Helfrich fired as Bears OC

[ducks5ever]

Helf gets way to much credit for his short run as an offense skilled OC and head coach. He was subpar at CO before coming to Oregon and he coat-tailed Chips offense to success. It declined under his watch the further he went.

Exactly how I feel. I know Chip may have said good things about Helf on his way out but this might have been Chip's way of not burning all of his bridges after Helf figured out he wouldn't be on Chip's NFL staff.

[Phalanx]

I thought this article was interesting:

https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2019/ ... n-gilbride

It's the first time I have seen Helfrich's duties in Chicago clearly defined. They were apparently to:

Develop Mitchell Trubisky
Organize the offense
Install the playbook
Enforce discipline
Instruct the route concepts, blocking assignments, and pass protection schemes

It also says that Helfrich was in charge of the running game. The comments section was also interesting.

It seems funny that one of Helfrich's duties was to 'enforce discipline' when a lack of discipline is one of the major reasons he was fired at Oregon. My current thought is that he might be a good fit for Oregon because discipline isn't a problem under Cristobal and what is a problem is quarterback development and offense design, which seem to be Helfrich's strengths. Of course, it's possible that Cristobal's focus on the O-line and a more SEC-type approach wouldn't mesh with Helfrich's schemes. Cristobal certainly seemed to like Helf's O-line recruits though. Maybe it could work. P.S. I doubt Helfrich would ever come back to Oregon, but interesting to think about in light of the coincidental timing of Oregon's OC opening and Helfrich's firing in Chicago.

[pezsez1]

As much as I liked Helfrich for what he brought to the offense, I'd be shocked if his name was on MC's list. We need someone with extensive playcalling experience. There is no reason for MC to settle.

[squintsdd]

Helfrich did not call plays as an offensive coordinator at Oregon, he was a terrible recruiter that became complacent when he became head coach. After the run to the national championship game the program in nearly every aspect declined rapidly. Keep in mind that run was largely not with players he recruited while he was head coach. He had one on the worst offenses in the entire nfl this past season. If I remember correctly he was on the verge of being out at Colorado when chip brought him over. He's an incredibly nice guy, but he's an overrated OC, and is probably better suited as a position coach.

[StevensTechU]

He was twice national quarterback coach of the year, for those forgetting.

And again.. Oregon's offense was better when he was on staff. None of us has any insight into who to credit with what because we aren't in the meeting rooms and don't have headsets.

I could care less about his NFL success. If NFL success mattered, we'd all agree that Saban is a crappy coach.

[DuckMastaFunk]

This. The offenses at Oregon where Chip’s, then Frost calling plays from Chip’s largely unaltered playbook.

My question is are we still paying Helf? If so, and he goes to UW, the huskies would be subsidizing our buyout which would be awesome.

[Phalanx]

https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... -extension

Sounds like the original contract ended this season, but elsewhere, I read that Helf accepted a buyout at $8.1 million when he was let go.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/real-est ... story.html

[Everythingsducky]

Good guy, but no thank you. Recruiting inabilities alone. He whiffed on Tua. Big mistake. He promoted Pellum. His strings might have been pulled from above, regardless, but didn’t he hire Hoke? I would be most worried having him in a recruits living room.

[Phalanx]

Good guy, but no thank you. Recruiting inabilities alone. He whiffed on Tua. Big mistake. He promoted Pellum. His strings might have been pulled from above, regardless, but didn’t he hire Hoke? I would be most worried having him in a recruits living room.

He did hire Hoke and Hoke was a disaster. However, Hoke only made $400k the year he coached (the contract was $1.8 million over 3 years). Leavitt's contract the next year was at least $1.15 million per year (some places I looked said $1.7 million). So clearly, the athletic department opened up the pocketbook after the Pellum/Hoke debacle. Even Avolos, as something of an unknown quantity when he came over from Boise State, makes almost double what Hoke made. Helfrich likely didn't have the option of getting a top-shelf DC prospect. You get what you pay for, a lesson which the A.D. may have needed to see the Pellum and Hoke failure before learning. And anyway, if we are talking about the hypothetical re-hiring of Helf as our new OC, it seems of little import to knock his skills at picking good defensive coordinators, doesn't it?

I've heard the 'Helf whiffed on Tua' thing before. Aside from the fact that Helfrich recruited two of the best QB's in Oregon history in Mariota and Herbert, my question about that is: would Tua have played instead of Herbert? Would our receivers have done better making plays with Tua? Other than during Herbert's injury, I'm not sure that Tua would have been a big difference-maker for the ducks sitting on the bench most of the time. I think he made the right decision going to Alabama, where the stud receivers made him look really good while Oregon's receivers often played hot potato with Herbert.

In general, I think Helf's issues in recruiting have been overstated on this board and elsewhere. A whole bunch of Helfrich recruits just won the Rose Bowl, including a few all-Pac 12 and all American guys who are now headed to the NFL.

[OregonFan4Life]

Helf would be a great QB coach, that's about it though. He was an overrated OC and a terrible head coach. He was saved by Marcus and Vernon.

[StevensTechU]

Helf would be a great QB coach, that's about it though. He was an overrated OC and a terrible head coach. He was saved by Marcus and Vernon.

If you're not saved by guys you recruited, you're saved by guys you didn't recruit. Is that better?

[OregonFan4Life]

Helf would be a great QB coach, that's about it though. He was an overrated OC and a terrible head coach. He was saved by Marcus and Vernon.

If you're not saved by guys you recruited, you're saved by guys you didn't recruit. Is that better?

Fair, but you need more than a highly skilled/dynamic/athletic and experienced QB usually, and when Helf ran into that issue, he went 4-8. He got lucky with Vernon Adams and in fact if they didn't land Vernon, I don't want to know what their record would've been that year. Without Vernon they got crushed by Utah at home and lost to WSU before they were good. He also lost a 31-0 halftime lead against TCU who had their backup QB for the entire game. Helf lost the locker room and had no idea how to motivate and discipline college athletes. He was lost. He's best as a QB coach and that's it. But I think he'd be one heck of a QB coach at Oregon, so if he wants to accept the QB job here while Cristobal finds a quality OC then I'm cool with that. But there's a .000001% chance Helf will ever end up at Oregon again so it doesn't even matter.

[Duck07]

Why are people using his time as HC rather than his time as an OC to evaluate a potential return?

Why would people think that recruiting would go down with Helfrich as OC? I think someone who recruited and coached a Heisman QB would be a big sell with Mario's recruiting efforts too.

I'm still of the mind we could do a lot worse than seeing Helfrich back.

[StevensTechU]

I'm of the mind that Helfrich's chances of being the next coordinator at Oregon are about equal to mine, but that aside, I don't see any reason to trash the guy unnecessarily.

One thing that hasn't been discussed is the idea of Helf being an offensive analyst next year if he doesn't get an OC or HC position. I'd absolutely love that, to be honest. Offensive game planning and QB coaching seem to be his strong suits (per his college resume).

[Blazers-1977]

The fact that Oregon's quality of play from the Pac 12 Title Game/Semi Final and the Title Game in the 2014 season is partly on Helfrich. Yes if Ifo/Allen were healthy and Carrington doesnt get suspended that game is different , Helfrich's coaching in that title game was terrible in every way.

That 2014 Oregon team from the UCLA Game-Rose Bowl was the best Oregon team ever by far and in one week the team's quality just plummeted in the most important game possible