Larry Coker for OC?

Buzzing72

Buzzing72

Jolly Good Fellow
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Fox Sports radio claims that Georgia Tech has spoke to Larry Coker as a possible replacement for Nix at OC. but I can not find anything online backing that up. .
 
That would be interesting IMO. The only concern I would have is the steady decline scUM had with him at the helm. But then again we are looking for an OC not an HC.
 
If Coker came, I would view it as a one year solution. He's obviously going to be a head coach somewhere next year.

So either CCG has someone else in mind on the staff that needs another year of grooming......or he only has a one year plan. Hope its the former, not the latter.
 
bsakoff said:
Fox Sports radio claims that Georgia Tech has spoke to Larry Coker as a possible replacement for Nix at OC. but I can not find anything online backing that up. .
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That would be freaking awesome.

QB Coach - George Godsey
Offensive Coordinator - Larry Coker

Geis stays WR Coach, Geoff Collins promoted to Special Teams or TEs coach.
 
Did we lose two coaches? I thought we only had one opening...

No doubt in my mind that Coker would kick rear with the talent we have coming back...

I don't really want to live through another on-the-job training experience...
 
Coker would be an absolutely insanely awesome hire, so much so that I seriously seriously doubt we could pull it off.
 
I am not that excited about Coker as a potential OC. I think a lot of his success is based on riding the Butch Davis wave at Miami. If he is that good, why doesn't Butch Davis want him at UNC?
 
I not sure what Coker's duties were at Miami, but their offense has been less productive with likely more talent. Is he really that good of an OC? Miami's offense has gotten worse every year since he's gotten there.
Also, no one would expect him to be here for any length of time.
 
You can't argue that Coker is not a good coach, unless you just think he's incredibly lucky. Each team he has been a part of since 1983 when he got his first BCS gig has been quite good, going to bowl games 17 out of the 23 years since then.

2005 Peach Bowl Louisiana State 40, Miami 3 L
2004 Peach Bowl Miami 27, Florida 10 W
2004 Orange Bowl Miami 16, Florida State 14 W
2003 Fiesta Bowl Ohio State 31, Miami 24 (2 OT) L
2002 Rose Bowl Miami 37, Nebraska 14 W
2001 Sugar Bowl Miami 37, Florida 20 W
2000 Gator Bowl Miami 28, Georgia Tech 13 W
1998 MicronPC Bowl Miami 46, N.C. State 23 W
1996 Carquest Bowl Miami 31, Virginia 21 W
1994 Citrus Bowl Alabama 24, Ohio State 17 L
1993 Holiday Bowl Ohio State 28, BYU 21 W
1991 Gator Bowl Oklahoma 48, Virginia 14 W
1988 Holiday Bowl Oklahoma St. 62, Wyoming 14 W
1987 Sun Bowl Oklahoma St. 35, W. Virginia 33 W
1985 Gator Bowl Florida St. 34, Oklahoma St. 23 L
1984 Gator Bowl Oklahoma St. 21, S. Carolina 14 W
1983 Bluebonnet Bowl Oklahoma St. 24, Baylor 14 W
 
JTS said:
I am not that excited about Coker as a potential OC. I think a lot of his success is based on riding the Butch Davis wave at Miami. If he is that good, why doesn't Butch Davis want him at UNC?
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I hate Miami....but I cannot say Coker was not successful...just that he cannot control a bunch of thugs he should have never recruited and his loyalty bit him on the butt...because thugs cannot love you back when their rear is on the line.

Regarding offense, he obviously knows how to be part of a winning team. As offensive coordinator under Butch Davis...and having 31 less scholarships than the 85 allowed by the NCAA...they built the program to a 51-20 record during that time (.718 winning percentage)...including 11-1 and ranked #2 during his last year as OC. The following year Coker as head coach led them to a national title...and he compiled a 60-15 record during his career (.800 winning percentage).

Oddly enough...even though he had a lot of thugs...all 21 of those thugs in the 2005 class got a degree...100% grad rate. It was 84% the for the 2004 class.

All of that being said....it would be great to have Godsey come back as QB coach and Coker as OC. We also have to get Geoff Collins on the field again within a year or he will surely leave. However, we only have one position available at this time. Another however...changes are rarely announced within 2 weeks of signing day so we will likely hear nothing concrete about movement in/out until the week of Monday, Feb. 11.
 
Damarius said:
That would be freaking awesome.

QB Coach - George Godsey
Offensive Coordinator - Larry Coker

Geis stays WR Coach, Geoff Collins promoted to Special Teams or TEs coach.
Click to expand...

I doubt that either Jeep(te's) or Kelly(st's) are going anywhere. They played a big role in putting together this year's recruiting class. That was the main reason the two of them were hired last year.

There is the rumor going around that Coker may indeed be on the short list for OC.
 
I've haven't really followed his career, but during that time with Butch Davis, didn't they win games with awesome defense, forcing turnovers, and good special teams, much like the system VT is still successful with? Exactly how productive were his offenses when he was just the OC? Also, the BE was even worse than the ACC back then.

