My buddy Shane and I were coming home from work yesterday and we were listening to sports radio. Upon hearing the news of Gary Crowton leaving Oregon for LSU, we both chuckled. After a hard day of work, it always great to hear news like this.
It looks like Crowton is following my advice by getting out of Eugene. He needs to make sure to stay at LSU for only one year. Most likely he won’t. I want LSU fans to know why Gary Crowton is going to cause you pain when he stays more than one year.
First of all, let me preface these comments by saying that Gary Crowton is a great person. I’m sure he is a great husband/father. But because of what he did to BYU football, just thinking of his tenure here in Provo makes me cringe.
The news of Crowton’s hiring is circulating around the internet. LSU fans are gitty about this hire. Here are a few for you to enjoy:
Not many agree with me that this will be a bad hire. It looks like David James and I are in agreement.
Let me explain why I think this will be a bad hire.
Crowton runs a version of the spread offense. When he gets a new job, his first year has been great. Let the stats explain.
Chicago Bears
1999: Bears record was 6-10. Their offense scored 272 points (17/game), 7th worst in the NFL. 31 TDs, 7th worst in NFL (source). Leading passer: Shane Matthews
2000: Bears record was 5-11. Their offense scored 214 points (13.4/game), 4th worst in the NFL. 22 TDs, 3rd worst in the NFL (source). (The thing that you want to do from an offensive standpoint is you want to score points.) Leading passer: Cade McNown
It’s safe to say that he didn’t have the greatest quarterbacks to run his offense. Get this though. In 2001, the Bears went 13-3 with Jim Miller as the quarterback. They scored 338 points (21.1/game), good enough for 11th in the NFL.
BYU
2001: BYU went 12-2. They scored an amazing 608 points (46.8/game). Luke Staley was the leading rusher in the nation. However they got killed in their last two games. Everybody loved Crowton as head coach. What a great season! But it was a terrible watching them get killed by Hawaii and Louisville. Coincidentally, Luke Staley was injured in the two games BYU lost.
2002: Their record was 5-7. BYU’s first losing season in 30 years. They scored 272 points (22.7/game).
2003: BYU went 4-8. They scored 196 points (16.3/game). They didn’t score a point in the game versus Utah, the first time they went scoreless in a game in my lifetime.
2004: BYU went 5-6. They 267 points (24.3/game).
BYU went from scoring 608 points in 2001 to a low of 196 points in 2003! This was against average teams in the Mountain West Conference. He was the head coach and offensive coordinator at BYU.
Oregon
2005: Oregon went 10-2. They scored 414 points (34.5/game).
2006: Oregon went 7-6, losing their last 4. They scored 383 points (29.5/game).
There you have it. The only year he improved upon his previous year while at the same program was 2004. BYU couldn’t have gotten any worse after a terrible year in 2003.
The truth is Gary Crowton has a good offense. But smart teams are going to figure it out. Guess who was coaching Utah when BYU went scoreless in 2003-Urban Meyer. Most of the coaches in the SEC are almost as smart as Urban and they will shut down LSU’s offense. LSU has great athletes and he will find a way to make them look bad.
The Las Vegas Bowl was a great game this year. For most fans, I am sure it was a boring game. BYU almost shut out Oregon and won the game 38-8. Watching Oregon play brought back bitter memories of when Crowton was at BYU. They looked clueless out there. BYU’s secondary was injured. They didn’t have most of their best players playing because of injuries. Crowton failed to take advantage of his highly athletic receivers. Instead he was worrying about which quarterback to play on which down.
Be ready for an undisciplined offense that fails to make any adjustments-during the game or season.
LSU will probably have a great year with their athletes. They will score a lot of points. But don’t expect them to stay that way. Not with Crowton as the offensive coordinator. The numbers don’t lie.
