After watching most of tonight's game, I have now come to this conclusion: Bryan Stinespring is the WORST OC in all of college football. I dare anyone else to name any current OCs that compare to Stiney's level of futility and ineptitude at the BCS level and then back up their argument with some well argued evidence/statistics! Stiney now has a very large sample size (7 yrs) to draw plenty of conclusions about his ability (or lack thereof in this case) as an OC. During his tenure, VT has only managed one top 40 ranking in total offense and that yr we had Kevin Jones. Also,that yr is starting to look like an anomaly to the sample set of data and anomalies are normally thrown out as outliers.
How many OCs can take an offense with arguably top 40 or so talent (based on recruiting rankings) and make it exponentially worse to the point where it gets worse statistically every yr, starts to rest at the bottom of the college football rankings in total offense or underutilize potential super stars such as Eddie Royal? Well there is maybe one OC from recent memory who does compare to Stiney, but he did not last 7+yrs as an OC and the only reason he got the job was because his dad was HC. That man is Jeff Bowden. How does Stiney compare to Jeff Bowden? Statistically, Jeff Bowden is much better than Stiney. Yes, you read that right. Bowden's offenses averaged much higher rankings than Stinespring's. So, we do in fact have a worse OC than even the infamous Jeff Bowden and look what it took FSU's fans to get rid of Jeff Bowden? In fact, Jeff Bowden might want to fax Frank Beamer his resume at the end of this season because he would be an upgrade over Stiney!
Our offense is pure vanilla in a college football world where every other BCS college program that is serious about winning a BCS Championship outside of maybe Ohio State has begun to add in many different flavors of ice cream to their offense with plenty of topping options to boot! There are many fundamental flaws in our offense beyond just the playcalling. Our schemes are poorly designed, our players do not execute in games what the coaches say they do execute in practice and the playcalling is easily predictable. Radio and television announcers are now guessing our next offensive plays based on our formations at a fairly good rate.How do you think a well prepared defensive coordinator of an opposing team will do with a week or more of preparation time for our offense? The answer is they will shut our offense down the majority of the time. It is VERY hard to execute a play perfectly and get it to work when the defense knows ahead of time exactly what the play is going to be, which side of the field it will be run to, etc. That is stacking the deck against our success.
To me, the absolute worst thing now is that Stiney throws our players under the bus after games in his post game interviews. Everytime, he blames our offense's ineptitude on a lack of execution, but isn't a coach responsible for making sure his players execute better? It is the coaches' job to put his players in a position to succeed. He is supposed to "coach them up." Our players are supposed to improve as the season goes along, not get worse! Have our players on offense gotten better as the season has gone along? I would say some have, but most have not! I think some have even regressed from past seasons. That is an indictment on our coaches in my humble opinion. They are the ones getting paid big 6 figure salaries and bonuses after each winning season despite the offense declining each yr.
In conclusion, I cannot speak for every Hokie, but I am tired of hearing the same set of excuses from our offensive coaches after each game and season after season under Bryan Stinespring's tenure as OC. Winners stop making excuses and just accept responsibility for their behavior/action. Stiney and the other offensive coaches continuing to blame our failures this season game after game on our youth and inexperience becomes a ridiculous excuse when the season is almost over and they are still using the same excuses. What about other college teams who have the same problems and yet their players improve by the end of the season or who produce good results in spite of youth/inexperience or lack of talent? There are a lot of college programs that would kill to have the talent VT does on offense at their disposal and yet those colleges outproduce VT! Even the more conservative minded offenses. The bottom line is that VT needs a new OC. One who will stop making excuses, blaming his players and be accountable for his unit's results (or lack thereof). Bryan Stinespring is not the OC we need. He has had his chance. Seven yrs is plenty of time for him to have made changes and shown improvement. Instead, fans of VT are left with only more excuses and questions about season's that could have been had we had an offense to go with Bud Foster's awesome defenses and what the future will be like in the next 2 yrs when VT supposedly gears up for another BCS title run. The really sad part about all of this is Frank Beamer is putting his personal relationship with Bryan Stinespring above his duty as head of our football program to make sure the VT football program has long term success. Otherwise, why has Bryan Stinespring routinely received contract raises and big bonuses for producing continually worse offenses each season?? The main statistic cited by Frank Beamer to justify and defend Stiney's poor offensive production over the yrs, scoring offense, is also misleading to the average fan. How many people but the most avid college football fan know that scoring offense includes special teams AND defensive touchdowns? Our defense and special teams has been carrying our offense on its back and hiding its ineptitude for yrs!
Hopefully, this is the yr that it finally ends! I hope Frank makes lots of changes this offseason to our offensive coaching staff starting with the removal of Bryan Stinespring as OC. VT needs an offense that is capable of carrying its own weight that will complement our defense and special teams. Bryan Stinespring is an excuse maker and the biggest part of the problem. He is not the person to solve our offensive problems.
