GT hires Chip Long as new OC/QBs Coach
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Techster
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When I look at a hire, I always like to see how what the school did before the person was hired, while the person was there, and what the school did after the person left to gauge their impact.
Memphis:
Long's first OC job was at Memphis. He was Mike Norvell's first OC when Norvell took the Memphis job. Norvell is known as a good offensive mind, and it looks like he was more the architect of the offense than Chip Long was:
Memphis OFEI:
Pre Norvell/Long:
2014: 72
2015: 27
With Long:
2016: 30
After Long:
2017: 17
2018: 40
2019: 8
IMO, Long at Memphis wasn't much of a factor as much as having Norvell the HC. Norvell, before his time at FSU, was known as a good QB coach, and a good offensive mind. Memphis had good success with Long on the offensive side (and even before Long and Norvell), but Memphis's offensive was VERY good (2017) to elite (2019) after Long left.
Notre Dame:
Long jumped to Notre to coach with another coach known for his offensive acumen, Brian Kelly. From 2017-2019 Long was the OC.
Notre Dame OFEI:
Before Long (with Kelly):
2013: 35
2014: 22
2015: 7
2016: 37
With Long:
2017: 12
2018: 28
2019: 25
After Long:
2020: 17
2021: 26
I think it's fair to attribute Notre Dame's modest improvement on offense to Long's hiring. I don't know the exact details that led to Long being let go after 2019, but Long did seem to have an attributable impact on ND's offense during his time there. Kelly did have good offenses before Long, and a year with elite results (2015) with respect to the time frame I looked back. Let's be honest, if GT has a similar OFEI that ND had during Long's time as their OC, we would be ecstatic.
Tulane:
This is where it gets interesting for me. I've been a huge Willie Fritz fan since his GA Southern days. His offenses were always a joy to watch, and he could put it on teams that had a big talent advantage. Fritz is just a really good coach. Fritz seemed to change his offense the last few years for some reason and went away from an option based spread, to a traditional vertical passing spread. That transition happened about two years prior to Long being hired at Tulane. Fritz was hired at Tulane in 2016:
Tulane OFEI:
Before Long (with Fritz)
2016: 104
2017: 71
2018: 101
2019: 38
2020: 60
With Long
2021: 75
IMO, judging Long with one year to work with players is tough. Long finished 2021 with an OFEI of 75...one spot better than what we did this year (76). However, the pattern I would personally like to see is if his offense improved as the year went on. Remember that saying about CPJ's offense? The offense didn't really get going until the leaves started changing colors. Well, you would hope an OC with time to work with new players improves as you have more practices and games with them. This is what worries me about long. In the last seven games, his offenses scored: 22 (Houston), 26 (SMU), 12 (Cincy), 10 (UCF), 13 (Tulsa), 45 (Win - USF), 28 (Memphis).
Maybe there are extenuating circumstance (injuries, Covid, etc) where the offense couldn't fire on all cylinders. I didn't check because I didn't want to waste anymore time.
I think Long is a clear upgrade over Patenaude, but is the upgrade big enough to make GT a competitor in the Coastal in 2022? Next year every single GT coach is coaching for their jobs. Can Long get his system in quick enough, and can he coach the QBs up fast enough to make his offense go?
I guess we'll find out. Personally, I wanted a coach that has an option package for his offense (see: Friedgen, Chip Kelly, Chadwell) to go with a modern spread vertical passing game. Maybe we'll get that with Long given Sims's athletic abilities. There is good offensive talent on our roster, and the Coastal isn't a formidable division. Defense will have to make a huge improvement, but the offense probably sets up well to improve the most. Either way, CGC better hope Long is the OC we've been missing.
Memphis:
Long's first OC job was at Memphis. He was Mike Norvell's first OC when Norvell took the Memphis job. Norvell is known as a good offensive mind, and it looks like he was more the architect of the offense than Chip Long was:
Memphis OFEI:
Pre Norvell/Long:
2014: 72
2015: 27
With Long:
2016: 30
After Long:
2017: 17
2018: 40
2019: 8
IMO, Long at Memphis wasn't much of a factor as much as having Norvell the HC. Norvell, before his time at FSU, was known as a good QB coach, and a good offensive mind. Memphis had good success with Long on the offensive side (and even before Long and Norvell), but Memphis's offensive was VERY good (2017) to elite (2019) after Long left.
Notre Dame:
Long jumped to Notre to coach with another coach known for his offensive acumen, Brian Kelly. From 2017-2019 Long was the OC.
Notre Dame OFEI:
Before Long (with Kelly):
2013: 35
2014: 22
2015: 7
2016: 37
With Long:
2017: 12
2018: 28
2019: 25
After Long:
2020: 17
2021: 26
I think it's fair to attribute Notre Dame's modest improvement on offense to Long's hiring. I don't know the exact details that led to Long being let go after 2019, but Long did seem to have an attributable impact on ND's offense during his time there. Kelly did have good offenses before Long, and a year with elite results (2015) with respect to the time frame I looked back. Let's be honest, if GT has a similar OFEI that ND had during Long's time as their OC, we would be ecstatic.
