Dave Warner should not be fired

I didn’t love writing that sentence; but with 99.9% of all MSU fans clamoring for his head, I felt I needed to channel my inner hot takedness and tell peope why he shouldn’t be fired. Quite frankly, I’m tired of reading about all the reasons why he should. So here we are, the 4 reasons why Dave Warner should remain on MSU’s football staff: INJURIES: Injuries were the biggest downfall of this team and there’s no denying it. You could of had Kliff Kingsbury, Dana Holgersen and Matt Canada on this staff and I guarantee you MSU wouldn’t muster more than 7pts more than their average with all the injuries they suffered. We rarely trotted out the same OLine. We lost 7...7!!!!! receivers for stretches throughout the season. Couple that with the fact that the only true running back on the team was lost for basically the entire season (sorry guys but Heyward is not an every down back). Oh, and don’t forget starting QB Brian Lewerke was a shell of himself (IMO for the entire year, sign me up for the conspiracy theory that he was hurt in a freak thing over the summer and never recovered). The only schools that have the depth to withstand that type of snake bite reside in Tuscaloosa and Clemson, and I’d put money that neither of those teams would make it to the CFP finale if they had all those injuries. PUT HIM BACK AT QB COACH: Yeah, this reason is a bit of a cop-out. I’m not saying he should be fired but he should be stripped of his OC role and play calling duties and moved back to QB coach. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Warner in a coaching setting and his mentality and demeanor fits much better for QBs rather than RBs. Not only that, MSU QBs did develop at a higher clip when he was their position coach. He’s able to claim Brian Hoyer and Kirk Cousins as his proteges. He did have one year with Andrew Maxwell, but if you remember, MSU receivers led the nation in drops that year. Whereas Salem can be credited with the slow developing of Connor Cook, the swing-and-miss of TOC, and even now, the regression of Brian Lewerke.So put him back and QB coach and give Salem the shot to call some plays. At the very least it’s an easy way to bring a fresh voice to the offense. O-LINE AND O-LINE COACHES: It starts in the trenches, and our o-line couldn’t do jack shit starting from day 1. Now these are college kids and I really want to do my best to direct the vitriol away from them, so I’ll focus it more on Jim Bollman and Mark Staten, and even Ken Mannie (which absolutely terrifies me to say...well because he terrifies me). Bollman definitely had his purpose here. He brought some nuances to our blocking scheme that made it formidable for a few years (i.e. pulling lineman keeping their shoulders square to the LOS opposed to perpendicular when pulling). Problem is we haven’t seen the run game progress since then. In fact, you could probably argue that MSU hasn’t had a run game above serviceable since the Jeremy Langford days. Plus, Bollman’s main focus (according to title) has been tight ends recently, and well...there’s a lot left to be desired when it comes to production from that position, especially this year. Staten is just as much to blame in this as well. Since Staten has been on staff I believe only 2 OL have been drafted (B. Allen and J Conklin), and only another handful have made practice squads. I believe Staten has brought his value as a recruiter but has been unable to develop the recruits he brought in. Staten might be better served going back to his role as a recruiting coordinator and TE coach. I’ve also heard rumblings that Staten rubs a few former coaches and players the wrong way and his schtick could be getting old -- but that’s all hearsay that will most certainly never come to light. Now, I mentioned Ken Mannie and I do that with hesitation because I do believe he is one of the best strength coaches in the country. I bring him up though because we have to have one of the lightest Olines in the nation. How can you be a power run team, one that builds it’s brand on pounding the rock, and have a D1 O-line that only has two.starters listed at 300lbs or above (Matt Allen, 300lbs, Kevin Jarvis 321lbs). Your starting tackles barely hit 290. Of the O-line in the 2-deep only 4 of the 11 players are listed at 300+ lbs. (Matt Allen and Blake Bueter are listed as co-starters). There’s just not enough beef in that group to run the style MSU does. In summary, changes need to be made on the offensive staff. Either an overhaul of the OLine coaches or swap the roles of Salem and Warner (yes, I’m saying give Salem a shot at play calling) but I don’t think that means Warner shouldn’t be a part of the staff next year. The offense just needs a new voice and a fresh set of eyes. In the end all of this comes down to the head coach and the reason for the player issues all points back to Dantonio. That said, there are plenty of schools out there that have made coordinator changes and it has drastically changed the outlook of teams. So who knows. How’s that for staying on the fence to finish the column? Deal with it.