just some stuff ...
Montgomery called plays the last 4 years he was at Baylor (2011-2014). As playcaller, his offenses scored 40 or more 38 out of 51 games. In his 4 years calling plays, Baylor averaged 47.75 ppg while running the ball 57% of the time.
When he stepped over to Tulsa, he inherited a mess. Bill Blankenship had no business being a head coach and Montgomery had a lot to clean up. When Blankenship was playing with Todd Graham's recruits, things were ok and they won 19 games his first 2 years. When his players started taking the field is when the issues occurred.
Tulsa was 5-19 in Blankenship's last 2 years and his teams scored just 22.9 ppg. The point differential was embarrassing: -154 in his 3rd year, -175 in his last.
Further, Blankenship didn't recruit much: his classes were ranked 98, 96, 74, 79, and the class he "worked" on that Montgomery signed was 100th.
All of which makes what Montgomery has done even more impressive: he flipped the script from a program that won 5 games in 2 years to one that's now won 15. Scoring is up: from 24.7 in Blankenship's final year to 37.2 in Montie's first to 41.4 this season.
3rd down conversions are way up - from 34/38% in last two years of Blank to 44-45% under Montie - basically converting 2-2.5 more a game. And that leads to more scores and a much better point differential: from -175 in Blank's last year to -35 in 2015 to +119 this season - Tulsa's 5th best differential ever (3 of first four happened under Graham).
Montie has Tulsa playing better defense. They are giving up 31 ppg - nothing earth shattering but considering their recruiting, it's pretty good (and down from 39 ppg in 2014). Fact is, there simply aren't enough athletes at Tulsa to score and stop anyone.
Tulsa notoriously does not spend much on it's staff and it's easy to see. Montgomery makes $800,000 a year. Obviously Tulsa is going to offer him and his staff more this offseason - but we can pay 2-2.5 times more than they can. I do have some hesitancy about his staff.
He did take Sterlin Gilbert from Bowling Green and that was a solid hire. Gilbert was at UH as a GA in 05. He never replaced Gilbert as OC after 2015. Their offense really took off when Montgomery started calling plays again this season. Good sign. QB had a better year in 2015 than this year, though.
His DC, Bill Young, had just accepted the DL job at SMU 3 weeks before Montie hired him away. Before that he was coaching HS and then was a quality control guy at Wyoming. His QB coach is Beau Trahan, who was a QB at Texas. He spent 8 years at Baylor in an admin capacity after being a GA here.
His receivers coach was a admin at Baylor as was his running backs coach. OL coach Mike Bloesch, one of my favorite Cougars ever, was an admin at UH in 2014 and a HS coach before that. Only one position coach was a DI coach directly prior to coming to Tulsa - and he was at Baylor. Which makes their turnaround sort of miraculous - but could also make people think about UH in Art's first few years. We need guys that can recruit and develop players - his network is a concern.
His results are not.
Montgomery called plays the last 4 years he was at Baylor (2011-2014). As playcaller, his offenses scored 40 or more 38 out of 51 games. In his 4 years calling plays, Baylor averaged 47.75 ppg while running the ball 57% of the time.
When he stepped over to Tulsa, he inherited a mess. Bill Blankenship had no business being a head coach and Montgomery had a lot to clean up. When Blankenship was playing with Todd Graham's recruits, things were ok and they won 19 games his first 2 years. When his players started taking the field is when the issues occurred.
Tulsa was 5-19 in Blankenship's last 2 years and his teams scored just 22.9 ppg. The point differential was embarrassing: -154 in his 3rd year, -175 in his last.
Further, Blankenship didn't recruit much: his classes were ranked 98, 96, 74, 79, and the class he "worked" on that Montgomery signed was 100th.
All of which makes what Montgomery has done even more impressive: he flipped the script from a program that won 5 games in 2 years to one that's now won 15. Scoring is up: from 24.7 in Blankenship's final year to 37.2 in Montie's first to 41.4 this season.
3rd down conversions are way up - from 34/38% in last two years of Blank to 44-45% under Montie - basically converting 2-2.5 more a game. And that leads to more scores and a much better point differential: from -175 in Blank's last year to -35 in 2015 to +119 this season - Tulsa's 5th best differential ever (3 of first four happened under Graham).
Montie has Tulsa playing better defense. They are giving up 31 ppg - nothing earth shattering but considering their recruiting, it's pretty good (and down from 39 ppg in 2014). Fact is, there simply aren't enough athletes at Tulsa to score and stop anyone.
Tulsa notoriously does not spend much on it's staff and it's easy to see. Montgomery makes $800,000 a year. Obviously Tulsa is going to offer him and his staff more this offseason - but we can pay 2-2.5 times more than they can. I do have some hesitancy about his staff.
He did take Sterlin Gilbert from Bowling Green and that was a solid hire. Gilbert was at UH as a GA in 05. He never replaced Gilbert as OC after 2015. Their offense really took off when Montgomery started calling plays again this season. Good sign. QB had a better year in 2015 than this year, though.
His DC, Bill Young, had just accepted the DL job at SMU 3 weeks before Montie hired him away. Before that he was coaching HS and then was a quality control guy at Wyoming. His QB coach is Beau Trahan, who was a QB at Texas. He spent 8 years at Baylor in an admin capacity after being a GA here.
His receivers coach was a admin at Baylor as was his running backs coach. OL coach Mike Bloesch, one of my favorite Cougars ever, was an admin at UH in 2014 and a HS coach before that. Only one position coach was a DI coach directly prior to coming to Tulsa - and he was at Baylor. Which makes their turnaround sort of miraculous - but could also make people think about UH in Art's first few years. We need guys that can recruit and develop players - his network is a concern.
His results are not.
