Last Wednesday, Mel Tucker announced the promotion of Chris Kapilovic to Assistant Head Football Coach.
If you are unfamiliar with the name Chris Kapilovic, he is “Offensive Line Coach” and “Run Game Coordinator” which means he oversees the heartbeat of the Spartans Offense.
Here is a portion of Mel Tucker’s statement:
“I believe Kap is among the best offensive line coaches in the country, college or pro,” Tucker said in a statement. “He not only puts a premium on technique and fundamentals, but also is an excellent motivator who is extremely passionate about the game of football. He understands the culture and goals of this program and is determined to get the best out of each and every player, every single day. He is a relentless and effective recruiter, and I feel very fortunate to have him as a true leader on our staff.”
Maybe I missed something, because all of those platitudes are wonderful, but here is the undisputed truth: last season, Chris Kapilovic guided the worst Rushing Offense in Michigan State’s proud Football history. A Rushing Offense which compiled the least number of yards per game and the least number of yards per carry since 1947 (it could be longer, but accurate records do not exist prior to 1947).
In fact, last season, when measured against 130 D-1 Schools, only 5 schools in the country had less production.
The Spartans Rushing Offense averaged just 91 Yards per game but most shockingly, not a single Running Back scored a Rushing Touchdown.
Think about that?
In over 100 years of football, not a single Michigan State Running Back scored a Rushing Touchdown!
The Spartans had 239 Rushing attempts last season, and Spartan Running Backs averaged a dismal 2.7 Yards per carry and failed to cross the goal line! From my perspective, that’s an utter embarrassment for Michigan State’s proud history of “winning in the trenches and pounding the football on the ground”.
In addition, the Spartans averaged just 18 points per game last season which was the worst scoring average in the Big Ten and one of the worst in the history of Michigan State Football, and the largest share of the blame goes to the dysfunction of the Rushing Offense.
In simple analytical terms, Coaching fundamentals were missing and blocking choreography was broken, and the coaching staff deserves the blame.
Let’s remember, in addition to its primary role of controlling the Line of Scrimmage and opening running lanes, the Offensive Line is responsible for protecting the Quarterback, and yet the Offensive Line yielded 2.3 Sack’s per game while Spartan QB’s ran for their lives on most non running plays.
The blame falls squarely upon the coaching staff.
And yet Chris Kapilovic got promoted to Assistant Head Football Coach?
Maybe I missed something…because what happened to the concept of promotion based upon merit and Meritocracy? What happened to the idea of promotion based upon improvement and superior performance?
History, the best predictor of the future:
After Chris Kapilovic was hired by Mel Tucker, I wrote an article on April 6, 2020 profiling Chris Kapilovic (if you are inclined, you can read that article by clicking on the link below).
Can Chris Kapilovic reestablish a Championship run game at Michigan State?
Nevertheless, here is a recap from my April 6 article.
I tried to be fair and give Chris Kapilovic the benefit of the doubt because Chris Kapilovic had just been hired and he deserved a chance to prove himself.
But what I wrote nearly 10 months ago proved to be prophetic. I was skeptical that Chris Kapilovic could reestablish the Rushing Offense as one of the best in the country. Why? Because there was nothing in Kapilovic resume to suggest he could.
After all, history is the best predictor of the future and Chris Kapilovic history did not reveal consistent production, Top 10 statistics, or conference championships at the Power 5 level, and of course, Kapilovic had a dreadful first year at Michigan State.
The past 5 years:
In the past 5 years, Chris Kapilovic has carried the title “Run Game Coordinator” as well as “Offensive Line Coach” at 3 different schools.
The combined title “Offensive Line Coach & Run Game Coordinator” are “heady” titles earned by few.
The combined titles mean Chris Kapilovic is expected to set the tempo for the Offense. After all, football is won in the trenches and Rushing Offense sets the tempo. And yet in the past 5 years, Rushing Offenses coached by Chris Kapilovic have been anything but explosive, dominant or dynamic.
In fact, as Run Game Coordinator and Offensive Line Coach with 3 different teams, in 3 different conferences over the past 5 seasons (including North Carolina, Colorado and Michigan State) the Rushing Offenses coached by Chris Kapilovic have compiled an average rank of #87 in the land (which is the bottom 35th percentile when measured amongst 130 D-1 Schools), averaging just 145 Yards per game.
That’s not championship caliber…in fact, it’s lower echelon caliber!
And in those 5 seasons, the teams where Kapilovic coached compiled a dismal cumulative record of just 20 win…35 losses, and that computes to a miserable 36% “won/lost” percentage!
So, let’s take another look at what Mel Tucker said after promoting Chris Kapilovich:
“I believe Kap is among the best offensive line coaches in the country, college or pro…He not only puts a premium on technique and fundamentals, but also is an excellent motivator who is extremely passionate about the game of football. He understands the culture and goals of this program and is determined to get the best out of each and every player, every single day. He is a relentless and effective recruiter, and I feel very fortunate to have him as a true leader on our staff.”
Think about that?
Mel Tucker told us Chris Kapilovic is amongst the best Offensive Line Coaches in the country…college or pro…but c’mon?
Mel Tucker must think we can’t read the Boxscore! I want to be respectful to Mel Tucker but that sounds like an abundance of subjective platitudes piled on top of “coach speak”.
If Chris Kapilovic is deserving of a promotion after a dismal 2-5 season, then Mel Tucker needs to help us understand what secret sauce, silver bullet, or magic plan Chris Kapilovic will deploy in the future to reestablish Spartan Rushing Offense as one of the best in the country.