Tulane:
This is where it gets interesting for me. I've been a huge Willie Fritz fan since his GA Southern days. His offenses were always a joy to watch, and he could put it on teams that had a big talent advantage. Fritz is just a really good coach. Fritz seemed to change his offense the last few years for some reason and went away from an option based spread, to a traditional vertical passing spread. That transition happened about two years prior to Long being hired at Tulane. Fritz was hired at Tulane in 2016:
Tulane OFEI:
Before Long (with Fritz)
2016: 104
2017: 71
2018: 101
2019: 38
2020: 60
With Long
2021: 75
IMO, judging Long with one year to work with players is tough. Long finished 2021 with an OFEI of 75...one spot better than what we did this year (76). However, the pattern I would personally like to see is if his offense improved as the year went on. Remember that saying about CPJ's offense? The offense didn't really get going until the leaves started changing colors. Well, you would hope an OC with time to work with new players improves as you have more practices and games with them. This is what worries me about long. In the last seven games, his offenses scored: 22 (Houston), 26 (SMU), 12 (Cincy), 10 (UCF), 13 (Tulsa), 45 (Win - USF), 28 (Memphis).
Maybe there are extenuating circumstance (injuries, Covid, etc) where the offense couldn't fire on all cylinders. I didn't check because I didn't want to waste anymore time.
I think Long is a clear upgrade over Patenaude, but is the upgrade big enough to make GT a competitor in the Coastal in 2022? Next year every single GT coach is coaching for their jobs. Can Long get his system in quick enough, and can he coach the QBs up fast enough to make his offense go?
I guess we'll find out. Personally, I wanted a coach that has an option package for his offense (see: Friedgen, Chip Kelly, Chadwell) to go with a modern spread vertical passing game. Maybe we'll get that with Long given Sims's athletic abilities. There is good offensive talent on our roster, and the Coastal isn't a formidable division. Defense will have to make a huge improvement, but the offense probably sets up well to improve the most. Either way, CGC better hope Long is the OC we've been missing.
Dress2Jacket
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okiemon
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Doesn’t make sense. CDP would say “OK, running play.” Then CBK would call the play
Pointer
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While Monken would be a great hire, I understand that's not happening while CGC is here.
I have two questions regarding this hire. He seems pretty similar to CDP in system. Might have a little more success, but that's arguable.
Why fire CDP if you're just going to hire the same guy?
Second question is, if we obviously have trouble running this style of system, why not go after someone with something such as air raid? I was actually looking forward to CGC being in charge of defense and someone else running air raid.
Overall this hire smells of very few candidate pool to choose from and another bad hire.
It also seems that this has temporarily brought all of the rabid CGC supporters out of hiding.
Either way, I genuinely hope this hire works out and this guy can bring the success he has at other stop in the past here, just not necessarily ready to count on that just yet.
Pointer
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Does this make you feel better?
okiemon
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Yeah, for maybe 5 minutes.Wow. This should push the Dwags off the front page of the AJC for a while.
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Play calling is the most superficial part of what an OC does.Doesn’t make sense. CDP would say “OK, running play.” Then CBK would call the play
bensaysitathome
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GT's Instagram post lists Long as a "OC/QB Coach" for what it's worth.
Randy Carson
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I just hit me. We're getting a Chip off the old Rockne.
Thank you very much. I'll be here all week. Try the veal.
Thank you very much. I'll be here all week. Try the veal.
MWBATL
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(1) I dare say NONE of us really have a clue whether this is a great hire or a terrible hire. How the heck can fans expect to honestly think they know enough to evaluate assistant coaches?
(2) Offensively, I would argue that what GT needs is better coaching=better execution. That plus some more innovative play calling especially in the red zone. Who amongst us really knows if this guy (or anyone) can coach 19-20 year olds better than CDP?
(3) Collins likely understands he must produce NEXT YEAR or he is out. This means he could not go for any drastic changes in the offense that would take more than a year to recruit the pieces for, learn how to execute etc etc. Suggestions that we transition to full Air Raid or anything else dramatically different from what we have been doing are non starters;
(4) GT is an a position which is openly understood to be a danger zone. Produce next year or bye bye. Certainly for the HC, and maybe even the AD. Exactly how many OC's want to jump at that opportunity? It's a tough recruiting situation.
(5) GT is not exactly a glamor job in any event.
All of these make the reaction of some of our fanbase...perplexing. Time will tell with this guy. But Nick Saban won't return our phone calls, so...whatcya gonna do?
(2) Offensively, I would argue that what GT needs is better coaching=better execution. That plus some more innovative play calling especially in the red zone. Who amongst us really knows if this guy (or anyone) can coach 19-20 year olds better than CDP?
(3) Collins likely understands he must produce NEXT YEAR or he is out. This means he could not go for any drastic changes in the offense that would take more than a year to recruit the pieces for, learn how to execute etc etc. Suggestions that we transition to full Air Raid or anything else dramatically different from what we have been doing are non starters;
(4) GT is an a position which is openly understood to be a danger zone. Produce next year or bye bye. Certainly for the HC, and maybe even the AD. Exactly how many OC's want to jump at that opportunity? It's a tough recruiting situation.
(5) GT is not exactly a glamor job in any event.
All of these make the reaction of some of our fanbase...perplexing. Time will tell with this guy. But Nick Saban won't return our phone calls, so...whatcya gonna do?
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Techster
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Our graphics department couldn't find a picture of Long being happy to photoshop? Instead it looks like Long lost a bet and was forced to be our OC.
LibertyTurns
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He must have just got done reviewing Key’s OL drills.
Root4GT
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Maybe that's his I am not happy with your play look!
SOWEGA Jacket
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We hired an OC. Ok. My concern is the name I’m hearing for DC. If that is true then we at least have a year to research and vet.
okiemon
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Or his “please don’t confuse me with Geoff Collins” look!
GTjunkie
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Do tell.
TheStolenT
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This. Not to give excuses but these guys were practicing at the high school my wife works at in Birmingham for a long time. Not exactly a recipe for success.