Who is Coming With Me?

After a head coaching change the next order of business is bringing in the coordinators and filling out the remainder of the coaching staff. This is, in my opinion, just as important as the head man himself.

Offensively, Sumlin has his own offensive pedigree but I know that no one in Aggieland wants to see another head coach absorbing the OC role again. Sumlin is going to bring a chunk of his offensive staff with him from UH. It's hard to argue when that offense was #1 nationally in both total offense and scoring offense last year - but then again maybe it isn't - because UH didn't play a really rough schedule.

Kliff Kingsbury

• texas tech c/o '01
  
  
• 2008-2009 U.Houston - Offensive Quality Control
• 2010-2011 U.Houston - Co-Offensive Coordinator

Kliff Kingsbury is the man who will be leading the charge offensively. Most of you will remember him from his playing days at texas tech ('98-'02) where he was the first of what seemed like a dozen of Mike Leach's QBs who torched the world. Kingsbury has been the co-coordinator at UH for the past two seasons under Sumlin's tutelage.

On the Leach's coaching staff at tech during Kingsbury's time there was Dana Holgorson (at the time he was the WR coach) but when Holgorson took the OC job at Houston upon Sumlin's arrival in '08 he brought Kingsbury in under the title of "Offensive Quality Control". Holgorson went to oSu in '10 and took their offense from #61 to #1 and then moved onto West Virginia as HC where you probably saw the Mountaneer's drop 70 points and 589 yards on Clemson in the Orange Bowl on Wednesday night.

Basically, Kingsbury has a pretty good pedigree and has worked under some of the greatest offensive minds of this mind blowing offensive era we're in right now (Leach, Holgorson, & Sumlin).

Even still, it's nice to take a look at the numbers....

Houston
   Rush O      Pass O      Total O   Scoring O
 ==========  ==========  ==========  =========
2010  153.3 (61)  327.3 (5)   480.5 (10)  37.7 (13)
2011  155.2 (61)  443.8 (1)   599.0 (1)   50.8 (1)

Houston National Rankings
BEFORE       DURING  
2008  2009   2010  2011
==========  ===========
R   47    83     61    61
P    2     1      5     1
T    2     1     10     1
S   10     2     13     1

Keep in mind that in '10 those numbers are "down" because the Cougars lost both their starting and backup quarterback in week 3.

There are still some questions that need to be asked - I mean, it's not like our offense has been completely dismal (we have finished in the top 7 nationally twice in the last three years):

1. If he was the Co-Coordinator how do we know we got the right one of the two? My thought is that since Sumlin is picking Kingsbury over Jason Phillips he got the guy he wanted.
2. What are we going to change up? Houston and oSu (Holgorson's offense) have been notorious for very fast paced no-huddle air attacks. oSu has had a little bit more of the luxury with a more stable running game so I imagine that we'll see something more along the lines of that, particularly with our strong running backs. It's something that we've tinkered with a tad bit but we have definately been more of a west coast/pro-style offense
3. Who on earth is going to Qb this offense? We have no clue....Showers, Johnny Football, Matt Davis?
4. Is a high flying offense going to hurt our defense? There has to be some balance there to keep the defense rested
5. Is this style of offense going to work against SEC defenses week-in-and-week-out? These are the fastest and most athletic defenses in the nation
6. Did Kingsbury, with his dreamy hair, really hook up with Britney Spears?
   

I don't know the answer to any of those questions but that is what we signed up for with Sumlin.

The other names that we should be getting on the offensive side of the ball are OL coach Clarence McKinney (U.Houston/OL), RB coach B.J. Anderson (U.Houston/RB), WR coach David Beaty (Kansas/co-OC & WR), and it looks like the last offensive spot might be taken by special teams guru/recruiting beast Brian Polian (Stanford).

Pat Narduzzi

• Rhode Island c/o '89
• Runs a 4-3 base defense
  
  
• 1990-1991 Miami-OH Grad Assistant
• 1992 Miami-OH Receivers Coach
• 1993-1997 Rhode Island LB Coach
• 1998-1999 Rhode Island DC
• 2000-2002 Northern Illinois LB Coach
• 2003 Miami-OH DC
• 2004-2006 Cincinnati DC
• 2007-2011 Michigan State DC

This one isn't official yet but all indications point to us stealing Michigan State's DC, Pat Narduzzi. He's been all over working his way up the coaching chain but he played one year of football at Youngstown State where Mark Dantonio was his DC a relationship that was restarted when he rejoined Dantonio to Cincinnati and followed him to Michigan State.

Here's a look at Narduzzi's time at Cinci....

Cincinnati
     Rush D      PassD       Total D   Scoring D
   ==========  ==========  ==========  =========
2004  147.2 (58)  194.2 (26)  341.3 (38)  26.7 (69)
2005  180.4 (90)  221.3 (64)  401.6 (78)  31.4 (96)
2006  107.5 (25)  201.6 (58)  309.2 (31)  19.6 (36)


Cincinnati National Rankings
  BEFORE           DURING           AFTER
2002  2003    2004  2005  2006   2007  2008
==========   =================   ==========
R   43    49      58    90    25     19    19
P   22    22      26    64    58     89    57
T   21    27      38    78    31     50    31
S   43    68      69    96    36     13    25

To be totally honest, it doesn't look like he made much of a difference during his time at Cincy. He definitely improved from year 2 to 3 but nothing that jumps off the page

Michigan State
     Rush D      PassD       Total D   Scoring D
   ==========  ==========  ==========  =========
2007  125.8 (30)  219.7 (44)  345.5 (32)  26.6 (57)
2008  142.5 (67)  213.4 (69)  355.9 (58)  22.1 (41)
2009  113.2 (24)  267.6 (112) 380.9 (73)  26.3 (67)
2010  133.7 (37)  220.1 (60)  353.8 (43)  22.3 (39)
2011  104.3 (12)  168.4 (11)  272.7 (5)   17.46 (9)

Michigan State Big 10 Rankings
  BEFORE                DURING    
2005  2006   2007  2008  2009  2010  2011
==========  =============================
R    7     6      4     7     4     5     1
P    6     9      4     7    11     5     4
T    5     8      5     7     8     6     1  
S    7    10      8     5     7     4     4

Michigan State National Rankings
  BEFORE                DURING    
2005  2006   2007  2008  2009  2010  2011
==========  =============================
R   76    56     30    67    24    37    12
P   85    97     44    69   112    60    11
T   87    88     32    58    73    43     5
S   77   100     57    41    67    39     9

Looking at the last chart you can see that there was definitely a drastic improvement in his first season from the previous year but then they started taking steps backwards. Looking at the second chart I was surprised to see that this year was the first time that Narduzzi's squad finished in the top half of the Big 10 in both scoring and total offense. It really makes me question whether this year was the outlier?

This season Michigan State also finished 9th in the country in scoring defense....but 4th in their conference. I'm not sure how to interpret that. Was the Big 10 just a powerhouse defensive conference or are the offenses just really bad? Taking a quick look at the top scoring offenses in the nation only Wisconsin (#5), Michigan (#22) and Michigan State (#37) are in the top 40.

I'm completely unsure how to feel about Narduzzi. From everything I read this is a homerun hire but looking at the numbers I'm not knocked over.

The rest of the staff will probably be lined out once Narduzzi is finalized.