I watched the Cal game from the stands in Berkeley. I don't give our offense any credit for racking up yards and scoring touchdowns after the game was already decided. They couldn't get out of their own way in the meaningful half of the game. If you can't punch it in on two tries from the two-yard line (or so) against a mid-tier Pac 10 team, then I'm not sure why you got on the plane in the first place.
I'm not trying to fallaciously extrapolate one game (Alabama) and turn that into the whole season for the offense, but I don't think there's any way around the fact that college football seasons turn on a small number of data points -- one or two games, one or two halves, a handful of drives. And over and over again, that 2007 offense failed to get it done in meaningful situations. If your offense sucks against Florida and Alabama, then it sucks. If it can't get a first down for a whole half against Kentucky while you're desperately trying to hang on to a trip to Atlanta, then it sucks. It doesn't matter what your stats are or what your ranking is. That offense couldn't run, couldn't throw downfield -- the only thing they had was Ainge running Cutcliffe's wimpy little three-step drop passing game. Clawson had to start from scratch.
"Dave Clawson singlehandedly ruined the offense" is usually code for "Dave Clawson got Fulmer fired." It ignores the giant hole Clawson was starting in. "Hi Dave, welcome to Knoxville; your office is over there. You don't have a proven quarterback; Austin Rogers is your best receiver; your best running back can't hang onto the ball. You have a crappy offensive line with a terrible offensive line coach. Now go win some SEC games!"
No new offensive coordinator at an elite football program should have to start with the cupboard as bare as Clawson did.
I'm not saying Dave Clawson got Fulmer fired;
fulmer got
fulmer fired, but that's a different story. I realize too our players weren't as good in the past b/c, well, 07 was played with many of the recruits of 05, which was just an ok class. But what was there was still much more manageable than the results he got. That team should have had at least 6-7 wins at worst and had some semblance of a passing game at all.
And while your feelings are strong about the 07 offense, I'm again saying that if a new offensive coach comes in, and he puts in his new style of offense, and the teams results drop from and output of somewhere in the 20s or top 3rd to the bottom of the cellar of 115 teams or so, then I think that yes, a fair or great amount of blame falls on the offensive coordinator b/c it is
his offense. As far as that half of the gameplay went, clawson drove the truck off a cliff.
Now, who knows, he may after a year or two at bowling green and be a fantastic coach and jump to the NFL, i don't know. But he dropped the ball here. Part of being a coach is being able to take what you're given - whether you like it or not - and make it work. And he was given most of the pieces of a functioning passing game (a top 20, and that crappy line gave up a single digit total of sacks) and under him it turned to 109. Alot of coaches can come in and, even with a bare cupboard, end up w/ less of a descent than 90 places. I think it is very fair to place a lot of blame on offense and even the overall record on clawson's 116th ranked offense.
Believe me, the cup didn't runneth over like at USC or Florida, but that cupboard was still pretty far from bare.
And I know that it was nit, and never said that that offense was, a powerhouse or great that year, but it sure as hell wasn't that defense that won most of those ten games that year.
And I was waiting to see how long till someone would try to call out my argument as fulmer supporter"...it's not :sigh:
(also, of note, there were no stats or touchdowns racked up after the game was already out of reach, check the scoring and play-by-play summary. that's something that would be better argued under the inept second half or something.)
