I was curious as to why Mazzone was at Ole Miss for only one season, and why the offense was so terrible that season. Was it Mazzone? Was it Orgeron? Something else? Here are what some Ole Miss fans had to say about it:
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Primarily, it was because Orgeron was set on running a pro-style offense like Carroll was running at USC. Almost an exact replica of what Kiffin was running under Carroll. It wasn't Mazzone's brand of vodka and he struggled miserably. As a result, he was given the name "No Endzone Mazzone". The man's offense looked pretty decent in between the 20's. But we couldn't score touchdowns at all.
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1. Orgeron wanted Kiffin or Sark as his OC to run the "USC offense", but Kiffin was elevated to OC at USC and Carrol sweetened Sark's deal with an "assistant head coach" title that Orgeron had taking them both off the table.
Orgeron didn't have a solid backup plan, and when the Ole Miss administration suggested Mazzone, who had been here with some success with Tubberville, Orgeron went along.
Either way, it was a bad marriage that only lasted one weak year. Mazzone wasn't able to hire his own O assistants and had to try to run a hybrid of his and USC's offense, with George DeLeon the O Line coach from Syracuse's blocking schemes. We had 0 pro style quarterbacks on campus and it was a disaster.
I think Mazzone is a fine OC who never should have taken this job unless he had guarantees he would call the offensive shots (including blocking schemes). I do not think he was willing to adapt his offense to the players he had. I think his willingness in the last few years to open his schemes to spread principals have made him a much better coach.
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To combat the risk they were taking hiring Orgeron the AD wanted to hire an OC that could potentially take over as Head Coach temporarily if Orgeron failed. The AD hired Mazzone to a three year deal and Orgeron has never liked him. He was was fired about three games ago and has had lame duck status ever since. They have been seen arguing on the sidelines and supposedly Mazzone was told to leave at halftime and not come coach the 2nd half against Miss. St.