Tag: Phil Longo

Kliff Kingsbury’s addition doesn’t mean Commanders will go all-in on Caleb Williams

Kliff Kingsbury’s connection to another one of the top three 2024 QB prospects.

When the Washington Commanders hired Kliff Kingsbury as offensive coordinator last week, the natural assumption was this move was made to make a play for Caleb Williams.

Williams, the USC quarterback and presumed No. 1 overall pick, has a close relationship with Kingsbury. Once the news broke of Kingsbury’s hiring, Williams congratulated him on Instagram. Their relationship began after Kingsbury was fired by the Cardinals and took on the position of senior offensive analyst at USC for his good friend, Lincoln Riley.

Here’s the problem with the Kingsbury/Williams theory: The Commanders have no control over whether they can pair Kingsbury with Williams. The Chicago Bears hold the No. 1 overall pick. They are likely to select Williams, leaving the Commanders to choose between quarterbacks Drake Maye (North Carolina) and Jayden Daniels (LSU) — both phenomenal prospects, too.

So, while it makes for good podcast chatter, so much must happen for it to become a reality. In all likelihood, new Washington coach Dan Quinn wanted to hire the best offensive mind possible to develop a young quarterback, and Kingsbury’s reputation with quarterbacks is outstanding.

After Washington hired Kingsbury, it also added former Eagles offensive coordinator Brian Johnson to a prominent role on staff. The Commanders also retained quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard, giving their young quarterbacks (a rookie and Sam Howell) multiple voices in 2024.

While Kingsbury doesn’t have a direct connection to Daniels — the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner — he does have one with Maye.

During Maye’s first two seasons at North Carolina, his offensive coordinator was Phil Longo — also Howell’s college offensive coordinator at UNC. Maye started two seasons, as he was Howell’s backup in 2021, and his best season was in 2022. That was Longo’s final season at North Carolina, as he left last offseason to be Luke Fickell’s new offensive coordinator at Wisconsin.

How does Longo figure into the mix with Kingsbury?

Longo was a high school coach in 1996 when he became fascinated with the Air Raid offense. So, one summer, he packed his bags and drove to Texas to learn from the offense from the great Mike Leach.

That was the start of a mentorship between Leach and Longo that lasted until Leach’s death in Dec. 2022.

Leach was also Kingsbury’s mentor, coaching him for three seasons at Texas Tech. Kingsbury broke numerous school and NCAA records while playing for Leach. It was during those trips to see Leach that Longo met Kingsbury.

In a story from Jesse Simonton for On3, he detailed Longo taking over as Wisconsin’s offensive coordinator last year. Longo talked about how he would talk offensive football and the Air Raid with Leach, Kingsbury and current Purdue offensive coordinator Graham Harrell every offseason until Leach passed away.

Around that same time, Kingsbury was fired as Arizona’s head coach.

“And then Kliff Kingsbury is the other one I love talking Xs and Os with and he’s was out galavanting around in Taiwan and overseas for a while,” Longo said last spring. “Neither one of them had been around as much at all, and it’s been a very quiet spring for me. It’s been so strange.”

Don’t you think Longo can offer Kingsbury some details on Maye — and Howell? Both have played in Longo’s version of the Air Raid.

This also doesn’t mean the Commanders will sell select Maye, either. But Kingsbury will have some inside intel on two of the top three quarterback prospects, and general manager Adam Peters will lean into Kingsbury’s evaluation of Daniels, too.

So, there are plenty of connections here. Right now, they mean nothing. If Washington somehow trades up for the No. 1 pick, then we have a different story.

 

Wisconsin nearly leads the Big Ten in returning production entering 2024

Wisconsin is well-positioned entering 2024 … if everything works out

The Wisconsin football program enters 2024 needing a bounce-back campaign in a bad way.

The Badgers’ 7-6 2023 season fell far short of expectations, but especially so when one considers the losses were to teams including Northwestern, Indiana, Washington State and Iowa. Now, the team looks a bit different entering 2024 and a daunting schedule awaits.

Related: Way-too-early record predictions for every Big Ten football team in 2024 — Power ranking all 18 Big Ten football programs after the 2023 season

An 8-4 season at minimum is necessary for the Luke Fickell era to gain positive momentum entering 2025. The schedule should be considered in the evaluation, but it shouldn’t be the end-all when this is what the new era of the Big Ten will look like. It’s on Fickell and Wisconsin’s leadership to adapt to the changes and carve out a successful place in the pecking order.

One important variable entering any football season — but especially this one for the Badgers — is returning production. ESPN’s Bill Connelly ranks every FBS team in the metric throughout the offseason, including this week after the initial transfer portal cycle concluded. The new era of college football makes it challenging to draw direct a correlation between returning production percentage and wins on the field, but it’s easy to conclude that returning starters are a good thing for teams looking to contend.

