Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Cramsey shifts from field to booth to call plays in 2020
9/17/2020 11:55:00 AM | Football, Word on the Herd
Offensive coordinator says there are advantages to calling plays above, below
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey is watching the game from a different angle this season.
The third-year assistant, who was on the field during games his first two seasons with the Thundering Herd, has moved to the press box booth this season, along with running backs coach Pepe Pearson, defensive coordinator Brad Lambert and defensive line coach Cornell Brown. This is Cramsey's 11th season as a college football coordinator, and seasonal circumstances dictate whether he prefers the coaches' box to a field level view.
"To me it's a staff decision, player decision and quarterback decision," Cramsey said before this Saturday's matchup against No. 23 Appalachian State (3:30 p.m., CBS).
In three seasons calling games at New Hampshire, Cramsey was up in the box. Then, a lightning strike forced him into a different vantage point, and his preferences changed. In his only season at FIU, before a game against Louisville, lightning struck and killed power to coaches' headsets on the other sideline. By rule, FIU's coaches had to abandon headsets, too, so Cramsey came down to the field. He stayed down the rest of the season, and then the next three years at Montana State.
"The pluses of being down are you are in the same element as the players," Cramsey said. "Is it windy? You can feel it yourself. How hard is it raining? The emotions of the game, you're in the same emotions as the players. I can look the players in the eyes. You get a player on the headset or a player on the phone and they can say whatever they want. When you look them in the eyes, that's when you know exactly what's going on.
"Are they confident? Not confident? Are they in the game? Not in the game? That stuff you cannot like with the look in your eyes."
Cramsey spent one season at Nevada calling games from above, but then moved back to the field for two seasons at Sam Houston State. He stayed down for two seasons in Huntington because head coach Doc Holliday does not insist on coordinators being eyes in the sky. Cramsey made the switch this year "to get a better view of everything going on."
"The pluses of being up are my emotions of the game are out," Cramsey said. "I'm not making emotional calls as much as I am making straight scheme calls. You get a much better view and you can put the quarterback in the best situation possible. When you're in the booth you can see it yourself and you truly can speak to the quarterback on the headset as to what you saw as opposed to what someone is telling me they saw."
Cramsey will rely on receivers coach Dallas Baker, offensive line coach Greg Adkins and tight end Kyle Segler to relay need-to-know information from the sideline. If a quarterback is rattled, for example, he trusts those assistants to give them the eye test and let the offensive coordinator know.
Marshall starts redshirt freshman Grant Wells at quarterback, and he is backed up by redshirt sophomore Luke Zban. Neither player had attempted a collegiate pass entering the 2020 season, although they combined to complete 22 of 29 passes for 345 yards and five touchdowns against zero interceptions in the season opener.
The move to the booth isn't forever, though. Next season, or the year after, Cramsey might feel like he best serves the team on the sideline.
"The main decision this year to go up in the booth is I wanted to be able to see it and put the quarterbacks in the best possible situation," Cramsey said, "and I can get Grant and Luke on the phone and I trust them to speak to me and I trust the guys on the sideline."
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and an eight-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