Let’s be honest, subjective platitudes suggesting Kapilovic is “…passionate about the game of football…” means absolutely nothing if the Rushing Offense is unable to move the chains or score single Rushing Touchdown.
Let’s recall, prior to the start of last season, it was said the Offensive Line was finally healthy and ready to reestablish themselves. Chris Kapilovic inherited a good crew of ten (10) Offensive Linemen all of whom were either “starters” or had meaningful game experience in recent years, and yet the Spartans Rushing Offense compiled the worst Rushing stats since 1947?
So respectfully I say to Coach Mel Tucker: please spare the platitudes bestowed upon Chris Kapilovic, and help us understand how Chris Kapilovic will help the Spartan Offense control the line of scrimmage and score more points.
After all, what message does it send if the Spartans reward the coach who orchestrated the worst Rushing Offense since 1947 with a promotion?
At the bottom line (Mel Tucker is demonstrating an unconventional way of building an organization)
Although I write about sports, in my heart, I am a student of organizational structure and efficiency.
I worked domestically and internationally for some of the largest corporations in the world including AIG, Aon, BMW, GM and Toyota, and I witnessed the good and bad of organizational structures.
Success is achieved with operational expertise and organizational efficiency, complemented by a relentless pursuit of excellence within and throughout the organizational structure.
It doesn’t matter if the primary business is Accounting…Finance…Manufacturing…Sales-Marketing…or Sports, the heartbeat of winning is building a Championship caliber organization, and in football, not every coach who understands “X’s & O’s” has the capacity or capability of building a winning organization.
The Mike Tressel scenario is instructive
Mel Tucker demoted Mike Tressel and promoted Chris Kapilovic and that defies organizational logic.
After all, Mike Tressel was a bona fide Top tier Defensive Coordinator, with championship pedigree who consistently built Top 10 Defenses. In fact, Pat Narduzzi built his Defensive reputation upon Mike Tressel’s capability of building a dominant, game changing “Front 7”.
Yet Mel Tucker demoted Mike Tressel and then casually let Mike Tressel go to one of the rising programs in the country. If you are unaware, Mike Tressel is now Defensive Coordinator at Cincinnati which finished the regular season 9-0, ranked #8 in the final AP Ranking. So, Mel Tucker didn’t want Mike Tressel on staff and demoted him, yet Luke Fickell, one of the rising stars in College football, thought Mike Tressel was an invaluable addition to his staff.
In my opinion, Luke Fickell won, and Mel Tucker lost a high stakes game competing for coaching expertise.
On the other hand, Mel Tucker, who finished his first season 2-5, promoted Chris Kapilovic who guided the Spartans to their worst Rushing performance in more than 70 years!
Where is the organizational logic?
At the minimum, the organizational structure being built by Mel Tucker is Unorthodox. Here is another example:
Jay Johnson is the Offensive Coordinator, which means (according to the Org chart) Chris Kapilovic as Run Game Coordinator reports to Jay Johnson. Problematically, Chris Kapilovic was just appointed Assistant Head Coach, which means Jay Johnson as Offensive Coordinator, now reports to Chris Kapilovic, the Run Game Coordinator.
Totally unorthodox!!!
At any measure, from where I sit, Chris Kapilovic not only doesn’t deserve a promotion, rather he warrants a “performance review” with an ultimatum to step up his game.
In the past year we have heard Mel Tucker talk repeatedly about “changing the culture” but we need to hear more (and see more) about winning with the players he inherited, and prove he can make the players he inherited better.
Mel Tucker didn’t inherit a rebuilding project, rather he inherited a solid football team that averaged 8 victories over the previous 3 seasons including 2 Bowl victories (not championship caliber, yet solid).
Yet Mel Tucker took the team he inherited and won just 2 games and regressed in every major statistical category.
- Offensive yardage per game decreased
- Rushing yardage per game decreased
- Offensive Scoring per game decreased
- Defensive Yardage yielded per game increased
- Defensive Points yielded per game increased
Of course, Mel Tucker oversaw the lowest point production (18 Points per game) in the Big Ten, which also happens to be amongst the lowest point production in Spartan history.
While Mel Tucker talks repeatedly about changing the culture, yet if 2020 is any indication of changing the culture, then a lot of Spartan partisans would probably choose status quo.
In fact, at most programs, winning just 2 games would warrant a Performance review in front of the AD complemented by probationary review the following season to determine if the compass is pointed North…or South?.
Let’s remember, this coaching staff is being compensated amongst the Top 15 programs in the country, so I hope the AD expects more than 2 wins per season as Return on Investment.
Next week we will take a look at recruiting inasmuch as Feb 3 is the conventional signing date for recruits to sign “National Letters of Intent”. and recruiting is the lifeblood of college football.
Unfortunately, at this writing, the Spartans 2021 recruiting class is ranked an uninspiring #40 in the land, and #9 Big Ten which makes this recruiting class the lowest ranked class since 2008, with only 2020 being worse.
We will also take a look at the “Transfer Portal”, whereby the Spartans have lost an unprecedented 16 players via the Transfer Portal in less than 2 months, while gaining just 5 players, so that’s a net loss of 11 players, and it is highly likely more players will enter the Transfer Portal prior to spring.
Is this “mutiny”, or is this a “dumping campaign”?
It’s probably both, but in either case, if you believe in the value of organizational stability and continuity, then this development should make you wary.
Mel Tucker is demonstrating an “unconventional” and “unorthodox” way of building an organization…of course we are simply along for the ride…so we are about to see where this takes Spartan Football!
Thank you for reading.
