Football Robb Smith named DC
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
Nice to see though that he was working with Elko ...maybe picked up a thing or two.
Good hire. Coach Smith had success here last time. I assume the staff is complete now? Fredo is staying in Michigan? Head scratcher but whatever I’m confident Coach Smith will do a great job Let’s go!!
Smith has been up and down in his last 2 jobs.
As DC at Arkansas he had a great 1st year and tanked the 2nd season.
Same at Minnesota. Great 1st year and was disappointment the 2nd season as the Minnesota defense fell apart during the season. Let go by Fleck after only 21 games at Minnesota.
Hopefully he reenergizes at RU.
As DC at Arkansas he had a great 1st year and tanked the 2nd season.
Same at Minnesota. Great 1st year and was disappointment the 2nd season as the Minnesota defense fell apart during the season. Let go by Fleck after only 21 games at Minnesota.
Hopefully he reenergizes at RU.
This is a good pick. He worked will with Schiano before.
Keep him for next season and hire a new DC the year after. :Wink:
Good choice, happy this silly saga is over. Forward!
I'm underwhelmed by the hire and I fear that some recruits may be as well. But I hope to be, and look forward to being, proven completely wrong about that.
The good news is that the DC hire, while important, was nowhere near as critical as the OC hire, given Schiano's long experience as a defensive-side coach. And Smith should get better w/Schiano's tutelage.
The good news is that the DC hire, while important, was nowhere near as critical as the OC hire, given Schiano's long experience as a defensive-side coach. And Smith should get better w/Schiano's tutelage.
As a gophers fan, I can tell you he was hAted by the fans & players. It's because of him gophers got blown out by Illinois and northwestern. He wasn't liked & defense took off after he left
Smith is a known commodity as a DC... several stops in the B1G ...SEC... NFL ... he is a guy who also can
be categorized as a local and very familiar with Rutgers ... he actually brings greater experience to the staff... if memory serves me as a recruiter he was very good ... solid staff addition.
be categorized as a local and very familiar with Rutgers ... he actually brings greater experience to the staff... if memory serves me as a recruiter he was very good ... solid staff addition.
On paper I prefer this hire over AC considering AC had no prior experience as a top-level DC.
However, in terms of recruiting I don't see it being the best hire.
Either way. I'm ok with it.
However, in terms of recruiting I don't see it being the best hire.
Either way. I'm ok with it.
Sometimes it’s on the players who were young in his tenure at Minnesota...the past 2 years those same frosh, sophs , became juniors and seniors... that and your recruiting up ticked under PJ... that is not the fault of Smith...
Boo. Do not like one bit and he hates recruiting.
And we were cursing out your current DC Rossi on a daily basis over here. Guy coached defense like a coward.
Smith will be okay for us, his understanding of Greg’s defense will be huge for us.
Agreed. At this point he appears to be the weakest addition to what appears will be the best football coaching staff in RU history and should be clearly be the best staff in recent history here. He's had some success and some failures. Hopefully he'll have more of the former than the latter during his tenure at RU.
Not saying I didn’t want AC, but I think with Schiano, Nunz, and Hoffmann all being from northern New Jersey, we should be in a very good position recruiting the area. Brown seems to be a homerun in for southern New Jersey. Not sure about The Shore and who will be assigned Ocean and Monmouth counties.
I'm not one who follows recruiting but IIRC people here said he didn't like recruiting and wasn't a good recruiter.
His resume is a mixed bag. I'm not too torn up about losing Anthony--at the very beginning of this new era there was a thread about whether Fran or Anthony would be a better choice as DC, and I (along with a majority of others) thought Fran would be the better pick because Anthony's recruiting prowess was somewhat redundant with his brother's. It was a nice dalliance, briefly thinking we might be able to have both. But in the end I still think we got the most important guy.
Hopefully Smith regains the form from his good years. I'd agree that recruiting wise he is one of the only underwhelming additions we've made. But we got Gleeson, we got Fran, we got several well-connected position coaches... I think we're still in great shape.
Hopefully Smith regains the form from his good years. I'd agree that recruiting wise he is one of the only underwhelming additions we've made. But we got Gleeson, we got Fran, we got several well-connected position coaches... I think we're still in great shape.
