“We had a small party for Devon at our house before I left for Purdue,” Shoop said. “A lot of folks came, friends and teammates. He’s staying fit, hoping to get a shot in the NFL, and I’m doing everything I can to help him; he’s a really good fullback. Either way, that guy's got so much on the ball that we all might be working for him some day. He is what’s right with college athletics.”

chapelboro.com/Shoop-Heads-For...7820?pid=295234

no matter how much most of us disagreed with his play calling....shoop has turned out to be the classiest of all the coaches under bd...including bd himself

I cannot tell you how I know this but I am pretty sure that if we knew the Shoops we would lay off of him. And the play calling may not have all been on him.

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--- scotlandheel wrote:

no matter how much most of us disagreed with his play calling....shoop has turned out to be the classiest of all the coaches under bd...including bd himself

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--- GunslingerHeel wrote:

I cannot tell you how I know this but I am pretty sure that if we knew the Shoops we would lay off of him. And the play calling may not have all been on him.

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Agreed. Butch wanted a very conservative gameplan, and, thats what Shoop gave him, IMHO.

Super nice guy. Just a subpar OC.

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--- scotlandheel wrote:

no matter how much most of us disagreed with his play calling....shoop has turned out to be the classiest of all the coaches under bd...including bd himself

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shoop has shown a lot more class than carolina deserved.

Coach Shoop and his wife are some great people!

As I shared, last week, the Shoops gave a terrific presentation at my folks' Pinehurst church last Sunday during the Sunday School hour. It was entitled "Faith and Football." My dad noted that he had never heard anything about faith, life, and ministry quite so inspiring and well-presented -- until an hour later when Dr. (Mrs.) Shoop preached.

Here's to a good run in West Lafayette for the Shoops.

Sounds like a wonderful man.

I've never met John Shoop, so would never dream of judging his character. He was simply a lousy OC. No amount of niceness can counteract that. We need high character and high quality coaches. One without the other is no good.

High character is no good wow. Just wow. That's just a very sad outlook on life.

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--- bartholemew wrote:

I've never met John Shoop, so would never dream of judging his character. He was simply a lousy OC. No amount of niceness can counteract that. We need high character and high quality coaches. One without the other is no good.

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I don't think that is what is bartholomew is saying.

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--- jrobe wrote:

High character is no good wow. Just wow. That's just a very sad outlook on life.

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--- bartholemew wrote:

I've never met John Shoop, so would never dream of judging his character. He was simply a lousy OC. No amount of niceness can counteract that. We need high character and high quality coaches. One without the other is no good.

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After the subpar OL coach finally gave him a halfway decent OL he became a better OC.

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--- 87Heel wrote:

Super nice guy. Just a subpar OC.

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--- scotlandheel wrote:

no matter how much most of us disagreed with his play calling....shoop has turned out to be the classiest of all the coaches under bd...including bd himself

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So, Bartholomew, tell us about your outstanding qualifications to judge offensive coordinators. I'm sure you've spent time in the NFL and at the college level dealing with all the challenges the job presents. You're not qualified to hold Shoop's jock strap much less evaluate his work as an OC.

He was the OC over Carolina's all-time leading passer and our first 1,000 yard rusher in 15 years. He wasn't THAT bad.

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--- UNCBAdookJD wrote:

He was the OC over Carolina's all-time leading passer and our first 1,000 yard rusher in 15 years. He wasn't THAT bad.

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I agree. But I would agree with bartholomew if he used the word "average" instead of lousy. If you ranked the OC's in college football, I think Shoop would be in the top 50, but I don't think he'd be in the top 20 or so. Everyone always comes back to his record, but I don't think he was ever in a situation that called for him to have a top 5 offense in the NFL or a top 20 offense in college. To get those rankings, you sometimes have to have to either take risks or you have to have players which are just a step ahead of everyone else. UNC, for example, was not in that position and Davis definitely didn't want Shoop taking the kind of risks that would allow for that kind of yardage or ppg.

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--- GunslingerHeel wrote:

I cannot tell you how I know this but I am pretty sure that if we knew the Shoops we would lay off of him. And the play calling may not have all been on him.

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yup...he's a good dude and he's right on about devon.

Don't pick on those who are reading challenged. They can't help themselves.

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--- CornbreadandCollards wrote:

I don't think that is what is bartholomew is saying.

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--- jrobe wrote:

High character is no good wow. Just wow. That's just a very sad outlook on life.

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--- bartholemew wrote:

I've never met John Shoop, so would never dream of judging his character. He was simply a lousy OC. No amount of niceness can counteract that. We need high character and high quality coaches. One without the other is no good.

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I have spent as much time in the NFL as about 99% of the rest of the posters on this board, and certainly didn't mean to suggest that I could have done a better job. Just that there are many others who could have. I've seen them, while watching NFL and college football for about forty years.

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--- boborr wrote:

So, Bartholomew, tell us about your outstanding qualifications to judge offensive coordinators. I'm sure you've spent time in the NFL and at the college level dealing with all the challenges the job presents. You're not qualified to hold Shoop's jock strap much less evaluate his work as an OC.

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No trouble moving the ball on the vaunted LSU defense in Atlanta ...

I don't remember anyone sayin' he was a bad guy-just a poor OC with the personel UNC had at the time.

If only WoadBlue were around to blame this all on Withers.

Nice article. The kind of offense that BD dictated required a quality o-line with depth. The offense got better as the o-line did.
Interesting comments about going to work for an offensive head coach for a change. Hope Shoop has a good run at Purdue.

Absolutely!! Great post!

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--- boborr wrote:

So, Bartholomew, tell us about your outstanding qualifications to judge offensive coordinators. I'm sure you've spent time in the NFL and at the college level dealing with all the challenges the job presents. You're not qualified to hold Shoop's jock strap much less evaluate his work as an OC.

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--- boborr wrote:

So, Bartholomew, tell us about your outstanding qualifications to judge offensive coordinators. I'm sure you've spent time in the NFL and at the college level dealing with all the challenges the job presents. You're not qualified to hold Shoop's jock strap much less evaluate his work as an OC.

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I that case we should just shut down the board. None of us are qualified by that measure.

Anyway, shoop frustrated me but I never considered him "lousy". He obviously was a good teacher. His work with TJ was impressive. It's also obvious that he ran the ball control, risk averse offense that Davis required of him. His play calling is what killed me. Too predictable. Too conservative. The mad scientist label always resonated with me, but not in a good way. His columns about showing a particular play out of a formation in one game, to set up another singular play weeks later comes to mind. Great mind, but this is college football. As we saw this year on offense, get your mismatch, create space, and turn your boys loose is the way to go unless you have superior talent. The flea flicker TE screen comes to mind as well. Overall I'd rate shoop as average to slightly below average. Just my opinion.

This hasn't even taken into account his role as a mentor and teacher of not just football but life. In that area the man is outstanding. When everyone, including their own administration had turned on that group of kids shoop stood up for them. That's a quality human being right there.

I have nothing but respect and well wishes for him and his family. On the football side I'm certainly glad we have a spread offense.