Zorn & Dabo
Being a bit of a Redskins fan, and being as I live right in the middle of the Redskins markets, I hear a lot about the ‘Skins and have heard a lot about their new coach this year. The fan base is just like every other fan base in the country: a single win lifts the expectations for the whole season, a single loss destroys those expectations.
If you haven’t been paying attention, the ‘Skins have a new coach this year, Jim Zorn. Zorn, before this year, had never been an offensive coordinator in the NFL, nor had he ever been a head coach. The ‘Skins jumped out this year to a 4-1 start, which became a 6-2 start. After 8 games, everybody loved Jim Zorn. Zorny was the guy who turned things around. Zorny was the guy who was going to return them to greatness. Jim Zorn was a genius.
Notice my use of the past tense.
The ‘Skins have since gone 1-5, which includes a loss to the Bengals, who had managed only one other win this season. The conventional wisdom is that earlier in the season, opponents were just not sure how to properly prepare for someone of whom they had no tape. Halfway through the season, however, the available data set had grown and the opposition has learned what it needs to know to win. Suffice it to say that the fan base is much less excited about their new head coach than they were 2 months and 6 games ago.
I bring this up because of the somewhat similar situations between Zorn and Dabo. As I’ve mentioned before, I fear that Dabo will coach differently now that he faces dramatically different incentives. But I now also fear that he’s in the midst of the Zorn effect; he’s good because he’s new. He had room to take risks; and they worked out. In the future those same risks will bite him in the ass, so he either steps in for another round of Russian Roulette, or he becomes one of the boring coaches who tries to survive by minimizing risk.
Of course I hope that I’m wrong in my comparison. And it should be said that I would be worried about any other coach we might have hired because past performance is just such a shitty indicator of the future. For now, however, I’m just not that optimistic about next season.
Have you ever been optimistic?
About Clemson football, or life in general?
I used to be optimistic about football, but I’ve learned my lesson.
I’m generally optimistic about life, and now that I think about it, I’m not quite sure why.
Comparing those two is dangerous. I’ll agree that Zorn & Dabo have never been coordinators, and both are inexperienced (these are facts so I am dumb), but Zorn was in a better position coming in. With two talented and capable coordinators already hired, he led the Redskins to a good first half of the season. Then injuries occured, along with getting tape of the team, and not to mention that the strength of the teams past (the o-line) fell apart. Just give it time (I am a Panthers fan/homer. So take all that with a grain of salt if you want)
Dabo on the other hand, he comes in as a Recruiter. He has never been a “coach”. Yeah yeah he was technically named the wide-receivers and assistant coach, but his primary function for the team was to recruit. Also, we have no proven coordinators behind him, and like you said now that he has that fat contract there is no telling what kind of coach he will turn in too. I think he was a good hire, although not a smart one, but Clemson fans better understand the learning curve that is going to come, and hopefully learn to be patient as this next season is going to be a real doozy for Tiger fans.
Well let’s see: No Davis, maybe no Spiller, no Harper and Korn still has to prove he’s good. Two fresh RB’s and no Kelly or Grisham. So basically we’re replacing all our offensive skill players.
New DC and replacing half our secondary.
I’d be optimistic if I said I was cautious about our prospects next season…