MD thread on Fridge...

I think Fridge's biggest weaknesses are coming to light. I think Fridge is one of the most brilliant X's and O's mind in all of football (Pro and College). But he is a lousy evaluater of talent and he isn't a great salesman. Up until he took the job at UM he never had to do either.
 
BarrelORum said:
I think Fridge's biggest weaknesses are coming to light. I think Fridge is one of the most brilliant X's and O's mind in all of football (Pro and College). But he is a lousy evaluater of talent and he isn't a great salesman. Up until he took the job at UM he never had to do either.
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BOR, you may have just summed up more than the Fridge's equation.

You have hit the nail on the head here, and that also goes to say just because someone is a absolutely great Offensive Cordinator or Def Cord, doesn't necessarily mean they are HC material. Not saying that he isn't, hasn't been or won't be a good HC, he may wind up with a NC team soon. But there is so much more to being the HC than being an OC or a DC.
 
romegajacket said:
But there is so much more to being the HC than being an OC or a DC.
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Ding,ding,ding. That is a Winner!!

Chan can be a great head coach because he knows football, can recruit with the best of 'em, and he is a natural spokesman for good things, including Ga. Tech.
My guess is that Chan does not regret "his decision" to turn over the OC job to Nix as much as he did a month ago.

Sadly, Ralph seems to not have the big picture HC requirements. Love him for what he did here though as OC.
 
Fridge in all of his greatness was always given the best talent when he was here. The defensive side of the ball was always given the left overs. Thus our awful defense. I respect him as a coach and he did win 10 games for a couple of years, but I do not know if he can recruit enough to stay at the top of the division. We know from past Maryland teams that great talent has gone there, but will it. Only time will tell.
 
If Fridge were our OC, then Michael Johnson would be playing TE, not DE.
 
Two Things

1. I think Nix was not a full OC before this season is because he was not ready to be OC. All the fonts that are saying, "See! Nix should have been OC last year!" would have been the ones throwing him under the bus if he was OC last year and not ready, and would not have suffered to let him keep the job this year when he WAS ready.

2. I think MJ would have been a stud at either position. In some alternate universe, a font is posting, "Gee, imagine what a mistake it would have been to have wasted MJ at DE!" With that said, I am glad he is at DE.
 
I don't know how good a TE he could be, but I do know he's a defensive beast.

I say you give your rockstar coordinator whatever he needs to continue being a rockstar. If that means giving MJ to Tenuta and giving all our defensive tackles to Fridge, so be it.

I'm pleasently surprised with Nix so far. The offense is a near textbook version of the spread option so far. Other than the one reverse, the plays are all pretty well strait out of "Spread Option For Dummies," but that's A-OK by me, because its working.
 
but if you look at the play calling we have seen a variety from game to game. We had some deep go routes against VT but against MD you saw more timing routes similar to VT's 2nd half.

I think you are seeing the play calling evolve. I will tell you this it will be impossible for ANY team to stop a well executed timing route w/ CJ. The reason is you would have to give up either the inside or the outside to a bigger, faster player. If RB can keep up his solid passing in the timing routes CJ will consistently get 5+ passes a game.

The only exception would be if blitzing RB can force him to deliver the ball b/f CJ can get down the field. But this is where the "other" Johnson comes in. That little come back route will always be there on a blitz and tight coverage w/ CJ

I personally think there is NO WAY Clem's son will be able to shut down our offense. I expect our D to hold them to 10pts and our offense will score 20+. If we can keep the special teams mistakes/Turnovers from giving up 14+ we will win the game.
 
I definitely agree that our offense is evolving and playcalling is getting better game to game. I think we'd whip Notre Dame if we had a rematch, and I'm really looking forward to next year's game, where we'll both be starting new QBs. Tenuta's going to eat them for lunch, and Nix will have a year under his belt.

My point, though, is that we're not doing anything especially different from the textbook spread option. It's not as unique as the old motion triple option Fridge system or the current West Virginia system, but I won't complain because it's geared exactly to match the talents of our players.
 
A friend of mine told me that the word down the road at Auburn was that Nix was a good ol' boy, but maybe not an OC, the implication being that he might not be smart enough or clever enough for the job. But as noted he has certainly done a good job of evolving the offense from week to week, despite the occasional brain fart. Our offense looks very different now than it did in the ND game. An adjustment that he has made in the running game that has benefited T. Choice is that now almost all of his runs come when Reggie is under center rather than in the shotgun. This has allowed Choice to hit the holes quicker and with a running start. Probably Nix concurred with Refrigeratormover's analysis on Sting Talk that the O-line was doing their job, but Choice was slow getting to the hole. In any event this year's offense is by far the most productive of the Gailey era and Nix deserves a lot of credit.
 
I think Choice is still getting plenty of runs from the shotgun, probably the same ratio of shotgun to I as before. I do note that we've now gone *two* games without showing that crappy speed option pitch, though. That's good.
 
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