Was Morris the Wrong Hire? (Spoiler.. We Don't Know)

DentonLurker · September 13, 2023

11 minutes ago, TreeFiddy said:

Coaches will always tell you that because it is in their best interest to tell you that to CYA.

Maybe, but that also doesn’t make it not true.

Glory to the Green · September 13, 2023

At this point, I want to see improvements. Tackling for sure. Pressuring the QB. Consistent running of the ball.

I’m also leaning towards Rogers starting on Saturday. He played too well for him to not get a shot. Does a consistent offense lead to better defense?

Udomann · September 13, 2023

7 minutes ago, DentonLurker said:

I haven’t seen anyone accepting poor. I have seen people saying, “let’s give this staff more than two weeks.”

That completely ignores 2/3rds of the comment. Do you think we should expect more? Marginally better? Or are you OK with this trajectory

DentonLurker · September 13, 2023

2 minutes ago, Udomann said:

That completely ignores 2/3rds of the comment. Do you think we should expect more? Marginally better? Or are you OK with this trajectory

It depends on what happens in…say…maybe the next 10 games. I’m not ready to say what the trajectory is at this point. These players and coaches are still learning about each other. Lots of ball left to play.

THOR · September 13, 2023

8 minutes ago, DeepGreen said:

It’s O.K. to lose our home openers every season? Pretty low bar in my opinion.

maybe my math is wrong....but 8 years.....3 first home game losses...

what am i missing here?

Green P1 · September 13, 2023

It’s not too soon to tell if he was the wrong hire… it’s already too late.

Green Crazy · September 13, 2023

As someone who didn't like the Morris hire from the beginning, let alone his coaching decisions and thought everyone should temper their excitement about Rogers, he deserves more time. These first two games have been horrible, but everything changed from last year, and he or any new hire deserves more than two games before having his head called for. I will have plenty to say if this season continues down this road, but for now I'm cutting him some slack. The worst part of this thing is the defense and that can't be fixed by him, so Caponi needs to fix this ASAP. I'm afraid this will be a long season, but I picked us to go 4-8, so I'm not panicked yet.

I will say that the way Rogers played in the second half gives me hope for the offense this week. We'll see.

MrAlien · September 13, 2023

Does he deserve more time, how much more time? The original poster seems to suggest giving him a full season and off season, thats giving him a whole year from now. If he was a more experienced head coach, with some recruiting leads, I would probably agree. However all I have seen is this team steps backwards in every aspect of the program.

If it was up to me, I would give him 2 more weeks to show some sign that this program is heading in the right direction. Waiting until the end of the season is to late to make a decision, I think its best to have a coach in place in early November to take full advantage of recruiting and assistant coaching hires.

Mean Green 93-98 · September 13, 2023

13 minutes ago, MrAlien said:

Does he deserve more time, how much more time? The original poster seems to suggest giving him a full season and off season, thats giving him a whole year from now. If he was a more experienced head coach, with some recruiting leads, I would probably agree. However all I have seen is this team steps backwards in every aspect of the program.

If it was up to me, I would give him 2 more weeks to show some sign that this program is heading in the right direction. Waiting until the end of the season is to late to make a decision, I think its best to have a coach in place in early November to take full advantage of recruiting and assistant coaching hires.

Regardless of whether he deserves more time, you do know he's coming back next year no matter what, right? And it would take some doing to fire him after next year, much less this year. The guy has a 5-year contract. At this point, we just have to hope things improve for him and his staff.

vpackrats · September 13, 2023

3 hours ago, Udomann said:

Not going for it. Morris is essentially a CEO, and a very well paid one, to take over an organization and build on it. Any CEO would have already been run out of the company on his golden parachute if they took a reasonable organization and completely turned it unprofitable in 10 months.

We hired him to improve the program, and it's almost worse than ever. Bad decisions up front with the promise that maybe it will get better don't play anywhere else... and we customers shouldn't accept it. I don't care if he might be a good hire 3 years from now. This staff is bad now.

