Doc's Diagnosis: Coaching Performances, 2023 Midseason
Transcript
00:00 Welcome back to the Doc's Diagnosis presented by Centris Federal Credit Union. I'm Travis Justice. He's Dr. Rob Zadiska.
00:06 Hello Doc. How are you doing today? Good. The midseason is here. Nebraska reached its bye week.
00:11 So we're changing up the diagnosis a little bit. Not looking at plays this week, but today we're going to look at coaches in college football
00:18 who may be overperforming or really exceeding expectations and also we'll talk about the guys who are underperforming.
00:24 Let's start with the midseason top five coaches. This first one I could not agree with more.
00:28 Kalen DeBoer from Washington. He was a guy that I think a lot of people even looked at as a potential candidate for the Nebraska job.
00:35 He's kind of this guy, he's been on the rise the last few years, has Washington playing outstanding football right now.
00:43 They're doing a great job and the results speak for themselves up there.
00:47 What I like about him, he's an NAIA guy that's made his way all the way to the top.
00:52 He is. He was up in South Dakota for a while and did a great job there.
00:58 You're wearing the Florida State sweatshirt, Mike Norvell with the Seminoles.
01:01 It is. When he was at Memphis, he was kind of like Scott Frost. He was sort of that flavor of the month guy.
01:08 He was the guy that people were looking at to kind of jump up to that next level.
01:13 Went to Florida State. First two or three years were a little sketchy.
01:17 All of a sudden, year four, year five, he takes off, has them playing great, and has them as a potential playoff contender right now.
01:25 They're playing amazing football. Great game yesterday against Syracuse.
01:30 Great recruiter, dynamic offense, dynamic defense.
01:35 It's going to be interesting to see how they do over the next couple of years.
01:39 He's a guy that I don't see going anywhere. Florida State's a destination job if you have them playing well.
01:45 Jim Harbaugh from Michigan. I'm telling you.
01:48 I used to hate the guy.
01:50 Michigan may be the most complete team in college football.
01:52 It really is. You and I have talked about this on the podcast before.
01:56 That COVID season hit. He was a little on the hot seat. I think he was kind of a lot on the hot seat.
02:03 The schtick went away. He shut the hell up. He kind of faded into the background a lot.
02:10 All of a sudden, when that happened, Michigan started playing great football.
02:16 I'm not a Michigan fan. Everybody knows about my allegiance to Michigan State.
02:21 I like to watch the Wolverines play football because they play a great style.
02:27 It's highly effective. It's a pro-style, run-based offense that works with really strong defense.
02:35 They just don't make a lot of mistakes anywhere.
02:39 He's done an amazing job the last three seasons there.
02:42 Dan Lanning at Oregon. He took 100% for the loss against Washington.
02:47 The dude's winning at Oregon and he's doing it.
02:50 They are. Everybody looks at a lot of these schools and thinks, "Oh man, if you were there, everything's set up to win."
02:58 You can't say that.
03:00 Oregon has a ton of money, a lot of infrastructure, good fan support.
03:06 Recruiting's not necessarily the easiest.
03:11 It's the same thing with Washington. It's the Northwest. It's cold, it's rainy.
03:18 He's done a great job there and he has them playing like people think Oregon should be playing football.
03:26 Tough loss against Washington over the weekend.
03:30 He's one of those coaches where when you look at those Pac-12 coaches coming to the Big Ten,
03:36 people were happy about USC and UCLA because it was USC and UCLA.
03:41 I'm excited about Washington and I'm excited about Oregon because of these coaches.
03:46 I don't think Oregon's dropped out of the playoff picture yet just with one loss.
03:50 Here's one, Mike Elko from Duke. This is a great call right here because most people don't pay attention to Duke football.
03:56 He's doing a hell of a job.
03:57 They're in the top 20. When you look at some of these conferences,
04:03 during the late summer going into the season and even maybe really early in the season,
04:08 everybody was talking about the breakup of the Pac-12, how at some point here it's going to happen to the ACC.
04:16 I think all of a sudden people are now looking at the job some of these coaches are doing at some of these schools.
04:22 You look at Mack Brown at North Carolina. You look at Elko at Duke.
04:27 Some of these guys are doing an amazing job in a conference that's a solid conference.
04:32 Is it the SEC? No. Is it the upper echelon of the Big Ten? No.
04:36 But they're doing a great job in a conference that plays really solid football and they're just winning consistently.
04:42 Alright, so those are the top five midseason top five coaches.
04:45 How about the midseason underperforming coaches or poor performing coaches?
04:51 And this is no surprise, Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M.
04:54 I'm a little surprised he hasn't been fired yet.
04:58 Too much money.
04:59 Too much money. And I think every year they get a group of recruits in there that everybody keeps thinking,
05:06 "Oh, well it's going to turn around." And it just hasn't yet.
05:09 You've got a coach who's done some great things as a coordinator and as a head coach.
05:14 He's got a national title at Florida State.
05:16 Now, he had an amazing amount of talent when he won that national title.
05:20 I also think he had one of the better supporting casts of assistant coaches when he was at Florida State.
