Mark Helfrich Thoughts

Topic

I don’t have a really strong opinion about him yet, but I do think as an OC he could be a good hire. I like what his offenses were about. Now, obviously we are all worried about ‘was it due to Chip?’ ‘Was it due to Mariota’? Etc

I looked at the S&P+ offensive rankings for as many years as I could around his time at Oregon:

PRIOR TO HIS ARRIVAL:
’05 – 24
’06 – 22

Chip Kelly Hired
’07 – 9
’08 – 16

ENTER HELFRICH
’09 – 13
’10 – 5
’11 – 3
’12 – 1

KELLY LEAVES – HELFRICH IS HC
’13 – 4
’14 – 1 (Mariota wins Heisman)
’15 – 1
’16 – 6

Willie Taggart hired
’17 – 28

Mario hired
’18 – 31

Now we can look at a different advanced metric FEI… as many years as I could get

Chip Kelly Hired
’07 – 12
’08 – 18

ENTER HELFRICH
’09 – 14
’10 – 7
’11 – 5
’12 – 3

KELLY LEAVES – HELFRICH IS HC
’13 – 4
’14 – 1 (Mariota wins Heisman)
’15 – 11
’16 – 19

Willie Taggart hired
’17 – 58

Mario hired
’18 – 55
’19 – 19

I think both of these bode pretty well. It’s hard to always tell who did what, but when you look at before and after, there was a huge let down after he left, for sure.

He was also the force behind recruiting Marcus Mariota and was with MM the entire time.

He also was the key guy in the scouting, signing and development of Marcus Mariota. He also identified Johnny Manziel.

It’s not all sunshine and roses, but I think these things are good indicators.

Replies

I wasn’t too happy initially given the shit job he did as HC of Oregon after Mariota left. I thought about it more though and started to come around on this. He can focus solely on what he does best and perhaps leave the heavy recruiting to his assistants (see Coach K).

Also, there’s the fuck Oregon revenge factor right?

I’m content with the hire I like the fact it will be a whole new system. I also like the fact he has previous successful experience in college. His offenses scored point and they had an identity. Only a small concern it appears he preferred mobile QB’s which we don’t have on the roster.

253-404Dawg wrote:

I’m content with the hire I like the fact it will be a whole new system. I also like the fact he has previous successful experience in college. His offenses scored point and they had an identity. Only a small concern it appears he preferred mobile QB’s which we don’t have on the roster.

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Wouldn’t it be fun if we had a QB that could move around a little bit? God forbid us come into the 21st century!

My only concern with Helfrich is the passing game.

Oregon under Chip and Mark wasn’t particularly sophisticated throwing the ball. The caveat being now is that he spent two years in the NFL under Nagy (Andy Reid disciple) and probably picked up a few things

TacoSoup wrote:

My only concern with Helfrich is the passing game.

Oregon under Chip and Mark wasn’t particularly sophisticated throwing the ball. The caveat being now is that he spent two years in the NFL under Nagy (Andy Reid disciple) and probably picked up a few things
Wow. I couldn’t disagree more. Watching Oregon with Chip I was always amazed at how open they schemed their receivers. Tons of times where you wouldn’t see a DB within 10 yards of a receiver. I thought that passing game was stellar and it was always set up by running.

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