[NU Sports] Coach McCall

[Jonathan Hodges]

NU fans have basically been calling for McCall's head since he took over
last year, despite a pretty good showing from last year's offense (that
featured 4 brand new starters on the OL at the beginning of the year), and a
not-horrible showing this year from a unit that lost all 5 starting skill
position players (including a few that are arguably among NU's all-time
greats) while having an OL that is vastly under-performing.

At this point, though, I don't feel the criticism is entirely warranted, and
thankfully the NU coaching staff and administration don't bend to the whims
of fickle fans like at other institutions.  Expect McCall to be back next
year because the offense has been decent enough even without any kind of
real running game.

Yes, I don't always agree with his play calling, but when an entire portion
of the playbook just isn't working (basically any running play), it's hard
to get real upset at the guy.  I know many have taken shots at him for not
calling downfield passing, but that is rather difficult when the OL allows
pressure to get to Kafka so quickly (NU is 87th nationally in sacks allowed
and would be worse if Kafka couldn't save some plays with his legs).  Yes,
Kafka holds the ball a little too long, too, but it's apparent he's trying
to make a play with his arm (which is what the QB is for).

Basically everyone expected the NU offense to struggle this year with a new
slew of skill position players, but they haven't been horrible, scoring 27
points per game (NU ended up with 24.4 points per game last year).  They've
left some points on the field and have had issues in the red zone, but this
offense looks a lot like the one from 2007 that could put up huge numbers
but also failed to convert in the red zone on occasion.

In any case, I think that the past two NU offensive coordinators have faced
an uphill battle in winning support given their predecessors (Wilson and
Dunbar) who oversaw some prolific and all-time great NU offenses, and the
fact it that it's difficult to replicate that every year.  Not to mention
that those teams featured some all-time great players (Kustok, Basanez,
Bacher, Anderson, Wright, Herron, Sutton).

The biggest difference I've seen between last year and this year has been NU
making the one or two plays in the game that it takes to win - last week we
saw NU yield two long TD passes and fumble a kickoff that promptly turned
into a TD.  There was also the Dunsmore fumble that was questionable given
forward progress.  Take just a couple of those plays away and NU would have
been in that one until the end.

There are still 5 games left and anything can happen, so let's hope NU
starts getting some of those plays in their favor starting this week.

Go 'Cats!!!
Jonathan

On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 8:23 AM, Jim Leonard <jleonard518 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Fellow Wildcat Faithful,
>
> At the end of the first half on Saturday I was convinced we had an upset in
> the making. We did, only it was me being upset with coach McCall not the
> Cats upsetting MSU.
>
> After a season and a half I'm not convinced he's the right guy. He's
> predictable, which is not a good thing to be as an Offensive Coordinator. I
> don't know where the running game has fallen flat. It's somewhere between
> not having a true Big Ten size running back and having a weak offensive
> line. But, great coaches find a way to work with the talent they have.
>
> We have a better than average running QB who has developed into a fairly
> accurate passing QB. We should be able to make that work. I'd like to see a
> lot more option plays. We can't run north-south between the tackles, so it's
> time to take that page out of the playbook. And just once I'd like to see
> all 4/5 wide receivers run beyond the first down marker so that Kafka can't
> dump it for a 3-yard gain.
>
> I've given up on bowl hopes for this team, but I want to see them improve.
> At this point, I won't be excited to have McCall back next year.
>
> Victory & Honor,
> Jim
>
>
>
>
>
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