I don't know much about x's and o's at all. That's why I never talk about them. Kirk is a way better coach than me. But I'll tell you this right now. If I could stand on the sidelines and tell him win to call a timeout and clock the ball in a 2 minute drill, our clock management problems would be gone.
There are a lot of aspects of coaching. Kirk is great at some, good at some, and not good at some. Just like every other person in every profession. I don't have to be a good coach to recognize good coaching decisions (in some cases).
I think many would agree that relative to his peers, Coach Ferentz does not excel at time management. I would argue that he isn't really at the bottom end of the spectrum either, we just watch Hawk games so we see his gaffes, not those committed by others. But consider the following:
Big time college coaching is a highly competitive, outcome-driven profession. It is also very well-compensated. As such, those 60 or so P5 coaching jobs should be primarily populated by people who are REALLY GOOD at winning football games. While it is true that clock-management proficiency is not the most important talent for them to possess to win football games, it is important enough that these very smart football people have certainly put a lot of thought into how to do it most effectively.
All that said, we continually see clock-management gaffes week in and week out from many different coaches. So I ask you, what is the more likely explanation?
- These coaches who have an enormous vested interest in mastering clock management are just bad at it, and most fans would be better if put into the same situation
- In-game, real-time clock management is very difficult