I am an expert in the realm of seeing squandered talent by incompitant coaches. I live in new Orleans and saw the saints until recently piss away more talent than any other organization in competative football. I never thought it would happen to my beloved Tigers. Boy was i wrong. Real football in the ncaa is no EA sports video game I understand this. That being said. I am willing to offer my services as the offensive coordinator for LSU for the remainder of the year. Crowton is not vanilla. That would be an improvement. Vanilla is consitent and true. It’s tried, tested, and proved to be on of the top three flavors of ice cream in history. I can’t really make an analogy for Crowton. It’s mindboggling how someone could be so ineffective and yet still being paid as if he is producing a winning product. Crowton(and for that matter, Miles road to the NCAA BCS nat’l x-ship on the coattails of Saban and Pelini’s hard work. Les Miles may have some value as far as a coach. In my opinion he is resting on the championship that he was handed when he came here. When you inherit a finely tuned German sports car with showroom mileage you expect it to run decently without maintinance for at least a year or two. LSU should have been undefeated that year without a doubt. Enough about “Less than advertised” Miles. Crowton has got to go. No excuses. I would bet my life on the fact that I use the talent that LSU has on offense and score 20 to 27pts against any team in the nation. LSU fans need to stop drinking the cool-aid. Miles sucks!!!!! Crowton blows!!!!!! I know we as a nation have been programed to be chearleaders for our chosen leaders. Never more evident that now,,,,but i digress. If you are a true fan of LSU Football,,,,,WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!. Don’t just cheer for cheer sake. WE deserve more as fans. More importantly, those young athletes who are getting fooled into going to LSU deserve a better set of coaches for their lifetimes of hard work and dedication. Its time for real LSU fans to get LOUD. I’m not talking about on saturday nights in death valley. lets upset this parade of retardation before we see a talent and championship drough that spans past 2020
It is time to go get Gruden, Charlie Strong or Spurrier. Les would make a great offensive line coach for them. And Crowton can tote wires on the sideline
dude this article is so crazy. You basically told the future. His first year we won a national championship. Then next year and this year or offense has been shut down. Your right the defenses are prepared and know exactly what crowton is going to do. Definately needs to get fired.
I still say even after last game against Auburn, I only saw one different play that Les said would be allot of different plays, was a post pass play. The calling got bad again in the second half, we should have beaten Auburn by 50 or more. How did you like the very first play he called for Lee, look familiar, and it just was a split second of being intercepted back for a touchdown, Crowton hasn’t learned and will not learn.
Dude, who are you……you must be related to Freakin Nastrodamus! Crowton is a joke! Great write up!
“undisciplined offense” “clueless” … You have written the book for our season.
[...] and kept Jimbo Fisher from the Nick Saban era. The only bad pick up he has made is Gary Crowton, who is infamous for dropping off considerably after his first year (2007 at LSU) and not being able … :Billy Gonzales, Change, Gary Crowton, OC, Offensive Coordinator, Wide Receiver [...]
Nice article, and I can see the correlation you are trying to make. But get your facts straight.
The Las Vegas Bowl for 2009 was played by Oregon St. Beavers vs BYU. Not Oregon (Ducks). They played Ohio State this year.
GTABIgONE4U : you do realize this article was written almost three years ago? And you jump on him about getting the facts straight. Now go re-read the article and tell me what you think
Here are the facts about LSU’s offense under Crowton’s leadership:
2007 – 541 points – 38.6/game average
2008 – 402 points – 30.9/game average
2009 – 323 points – 24.8/game average
Crowton’s gotta go!
If only we had listened.
I personnally think the only way Crowton will go we will have to have a losing season. Don’t be surprise if some of the recruits start leaving. Sad thing will take a while to build the team back up, need change now before we go back to the 90’s!
Taking stats out of context is B.S.
Fact, Crowton’s offense in 2007 did produce the LSU record for most points scored in history and a BCS Championship.
Fact, the following two years have been bad with the points decreasing each year.
However, with a fifth year QB in Matt Flynn who has gone on to become the second string QB for the Packers, Crowton’s offense produced record breaking points.
And in the following year, with a redshirt QB with zero playing experience in reading SEC defenses, the offense sufferd as should be expected. Crowton’s major mistake was game plaining his offense with Lee as if this redshirt QB could read SEC defense. Lee was harmed by that season and Crowton and Miles are responsible.
Fact, this year, Crowton has not made the same mistake with our virtual reshirt freshman QB Jefferson, but many of our fans are criticizing Crowton for doing the right thing this year. He has limited the passing game in order to cut down on the interceptions and this has helped guide LSU to a third place finish in the SEC–good job.
If Crowton was smart, he should have resigned when Miles kikicked Perrilloux off the team. If he had, some other poor S.B. would be getting the shaft for ruining what Crowton had build at LSU.
[...] Fans Will Suffer Because of Gary Crowton LSU Fans Will Suffer Because of Gary Crowton | Picklewagon doesn't sound like a better choice or someone whose feelings we should care about right now. We [...]