Why North Texas coach Dan McCarney is confident in offense

MeanGreenTexan · April 29, 2015

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if chico can sell greer to mac and the fans, then he better be able to bring out all his tricks to get damarcus smith in there.

I think once Smith gets to fall practice (if he does), the tricks are going to have to be focused around keeping him out of there.

BillySee58 · April 29, 2015

we have also heard mac say he does not want a statue at QB. we heard it come straight from his mouth. but yet, we have Greer. the Florida kid issue was QB numbers. not mac evaluating his talent. Mac is not going out there looking for QBs. Canales is. Greer is on Canales, Brock was Canales, Means was Canales. i dont know about Dajon.
its up to Canales to sell his plan or idea to the head coach. i agree that Mac has final say, so he is most likely the last approver and should be held responsible too. i know theres some talent that doesnt even get seen by mac, because chico had already ruled them out. i know it for sure in 2014.
i have been to the camps and see how it works.
not just UNT either. head coaches goes around and asks the position coaches and co ordinators if they see anybody worth looking at. grant can like a wr, but if chico doesnt like him, its irrelevant. grant isnt going to go to mac and get chico overruled.
people are mad a mac for mcnulty being in there, but from what i see, mac has picked a better qb than chico has. maybe mac should be out there looking...
and its chicos fault that dajon isnt developed. it took two years to go uptempo, but better late than never. (i think skladany could have been holding that back)
if chico recruited dajon, then he should be able to come up with a system that works, and a system that makes dajon looks good enough to where mac would sign off on it. mac obviously isnt against a qb running the ball. if dajon is dumb, then scale the system down. we are all of a sudden simplifying the offense? 2 years late. chicos fault. and lets not pretend Mac is some offensive genius. he's easy to trick. he got tricked into bringing in Brock. tricked into bringing in Greer with limited JUCO film, and starting him against Texas with no D1 experience.
if chico can sell greer to mac and the fans, then he better be able to bring out all his tricks to get damarcus smith in there.

I never said Riddle was a case of Mac evaluating QBs. I just said we heard directly from his father that Coach Mccarney was the one who had the final say in whether or not an offer would be extended. I understand Canales does the majority of recruiting and evaluating, but it is up to Coach Mac to extend and okay the offer.

You said you agree, so what I'm saying is that it's obvious Coach Mac has only okay'd offers to tall QBs so far with the two exceptions I mentioned. That's what he wants. So that limits the QBs Canales can offer. That doesn't completely exclude Canales from blame, but it does make things more difficult.

Like I've said, I think it's reasonably possible that we can get a better QB evaluator, developer, and OC than Canales. I just don't expect we'll suddenly start signing all-CUSA QBs and/or start being at the top of the conference in offense just by replacing him.

GOMG2013 · April 29, 2015

and another thing since the Florida kid was brought up. isnt that proof that Chico is responsible for going out there looking for QBs and presenting them to Mac? good thing Mac finally said no.

Why is Chico out there looking at QBs from the state of Florida with no offers? seriously...and we are going to blame Mac. i guess recruiting QBs in Texas with no offers wasnt working out...

fans need to pay attention...unless yall believe Mac told Chico to go and recruit me a QB that has limited D1 intrest and ability....

Mean Green 93-98 · April 29, 2015

Then I guess you'll be thrilled to know that our one QB offer right now is to a guy with offers from Oregon, Indiana, Purdue, BYU, et al.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Mean Green 93-98

BillySee58 · April 29, 2015

and another thing since the Florida kid was brought up. isnt that proof that Chico is responsible for going out there looking for QBs and presenting them to Mac? good thing Mac finally said no.
Why is Chico out there looking at QBs from the state of Florida with no offers? seriously...and we are going to blame Mac. i guess recruiting QBs in Texas with no offers wasnt working out...
fans need to pay attention...unless yall believe Mac told Chico to go and recruit me a QB that has limited D1 intrest and ability....

Again, I haven't seen anyone argue that Chico doesn't do the QB recruiting. All I said was that Coach Mccarney is the one that finalizes the offers. It was pretty obvious the entire recruiting cycle that we were not going to take a QB with Chumley slotted as our QB for the class, as it looks like it was agreed on. Riddle and a few others were slow played, but Coach Mac didn't want a high school QB last class, outside of Chumley.

GOMG2013 · April 29, 2015

You said you agree, so what I'm saying is that it's obvious Coach Mac has only okay'd offers to tall QBs so far with the two exceptions I mentioned. That's what he wants. So that limits the QBs Canales can offer. That doesn't completely exclude Canales from blame, but it does make things more difficult.

most coaches in college prefer a tall 6'5 QB. why mac is getting killed for that by this fanbase is silly. who wouldnt want a QB with pro size?

he also stated he wanted someone mobile and we still ended up with Greer. we also have McNulty and other short QBs stealing reps. Mac would prefer a mobile 6'5 QB like all of America would, but he has made several exceptions based on the options he has been presented with.

