From the article out of Lawless Republic today:

When BYU's first offensive series in their season finale with Houston ended with a humiliating fumble on a trick play, I turned to my friend in a fit of disbelief, pleading, "They were moving the ball so well, why think too hard and try a trick play when it really isn't necessary?"
His response was pointed and certain: "That's the A-Rod experience."

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Everyone’s entitled to an opinion and I can sympathize with those who want Doug Scovil’s offense back (or more specifically, its results), but this comment above is a good example of the myopia surrounding A-rod.

(BTW, shout out to Das Countach, who does more than just complain, but brings good points. Keep em coming. Apologies if my posts ever got too personal. This post responds to your general POV as well.)

People railed on Billy Beane during his time with the Oakland As, mostly because it didn’t fit their model. But make a movie and get Brad Pitt to play him and boom everyone sees how it works. Hollywood aside, A-rod is like that. In fact, exactly like that.

He’s a data analytics guy. And weird stuff happens with data analytics. Random data trends surprise the human mind all too often!

The quote above is a great example. If you think a surprise disappointment is the Arod experience, then you have to accept that the surprise triumph is right there with it. If that play breaks for a touchdown, A-rod’s a genius. Thing is, the surprise play has worked and has been called at appropriate times.

The most appropriate time to call a surprise play is when it is least expected. Consider the argument that ASU basically won the game on the onside kick, done while two scores up. Had that play gone awry, you could easily hear a fan decry “that’s the Kenny Dillingham experience.”

And it easily could have gone bad. According to K-pop, our player actually knew it was coming. He simply botched the execution. The coaching was there, the recognition was there, but the play simply fell short. That time.

One game later, magic happened.

Which brings us back to the play. A-rod calling a trick play there isn’t stupid. Timing wise, it is an excellent calculation because you are in four-down territory and you’ve also got a great kicker.

The risk, of course, is player mis-execution. But if you’ve seen the guys get in right in practice several times, that’s a low-probability risk. Even if they don’t get it right you don’t expect them to collide, pop the ball up and have a defender catch it in stride. (Amazing stop by Jake btw!). And yet, that’s exactly the kind of pitfall that data analytics cannot guard against.

It certainly isn’t A-rod’s fault for calling that play. If anything it’s Keelan lining up wrong, maybe LJ starting too close to Jake(?), I don’t know what player miscue occurred, but what it’s NOT, is the fault of poor OC work.

An OC who takes NOT the most talented squad, one that went 5-7 last year, and brings them literally 1 play (in about 6 different instances over two games) away from the college football playoff, and does so his second year in a P4 conference, is someone you… want to fire!? Because of what, style points!?

Dial it down and recognize the good work. Would you rather have had Jeff Grimes still here? Kansas fans would trade records in a heartbeat.