UD Likely to Go With New Offensive Coordinator

[GannonFan]

Delaware appears to be ready to pull the trigger and go with a new offensive coordinator, following last year's debacle on offense.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090129/SPORTS07/901290368&s=d&page=1#pluckcomments

He's Jim Hofher, formerly of Cornell and Buffalo as a head coach and a slew of other places as an assistant. He was the QB coach at Bowling Green last year.

He would be replacing Brian Ginn, a former Blue Hen QB who took over the OC reins last year when former OC Ciarocca left to join the Rutgers coaching staff. Ginn struggled in the role last year, although a credible argument could be made that anyone would've struggled in that role as there just wasn't a quality QB anywhere in the bunch.

Things certainly look up for the Hens this year, though, as the defense is extremely good and with Pat Devlin coming in, the offense should be significantly better.

[mcveyrl]

Do many Blue Hen fans fault Ginn for the struggles last year?

I think the argument you make for him should at least give him a year with Devlin.

[danefan]

Sometimes a team just needs a change. A new OC may be more of a mental change for the players than anything else. It can give the offensive a big confidence boost.

[GannonFan]

Do many Blue Hen fans fault Ginn for the struggles last year?

I think the argument you make for him should at least give him a year with Devlin.

I'd say it's split. There are certainly people who feel that no one could've succeeded last year, with the complete absence of a credible QB and an offensive line that was exposed later in the year.

However, I'm in the other camp. I certainly feel the QB situation was the single most responsible reason for the bad season (an average QB could've led to UD winning the Furman, Maine, UMass, and W&M games, IMO). But I also felt that Ginn was terribly uncreative in addressing the shortcomings on offense. I called it the Turtle Offense - we pretty much went into a shell and didn't threaten to do anything on offense. And it's not like they didn't know what they had (or didn't have) at the QB spot since the Spring - heck, they brought in a JUCO guy late in the summer as a shot in the dark once it became apparent the QB's were terrible. Playcalling was just poor all year and never did anything to give the QB a chance to do something positive. I remembered back in '05 when UD lost it's top 4 WR's during the year, inlcuding the top 2 (all conference types) right before the season started. Ciarocca, the OC then, did shift to a run-based, belly option read offense, and that was successful. And there were serious offensive line issues that year as well. By comparison, Ginn did very little to address the issues this year.

Hopefully Ginn sticks around, especially being a former Hen, but UD needs to win this year - you don't bring a guy like Devlin in and just hope to be .500. UD, with Devlin and the defense that's returning, should be a playoff team this year and you can't just hope your OC is up to the task.

[henfan]

Do many Blue Hen fans fault Ginn for the struggles last year?

Fans don't have the insight on the OC job to either fault or remove blame from Ginn. You'd have to think that most who follow the program understand the lack of available talent at key positions in '08. (I do agree with GF's 'Turtle Offense' comment, though we don't know whose decision that was.)

The guy who has the best insight on what went wrong last year, Keeler, was the person who obviously felt a change was needed. He's the one whose career will be most impacted by these type of decisions. As fans, we have to support the move and hope that it works out. If not, Keeler will be held accountable, as well he should.

[89Hen]

(an average QB could've led to UD winning the Furman, Maine, UMass, and W&M games, IMO). But I also felt that Ginn was terribly uncreative in addressing the shortcomings on offense. I called it the Turtle Offense - we pretty much went into a shell and didn't threaten to do anything on offense.
FWIW, I think the turtle offense may have kept UD in a couple games last year that an open offense could have had fall apart quickly... namely the Maryland game. What happened the two times they tried something different?... Interceptions on both. xpeacex

[GannonFan]

FWIW, I think the turtle offense may have kept UD in a couple games last year that an open offense could have had fall apart quickly... namely the Maryland game. What happened the two times they tried something different?... Interceptions on both. xpeacex

I agree the Maryland game was kept close because the offense was, ironically, very turtle like. However, I wasn't necessarily talking about opening it where the QB just throws it around. With the QB we had, there should've been more screens, more belly-read options, more easy passes for him to hit, more times where they kept an extra blocker in to help pass protect when they would try going deep (the Richmond game was one - only kept a TE in once to pass block and the QB had more than enough time - it was akin to watching that Eagles/Giants game two years ago where Winston Justice was getting mauled and the Eagles never did anything to give him help), etc. To me, it seemed like they stayed with the Flacco-type offense even though Flacco was gone, or they just shut it down entirely and hoped the defense could score the points.