Ben Gooding · April 29, 2015

The problem is not that 6'5" issue. The problem is that there are really good QB's out there that are being passed up because they don't fall into that 6'5" category. The QB down at utsa being a prime example of that. He very well might throw for 3000 yards this year. That QB was waiting on an offer from us, waiting. And we passed it up. The bottom line to all of this QB talk is that we need Damarcus Smith to come in and take this job. That would be beneficial to everyone in and around this program.

GOMG2013 · April 29, 2015

That's probably an overstatement. He played on the offensive side of the ball in college, has coached on both sides of the ball, and he clearly has an offensive philosophy that any O.C. under him will have to follow.

quit trolling dude...

macs a defensive coach. Mac coached DLine as soon as he started coaching as a GA and 10 years at iowa. then 4 years as a DL coach and DC at Wisconsin. Head coach at Iowa State for 11 years, Skladany was his DC.

why am i even responding when i am obviously being trolled...you got me...stop playing...

MeanGreenTexan · April 29, 2015

quit trolling dude...
macs a defensive coach. Mac coached DLine as soon as he started coaching as a GA and 10 years at iowa. then 4 years as a DL coach and DC at Wisconsin. Head coach at Iowa State for 11 years, Skladany was his DC.
why am i even responding when i am obviously being trolled...you got me...stop playing...

I think his point was more the "he clearly has an offensive philosophy that any O.C. under him will have to follow." comment. Smashmouth, run-heavy, mistake-free (meaning less risky) Offense is McCarney's calling card. Any O.C. is going to have to fit their schemes into that mold.

GOMG2013 · April 29, 2015

I think his point was more the "he clearly has an offensive philosophy that any O.C. under him will have to follow." comment. Smashmouth, run-heavy, mistake-free (meaning less risky) Offense is McCarney's calling card. Any O.C. is going to have to fit their schemes into that mold.

thats a "no ish" statement. of course an OC has to work around a head coaches philosophy. especially if its a defensie first head coach.

Mean Green 93-98 · April 29, 2015

thats a "no ish" statement. of course an OC has to work around a head coaches philosophy. especially if its a defensie first head coach.

If it is, why were you trying to imply that Coach Mac is some kind of "hands off" kind of guy with the offense? He's all over the place, looking after both sides of the ball. He might be defense first, but insinuating he is a defense only coach as you did is ridiculous.

MeanGreenTexan · April 29, 2015

thats a "no ish" statement. of course an OC has to work around a head coaches philosophy. especially if its a defensie first head coach.

And if he has the horses to run his O, it works really well. But when he doesn't, and he mostly hasn't, then he's a quick scapegoat.

greenit · April 30, 2015

Since Dodge hired Chico to run his offense it's only fair that Mac hires Dodge.

Harry · April 30, 2015

I agree with GoMG2013. This offense is Chico's responsibility. Period.

GOMG2013 · April 30, 2015

If it is, why were you trying to imply that Coach Mac is some kind of "hands off" kind of guy with the offense? He's all over the place, looking after both sides of the ball. He might be defense first, but insinuating he is a defense only coach as you did is ridiculous.

I've posted several times that Chico has limitations and has to work around Mac being conservative. It's still no excuse for being predictable, the talent level on offense, and the development and preparation of the QBs.

I never said or implied he was defense only. I don't think he calls defensive plays either.

I agree with some posters that if Chico totally had his way, the offense would look different. No way a QB coach runs a system where his QB is a bus driver. It's still no excuse for the talent level at QB.

If Chico had his way, Would it be much different with last year's starting personel? Well good luck running a wide open offense with WRs who can't consistently catch or get separation, and with no depth at WR. If pegram is the starting back how high flying will the offense be? There still has to be the right talent recruited to run the system. Maybe the Carthage duo is a start. We will need a few more classes of good wrs and backs to even run what Chico wants.

Even with the conservative system we had in 2013, how many games we win with a quality 3 star QB or a home run threat like Dunbar?

GOMG2013 · April 30, 2015

Since Dodge hired Chico to run his offense it's only fair that Mac hires Dodge.

Chico was hired to run an open offense. If Chico was at Baylor or a&m, he would look way better with the HC offensive philosophy and talent the school has coming in. Chico has to have some type of coaching skills to coach this long.

Is he a good fit for this team and coach? Doesn't look like it. Mac has already shown a few times that his philosophy can win with the right talent. Why would he change for Chico? Chico should be the one adjusting and creating an offense that works.