05:27 It just has not carried over to Texas A&M.
05:31 Number two, Mario Cristobal at Miami.
05:34 Boy, they got beat again yesterday in North Carolina.
05:37 Yeah, although that was pretty legit because I think North Carolina is a very good team,
05:42 a talented team, and a very well coached team.
05:45 I mean, I already mentioned Mack Brown and the job he's doing there.
05:49 Miami is one of those schools that you always think is going to be another sleeping giant
05:54 if they could just get the right guy in there.
05:57 I kind of thought Mario would be it.
05:59 You've got a guy, he's a Miami grad.
06:01 He knows the culture of the late '80s, early '90s Miami teams because that's when he played there.
06:08 We just haven't seen that carry over yet.
06:11 You want to see him bring that swagger back a bit, and they just don't have it.
06:15 And the other thing that's killing him is some of these coaching decisions.
06:20 I know running the ball when all you needed to do was take a knee on it was huge,
06:25 but you saw some of those questionable coaching decisions when he was at Oregon as well too
06:31 that cost them some games.
06:33 And so is this a guy that's maybe a better coordinator than he is a head coach?
06:40 I think it still remains to be seen, and I think he could still turn some things around at Miami.
06:45 I've got some questions about what he's been able to do in the time that he's been there
06:49 based upon some of these glaring decisions.
06:52 Lincoln Riley at USC, boy, they got thumped at hand-in.
06:55 And I know it's one game.
06:57 It is.
06:58 The thing is, though, is when you look at what he's doing at USC,
07:01 when you look at what he did at Oklahoma,
07:04 he just hasn't been able to get a team past just to that next level
07:10 to where it's truly, "Okay, we're going to win that playoff game.
07:13 We're going to win that national title."
07:16 And he's maybe had some of the best athletes to work with.
07:21 And it's sort of one of these situations that I look at what he's doing
07:26 with the caliber of athletes he has,
07:29 and I think he really should have those guys punching past that next level.
07:34 The losses to Utah, Notre Dame over the weekend,
07:40 some of these losses kind of haunt USC a little bit.
07:45 I think he's maybe one of these guys that, again,
07:49 may be a better coordinator than head coach.
07:52 Now, it's Rob's list. That doesn't mean I agree with it.
07:55 But number four on the list is Matt Campbell at Iowa State.
07:57 And we're going to probably talk about this one during the podcast.
08:00 I'm pushing back big time on this.
08:02 I see a guy who I think is still living off the hype of potential.
08:09 And everybody looks and keeps waiting for Iowa State to take that next step,
08:14 and they never do.
08:16 A few years ago, he had arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL currently,
08:24 one of the best running backs in the NFL currently,
08:28 and he still couldn't get them past that next level.
08:30 He'd always get that one or two, "Holy cow, they knocked off Texas or Oklahoma."
08:35 Big upset wins a year, and then they turn around and they nearly lose to Drake.
08:43 I'm just not sold on him as this guy who can progress Iowa State past the next level.
08:50 And I understand the whole--in terms of numbers, statistically,
08:57 he's the best coach Iowa State has ever had.
09:00 Since 2017, they have 33 Big 12 Conference wins.
09:04 That's second most in the conference.
09:06 That's pretty good.
09:07 How many conference titles?
09:09 Zero. Zero.
09:11 I understand what you're saying.
09:12 I'm just saying--
09:13 In a pretty weak conference.
09:16 Oklahoma, Texas.
09:18 Breeze Hall. Brock Purdy.
09:21 You're 100%--and their senior year is when they really should have taken it to the next level.
09:25 Should have and did not.
09:27 You struggled with this one because he was also an honorable mention for your performing coaches.
09:31 He was. I actually--I had him as the honorable mention on the coaches on the rise.
09:38 You know, when you look at--
09:42 It's because he's holding on to his son.
09:43 I get it, and it's the off-the-field stuff.
09:46 It's the offense. It's the opening things up just a little bit to the point that it actually helps you.
09:53 When you've got Hawkinson and Noah Fant, and you're not throwing the ball to either one--
09:59 You're going back a number of years now.
10:01 I get it, but it's--that mentality hasn't changed.
10:07 And they've continued to have great defense, great special teams,
10:12 and they could have had some very, very good offensive productivity.
10:18 And it's almost like they refused to do it.
10:20 On the flip side, he's still winning games.
10:23 So I had him as my honorable mention on the coaches on the rise as well, too.
10:27 He's an enigma, right?
10:28 He is. It's one of those--I got him on this list, but I also got him on the rise list as well, too,
10:34 because he's going to win 9 to 11 games this year.
10:37 Yeah, it's crazy. Absolutely crazy.
10:39 So if you have any agreements, disagreements, leave them in the comments section.
10:43 Also, hit the subscribe button on our YouTube channel, because we'd love to have you subscribe.
10:47 And, yeah, we'd love to hear from you.
10:50 So, for Dr. Rob Zaduska, I'm Travis Justice.
10:52 Thanks for watching another Docs Diagnosis presented by Centris Federal Credit Union.
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