You give an example of a CEO needing to be run out in 10 months. Fair enough. But you're wanting to give this guy 2 games (aka 2 weeks)?! Um, OK.

Finally, for all the people ready to fire our coach because we're 0-2 with 2 bad losses let me leave you with this .... it's a good thing the internet hadn't been invented yet in 1973. Did you know Hayden Fry started out 0-2 including an embarrassing 31-7 loss to UTA on Opening Day. UTA!! Now I'm NOT saying Eric Morris is going to turn out like Hayden Fry. However, I WOULD put a $100,000 bet in Vegas that if this message board was around in 1973 it would be filled with "Fire Hayden Fry" threads, "What the Hell is he DOING?!" and my personal favorite "The North Texas offense has only scored 10 points in 2 games against UTA and Memphis. WTF?!? This OC has got to go ... and Fry with him". C'mon now... you know it's true. 🙂

TIgreen01 · September 13, 2023

While I can appreciate the calls for patience, I can’t excuse the 3 man fronts in extra wide splits with one linebacker within 5 yards of the LOS on obvious rushing downs. Changing schemes is not going to be pretty all the time. But for goodness sakes can we at least setup pre-snap in positions that give our guys a chance?! Don’t talk about players and tackling being a problem when we aren’t putting them in position to make even routine plays. It’s mind boggling football we’re watching right now.

Udomann · September 13, 2023

6 minutes ago, vpackrats said:

You give an example of a CEO needing to be run out in 10 months. Fair enough. But you're wanting to give this guy 2 games (aka 2 weeks)?! Um, OK.

Finally, for all the people ready to fire our coach because we're 0-2 with 2 bad losses let me leave you with this .... it's a good thing the internet hadn't been invented yet in 1973. Did you know Hayden Fry started out 0-2 including an embarrassing 31-7 loss to UTA on Opening Day.

Let's not ignore the 10 months building up to those 2 games where he had time to learn the players and coaches abilities

And comparing Fry's period to the NIL/Portal period is apples vs coconuts. Not even remotely similar in context. Keep living in the '70s but this is a new century.

DeepGreen · September 13, 2023

I have no patience with a hire like this one! The way we lost is inexcusable!!! Piss poor tackling. No blocking! We have a stable of proven backs and no one can block for them? Are you kidding me?

Yet, a “new head coach at Texas State- San Marcos got the job done against Baylor. UNT lays an egg! Unacceptable!!! Is this is the best Mosley could get? Pathetic.

Edited September 13, 2023 by DeepGreen

97and03 · September 13, 2023

7 hours ago, TheReal_jayD said:

Today, with the transfer portal and NIL opportunities, a team can be rebuilt relatively quickly

7 hours ago, TheReal_jayD said:

Therefore, it is crucial to give Morris time to bring in players who fit his system and identify the right players on the current roster who can excel within it.

billyboy85 · September 13, 2023

Hey, that’s how every great sports movie starts. Maybe he’ll have a statue one day 🤷‍♂️

meangreenbob · September 13, 2023

5 hours ago, vpackrats said:

You give an example of a CEO needing to be run out in 10 months. Fair enough. But you're wanting to give this guy 2 games (aka 2 weeks)?! Um, OK.

Finally, for all the people ready to fire our coach because we're 0-2 with 2 bad losses let me leave you with this .... it's a good thing the internet hadn't been invented yet in 1973. Did you know Hayden Fry started out 0-2 including an embarrassing 31-7 loss to UTA on Opening Day. UTA!! Now I'm NOT saying Eric Morris is going to turn out like Hayden Fry. However, I WOULD put a $100,000 bet in Vegas that if this message board was around in 1973 it would be filled with "Fire Hayden Fry" threads, "What the Hell is he DOING?!" and my personal favorite "The North Texas offense has only scored 10 points in 2 games against UTA and Memphis. WTF?!? This OC has got to go ... and Fry with him". C'mon now... you know it's true. 🙂

You’re missing the point. The last 4 head coaches have missed the mark and valuable time has been waisted. We are no where near where we should be at this point in time because of very poor leadership and poor decisions made at the top.