Yes, I have a notarized letter from him stating it. Smh
Everyone knows he doesn’t like recruiting. It’s not some well kept secret.
Interesting hire. Not the juice that an AC hire could have been, but experienced. Will be interesting to see how much input Brown will have. Maybe a prelude to making Brown Co-DC in the future.
I'm good with this hire. AC would have been more of a splash, especially on the recruiting front, but Smith is solid and we already have a lot of NJ recruiting voices on the team.
He was ST coach under Schiano for 3 seasons, and then he brought him onboard to the Tampa staff as a LB coach in 2013. So there's definitely familiarity there, and should be no resistance to allowing defensive starters to play ST (which Schiano liked to do last time he was here with Smith as ST coach). He's had DC experience at Rutgers (1 year), Arkansas (3 years), and Minnesota (2 years)... so he at least knows how to do the job, but jury is out on whether he's better for the success/failures he's seen at previous stops. He's also going to be running Schiano's D, and Greg will likely be high touch on that front.
Would have to do a deep dive on his time at other schools to see whether it was more scheme or personnel departures that impacted his success.
He was ST coach under Schiano for 3 seasons, and then he brought him onboard to the Tampa staff as a LB coach in 2013. So there's definitely familiarity there, and should be no resistance to allowing defensive starters to play ST (which Schiano liked to do last time he was here with Smith as ST coach). He's had DC experience at Rutgers (1 year), Arkansas (3 years), and Minnesota (2 years)... so he at least knows how to do the job, but jury is out on whether he's better for the success/failures he's seen at previous stops. He's also going to be running Schiano's D, and Greg will likely be high touch on that front.
Would have to do a deep dive on his time at other schools to see whether it was more scheme or personnel departures that impacted his success.
No excuses. At RU, he will have to do a lot better with young, inexperienced players. Because there will be plenty of them playing for us while we (hopefully) build depth in the roster over the next four years.
Are you sure everyone knows this? I doubt everyone is as well connected as you. Maybe Greg doesn't know and you should text him.
BTW, I checked his wikipedia page and it does not state that he hates recruiting. So there's that.
From his bio:
"Smith spent the 2019 season as a defensive analyst with Texas A&M and prior to that, served as the defensive coordinator at Minnesota during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. The Golden Gophers allowed a total of 274 points in 2017, the fewest permitted by the team since 2004. Smith also worked with the linebackers and saw Thomas Barber earn All-Big Ten Third Team honors after posting 115 tackles.
Smith came to Minnesota from Arkansas, where he spent three seasons as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach. His defense ranked No. 10 in both scoring defense (19.2 points per game) and total defense (323.4 yards per game) in 2014. It was the first time since Arkansas joined the SEC in 1992 that the Razorbacks had finished in the top 10 in either statistic. In addition, Arkansas became the first unranked team in college football history to post back-to-back shutouts of ranked opponents when the Razorbacks blanked No. 20 LSU and No. 8 Ole Miss in November.
In 2015, Smith's unit excelled against the run, as Arkansas held 12-of-13 opponents below their season rushing average. The Razorbacks allowed only 116.46 yards per game on the ground, which ranked second in the Southeastern Conference and 12th in the nation. Then in 2016, Smith's defense was at its best in the second half of games, as Arkansas allowed only 51 points in the third quarter and 73 in the fourth quarter. His defense also yielded only 12 passing touchdowns in 13 games, while it made 10 interceptions, forced 14 fumbles and recovered 11."
Let's take a look:
Minnesota:
2016 (pre-Smith): 26.1 ppg/354 ypg
2017: 22.8 ppg/346 ypg
2018: 27.9 ppg/394 ypg
2019 (post-Smith): 22.4 ppg/312 ypg
Seems they improved after he left from previous year, but 2017 was a good year. Were there reasons for the decline in 2018, such as a lot of graduations, and did those players mature in 2019?
Arkansas:
2013 (pre-Smith): 30.8 ppg/413.4 ypg
2014 20.3 ppg/345.4 ypg
2015 27.8 ppg/404 ypg
2016 30.8 ppg/428.7 ypg
2017 (post Smith): 36.2 ppg/438.3 ypg
2018 34.8 ppg/413 ypg
Did at least as well or better than before/after he was there.
