Texas A&M Football: Why Jake Spavital Needs to Be Replaced as Aggie OC

The Texas A&M offense is struggling to string together drives and score points right now. Texas A&M offensive coordinator Jake Spavital needs to have his play-calling duties removed in order to right the offensive ship in Aggieland. 

In 2013 the Aggies were known as a team with an explosive offense but a porous defense. They started out the 2014 season off well on the offensive side of the ball but have regressed horribly during the last four games. 

The Aggies are currently 6-3 on the season and are staring a 6-6 regular-season record in the face if they cannot get their offense in gear. Spavital has contributed to these offensive struggles. 

The offense no longer resembles what fans have come to expect from a program under head coach Kevin Sumlin. If Sumlin wants to compete for conference titles at Texas A&M, then he is going to have to find a better offensive coordinator. 

Identity Crisis

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The Texas A&M offense in 2014 has not resembled the offense that the Aggies ran in 2012 or 2013. It has not resembled any of the offenses that head coach Kevin Sumlin had when he was at Houston. 

The typical Kevin Sumlin spread offense features a four-wide receiver set with one running back in the backfield. The offense spreads the field, does not huddle and runs the offense at a fast pace in order to tire the opposing defense down. 

The Aggies have not played uptempo in 2014. That may be in deference to a suspect defense, but that is not an adequate excuse to never go hurry-up.

The intermediate passing game has completely disappeared from the Aggie offense. Sumlin's offenses throw the ball vertically to take advantage of matchups between wide receivers and safeties and linebackers.

The Aggies used some zone-read plays when Johnny Manziel was under center to take advantage of his scrambling capabilities. Spavital has effectively removed the zone-read from the Aggies' playbook despite the fact that Kenny Hill ran that play extensively in high school. 

The Aggies had two completions of more than 10 yards in their 21-16 victory over Louisiana-Monroe. They are simply not making defenses defend the entire field. Jake Spavital is making it easy on opposing defenses.  

Poor Play-Calling

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The Aggie offense under Jake Spavital has become very predictable. They throw the ball horizontally and completely ignore the middle of the field. 

If it is a short-yardage situation on third or fourth down, everyone in the stadium, including the opposing coaches, knows that Spavital is going to call a run to junior Tra Carson up the middle. 

The Aggies offense has become easy to defend because Spavital has gotten into a play-calling rut. He is calling the same plays in the same situations over and over again. 

Spavital refuses to use his tight ends in the passing game. He also refuses to use play action on those short-yardage plays where it would be most effective. 

Spavital is one of the youngest offensive coordinators in the nation at 29 years of age. This may simply be a case where he was not quite seasoned enough as a coach to call plays. 

Record-Breaking Bad

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Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin spent four years as the head coach at Houston and two at A&M before the 2014 season. In those six years as the head coach, no Sumlin offense had ever been shut out for a half. 

The 2014 Aggie offense has accomplished that feat three games in a row. The Aggies were shut out in the first half against Ole Miss, for the entire game against Alabama and in the second half against Louisiana-Monroe. 

There is no valid excuse for why a team with the Aggies' talent at the offensive skill positions should be shut out for an entire half against Louisiana-Monroe. That is simply poor coaching on the offensive side of the ball.

Kevin Sumlin's offensive system has worked for the previous six years. He has used multiple quarterback and multiple skill-position players with consistently explosive results.

The fact that the offense is struggling in an epic way with Jake Spavital as the offensive coordinator speaks more to the ineptness of the play-calling, than any kind of weakness with the system itself.  

Possible Replacements

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There are a number of candidates who will throw their hat in the ring if the offensive coordinator position opens up at Texas A&M. If Kevin Sumlin does demote Jake Spavital, look for him to find his replacement among the pre-eminent spread offensive minds in the nation. 

The Aggies should consider hiring Colorado School of Mines head coach Bob Stitt. He has been the Oredigger head coach for 15 years and has set multiple school and conference offensive records during his time there.

The Orediggers currently rank No. 3 offense in total offense in their division, averaging 535.9 yards per game.  Stitt would be a great addition to the Texas A&M staff; the question is whether he would give up the autonomy he has as the head coach at Mines. 

Lincoln Riley is the offensive coordinator at East Carolina. The Pirates run the spread and have one of the top offenses in the nation. Riley is familiar with recruiting in the state of Texas after spending seven seasons on the staff at Texas Tech. 

Scott Frost is the offensive coordinator at Oregon and is familiar to Aggie fans as the former quarterback at Nebraska. The Ducks have one of the top offenses in the nation once again, and Frost would bring a different perspective on the spread offense to Aggieland. Frost would likely be amenable to coming to A&M because it would mean a significant pay raise and more exposure to teams looking for a head coach.