Yes, there are necessary disclaimers that a program would rather return ‘good’ production (in other words, not Iowa’s offense). So each example is a case-by-case basis, depending on whether the eventual replacement is better than the production that was lost. But that’s extremely complicated and misses the entire point, which is: that higher returning production is generally a good thing for top programs.

Wisconsin, despite all of the transfer talent, is almost at the top of the Big Ten:

Wisconsin football 2024 depth chart projection 1.0: Offense

Wisconsin football depth chart projection for 2024: Offense

Welcome to the calendar year 2024, a year during which Wisconsin football will face the new era of the Big Ten schedules.

The Badgers are coming off a disappointing 2023 campaign. A 7-6 record was highlighted by inexplicable losses to Indiana and Northwestern, and the fourth straight year of falling short in the Big Ten West.

Well, the West is now no more as the Big Ten expands to 18 schools and moves toward a new scheduling model.

Related: Way-too-early record predictions for every Big Ten football team in 2024

Wisconsin will need to step up its game to compete in the new Big Ten format. The years of coasting through the West schedule to Indianapolis are gone; now 2024 sees contests against Alabama, USC, Penn State and Oregon.

A key to the program turnaround will be to what level Phil Longo’s offense works. 2023’s results were underwhelming, and made this year’s performance even more critical.

Here is our first shot at Wisconsin’s projected depth chart on offense for the 2024 season:

A look at Wisconsin football’s entire coaching staff for the 2024 season

There was a surprising amount of turnover on Wisconsin’s staff this offseason — plus the hire of Alex Grinch:

The Wisconsin football program has experienced a surprising amount of coaching turnover this offseason.

It’s not as if Luke Fickell’s team was in the National Championship and had assistants getting promotions left and right. This turnover felt unique, with several assistants making lateral moves to other programs.

Wide receivers coach Mike Brown took the same position at Notre Dame, safeties coach Colin Hitschler moved laterally to Alabama and offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr. was moved to an off-field role — though that appears to have been performance-related.

Related: Power ranking all 18 Big Ten football programs after the 2023 season

Brown and Hitschler are significant losses, especially on the recruiting trail. Not to raise any alarm bells. It’s just surprising to see two of the more important assistants move laterally to other jobs.

The real story here is who was hired to replace them. At safeties coach, it’s former USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch — which fans seem unhappy about.

Here is Luke Fickell’s full 2024 coaching staff as he enters a pivotal year in his tenure at Wisconsin:

Wisconsin former five-star offensive lineman enters the transfer portal

Wisconsin former five-star offensive lineman enters the transfer portal

Wisconsin sophomore offensive lineman Nolan Rucci has entered the transfer portal, according to reports from 247Sports’ Evan Flood and Chris Hummer.

Rucci was a five-star recruit in the class of 2021, ranked as the No. 17 player in the entire class, No. 5 offensive tackle and No. 1 recruit from the state of Pennsylvania. His older brother, tight end Hayden Rucci, recently opted out of the ReliaQuest Bowl to prepare for the 2024 NFL Draft.

The top recruit didn’t see the field much during his three years in Madison, this year appearing on the depth chart at left tackle behind multi-year starter Jack Nelson. Nelson recently announced he’d be returning for the 2024 season, which could’ve been a big domino in Rucci’s decision.

Rucci’s most memorable moment with the Badgers came at Illinois this past season when Phil Longo dialed up a creative pass play to get him the football and escape Champaign, Illinois with a win.

Wisconsin enters 2024 with Nelson at left tackle, Jake Renfro at center and several spots up for grabs along the offensive line. The former five-star recruit Rucci now will not be part of those plans.

Wisconsin pushed LSU into making a big change after ReliaQuest Bowl performance

Wisconsin pushed LSU into making a big change after ReliaQuest Bowl performance

Wisconsin had its best offensive day of the season in its ReliaQuest Bowl loss to LSU earlier this week.

The Badgers totaled 31 points, 22 first downs, 506 total yards, 378 passing yards and 9.5 yards per passing attempt. In Tanner Mordecai’s final game as a Badger, it was the best he and the Phil Longo offense looked.

For Wisconsin fans, that dominance along with the stellar performances by wide receivers Will Pauling and Bryson Green as fans excited for what 2024 can hold in year two of the system.

For the LSU program which just allowed that career day, it fired its defensive coordinator Matt House.

The headline is written facetiously, as LSU’s defense was a problem all season and this move had been coming for months. The Tigers had the No. 105 defense in the nation. It in large part wasted a Heisman season from quarterback Jayden Daniels.

But in the eyes of Wisconsin fans, let’s agree the Badgers were the reason LSU fired its defensive coordinator.

One Wisconsin Badger makes PFF’s 2023 All-Big Ten Offense

One Wisconsin Badger makes PFF’s 2023 All-Big Ten Offense

Wisconsin right tackle Riley Mahlman was the one Badger included in ProFootballFocus’ 2023 All-Big Ten Offense earlier today.

Mahlman forms the offensive line alongside Michigan’s Zak Zinter at right guard, Michigan’s Drake Nugent at center, Purdue’s Preston Nichols at left guard and Penn State’s Olumuyiwa Fashanu at left tackle.

