Week 2 Kirby’s: A repeat winner and a shared crown

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We actually have a couple of firsts this week for the Kirby Awards. We have our first two-time winner, and we also have a split Kirby as there were enough bad decisions made this weekend that I just couldn’t narrow it down to one specific person.

I say person because one of the Kirby’s isn’t going to a coach. Instead it’s going to an administrator who has violated the cardinal sin or analytics and made outcome-based decisions rather than process-based decisions. It drives me crazy when coaches do that, and so I have to call out an administrator when they do the same thing as well.

But I couldn’t ignore the Kirbiness of our first two-time winner. This guy panicked when his team fell behind by a touchdown and benched his starter for a series. This after benching last week’s starter in favor of this week’s starter coming into this one. This guy managed to blow a 10-point fourth quarter lead even while outrushing his opponent 196 to 108 on two less carries. But that’s not what is getting him his second Kirby of the year.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Kirbies for Week 2 of the 2021 college football season go to USC Athletic Director Mike Bohn and Florida State head coach Mike Norvell!

Kirby #1 Qualifications

First let’s talk about Bohn. You probably don’t know who he is. I certainly didn’t. I have to admit that I still thought Lynn Swann or even Pat Haden were the AD at USC, which probably tells you all you need to know about how irrelevant they’ve been for years.

Amazingly, Clay Helton has been the head coach since 2015, taking over for Steve Sarkisian after Sark took a leave of absence due to substance abuse. Bohn didn’t take over as AD until 2019, which means that Helton was not his choice or that of his predecessor. It would make sense he’d want to start fresh.

But moving on from Helton isn’t why Bohn is getting the Kirby. The reason Bohn is winning this prestigious award is because firing Helton after a 1-1 start is just a terrible process. If Bohn didn’t think Helton was the right person for the job, he should have made the move after last offseason. One loss to Stanford – no matter how significant – shouldn’t have changed that opinion.

I would have fully supported letting Helton go after the 2019 or 2020 seasons. He had an overall record of 39-22 in his first five seasons. He wasn’t getting the job done in recruiting (national ranking of 24th the last 4 seasons, including an unseemly 64th in 2020). That was a huge contrast to his first three years, where the Trojans national recruiting average was 5^th.

So what you had was a coach who wasn’t winning enough or recruiting enough at a proud program that’s been in a funk since Pete Carroll left. Fine, make a change.

But instead Bohn decided to keep Helton for 2021, but then fired him after one loss? If that one game changed your entire view of Helton, then your process for evaluating coaches is just terrible. And I can’t imagine that other coaches won’t notice that sort of thing.

Why does this matter? Because Urban Meyer was available during last offseason. Now, he would have to extract himself from the Jaguars to take the job, meaning that USC is going to go get James Franklin or Hugh Freeze or some other high profile guy like that.

Those aren’t terrible coaches, but they don’t have a championship track record. Urban Meyer does. That’s why Mike Bohn gets a Kirby.

Kirby #2 Qualifications

Norvell got a Kirby last week because he didn’t play McKenzie Milton in the game against Notre Dame until it was too late, costing his team a shot at a win.

He gets a Kirby this week for much more specific reasons, the main one being that he gave up about the worst Hail Mary to lose the game that you will ever see.

So what’s so bad about this play? Where do I start?

First, there are only six seconds left. Yes, Jacksonville State has a timeout, but with six seconds, they’d only have time for a quick 5 or 6-yard out and you’re back in the exact same circumstance. There is almost zero risk to letting them get something quick.

Second, Norvell is in a 2-high, man under coverage (he said so after the game, so we can be sure that’s what was called). Cover-2 is a good coverage in normal times to prevent big plays because you have two safeties deep who are splitting the field. But it also is susceptible to big plays in situations like this because you only have two guys deep. That’s especially true because Norvell had 9 guys lined up within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. This is a defensive set to take away a quick strike, not a bomb.

Third, FSU has two deep safeties, Jacksonville State has one receiver to the short side of the field and three to the wide side of the field, yet neither of the Florida State safeties shades in that direction. Indeed, you can see (paused and highlighted in the gif) that the safety (Sidney Williams, #23) is way late getting over.

But this actually isn’t Williams’ fault. There are two deep safeties and only one receiver to the short side of the field. Williams’ responsibility is to stay in that direction and double him if he goes deep. That leaves the other safety to essentially play center field against the other three receivers. So where is that safety?

For some inexplicable reason, safety Jammie Robinson (#10) came up to double one of the receivers right around the Florida State 40. That means that he left his corner in one-on-one coverage against Jacksonville State receiver Damond Philyaw-Johnson with Williams struggling to come over from his position way on the other side of the field to help out.

All three of these are inexcusable. With six seconds left, you can’t put a coverage out on the field to guard against a 15 yard completion over the middle that risks leaving you exposed deep. If you’re going to throw that coverage out there, your safeties have to know that anything truly deep will run out the clock if they just make the tackle.

And if Norvell was really trying to take away a short completion that would set up an easier Hail Mary or field goal, he failed at that too as the running back was wide open coming out of the backfield in the flat. Had Jacksonville State wanted to get 10 yards and risk the clock running out, they could have taken it.

So Norvell called a defense that didn’t even succeed at what he was trying to do. What he was trying to do was unwise. And his players didn’t know how to execute the scheme that he called.

When you lose to an FCS team at mighty Free Shoe University, there are multiple things – both player-focused and coach-focused – that went wrong. But when you lose on a Hail Mary that’s more of a gut punch than the Blue Grass Miracle for LSU against Kentucky back in 2002, that’s what wins you the Kirby.

Congratulations to Mike Norvell, as he puts his second trophy on the shelf this year.