Does a two-person coaching system work as an offensive coordinator?

[ro_50]

Ok, the title of this thread may be confusing. But here it goes.

After the 2002 season, Auburn's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Bob Petrino left to become the coach at Louisville.

Auburn filled its void by annointing offensive line coach Hugh Nall as the offensive coordinator but Steve Ensminger was brought along to be the team's quarterbacks coach.

So Tommy Tuberville stated Nall was in charge of the running game while Esminger was in the charge of the passing game.

The experiment didn't work out as the Tigers struggled on offense during that ill-fated '03 season.

Then they hired Al Borges to become the team's offensive coordinator prior to the 2004 seaosn. Nall stayed on board as the line coach and Esminger became the tight ends coach.

So now I bring Denver into this conversation. Gary Kubiak leaves to become the coach at the Texans, Mike Heimerdinger is brought in and he is in charge of the passing game, while offensive coordinator Rick Dennison is a key figure in the running game.

Does this two-coach system on offense where one coach is in charge of passing and the other in charge of running - does this system work?

Can you guys think of a scenario where this has worked before?

I'm just curious.

[riiiiick]

good post ro. i do think there is some confusion, possible power struggle, who's in charge of what, going on here. only 18 pass attempts against a lowly faider team when the QB has not struggled is very confusing, imo.

[Billy Clyde Puckett]

Well, since we really don't know the division of duites I am inclined to give it a chance. Dennison is supposed to be in charge of the running game and Dinger in charge of the passing game. The story behind having multiple coordinators and Asst head coaches has to do with the rules around the movement of coaches. Without an elevation in title a coach under contract cannot usually break that contract and move on. So when a coach is given the coordinator or Asst Head coach title he can only be recruited away for a head coaching or front office position .

As for play calling, all of the coaches get together weekly and put together the game plan which is the storied 15 scripted plays and a list of plays for each situation against the current week's opponent (the play sheet you see Shanahan holding) along with a few "wild card" plays to be used if the ideal situations exist. I don't think we even know who is making the preliminary play selections from that game plan which are passed to Shanahan for his approval prior to being passed to the QB.

[Kaylore]

That's one example of a team that couldn't make it work. Those are different men on a different level of football with different players in a different league. I don't know who is doing what, so I'm inclined to trust Shanahan until we see a change.

[Northman]

Dont know for sure, but with Fassel gone in Baltimore ought to be interesting to see how the offense performs with Billick actually doing all the play calling. Maybe Shanny needs to take over more duties in that area i dont know.

[pootz22]

I second the "good thread" comment above. I was wondering this myself. Who is the QB coach? Hemm? Seems the running is fine but its more basic, there seems to be no gel'in quite yet. Like shanny said, "the problem isnt in one area, it's wrong routes, bad passes, dropped balls....". I would have thought they would work out the kinks during bye week.

Something I also thought but never really explored is the quality of defense not giving the offense a chance to click and get confidence. Is it that defensive teams dont have the money for offensive talent or the defense holds the offense down a bit during practice and that carries over to games regarding chemistry. The common thought I believe is that it should make it better but I wonder sometimes. Not that I am complaining about the defense or saying it should back off but the problem seems deeper if it hasnt worked out over 5 weeks of games and a bye.

Random thoughts, fire at will.

[BigPlayShay]

Pat McPherson is the QB coach and has been for a few years. Tatum said on his show on the fan the other night that Dinger is calling the plays as he is in the booth. Dennision is still on the sidelines as he still coaches the O-Line. Maybe Shanny and Dinger are the ones that are not in sync with play-calling.

[riiiiick]

Pat McPherson is the QB coach and has been for a few years. Tatum said on his show on the fan the other night that Dinger is calling the plays as he is in the booth. Dennision is still on the sidelines as he still coaches the O-Line. Maybe Shanny and Dinger are the ones that are not in sync with play-calling.

dinger calls the plays? i guess i had assumed with kubes gone, shanny had taken over that role. well 2 OC's gone this week and our offense is doing worse than them both, i think. i would like to see shanny not trust dinger so much and maybe show him how this offense works. shanny and kubes would seem to go for the juggler when they had a team down. i don't see that so far this year.

[jonny1]

Dinger suggests, Shanahan calls the plays.