The State of the Current St. Xavier Football Program?

[Riverside 157]

Any X alums want to chim in and give your thoughts on the current situation?

[lawildcat]

What is the current situation?

[PepRock01]

What is the current situation?

 

Discontent with the current direction of the program.

 

At least as near as I can tell.

[bruin66]

The state of the program is definitely in flux now. There is a head coach with no prior coaching experience who is trying to find his way. He has made numerous errors with regard to overall philosoply, coaching staff, placement of personnel, game management, and developing a consistent offensive philosophy which fits the personnel that he must deploy.

 

Defensively, a philosophy has been set and in place for the past two years.

 

A big concern for the program is the lack of difference-making athletic talent that is currently not coming into the program.

 

Bottom line is that this past season was Year 3 of the Wolford era. That is the year that progress should be demonstrated; it was not.

 

The program is definitely in worse shape now then when Wolford took over.

[LongTimeReader]

As an alumnus from a far, I see this era lasting a maximum of 2 more seasons.

 

It appears that Wolford finally has a staff that fits the expectations for the program. The lack of coaching experience really hurt this program as Wolford had to find his way as a HC. What didn't help his learning curve was the fact that he was not in the building. The administration failed to understand how important that aspect is when deciding who will take over a program and a sport that requires a lot of unnoticed time and sacrifice.

 

Defensively, Coach Bruner really has helped the program and keeping them competitive, while the offense was trying to figure out what they were going to do.

 

With the current QB situation, the offensive scheme they have now fits well, but Ridder must improve his passing ability. That falls on both the player and the coach.

 

The situation of difference-making talent is something that has to be addressed with the administration. If I were being interviewed for this position, that would be one of my concerns. Top players in CSAA and the city are not going to X and while everyone wants to say this and that, if they don't have the players it's going to make it tough to knock off T and Male who have different makers playing for them. Also I would have to ask the administration about their expectations for the program. This would be related to the student-athlete concern, a new philosophy as a whole should be considered or else X is going to continue to fall in relevance in football and will just have to rely on their tradition to keep them relevant instead of current victories.

 

This issues are more than just Wolford, but he did not help himself create a foundation during his first two seasons. The administration put the program in this situation, now it'll be up to them to get them out of it.

[bruin66]

As an alumnus from a far, I see this era lasting a maximum of 2 more seasons.

 

It appears that Wolford finally has a staff that fits the expectations for the program. The lack of coaching experience really hurt this program as Wolford had to find his way as a HC. What didn't help his learning curve was the fact that he was not in the building. The administration failed to understand how important that aspect is when deciding who will take over a program and a sport that requires a lot of unnoticed time and sacrifice.

 

Defensively, Coach Bruner really has helped the program and keeping them competitive, while the offense was trying to figure out what they were going to do.

 

With the current QB situation, the offensive scheme they have now fits well, but Ridder must improve his passing ability. That falls on both the player and the coach.

 

The situation of difference-making talent is something that has to be addressed with the administration. If I were being interviewed for this position, that would be one of my concerns. Top players in CSAA and the city are not going to X and while everyone wants to say this and that, if they don't have the players it's going to make it tough to knock off T and Male who have different makers playing for them. Also I would have to ask the administration about their expectations for the program. This would be related to the student-athlete concern, a new philosophy as a whole should be considered or else X is going to continue to fall in relevance in football and will just have to rely on their tradition to keep them relevant instead of current victories.

 

This issues are more than just Wolford, but he did not help himself create a foundation during his first two seasons. The administration put the program in this situation, now it'll be up to them to get them out of it.

 

I agree with many of your points, LTR, especially about the administration not acknowledging the hidden requirements of the job.

 

I do disagree, however, with your assessment of the current offense being run. It just does not fit the personnel that the school is currently getting, and it does not have answers for short yardage, red zone, and bad weather. I think many of their concepts are good, but it is not a complete offense to handle situations that happen very often in games.

[Riverside 157]

Some interesting data to accompany the above comments:

 

Glaser took the HC job in 1982. The first three years: 9 - 3, 10 - 3 and 10 - 3.

29 - 9. . .

 

It took Glaser less than 5 full seasons to collect 15 defeats!!!!

 

Wolford''s first three years: 7 - 5, 8 - 5 and 7 - 5.

22 - 15. . .