Even looking at the history of UNT, success has come from running the ball and defense. UNT best players with NFL talent has come with RBs and LBs. Now fans expect some new high flying offense and a savior at QB. Something that has never been successful at UNT.

What is more realistic is getting back to doing something that you have already been good at. Last year our LBs and RBs were bad.

MeanGreenTexan · April 30, 2015

I've posted several times that Chico has limitations and has to work around Mac being conservative. It's still no excuse for being predictable, the talent level on offense, and the development and preparation of the QBs.
I never said or implied he was defense only. I don't think he calls defensive plays either.
I agree with some posters that if Chico totally had his way, the offense would look different. No way a QB coach runs a system where his QB is a bus driver. It's still no excuse for the talent level at QB.
If Chico had his way, Would it be much different with last year's starting personel? Well good luck running a wide open offense with WRs who can't consistently catch or get separation, and with no depth at WR. If pegram is the starting back how high flying will the offense be? There still has to be the right talent recruited to run the system. Maybe the Carthage duo is a start. We will need a few more classes of good wrs and backs to even run what Chico wants.
Even with the conservative system we had in 2013, how many games we win with a quality 3 star QB or a home run threat like Dunbar?

For sure.

I think the lack of QB recruitment/development is absolutely on Chico. It's been horrible and he needs to be held accountable.

This should be compartmentalized though against play-calling and in-game management, because they're 2 completely separate things.

If Chico doesn't have a QB (or even RB's/WR's) to fully-execute his offense (again, the QB development is on Chico), he must dumb it down and call the plays that his sub-par QB CAN execute.

Unfortunately, that's where we are now. There is some creativity in there (I'm a fan of that diamond formation in the backfield), but for the most part, it's plain ol' vanilla.

GOMG2013 · April 30, 2015

For sure.
I think the lack of QB recruitment/development is absolutely on Chico. It's been horrible and he needs to be held accountable.
This should be compartmentalized though against play-calling and in-game management, because they're 2 completely separate things.

If Chico doesn't have a QB (or even RB's/WR's) to fully-execute his offense (again, the QB development is on Chico), he must dumb it down and call the plays that his sub-par QB CAN execute.
Unfortunately, that's where we are now. There is some creativity in there (I'm a fan of that diamond formation in the backfield), but for the most part, it's plain ol' vanilla.

i think mccarney, skladany, and chico are system coaches. they believe in the system more than the talent and athletic ability. if you dont know the system, proper techniques, and have the knowledge, you wont get a shot.

the other extreme is throwing your best athletes out there, even if they make mistakes. designing a system to get the best players on the field. even if they make mistakes and are undiciplined.

i would like to see a combination of the two and hopefully we are headed in that direction. it took two years to simplify things. after brock, and dajon could not pick things up, we can not afford to have smith end up in the same boat. sure DT, Greer, and mcnulty may have had the higher football IQ and better study habits, but they lack the athleticism and playmaking ability.

i have read up on cosh, and from what i have seen, he is more willing to tweak his system to get more athleticism on the field. and ognce you get them on the field, you need them reacting and playing football instead of overthinking.

GOMG2013 · April 30, 2015

Unfortunately, that's where we are now. There is some creativity in there (I'm a fan of that diamond formation in the backfield), but for the most part, it's plain ol' vanilla.

it seems as if a multi back set like the diamond can take advantage of our strength at RB. not sure why we dont see more two back sets and throwing to the RB (and not peagram) out of the backfield more.

seems like a young or limited QB would benefit by having more help in the backfield also. i know one thing, having an empty backfield with an immobile or hesitant QB is asking for disaster.

FirefightnRick · May 1, 2015

FIF-FFR!

Agree.

Rick

Edited May 1, 2015 by FirefightnRick

untjim1995 · May 1, 2015

What QB in their right mind is gonna come here to play in this offense? Doesn't matter who the OC is if the head coach says that the offense will be a run-first, run-second, run-last mindset. McDickney's offense never has gotten a big time throwing QB in here. Only Dodge's spread offense got us Vizza, but the lack of an OL and a real college gameplan got him beaten so bad that he quit after one year. Your only QBs that have had any "success" have been busdrivers with tremendous defenses and outstanding special teams. Scott Hall, Andrew Smith, and Derek Thompson had moments of success here for longer than a few games, but the rest have not.

Chico isn't that great of an OC to me, but him trying to recruit anyone here in 2015 when we run an offense that ran out of vogue in 1975 is almost impossible. McCarney is going to have to adjust his offensive mindset, just like Gary Patterson did last year for TCU if we ever want to get in on decent G5 offensive talent. Otherwise, we have at least three more years that look a lot like the majority of the last 10 years.