I can only speak for myself but I think it's the overall inconsistency of the operation. Whether that is week to week production, production of various positions groups, development of the QB position, and/or overall QB recruiting. Which leads me to believe he's probably just having a hard time managing it all. He's a young coach that's not only calling plays but has to managed an entire room of coaches who all have vastly more experience than him. I think some of the dysfunction probably stems from that. How often is Tommy vetoing decisions? How often is he applying pressure to other position coaches whether that is in recruiting or positional coaching? I don't hate Tommy and I was a fan of the hire. But, I think it just might be a little too much for him at this time, at this place.
Last year I think is a good example. He had in a very good cast of OL, QB, and RB's. They chose to structure the offense the way that they did. And, they finished #17 in OFEI. That's not bad, pretty good, but it's also not elite. In fact, I would bet they thought they underperformed. Sounds like some of Book's NFL statements say as much. The QB that he coached for 3 years never got better at the issues that plagued him over the course of those 3 years. In fact, at times, 2020 Ian Book looked as lost as ever in the pocket. Because of it, they were never able to develop what would take them to the next level. I believe Tommy should share in a lot of that criticism. I think folks tend to forget that none of Ian's important numbers got better from 2018 to 2020. The really bottomed out in 2019 and then improved in 2020 but stayed below 2018 levels. He still had worse comp pct., yds/att., and QBR in 2020 than he did in 2018. He also had less yds/game in 2020 than he did in 2018. The only stats that are really better were in 2019 he averaged more passing td's/game and he threw less interceptions in both years. For those that will say it was by design, I'm not disputing that. But, that design was his choice and had it's shortcomings. Those shortcoming were pretty glaring for Book. And, it calls into question why couldn't Rees develop a QB and offense that could do both. Is that a lot to ask? Yes. Should it be a requirement for the offense at ND? Yes, it should.
Fast forward to today and they felt they had to get Coan. That's largely due to his job recruiting the position or lack thereof. They felt they had to structure an offense a certain way for him and this team. And, so far, those results (sans one game) are pretty fricking bad. My feelings are, Tommy isn't just a play caller. He should be overseeing everything that goes on with the offense. He's watched Lugg play for multiple years. He should've played a role in evaluating Patterson at C versus other positions. Correll at LG. And bringing in Madden. Those are things I would think most OC's would be very involved in since they are very fundamental in running whatever offense he plans to run. Besides Madden, all of these guys have been here for awhile. Rees should know what he has or have plans to do something else.
The 2022 QB recruiting cycle continues to look like the debacle we've illustrated before. Not only did Tommy stumble and bumble around for months during Covid not getting anything accomplished but it sounds like we're finally getting a somewhat public mea culpa on this. They want 2 QB's. I love the decision let me make that very clear. But, similarly to the decision to play Pyne in the 2nd half against Cincy (also love that decision), it should have came sooner. Being behind or late has it's consequences. We know what they were for last Saturday. And, we'll probably eventually find out what the cost will be for QB recruiting. Either Tommy isn't evaluating this stuff, fast enough, in real time. Therefore others are having to force his hand, which would be a problem. Or, Tommy doesn't have enough say in the decision making, which is also a problem. Either way, there is enough here to say the entire operation isn't running like an offense that expects to compete for the playoffs, and win, perennially.
