0, against Army. He apparently would leave a stable situation and an apparently suitable replacement in Ivin Jasper, now his OC. Jasper himself makes clear he is ready and will snap up the Navy job if asked. (He apparently was a candidate at Georgia Southern when Fritz was hired two years ago, but withdrew for unexplained reasons.) Good reasons all for going.

Except for one thing, maybe. Is Brigham Young up to the task of accepting his spread option offense and running the ball 80% of the time? It is a school that has traditionally aired it out with such luminaries as Steve Young and Jim McMahon. (Who was subsequently to demonstrate decidedly un-Mormon like tendencies.)

And it seems regardless of what Johnson and Niumatalolo have done with the offense on the big stage, a lot of people just don't like option football, or at least from under center, and its complexities make it very difficult to sell to the fan. (Telling people it combines the spread option with the run-and-shoot draws quizzical looks, because most of us know little of either. )

So, if they are not willing to offer if he is not willing to change, does anyone think in order to get that dream position he would change his offense and hire the appropriate OC to install it? The entire dynamic interests me. (And I might be making a mistake by assuming that BYU is very serious if they bring him in. It would be a classless move otherwise, though it is done with tenure track teaching positions all the time, a really shameful practice.
 

RonJohn

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Except for one thing, maybe. Is Brigham Young up to the task of accepting his spread option offense and running the ball 80% of the time? It is a school that has traditionally aired it out with such luminaries as Steve Young and Jim McMahon. (Who was subsequently to demonstrate decidedly un-Mormon like tendencies.)

.....

So, if they are not willing to offer if he is not willing to change, does anyone think in order to get that dream position he would change his offense and hire the appropriate OC to install it?

I don't know if he would run the option if he went to BYU or not. However, if I were a school looking to bring in a head coach, I would not entertain hiring someone that I had questions or concerns about his coaching style. If I were a coach and offered a job, I would turn it down unequivocally if the school told me they intended to interfere with my coaching decisions.
 

JacketFromUGA

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Navy AD has basically said if Ken leaves they ill be hiring from within and trying to keep most of the staff there. Easy to deduce their OC Ivin Jasper will be offered HC if Ken leaves.
 

deeeznutz

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I think the offense can be an easy sell with the type of QBs they bring in at BYU. Look at a guy like Taysom Hill, I think he would look similar to Josh Nesbitt and could put up good numbers in that system. Also with all the Polynesian guys and the mission program they would have a big, athletic OL...that can make this offense go.
 

TheTaxJacket

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they were discussing this on ESPN now and commentator said "I appreciate what Paul Johnson has done at GT, however if I'm BYU AD I am telling Niamtalolo that he cannot run that offense. It is dated and you cannot compete for a national championship with it."

Discuss.
 

Yoda

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They'll be very good running this offense. They are more in line with Navy's discipline and better athletes. They may be dominate. I also think this will be a good thing for us.
 

Techster

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The core of Navy's offense is still CPJ's offense. However, they have added other elements to their offense (elements, BTW, GT fans have "suggested" CPJ add):

http://www.capitalgazette.com/sport...-navy-wagner-column-1214-20151213-column.html

If Niumatalolo announces on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning that he is leaving for BYU, Navy should immediately call a press conference and introduce Ivin Jasper as its new head coach. Jasper is the logical successor, having spent 16 seasons as a Navy assistant.

More importantly, Jasper is the most knowledgeable practitioner of the triple-option offense not named Paul Johnson. Jasper has developed Navy's version of the offense to a higher level than what Johnson now employs at Georgia Tech by adding numerous wrinkles such as the shotgun and no-huddle.

Jasper, in conjunction with Niumatalolo of course, has been a proven innovator and forward thinker with regard to expanding the Navy offensive package in order to keep opponents off balance and give them more for which to prepare.

One need only look at the points and yardages figures from the past eight seasons to know Jasper has done a superb job as an in-game play-caller. Just as when Johnson was head coach, the Midshipmen have proven quite adept at adjusting to whatever defensive scheme an opponent might employ and finding ways to exploit it.

Jasper is the best option quarterbacks coach in the country. The 46-year-old Los Angeles native has proven time and time again that he can take quarterbacks of all backgrounds and develop them into effective orchestrators of the unique system. Craig Candeto, Lamar Owens, Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada, Ricky Dobbs, Keenan Reynolds… all ran the triple-option at a high level because Jasper meticulously trained them to do so.

I would think that Jasper could handle being head coach and still give personal attention to Navy's quarterbacks.

This offense has made CKN very successful at Navy, and I think BYU understands that. I doubt they tell him he needs to scrap the offense. Another aspect of changing offenses is familiarity and expertise. Unless he brings on another OC who specializes in another offense (similar to what Clemson did with Chad Morris), CKN will not have the expertise to run another offense effectively and know the intricacies of adjusting to defenses like he does with CPJ's spread option. It's not as simple as wanting to change...you have to know how to change.

Just as there are pro style QBs lured to BYU because of their faith, the same is true with dual threat QBs. BYU is probably in a better position to pull in strong dual threat QBs than GT is if you look at it from the faith angle.
 
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ilovetheoption

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they were discussing this on ESPN now and commentator said "I appreciate what Paul Johnson has done at GT, however if I'm BYU AD I am telling Niamtalolo that he cannot run that offense. It is dated and you cannot compete for a national championship with it."

Discuss.

ESPN employs Skip Bayless. That is all you need to know about how much to value their employee's opinion.
 

GTRX7

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To be fair, CPJ has experimented with some shotgun, no huddle, and diamond formations since he has been here.
 

takethepoints

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I'm surprised, but, if I were Coach N., I wouldn't touch the job with a fork unless they a) paid me all the Mormon-connected money in Utah and b) gave me a free hand to run the program as I wished. They might do that; you never know.
 

ibeattetris

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To be fair, CPJ has experimented with some shotgun, no huddle, and diamond formations since he has been here.
With a QB unwilling to buy in to what CPJ was selling (regardless of formation). In all honesty, I thought JT looked really good out of the diamond when he came in to spell Vad. I am not disappointed we have abandoned the pistol and diamond, but I do think JT looked much more effective than Vad when in those formation that year.
 

Techster

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Sounds like the big $$$ guys and fans got to the administration. Wanted CKN, but with strings: No CPJ spread option, or he needed to heavily alter it to throw the ball more. Good for CKN standing up for what he believed in, and knowing what made him successful in the first place.

I think BYU made a big mistake, they could have been a machine with this offense and the way BYU has pull with Mormon athletes. I doubt CKN ever leaves Navy now.
 
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