I just don't see anything that shows me he'd be a good OC.
 
Coker was OC at 4 different schools.

At Tulsa under John Cooper they scored 26.9 ppg over 3 years with a high of 31/game.

At Okie State under Pat Jones the numbers were 28.1 over 6 years. High was 49 ppg in 1988.

One year at Okie State with Jimmy Johnson they scored 22.5.

He was with Gibbs at Oklahoma and they averaged 31 pg over 3 years.

At Miami they scored 33.3 pg for his 6 years as OC. highest was 42.2 in 2000.

Not making a case either way but he seems to have experience with both passing and rushing attacks (Miami vs Okie State) and has put up better number for the most part than we've seen over the last 5 years for what that's worth. Lots of pros off those teams as well including Barry Sanders.
 
oh ok, haven't seen his actually numbers before now. Going strictly off the numbers, he seems to do a pretty good job as an OC.

I still don't know if want someone that likely won't stay around long, especially if he has any kind of success as our OC, though I guess that would be true of most any OC/DC.
 
mookie43 said:
If Coker came, I would view it as a one year solution. He's obviously going to be a head coach somewhere next year.

So either CCG has someone else in mind on the staff that needs another year of grooming......or he only has a one year plan. Hope its the former, not the latter.
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No way that is a given. He basically took a program at Miami that was at the top when Butch Davis left and ran it in the ground. Combine that with all the extracurricular stuff and I will be surprised if ther is a rush to hire him again as a HC
 
#1 Never hire someone based on how long they will stay unless you're top priority is mediocrity.

Who, pray tell, could we hire that would be better than Coker and yet more likely to stay. The Steelers just hired a 34 year old with ONE (1) (UNO) year of experience as a DC (one 6-10 seson no less) FOR THEIR HEAD COACH.

We have been 'training' Nix for years and now with one year at the helm, he is gone.

#2 Predicting the future is a bad idea. Coker could get an offer at any time or never. Coker might just decide that he is happy as a coordinator. He is already very wealthy by most standards and I seriously doubt if he HAS to work. The guy has a ring and IMHO nothing much to prove.

Why else is this realistic?
2a. Chan appears to be great to work for.
2b. GT has outstanding young men to mold which should be a pleasant surprise for an ex-Miami HC.
2c. Atlanta is a nice place to live.
2d. GT has(d) a reasonable, pleasant fan base. While we still have occasional feminine-hygiene-product bags who go in the AA and verbally accost the secretaries and nutcases who attempt to hack away your support with public e-mail campaigns, we have among the fewest in the South and far less than the football factories.
 
The guy was OC under Butch Davis for many years. I imagine no one knows Coker as an OC better than Butch Davis. Butch Davis does not want Coker as his OC at UNC. I think that this speaks volumes about why we should not hire him.
 
The guy was OC under Butch Davis for many years. I imagine no one knows Coker as an OC better than Butch Davis. Butch Davis does not want Coker as his OC at UNC. I think that this speaks volumes about why we should not hire him.
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Or it could be that Butch Davis already hired an OC, or that Larry didn't want to go work for him again, cementing his legacy as Butch's lapdog...

Come on. If Ralph got fired, would he go to work for O'Leary as an OC? I doubt it. If O'Leary got fired, would he go to work for Bobby Ross as a DC? I doubt it. Doing that makes you look stagnant professionally. Butch could very well have called Coker up and asked him to interview, and for all we know Coker turned him down.

OR it could be that Coker doesn't think UNC is that big of a program.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/16014535.htm
 
JTS said:
The guy was OC under Butch Davis for many years. I imagine no one knows Coker as an OC better than Butch Davis. Butch Davis does not want Coker as his OC at UNC. I think that this speaks volumes about why we should not hire him.
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And you know this how?

I don't suppose the fact that he hired Shoop on the recommendation of a person that he has great respect for, Norv Turner, made a difference? Or maybe the fact that Coker walked away from UM with a $3MM buyout might have made him decide to take more than a month off before jumping back on that horse.

Coker is said to be a damn nice guy as well as a hell of an O.C., and he is still friends with Davis.
 
JTS said:
The guy was OC under Butch Davis for many years. I imagine no one knows Coker as an OC better than Butch Davis. Butch Davis does not want Coker as his OC at UNC. I think that this speaks volumes about why we should not hire him.
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There's a world of difference between building a program under Butch Davis at UNC, and refining an existing situation under Chan Gailey at GT.

Butch has no reason to want a former HFC who followed him at Miami. Too much room for comparisons and recriminations.

The other way of looking at it is that Butch Davis was Coker's HFC for years, but did not follow him to the pros, where Davis failed. Larry Coker does not want Davis as his HFC. I think that this speaks volumes about why UNC made a mistake when they hired Davis.

Either way, you're taking a situation that is not relevant, and reading waaay too much into it, to fit your preconceptions.
 
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