Fire Kevin Barbay

Although I think Barbay’s performance here has been subpar, this is not a true statement. What happened at Miss St does not encompass his career. He has had very successful offenses before, and there were extenuating circumstances at Miss St. All that is not to say he should be kept, but rather to say the hire of Barbay was understandable.

1 Like

MSU is part of his history. I could make excuses for his successes as easily as you can point to extenuating circumstances for the failures.

He’s currently proving that the recent history is an accurate indicator. He’s also never been an OC for more than 1 year at the same school.

You can quibble about his history to try to find something good if you want, but the results here have been a huge fail. I suspect he was hired more because of “Texas ties” than anything else. He’s showing that he wasn’t ready for this job.

I see no resemblance… Barbay is bald.

imageimage

1 Like

Wait, are you saying the coaches throw interceptions and commit penalties and fumbles? How much of an interception is on the coaches? If you go over crowd noise and false starts and a lineman still false starts, is that on the coaches? These guys have played enough football, at some point you have to put the responsibility on the players.

If you’re asking me if that’s what I’m saying, then I must not have said that. :laughing:

The lack of execution is evidence of improper or insufficient preparation. Players not knowing plays, routes and reads halfway into the season is more evidence of that. Sure, the players are the ones actually on the field, but that performance is a reflection of their preparation.

If we were playing clean games and the offense was clicking, people would be lauding how great of a job the coaches were doing. But since many returning players are underperforming compared to last year, yeah, the coaches are going to have to wear that.

Just to be clear - I’m not advocating for firing the OC halfway through the season. But I seriously doubt it would negatively affect our performance.

1 Like

It is tough love, when a player commits a bone headed play, you politely call him over to have a seat on the bench. Some coaches are more polite than others. Saban was known to get in their grill.

A coach’s job is to get players to execute, probably to a larger extent than calling plays. If the players are making mistakes – either because they don’t understand what they’re expected to do or what they’re expected to do is a mistake – that’s absolutely on the coaches. It can also be on the players, if they are refusing or failing to learn, but then it’s still the coaches’ fault, because a player who can’t or won’t learn the plays shouldn’t be in the game. But getting the players to understand what they are supposed to do and to do it is very explicitly the core of the job for everyone on the coaching staff.

3 Likes

This is largely true and my fear is the best players on the roster are making mistakes and replacing them is a significant drop in talent level, so keeping them in presumably keeps UH competitive. Still, I can’t absolve a player for making dumb mistakes. Sit him for a series or two and let him understand the consequences of his actions.

This process in my view will take several years for Fritz to be judged on recruiting, talent evaluation, maximizing a player’s potential, and coaching.

Not ideal, but realistic.

Yep. Part of that accountability is having the player see how his absence hurts the team. Or maybe the next guy does well and takes his job. Either way, a coach has to take action to reinforce the importance of proper execution.

1 Like

Didn’t Saban say “We don’t practice until we get it right. We practice until we can’t get in wrong.”?

It seems Barbie doesn’t even to the former.

1 Like

I’m sure for every player mistake, Saban was politely telling them how many times did we go over that!!!

Like the OC is the problem…Nothing any coach can do is going to improve the situation this year…NOTHING…Fritz can address the situation and we’ll see huge improvements next year with far better personnel at the offensive positions…PARTICULARLY QB…this year there is not much the staff can do…and all the crying in the world isnt going to change that.

1 Like

Leaving out a third possibility. Low football IQ and I’ve heard a number of times, there a number who have just that. Great athletes…but

1 Like

absolutely right… Guys, its a total rebuild in a lot of different ways…we’ll get there, but Fritz needs time.

4 Likes

Not leaving that out. It’s still the coach’s job to work around.

Nothing is impossible to the person who does not have to do it.

Good adjustments this week. There was some kind of epiphany. :grinning:

1 Like

Yea he benched smith.

3 Likes

Ha, not when there is too much.

So what happened? Is this Barbay cleaning things up, or Fritz getting involved to fix the offense?