Ed Warinner now also Run Game Coordinator

Submitted by Gentleman Squirrels on January 21st, 2021 at 12:51 AM

Saw that Warinner had added RGC to his bio on twitter. I’m assuming this means Run Game Coordinator so effectively Gattis and Warinner would be sharing OC duties and Harbaugh is going back to his old coaching philosophy from 2015 of having separate pass and run game coordinators.

schizontastic

January 21st, 2021 at 1:03 AM ^

At minimum seems like a way to hopefully bump his salary and makes sure Warinner sticks around. Really wish we had gotten Moorhead to tie everything together into a coherent vision for the offense.  

chunkums

January 21st, 2021 at 1:16 AM ^

I was a fan of our running scheme in 2018, which basically started when Warinner showed up. It also showed up again halfway through 2019 after we farted around with inside zone for a while. If we can blend that style of power running with a functional and modern spread passing offense that doesn't move a glacial pace, that's an offense I'd want to watch. 

jethro34

January 21st, 2021 at 9:09 AM ^

I'm hoping it's somewhat collaborative, where Ed is receptive to suggestions Mike has to the point of trying things in practice, rather than simply "I design the runs and make sure the holes are there, you just make sure your guys can see them and hit them, oh and Josh probably wants your guys to block some, too" (although now that I've typed it, at least that would be a massive improvement)

 

Brian Griese

January 21st, 2021 at 8:11 AM ^

I agree with your sentimanet about tempo but adding another person (just reading the tea leaves) all but guarantees we will never see tempo under the current people in charge.  I don't really know how you use tempo when three people can have a say in what play is call and frankly that sounds like a cluster.  Sadly, it sounds like another of year of not huddling but still running the play clock down  to 12-10 in the name of 'limiting snaps'.  

Mr Miggle

January 21st, 2021 at 9:40 AM ^

I am 99.99% sure that Warinner's duties will remain the same as they have been.

First of all, running game and passing game coordinators are titles used to retain assistants. More teams have them than don't. Now teams are adding similar titles for defensive assistants for the same reason. They don't call the plays. They are not somehow co-OC with an equal role to the OC. They help design the offense. That's a role that Warinner certainly had already. Mike Hart will have it too, but Warinner gets the title due to his importance on the staff.

Um1994

January 21st, 2021 at 10:44 AM ^

Hey, I'm still waiting for that really cool backyard play.  You know, the one where they player who hasn't thrown a pass since HS fakes a run, and throws a sweet spiral to a wide open receiver for a TD.  They've been setting up that play for the last 6 seasons.  One day it is going to pay off; they will probably use it the next time they are already winning by 28 points against CMU.

trueblueintexas

January 21st, 2021 at 1:58 PM ^

I'm sure it will be left for OSU when Michigan is amazingly within 18 points in the third quarter. Harbaugh will probably use a 4th string TE to run the action and he will be so nervous his chance has finally arrived in the big game he will turn the ball over. OSU up 25 and Harbaugh keeps mumbling "now that was coaching like you aren't going to be....awwwww shiiiiiitttt."

Don

January 21st, 2021 at 2:33 AM ^

So we’ve got an Offensive Coordinator, a Running Game Coordinator, and a RB coach—I’d like to have a functional description/breakdown of who does what on game day.

JFW

January 21st, 2021 at 5:08 AM ^

LOL. I thought about that watching the NC game. 'Sark runs Harris into a stacked line and stacked box and it works 'Brilliant!'. Gattis runs Haskins into a stacked line and stacked box 'Harbaugh taking over again!'.

Of course, when Sark did it it generally worked because of Harris. I saw him shake off like 4 tackles on one run to get 8 yards. Next play everyone was tucked in even closer to the los and the pass was open even further and OSU was super conflicted as to whether it got pounded by the Najee or ripped by Devonta.

Wildly Optimistic JFW is hoping we can run a simulation of this with Edwards/Worthy. 

ldevon1

January 21st, 2021 at 4:58 AM ^

That's what Hart's duties were at Indiana, Mike Hart is in his first season as Indiana’s associate head coach and his fourth as running backs coach. He served as assistant head coach in 2018 and 2019. • A 2018 Broyles Award nominee, Hart was named a Top 25 recruiter for the 2019 signing class by Rivals.com.

JonnyHintz

January 21st, 2021 at 6:16 AM ^

In most instances, your offensive coordinator calls all the plays on game day and designs the overall game-plan, the RGC will design the running game and collaborate with the OC to implement that into the overall gameplan, and the running backs coach just coaches the running backs. 
 

In more rare instances the RGC will actually call the running plays.  But that is typically when he’s also a Co-OC so I don’t think that’s in the cards in this situation.

hillbillyblue

January 21st, 2021 at 7:52 AM ^

The problem I see with this, at least how it seemed it the past under Harbaugh, is that it felt like the running game coordinator and passing game coordinator didn’t work together. The offense didn’t have a flow to it where they were calling running plays to help set up the pass and vice versa. It just seemed really chaotic and to not make sense. Hopefully this time it’s different.

JonnyHintz

January 21st, 2021 at 11:08 AM ^

Certain years under Harbaugh we had multiple people calling plays, including Harbaugh himself. Drevno and Fisch both called plays at various times (giving us the “good shit Jedd” gif) through the same season. 
 

Now, we have no way of knowing for sure, but with Gattis having the keys to the offense it could simply be getting an experienced guy to help design the running game instead of going back to having multiple play callers like we had some previous years. 
 

Ultimately it’s all speculation at this point. All we can do is look at how it’s typically done and acknowledge that Harbaugh isn’t always the most “typical” guy.