Edited September 13, 2023 by meangreenbob

meangreenbob · September 13, 2023

5 hours ago, TIgreen01 said:

While I can appreciate the calls for patience, I can’t excuse the 3 man fronts in extra wide splits with one linebacker within 5 yards of the LOS on obvious rushing downs. Changing schemes is not going to be pretty all the time. But for goodness sakes can we at least setup pre-snap in positions that give our guys a chance?! Don’t talk about players and tackling being a problem when we aren’t putting them in position to make even routine plays. It’s mind boggling football we’re watching right now.

So what you’re asking, can the coaches actually do what they are paid to do? 😂

GrayEagle · September 13, 2023

11 hours ago, GMG_Dallas said:

Justin Fuente won 4 games his first year at Memphis in 2012. Yes, however, Memphis won 2 games in 2011, 1 in 2010, and 2 in 2009. He took over a bad squad.

Willie Fritz won 4 his first year at Tulane in 2016. Again, Tulane won 3 games each of the previous two years. Somewhat immediate improvement and it was a bad program. He took over a program with 1 winning season since 2002 and has given them 4 seasons at .500 or better, a modern-day rarity for Tulane. His 2 win season is an outlier.

Matt Rhule is the only one of those three who had a worst record than the year prior to him taking over although. Temple won 4 the year before he took over and 2 his first year with some 4 losses of 3 points or less.

I don't think Morris' situation compares to the coaches you mentioned. Time well tell if Morris is the guy but there's no sugar coating the start of his era.

Not in the two games played but I will give him some credit for this recruiting class being an improvement over most of the past classes. I believe that he has established many good connections with coaches that will help in the future if we can make winners of them.

GrayEagle · September 13, 2023

11 hours ago, GMG_Dallas said:

Justin Fuente won 4 games his first year at Memphis in 2012. Yes, however, Memphis won 2 games in 2011, 1 in 2010, and 2 in 2009. He took over a bad squad.

Willie Fritz won 4 his first year at Tulane in 2016. Again, Tulane won 3 games each of the previous two years. Somewhat immediate improvement and it was a bad program. He took over a program with 1 winning season since 2002 and has given them 4 seasons at .500 or better, a modern-day rarity for Tulane. His 2 win season is an outlier.

Matt Rhule is the only one of those three who had a worst record than the year prior to him taking over although. Temple won 4 the year before he took over and 2 his first year with some 4 losses of 3 points or less.

I don't think Morris' situation compares to the coaches you mentioned. Time well tell if Morris is the guy but there's no sugar coating the start of his era.

Not in the two games played but I will give him some credit for this recruiting class being an improvement over most of the past classes. I believe that he has established many good connections with coaches that will help in the future if we can make winners of them.

Added thought. The Portal was especially unkind to continuance of what we had last year. Maybe our worst year for losses.

Cr1028 · September 13, 2023

12 hours ago, DentonLurker said:

It depends on what happens in…say…maybe the next 10 games. I’m not ready to say what the trajectory is at this point. These players and coaches are still learning about each other. Lots of ball left to play.

You say players and coaches need plural but in practice it usually only applies to the Head Coach. Littrell’s staff was poached repeatedly in the beginning of his tenure but when we had to replace a coordinator or assistant there was never a “still learning about each other”, it was always “he’s been here 6 years or whatever”.

The whole point of this hire was to build upon the foundation that Seth built amd take us higher yet it looks more like EMo is tearing it down.

Edited September 13, 2023 by Cr1028

DentonLurker · September 13, 2023

18 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

You say players and coaches need plural but in practice it usually only applies to the Head Coach.

Huh?

22 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

Littrell’s staff was poached repeatedly in the beginning of his tenure but when we had to replace a coordinator or assistant there was never a “still learning about each other”, it was always “he’s been here 6 year ls or whatever”.

There is a difference in one coach learning about a team and an entire staff.