[stupac2]

I think you look at this as a black & white thing as if I'm suggesting they totally abandon what they were doing and do something completely different. That's not at all what I'm suggesting and I apologize if I've not inferred correctly.

There's a spectrum and I think that too often there is no or near-zero adjustment when things aren't working. I think an OC from outside the program could change that and I have little if any faith that promoting Pritchard is going to do that.

Ultimately it is Shaw's call - it's clear that he makes these decisions. I think he needs to be hearing a new voice. Maybe Pritchard will do that, but I'm not optimistic that he will.

There's a few different counterarguments here.

The first and most important is confirmation bias. The times that fit the narrative (Shaw "stubbornly" doing whatever and it failing) are more salient than the ones that don't (in either direction, breaking the pattern or being stubborn and it working), and no one ever brings those ones up. So we hear about that MSU 4th down ad nauseam, but people rarely bring up the times we go into that look and then throw a surprise pass, or do something unexpected out of it. But we do those things! Off the top of my head I can think of a couple. Maybe you'd prefer they were in higher-leverage situations, but we still break trend sometimes.

The second is that when things aren't going it's not clear what you'd actually want to do. It depends on why things aren't working. Is the other team doing something specific to counter what we want? Are they just really good? Are our players failing to execute in some specific way? Are we just failing to get the bounces to go our way?

I'm sure you can come up with more, but the important thing is that each of those is going to have separate remedies. Changing the gameplan might work, but it also might make things worse. It also pays to keep in mind that the players aren't professionals and there's pretty limited practice/film time during the season, and some guys might not be practicing at all due to injury but still playing. We talk about our enormous playsheet, but there's only so many of those plays that are actually going to be heavily practiced, and when things are tough you probably don't want to be wandering into areas where guys might not really know what they're doing.

Now, maybe you argue that that is a separate problem with coaching, not really having a plan B available, but I'm not sure it's something that can be avoided.

Also, one thing that I keep thinking whenever this is discussed is that every team has those days. What do you think Clemson fans were saying after they lost to Syracuse? Or OSU fans when they got boatraced by Iowa? Oaklahoma derped away a game against ISU. It happens to basically every team every year, the best team in the country is rarely undefeated. Do we derp away games more or less than other programs with our talent level? (Meaning, not Alabama/OSU but whatever the next tier down is.) It's not clear to me that we do.

Should we strive for a higher standard? Sure, but at some point you have to face reality and admit that shit happens and it's not necessarily anyone's fault in particular.

[stupac2]

I think you look at this as a black & white thing as if I'm suggesting they totally abandon what they were doing and do something completely different. That's not at all what I'm suggesting and I apologize if I've not inferred correctly.

There's a spectrum and I think that too often there is no or near-zero adjustment when things aren't working. I think an OC from outside the program could change that and I have little if any faith that promoting Pritchard is going to do that.

Ultimately it is Shaw's call - it's clear that he makes these decisions. I think he needs to be hearing a new voice. Maybe Pritchard will do that, but I'm not optimistic that he will.

There's a few different counterarguments here.

The first and most important is confirmation bias. The times that fit the narrative (Shaw "stubbornly" doing whatever and it failing) are more salient than the ones that don't (in either direction, breaking the pattern or being stubborn and it working), and no one ever brings those ones up. So we hear about that MSU 4th down ad nauseam, but people rarely bring up the times we go into that look and then throw a surprise pass, or do something unexpected out of it. But we do those things! Off the top of my head I can think of a couple. Maybe you'd prefer they were in higher-leverage situations, but we still break trend sometimes.

The second is that when things aren't going it's not clear what you'd actually want to do. It depends on why things aren't working. Is the other team doing something specific to counter what we want? Are they just really good? Are our players failing to execute in some specific way? Are we just failing to get the bounces to go our way?

I'm sure you can come up with more, but the important thing is that each of those is going to have separate remedies. Changing the gameplan might work, but it also might make things worse. It also pays to keep in mind that the players aren't professionals and there's pretty limited practice/film time during the season, and some guys might not be practicing at all due to injury but still playing. We talk about our enormous playsheet, but there's only so many of those plays that are actually going to be heavily practiced, and when things are tough you probably don't want to be wandering into areas where guys might not really know what they're doing.

Now, maybe you argue that that is a separate problem with coaching, not really having a plan B available, but I'm not sure it's something that can be avoided.

Also, one thing that I keep thinking whenever this is discussed is that every team has those days. What do you think Clemson fans were saying after they lost to Syracuse? Or OSU fans when they got boatraced by Iowa? Oaklahoma derped away a game against ISU. It happens to basically every team every year, the best team in the country is rarely undefeated. Do we derp away games more or less than other programs with our talent level? (Meaning, not Alabama/OSU but whatever the next tier down is.) It's not clear to me that we do.

Should we strive for a higher standard? Sure, but at some point you have to face reality and admit that shit happens and it's not necessarily anyone's fault in particular.