We are in Year 4 of "Bubba Ball". The first three years were all improvements upon Bubba's predecessor and I think the consensus is the program is on the right track from where it was at circa 2009-13. Obviously, this season seems to have been a "perfect storm" of injuries and off-field issues that has unfortunately yielded a lost season. !@#$ happens.
While watching one of the national post-game college football shows today, specifically regarding Notre Dame, the commentators noted the quality season that the Irish are having. One of them said that Brian Kelley is coming off a bad year in 2016, but they seem to have rebounded. He said that good coaches, good teams, and good programs bounce back from a bad season. This just struck me that UND is in the midst of one of these years, but I am confident that the ship can be put back on course in 2018. I firmly believe that UND is good program, and that Schweigert is a good coach and we will be back next year.
Having said all that, I'm to the point where I now feel Bubba needs to make some staff changes.
My first issue is with Offensive Coordinator/QB Coach. I know I am in the minority on this board in the fact that overall I've liked Paul Rudoph as OC. Up until this season................ It is so obvious now that Rudolph's shortcomings as both a play caller and an evaluator of talent have been bailed out by an overachieving defense from 2014-16. I freely admit that I enjoy the "3 yards & cloud of dust" mentality that this program has put forth since Bubba was hired. It was ugly at times in 2014, but I understood given where the program was at. It mostly worked in 2015 with Santiago's break out year. It was a thing of beauty in 2016 I felt as we rolled through the Big Sky. But here we are in 2017, with a hobbled QB, a young/makeshift O-Line that isn't getting it done, and there are no adjustments. For me, what broke the camel's back was seeing Brad Heidlelbaugh start against Montana, and then seeing what Andrew Zimmerman did in relief. If Rudolph is the OC and QB coach and has the final say on the QB depth chart, there is no excuse for starting Heidelbaugh ahead of Zimmerman. We've all seen what both can do, and there is no comparison. And actually, we all saw Heidelbaugh a season before and I'm sure we all thought, "this is the best we can do for a backup QB?".
I fully advocate for Rudolph to be removed as OC and for Danny Freund to be given a shot. He's young, energetic, and can connect with his players. He was one of the best QB's ever to play here. He played and was recruited under Lennon and Mussman. Say what you want about Mussman, but he was excellent OC. Freund would know how to call a balanced game and know how to mix up the run and pass game IMO. Also, although he's orighinally from Wisconsin, he's committed to the program and has put roots down here in GF. Rudolph apparently commutes from Minot and spends as little time here as possible.
Regarding other position coaches.......................
The O-Line is horrible. They are young this year and I doubt Knauf forgot how to coach from last year, but this position group has to get better.
And I am still waiting for someone to tell me why the D has gotten so conservative this year. When Bubba/Schmidt took over in 2014 it was night and day difference as far as stopping the run and getting after the opposing QB. It seems like Schmidt has gone ultra conservative this year, probably due to all of the injuries. I say you live by the sword, you die by the sword. Send as many people after the QB as often as you can. Opposing QB's have been torching us deep for years. Lets at least throw him on his ass when he does........................
