phxcat
12-02-2007, 02:52 PM
(This is sort of a follow-up to Auer's thread from last night about Stoops' lack of poise.)
If Stoops could take anything from this game, I'd ask him to look at one thing: How Erickson reacted when Williams dropped the easy TD.
Erickson looked down at his play chart, and calmly called the next play for Williams.
Can you imagine Stoops' reaction had one of our players dropped that pass?
To me, that's the main difference between the coaches right now. That move by Erickson shows the ability to do two things that Stoops appears, from the perspective of my couch, to regularly struggle with during games: (i) mentally getting past bad plays (or calls, by the officials or his staff) and, partly for that reason, (ii) empowering players. Both of these issues are obviously absolutely key to being a good HC.
Once you decide which players are the ones you want on the field, you cannot IMO make in-game playing time decisions based on physical mistakes. (Effort-related mistakes are another issue.) Since physical mistakes are inevitable, you cannot punish players for them. If a guy makes regular ones, start someone else next game. But once you start someone, that player cannot live in fear of making a mistake.
If Stoops ever wants to be a great HC, IMO he needs to figure out how to mentally get past those mistakes (and those by the officials and his staff) immediately and, partly thereby, create an environment where everyone is poised, confident and focused on the next play.
If Stoops could take anything from this game, I'd ask him to look at one thing: How Erickson reacted when Williams dropped the easy TD.
Erickson looked down at his play chart, and calmly called the next play for Williams.
Can you imagine Stoops' reaction had one of our players dropped that pass?
To me, that's the main difference between the coaches right now. That move by Erickson shows the ability to do two things that Stoops appears, from the perspective of my couch, to regularly struggle with during games: (i) mentally getting past bad plays (or calls, by the officials or his staff) and, partly for that reason, (ii) empowering players. Both of these issues are obviously absolutely key to being a good HC.
Once you decide which players are the ones you want on the field, you cannot IMO make in-game playing time decisions based on physical mistakes. (Effort-related mistakes are another issue.) Since physical mistakes are inevitable, you cannot punish players for them. If a guy makes regular ones, start someone else next game. But once you start someone, that player cannot live in fear of making a mistake.
If Stoops ever wants to be a great HC, IMO he needs to figure out how to mentally get past those mistakes (and those by the officials and his staff) immediately and, partly thereby, create an environment where everyone is poised, confident and focused on the next play.