1. Nate has been rumored to want to leave to further his career. He won’t be oc as long as Tom Manning is there which is why he has been rumored to want to get out.
2. If we promote from within we are f ucked next year on offense. There’s a reason why bo nix didn’t want to play for Gus again and it’s because his offense is painful to play in and watch. By any metric, either old or advanced metrics, Gus offense sucks and has sucked for years. Gus is an arrogant old school coach who refuses to adapt to modern cfb. That’s why he can’t get a transfer qb to save his life. We need a innovator who can recruit. That’s why I made this list. I know Gus is just going to hire Hinshaw, but that’s the worst thing that could happen to UCF. He’s just going to hire a yes man and that’s failed every time he’s done it ie chad Morris at Auburn.
3. Hinshaw was fired at Kentucky because he can’t develop qbs. You really want that at UCF? Take off the UCF glasses and realize that if we promote from within this offense is going to be trash again.
4. We have struck out on every single offensive transfer target because they see how awful this offense is. Let’s be Frank no one wants to play or watch the Gus offense. He has the opportunity to bring in an exciting coach. If he doesn’t and falls back into his old habits then fully expect our offensive recruiting to fall off a cliff.
According to NCAA stats, in 2016-2017 our offense was ranked #113, and the next season (2017-2018) #5. Respectively, for those same seasons our defense was ranked #39 and #93. So when our offense was blisteringly good in 2017 our defense suffered (mostly because we scored so quickly). The other important stat of note here is Turnover margin, of which we were #58 and #2. In 2017, we overcame the #93 defense by being ball-hawks, which gave us extra possessions, and took away possessions from our opponents.
Under Huepel our offenses were ranked #5, #2 and #2, while the defenses were ranked #95, #32, and #123. Our turnover margin was #5, #27, and #5. I can't really provide any interpretation for these stats under Heupel. There seems to be no correlation. Our offense was potent, our defense mostly sub-par but we were very good at ball-hawking. We just seemed less of a "team" for 2020...which isn't a good technical term but I don't think analytics can account for "team" either.
In 2021 our offense is ranked #67. Our defense is ranked #53. Our turnover margin is #34. Not bad considering completely new staffs on offense and defense, and paying a true freshman QB who is not a stud right out of the gate. Lots of new contributing players as well.
The point I am trying to make is showing some stats, and then providing a bare minimum of context, knowing there are many, many other factors that contribute to success or failure on the field. I think if we have improved QB play, whoever that may be, we can be a much better team. I don't think it necessarily requires changing our scheme a lot. We also have players learning a much different offense than under Heupel. Same with the defense (although I am not claiming there are big scheme changes or anything on defense....I'm not smart enough on defenses to know if the changes are significant or not).
Terry hired Gus and we just have to see how it all works out. I'm certainly not going to throw in the towel after a 9-4 season, in the first season.
BTW, I don't disagree that finding an ace OC wouldn't massively change things for the good. I'm just aying if we don't, I don't think we're screwed. O'Leary was really bad at recruiting the QB position but once he hired Taffe in 2009, that guy turned every QB (and thus the teams) into winners. 4 different QBs in 6 season, and we had team success for 5 of those 6 seasons:
2009: 8-5; Grad transfer Hodges; If Hodges didn't play we probably would have won 2-4 games. We got crushed in our bowl game by Rutgers.
2010: 11-3; true freshamn Godfrey; Conference title; Bowl victory over Georgia
2011: 5-7; Godfrey and Bortles split time...never a good thing.
2012: 10-4; Bortles; Lost Conference title game; Won bowl game.
2013: 12-1: Bortles; Conference title; Fiesta Bowl victory.
2014: 9-4: Holman; Share of conference title. Got beat in bowl game.
As a note, under Lindsey @Auburn, in 2017 their offense was ranked #26 (we got to see that offense up and personal in the Peach Bowl), and in 2018 #78. At Troy in 3 seasons their offenses were ranked #18, #65, and #108. That is not a good trend but I know nothing about that overall team (offense, defense, recruiting, etc...).
At Southern Miss he developed Nick Mullens, who still plays in the NFL.