Canzano: Calling out the best play callers in the Pac-12 Conference

Coaches help rank the opposing coaches.

Lincoln Riley is in his first season at USC.

Former Washington State coach Mike Leach had a successful run in the Pac-12 Conference. He took the Cougars to six bowl games in eight seasons and elevated the profile of the program. But it’s something Leach said to me after he beat Oregon in 2018 that I woke thinking about today.

“I beat them with my guys,” Leach said after winning his fourth straight against the Ducks. “Imagine what I could do with their guys.”

Leach is a savant as a play caller. He wins a lot of chess matches on the field. But I keep thinking about what might happen if we gave all the offensive coaches in the Pac-12 the same talent.

Who would produce the best results?

I asked a couple of Pac-12 Conference defensive coordinators to help rank the best offensive play callers in the conference. It’s a subjective exercise and there are a lot of new faces in the Pac-12 this spring but I was intrigued to see what they’d come up with.

Here are the consensus top-four:

1. Chip Kelly, UCLA

2. David Shaw, Stanford

3. Andy Ludwig, Utah

4. Brian Lindgren, Oregon State

Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Washington State and USC will all have new play callers this season. The defensive coaches I polled noted this while making the rankings.

UCLA (36.7 points per game) and Utah (36.1) led the conference in scoring last season. Oregon State was fourth (31.2). Stanford was terrible last season (20.4) but the defensive coaches polled both thought the anemic output had to do with a talent deficit and not Shaw’s game strategy.

Said one defensive coordinator: “Shaw is deft with his adjustments.”

I wanted more depth so I reached out to Dave Bartoo, one of the partners at Matrix Analytical. He spent the last seven years gathering data on all the football coaches in the country. They now consult with a number of college programs who use the information to assist when hiring an offensive or defensive staff.

Bartoo said he did evaluations of “all 11 headsets on every team in the country from 2010 forward.” That’s more than 25,000 individual reports that he’s plugged into the database. It helps shape a clearer picture of what is going on right now in the Pac-12.

“The database is designed to help answer the all-talent-being-equal part of the question,” Bartoo said. "

Here’s how Matrix Analytical currently ranks the play callers in the Pac-12:

1. Lincoln Riley, USC

2. Chip Kelly, UCLA

3. David Shaw, Stanford

4. Andy Ludwig, Utah

5. Brian Lindgren, Oregon State

6. Kalen DeBoer/Ryan Grubb, Washington

7. Mike Sanford, Colorado

8. Eric Morris, Washington State

9. Glenn Thomas, Arizona State

10. Kenny Dillingham, Oregon

11. Brennan Carroll, Arizona

12. Bill Musgrave, Cal

There are some striking similarities in the two rankings. Bartoo, however, included Lincoln Riley as his No. 1 pick because he had available data for what the coach accomplished at Oklahoma. Bartoo also offered, “Lincoln is going to be brutal to prepare for and his offensive support staff is ranked No. 1 in the conference.”

Bartoo noted that Lindgren’s performance as a play caller wasn’t as impressive before he was paired with offensive-minded head coach Jonathan Smith.

“I think there’s a big-time Jonathan-effect going on with Lindgren,” Bartoo said.

There are a line of questions surrounding the bottom six of Bartoo’s rankings. He called Dillingham at Oregon, “a massive experiment.” Bartoo offered, “They’re asking him to roll out a new offense, 80 plays a game, and he’s never done it by himself before.”

I’m not as bothered by that. A coordinator has to start someplace. Remember, Chip Kelly had marginal proof of performance at New Hampshire before Mike Bellotti hired him to call the plays at Oregon. Still, it’s a valid question and Dillingham also got no love from the sitting defensive coordinators.

I’m left thinking about Leach, though. In that four-year sweep, he beat Mark Helfrich twice then followed it up with victories over Willie Taggart and Mario Cristobal. WSU won games played home and away. It won, day and night. Leach went 4-0 against Oregon in that span despite having a glaring head-to-head talent deficit.

Said Bartoo: “Leach is a different animal.”

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Kenjon Barner is with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

RING IT UP: Here’s a fun trivia question: Which NFL player has the most Super Bowl rings over the last five seasons?

Answer: Kenjon Barner.

The former University of Oregon running back has three Super Bowl rings. One each with the Patriots, Eagles and Buccaneers. Two of those were spent as Tom Brady’s teammate. Barner joined me on Thursday on the statewide radio show and I asked him what makes Brady special.

“His preparation,” Barner said. “Both in practice, his film study and sitting in meetings with Tom. We have these player-led meetings. He leads the meetings. He’s a coach, he’s a coach on the field. He has 20 years of experience in the NFL… His knowledge is endless. He’s seen everything.

“There’s nothing new that he hasn’t seen.”

Barner was terrific in the interview. He talked about growing up as the youngest of seven children. He talked about his own kids and what kind of dad he wants to be for them. But he was especially good when the discussion turned to his time at Oregon and why he thinks coach Chip Kelly flopped in the NFL.

Barner on Oregon:

“Every corporation, every organization, every school has a golden era. That was the golden era at Oregon. We changed the way college football was played with speed, uniforms and tempo. It was special.”

Barner on why he thinks Kelly struggled in the NFL:

“I believe Chip put people in place in leadership roles that didn’t really have his back. I think there were different agendas. I don’t think Chip had too many people that were loyal to him around him at that particular time… it’s hard when you don’t have people around you to do and say the right thing when your back is turned.”

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