Unsurprisingly, no other Badgers made the unit. Neither of the Badgers’ two quarterbacks were all-Big Ten-caliber this season, nor were any of their wide receivers or tight ends. The one argument could be running back Braelon Allen, but it’s a tough argument after his worst statistical season of his three in college.

Luke Fickell and his staff will need to find a few more top-end players before the Phil Longo offense works to its full effect. This transfer portal cycle presents a necessary opportunity for that to happen.

Every Big Ten West OC would be fired if they had Iowa OC Brian Ferentz’s contract

Every Big Ten West OC would be fired if they had Iowa’s Brian Ferentz’s contract:

If you’ve followed this website, or college football in general, over the last year then you’re likely aware of the situation surrounding Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz.

If not: Iowa has been terrible on offense for years, so this offseason the program put a stipulation in the OC’s contract that he must average 25 points per game to stay employed.

Narrator: Iowa is not currently averaging 25 points per game. It’s down at 19.5, which makes it remarkable the team is 6-2.

Well, there was a big update this week that is worth sharing: Brian Ferentz will not return next year as Iowa’s offensive coordinator. Head coach Kirk Ferentz, Brian’s father, then confirmed that he plans to return as head coach. So it isn’t a full cleaning of the house.

Put aside my thoughts on how Iowa runs its football program. I thought it would be interesting to see whether any team in the Big Ten West is on pace to reach the 25 points-per-game threshold.

As it turns out, not a single team is:

  1. Wisconsin: 24.8 PPG
  2. Purdue: 21.9 PPG
  3. Northwestern: 21.8 PPG
  4. Minnesota: 21.1 PPG
  5. Illinois: 20.4 PPG
  6. Nebraska: 20.2 PPG
  7. Iowa: 19.5 PPG

That means if every OC in the division had Ferentz’s contract, they would all be on pace to be fired at the end of the year.

That is obviously not the case. But it’s amazing how terrible the division is in its final season. A true ode to classic, Big Ten West football.

LOOK: Future Badgers QB shares high school highlights

QB of the future posts his early season high school highlights

Badgers class of 2024 three-star quarterback Mabrey Mettauer shared his Week 1 through 5 high school highlights via his “X” account Monday. Mettauer is in his final season at The Woodlands high school in Texas and he’ll be joining Wisconsin next year.

To this point, he has recorded 1,056 passing yards while adding 17 touchdowns through the air, producing a 151.0 QBR through the first five contests. Mettauer has also added 172 rushing yards and a score on the ground.

The dual-threat signal-caller will likely compete with the likes of Braedyn Locke, Nick Evers and Myles Burkett at quarterback in Phil Longo’s “Air Raid” offense in Madison next season.

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For Rutgers football head coach Greg Schiano, Saturday at Wisconsin is ‘a big game’ but nothing more than that

Rutgers football head coach Greg Schiano says his team faces a strong Wisconsin team on Saturday.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — It may be cliche but Rutgers football head coach Greg Schiano simply wants to be 1-0 at the end of Saturday’s game at Wisconsin.

That means that marching into one of the best environments in college football or going up against a traditional powerhouse means very little to him. Instead, the head coach of Rutgers (4-1, 1-1 Big Ten) simply is focused on a tough Wisconsin (3-1, 1-0 Big Ten) team that is balanced and complete.

A team that is in their first year under head coach Luke Fickell has not looked like a rebuilding program, not by any stretch.

The game has the potential to springboard Rutgers if Schiano’s team were to come away with a road win. It would certainly validate his program’s rebuild and it would provide a singular point of achievement against a team that is regularly playing bowl games and in contention for the Big Ten Championship Game.

But anything more than that is lost on Schiano.

“It’s a big game. I’d be very, very careful in looking at that and saying, this is an iconic brand or this is a big win or whatever you want to call it,” Schiano said on Monday.

“We have one goal: That’s to be 1-0 at the end of this Wisconsin season. It’s hard. We have got a lot of work to do. We’re in the middle of it right now putting it together. We as a staff and as a whole organization and as a team, we have a lot of work to do between now and Saturday.

“They are very good, so we are going to do everything we can to go out there and like I said be 1-0 when we leave that stadium. They are good. Really good.”

Wisconsin is coming off an early bye week. They beat Purdue in Week 4 in their Big Ten opener.

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Phil Longo, who is in his first year as offensive coordinator at Wisconsin, has this offense humming. They are currently fourth in the Big Ten in total offense and in scoring offense.

Braelon Allen is fifth in the Big Ten with 371 rushing yards. He also has six rushing touchdowns.

“They do a great job. Phil does a great job. Their offense is hard to stop,” Schiano said.

“Multidimensional, people get, when they hear about tempo and they hear about air raid, they think it’s just throw it all over the lot. They do a great job running the football. They have several different schemes that they run the football with, so it’s going to be a huge challenge for all those reasons, and the biggest reason is good players.”