I don’t think CDP would’ve ever been a great coordinator for us, but I do think CGC probably did handcuff him a little bit. DP’s offenses here ranked between the 70s to 100. Had CGC not meddled so much he probably could’ve got the range down between 50-70. I especially think late in 2019 when we were decimated by injuries CDP could’ve been way more creative had Geoff allowed him to be. We would seen a lot more triple and option based zone reads. Against Georgia that year we completed 5 out of 21 passes for 40 yards and got totally embarrassed and blown off the field, even though Georgia made a ton of mistakes and we recovered an onside kick in the first half. It was 17-7 at the half and 52-7 final. I really believe had CDP had the freedom to do so he would’ve called a much better game that put us in a way better position. Geoff not having our OL not go full speed ever in practice probably made it harder for CDP to work on his offense too.
DP caught a lot of flak for the CGC era 3 win seasons. He definitely isn’t an offensive guru who will go down as one of the games greatest minds, but I do believe he’s probably better than Geoff allowed him to be. I kind of wish we could’ve gotten to see what a CDP offense under IHCBK could’ve gone. I bet Key would’ve told him do whatever you need to do to put us in position to win. Triple option, wishbone, power-I, RPO spread, air raid, whatever works.