 

The slope is headed in the wrong direction folks. I do not forsee any change to the current situation. Just continued marginal and mediocre football. This is NOT what St. X football is about. The Administration better be working on something because dammage is being done to the program and the more damage is done the harder it is to restore the program to where it should be... It is truly a shame!!!! Nothing personal against the players, parents and coaches (nothing against Coach Wolford). This current state is simply NOT acceptable. Winning takes care of alot of things, and WE are not winning games we should!!! Thirty regular season games is enough to figure out what needs to be done and CORRECT the issues. The track record of little improvement throughout the season and between seasons is convincing enough for this fan that changes have to be made!!!! Speaking for myself and many others of the X fan base, the time is critical. ACTION IS REQUIRED.

[LongTimeReader]

I agree with many of your points, LTR, especially about the administration not acknowledging the hidden requirements of the job.

 

I do disagree, however, with your assessment of the current offense being run. It just does not fit the personnel that the school is currently getting, and it does not have answers for short yardage, red zone, and bad weather. I think many of their concepts are good, but it is not a complete offense to handle situations that happen very often in games.

 

I like the offense if Ridder is playing QB. Having a dual threat QB is tough for defenses. But I agree with you it's not a complete offense, yet. If the passing game improves it can be dangerous. I think what hurt this team this year was their lack of RB threats. Usually X has a pretty solid RB, but this year it seemed they relied too much on Ridder to produce in the running game.

[kypride]

I agree with many of your points, LTR, especially about the administration not acknowledging the hidden requirements of the job.

 

I do disagree, however, with your assessment of the current offense being run. It just does not fit the personnel that the school is currently getting, and it does not have answers for short yardage, red zone, and bad weather. I think many of their concepts are good, but it is not a complete offense to handle situations that happen very often in games.

 

I applaud the new X coordinator. He improved the offensive output by 8 points per game this year. The 2 base runs of their scheme are power and counter, which are generally accepted by football coaches to be good plays in short yardage, red zone, and bad weather.

[LongTimeReader]

The state of the program is definitely in flux now. There is a head coach with no prior coaching experience who is trying to find his way. He has made numerous errors with regard to overall philosoply, coaching staff, placement of personnel, game management, and developing a consistent offensive philosophy which fits the personnel that he must deploy.

 

Defensively, a philosophy has been set and in place for the past two years.

A big concern for the program is the lack of difference-making athletic talent that is currently not coming into the program.

 

Bottom line is that this past season was Year 3 of the Wolford era. That is the year that progress should be demonstrated; it was not.

 

The program is definitely in worse shape now then when Wolford took over.

 

While I'm a big fan of Coach Bruner, he needs to start working on some wrinkles he can throw at teams, especially in the playoffs. He can not just sit in the same front and coverage and play teams head up. Teams like T will exploit him majority of the time.

[Hogg84]

I thought he Woolford and his staff showed their lack of experience from day one. His first year when X had Charles Walker and Austin Davis, that team had the talent to win the state title, and they went 7-5, lost early in the tournament.

[Orca1]

I stated even before the season started that X does not have the horses to comPete against very good teams. I don't mean to put anyone down but truth is their RBS don't scare anybody. Their oline struggles to get a push at times. Their WRs are athletic yet struggle to get separation. QB is nice,just not polished. Their better athletes play D

Don't expect change of philosophy from administration. Would of happened by now.

[bruin66]

I thought he Woolford and his staff showed their lack of experience from day one. His first year when X had Charles Walker and Austin Davis, that team had the talent to win the state title, and they went 7-5, lost early in the tournament.

 

That team was set up to win, and he failed miserably to produce with it.

[bruin66]

I applaud the new X coordinator. He improved the offensive output by 8 points per game this year. The 2 base runs of their scheme are power and counter, which are generally accepted by football coaches to be good plays in short yardage, red zone, and bad weather.

 

I agree with your assessment of those two blocking schemes being sound in those situations. However, I strongly disagree with the formations from which those plays are run in those situations. 100% shotgun and no TE's is simply not smart or effective in the above-mentioned situations. That is the time to deploy multiple TE's, perhaps a fullback, and possibly place the QB under center. Just watch Trinity's offense. That is what they do in those situations. They are able to spread it out when they want to and get in multiple TE's when they want to.

[bruin66]

I like the offense if Ridder is playing QB. Having a dual threat QB is tough for defenses. But I agree with you it's not a complete offense, yet. If the passing game improves it can be dangerous. I think what hurt this team this year was their lack of RB threats. Usually X has a pretty solid RB, but this year it seemed they relied too much on Ridder to produce in the running game.

 

 

I saw an even bigger problem with the running game than with the passing game as the year went on, especially against good teams. The Tigers accumulated less than 100 yards rushing in both Trinity games, the Male game, and the Cincinnati St. X game. That just does not cut it against good opponents.