The eternal mystery of John Latina

by BPH, San Diego, Tuesday, March 03, 2009, 17:03 (6293 days ago) @ Jay
edited by BPH, Tuesday, March 03, 2009, 17:11

Was he simply not that good of a coach - more specifically, not that good of a running game coach - or did Weis' meddling on things like scheme and practice time prevent him from getting the most out of his players?

On one hand, he produced several NFL linemen at Ole Miss, was a student of Joe Moore and was hired by Spurrier before Weis pried him away. On the other, he apparently hasn't gotten so much of a whiff since hitting the market in January (maybe he wants to take a year off).

On one hand, he has produced some very good running games, including averaging more than 200 yards per game and 4.5 per carry at Clemson in 1995-96. On the other, he has produced more mediocre to downright awful running games, including failing to average more than 159 yards per game or 4.0 per carry in any of his last five years at Ole Miss. Compare that with Verducci, whose teams averaged something like 170 yards per game and well over 4.0 per carry in 10 years at Iowa.

If Weis lets him do his job, and he better after the last two seasons, Verducci will get this turned around immediately.