The number of responsibilities Texas A&M-Commerce head coach Clint Dolezel faces daily hasn’t been reduced, in fact they've been added to. Dolezel made the decision to reorganize his staff and assume the roles of offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach himself.

“This last year of encountering the unknown was rough for me. Now, having a year under my belt, my head isn’t spinning as much,” Dolezel said. “But I’ve had to disperse more responsibilities through other coaches and we added another coach to help me tie loose ends when I can’t get them done.”

Many fans thought Dolezel would immediately transform the Texas A&M-Commerce offense into a high-scoring unit similar to the teams he coached in arena football. However, reality hit the Lions faithful hard during the 2023 season, who witnessed another group with an outstanding defense and an offense that didn’t score enough points to win enough games.

The Lions offense produced 15.9 points per game in 2023. The last time the A&M-Commerce produced below 15 points per game was 2012. Not surprisingly, both teams mentioned above finished with one victory.

It's safe to say the Lions' offense didn’t match expectations, but were pundits and fans expecting too much? Quite possibly, yes. 

2023 was Dolezel’s first season as a collegiate head coach, which came with a significant learning curve. The veteran coach alluded to those challenges during his first few months in their 2023 Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine preview.

“In professional ball, I might talk with some sponsors sometimes, but I was mainly coaching football,” he said during his interview for the summer magazine. “The hardest thing for me right now is finding the time to do a lot of things and still coach football. I want to be a part of everything. I don’t want to miss any meetings, but there are times when I have to miss them. That’s why it’s important to me to have a good coaching staff to keep things going in the right direction while I’m doing other things.”

There were reasons outside of coaching that didn’t help the offensive production this season. The Lions were ravaged by injuries during the season, with 31 players unable to suit up for the season finale. Most of the injuries weren’t minor, with over 21 players needing surgery. What hurt the offense the most was the loss of its two starting tackles before the end of Week 3.

“Going into the season, we earmarked those two guys as players we can’t lose, and they’re out for the season in Week 1 and Week 3,” Dolezel said. “We were forced to play a lot of freshmen. We were unable to redshirt a couple of our freshmen like we wanted because of our lack of depth.”

What will the Lions offense look like next season with Dolezel calling the plays? Expect a quick passing attack to supplement the rushing attack until Dolezel and his staff can add enough quality depth along the offensive line.

“In arena football, a lot of guys play both ways. So you have defensive linemen blocking for you, and they don’t block very well. I figured out real fast to get the ball out of my hands,” Dolezel said. “We want the defense to pick its poison. We’ll use the short passing game and rushing attack until the safeties move to the line of scrimmage. Then, we’ll try to throw deep. I have a lot of work to do before next season.”

Dolezel mentioned a need to use presnap motion more in the offense to keep the linebackers from keying on certain plays. Presnap motion will also limit the offense’s ability to use “dummy” calls.

“I’ll be able to do a lot more chess match stuff, but motions take a lot of time, so I have to be on my game as a coordinator to keep the play clock from becoming an issue,” Dolezel said. “We want to take more of our check downs next year and avoid putting ourselves in bad situations on every series.

Struggles with depth are understandable, considering A&M-Commerce is completing its second year of transitioning to FCS. Those struggles may persist for another year or two.

“It all starts with having the Joe’s you want, but it’s hard to find the big guys during recruiting since we’re still between FCS and DII,” Dolezel said. “Hopefully, we get all of our guys back healthy for next season. We didn’t lose too many to the portal, and 12 of our 17 signees are from the portal or junior college ranks.”