Off Season Losers
- Thread starter NebChicago
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Rhule does not want to appreciably change the defense, as he like the alignment flexibility. Butler has spent a season working with this defense so he should have an idea of what’s going on. The question is whether he can call this defense in a game effectively. It would seem that Rhule knew Tony was a short timer shortly after hiring him. So Butler, who has made no secret of his desire to be a defensive coordinator, was hired as a kind of safety valve. he could be a long-suffering position coach who doesn’t really have the goods to call a Defense. Or maybe he’s a guy that just hasn’t gotten a good chance. and his one year is defensive coordinator at Penn State, his defense was ranked 60th which doesn’t sound all that great. however this was a year in which Penn State was under sub death penalty level scholarship restrictions.
If that’s the case Rhule will be on the very hot seat or we out score everyone which right now is unlikely
I agree, I think Ty and Nash being gone are going to really expose the run D.
Offense probably needs to average 30 a game next year.
That would be something, if the offense clicks and we average 30 points a game. Yet still lose by 3 all the time.
We had some good defensive play this season, but let's not get carried away. We gave up a lot of big plays and in many games, the defense couldn't get off the field. The Indiana, Illinois, USC, and UCLA games were bad defensive performances and honestly we didn't look that great against Wisconsin. We lost the Ohio State and USC games because of big plays.
That is what Arizona S.t and Indiana fans thought this time last year. I'd hate to live everyday with a negative attitude.
It's not living everyday with a negative attitude. It's called logical reasoning. We've lost our entire starting D line and our DC. We lost two senior DTs who demanded double teams much of the time. Our secondary struggled this past year and their coach is a candidate to be our DC. You never know until you play the games but it's illogical to not be concerned about our defense going forward.
If Cooper hadn’t been fired, and Butler hadn’t replaced him, would Butler be a candidate for DC? No. We would not be looking at someone with zero college or DC experience in 11 years.
We were hiring out of the tiny pool of unemployed coaches when we needed Cooper’s replacement in August. Why should he be a candidate for DC now? Because he is here already, and it would be easy? We are never going to get back to respectability operating like that.
The portal taketh away, but also giveth forth.
Dline
Edge
LB
Dline
Edge
LB
Let me know when any of those guys choose to be N. Maybe I'm overly pessimistic but this deal of not knowing who the DC and interior DL coaches are going to be is a problem for recruiting transfers.
That, plus for every Arizona St and Indiana you will find a handful of other schools who performed no better or even worse than the previous year. We don't know how the team will perform next year, but I will feel MUCH better about our prospects if Rhule goes out and hires a known commodity for DC (like he did for the offense). If he brings in Muschamp or Leonhard, I will feel better about the team than I have in years; however, if he hires an unknown (such as the current DBs coach), I will NOT have a great feeling about the D (or Rhule being the HC for long).
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There's other young proven young DCs who would be good fits for what we already do. Unfortunately several of them are coaching teams in the playoff. IF one of them exits in the first round which I think is likely, we might get an answer to the question fairly quickly.
If Holgersen hadn't been fired by Houston would he have been a candidate for OC?
In 30 years of coaching Butler has spent 20 of those years at the collegiate level. I am not a shill for Butler but to act as though he doesn't have the experience to be a DC because he hasn't been one before is silly. Everyone's 2024 hero Curt Cignetti, spent 24 years as nothing but a position coach and jumped to a HC position. John Harbaugh was a special teams coach and DB coach for ever, until he became a HC in the NFL. Yes those are all exceptions to the rule, but just because somebody hasn't done something doesn't mean they can't do something.
Pelini was a position coach with the Packers when we hired him. I don't remember anybody questioning that hire. There's always a fascination with the young unknown from a winning program and not so much the older seemingly known guy. I still think it's going to be an outside hire. IF it's Butler we HAVE to hire a DB coach who is a known top recruiter.
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Butler was a DC at Catholic U early in his career, then at Midwestern a couple of years later, then at Penn St during the sanctions and reduced scholarships. Rhule has said that he doesn't want to substantially change the defensive approach. Butler has a season of coaching in it and nearly 30 years of experience coaching defensive football from low level college to the NFL. I think Rhule is going to get a Dline coach, get the Simpson kid to coach Edge and recruit kids from Florida, and maybe get a DB coach and let Butler concentrate on coordinating.
If that is the case why not announce it? I do not know the benefit of waiting to announce unless they are talking to other outside people for the DC job.
Doesn't the state have rules for how long they have to post a job??
Perhaps Rhule was to kick the tires on a few guys that aren't internal candidates before announcing the internal candidate. IDK but I am sure Rhule knows the need to name a DC.
Losing the off-season? That’s ridiculous. College football is now pro football with all players in free agency and free agency just opened yesterday. Let’s see what we look like in about July of next year when we are done re-making our roster.
I'm willing to give whomever a shot at DC, but its gonna be obvious pretty quick if the dude has what it takes.
There is also the fact that he was an unemployed football coach in August. He was unemployed because nobody would give him the promotion he wanted, and he was frustrated enough to just quit over it. If we give him the promotion that nobody else would, maybe he would turn out to be the best hire we could have made. I prefer getting the best available candidate with recent and proven track record as a college DC, and at a time of year when that can happen. And how did he do for us this year? The secondary was the weakness on the defense this year after being the strength last year.
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If he gets the gig, I’m not going to bash or root against him. I would want him to excel in that case.
It just seems unlikely to me the best guy we could possibly get when everyone is available is the same guy we found when we were desperate and all the usual/top candidates were committed elsewhere for the season.
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Not really as the losses for the most part were all on the offense as the D time after time gave the offense chance after chance to win those games except Indiana as the entire team **** the bed and tOSU game was lost by them picking off Raiola as we had the last drive of the game.
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Again, many a coach got their first coordinator or HC position after "nobody else would hire them" for that position.
Like I said, I am not pushing for him to get the job, but he is in his early 50's and probably has a good 15 years or more of coaching in him, if he wants to.
A different DB coach could have been found, the season hadn't started yet and another coach with interest could have applied. Coaches make dick moves like that or other moves all the time.
Again to pretend like he was a bum off the streets that hadn't coached in a couple of years and is now a candidate for the DC position is probably a bit much. He decided he didn't want to work for the guy that passed him over for a position and hired another guy on the staff with less experience, but had a father who coached in the Bills organization for years.
We've had guys names released through back channels as being hired before NU approves their hire. I still believe it will be an outside hire who is still coaching. Time will tell.
It was going to awful with who we were losing. Now add in we’re losing would be starters next year. We usually start mid 3* guys but we might be filling in with 2* and walk-ons lol.
I wonder if he realizes that his Hawkeyes have multiple starters in the portal?
Problem with all of that is HCMR HAS to get this DC hire right. He likely won't get another chance to hire one.
Would you bet on Butler's chops as a DC if your job depended on it? THATS the question cause I believe his does.
For me the answer would be no...but I'm not a HC either.
Holla
Too many factors with a changing staff and roster. Now if you told me will trot out our back ups from this year with a handful of transfers I say we go 4-8 or 5-7.
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Illinois controlled the ball much of the game. USC had several big plays. They couldn't get off the field against UCLA and gave up 407 yards to the worst Wisconson offense in 20 years. USC had 441 yards.
Bottom line...We are not a good enough program to have one side of the ball be a weak link. Neither side is stout enough for that. Time and time again when we absolutely needed a stop our defense let us down. Why? Maybe it was an accumulative effect of bad offense, bad special teams, weak mentality....etc.... .
To be honest we can only win when both sides are doing an above average job. And that doesn't happen in tandem very often.