Chris Ash DC
- Thread starter edub72
- Start date
Coaches on their way out often change coordinators as a last chance move. If a coach is stuck as a travelling fireman he might be in a lot of difficult situations. I used to play annual Where in the World is Diaco?
Untold: Swamp Kings (2023) about Florida Gators turn around under Meyer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21805972/
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Good coordinators/coaches do survive coaching regime changes though. The fact that he was never retained by the next coach is a bit of a troubling sign IMO.
College head coaches are like professional GMs (in any sport)...they are more than likely to bring in their own guy sooner, if not later...this is especially true if a program is one of your favourite high-valuation, high-revenue programs where there is little financial incentive to keep members of a previous regime to reduce expenses...
In other words, don't sweat it...
The entire notre dame program strikes me that way. It's like the entire university is on a mission to create the most vanilla top 10 college football team in existence incapable of winning anything at the highest level.
It can't be an accident with how good ND is at accomplishing this goal.
I'll have to disagree on that one. Most coaches want their own guys. Sarkisian brought in a whole new staff at Texas, guys he worked with at UW and Alabama.. Usually you only keep guys when the front office makes it a condition, which to me is a sign of weakness on the HC candidate.
Fair enough. Somehow it doesn't look good on the resume, just at a glance. But it doesn't really mean anything at all, like you say. Other than, if we was so awesome, that the school he was already at insisted that he be allowed to stay on, and some new HC who quite naturally wants his own guys, is willing to bend and accept this interloper essentially, revealing his weakness, because that's just how awesome he is at least in the eyes of his current employer, that would definitely be a feather in his cap. That he could command that kind of contractual stipulation to be imposed upon some new HC. And he was never quite good enough for that.
I feel you man. At least half of my posts are praising one area of the program or another but the only posts that people seem to see is the criticism.
Your posts often require multiple takes because they are packed tight with a lot of content but if you unpack them (mostly figure out whether you are being facetious this time or not) there's a lot of good points being made. Thanks for your contributions here.
I hear you - I wasn't blown away by his resume at first glance, but digging a little deeper, he had top 15 defenses at 3 stops, and his year at Texas, which was a concerning 61 ranking, came in his first year when he inherited a defense ranked 97.
Golden' first year as DC his defense was ranked 118, but had improved to 17 by the end of his stay at Virginia. When ND hired him, he hadn't been a DC since 2005.
I'll give Marcus the benefit of the doubt on this one. That said, I think the fans will expect immediate results with all the returning talent.
I feel like coordinator hires are overrated and when you have the right head coach they almost don't matter at all. With that being said, it's hard to find anything to like on Ash's resume other than a shit-ton of experience (like a glob of decades of indistinguishable performance), and being a seemingly good scheme-fit in terms of the types of players already recruited to the defense on NDs roster.
I've heard of position coaches being retained. I cannot remember any time off the top of my head, that a coordinator was retained when a new regime came in to clean house.
Yeah, it's true. Of course a coach is going to want to bring in his own coordinators. He'd want to bring in his own position coaches. He'd want to hire his own staff to the last man. He might keep one around just for continuity's sake, to show him the ropes, to have someone around with at least a little familiarity with his new digs.
Having said that, I wonder if MF would have been forcibly kept and retained by ND, if a more traditional veteran hire had been made when BK left, but you have to keep and take on MF, 'cause they're not letting go of him. In fact I bet that was the progression the ultimate decision to hire him took. ND's all in shock by the move, BK's midnight flit, and in the ensuing panic ND's higher ups are fumbling around while the greater ND nation erupts into wild rage and anarchy, and they're trying to figure out how they're going to replace ND's all-time winning coach, AND keep around this hotshot young asst. And then finally, in their exasperation, they make the decision to just offer the job directly to MF, that's just the safest option, if keeping MF is really their top priority. Defying the deeply held, institutional article of faith that you can't be no rookie HC at ND. Which through hard experience they've learned is sound precept, given the short and unspectacular tenures of Weis, Boob Davie, and who can forget the inimitable Gerry Faust.
But ND is incorrigible, and they wanted MF on this campus, representing this institution. And so their hand was forced! And aren't they glad they did! And as a gesture, MF is returning the favor and is making sure not to himself hire a rookie coordinator, even if MM cuts a pretty good figure, and looks like he's ready to make the leap. And so now we got Chris Ash. I just don't like his name, it's not a very good name.
Having said that, I wonder if MF would have been forcibly kept and retained by ND, if a more traditional veteran hire had been made when BK left, but you have to keep and take on MF, 'cause they're not letting go of him. In fact I bet that was the progression the ultimate decision to hire him took. ND's all in shock by the move, BK's midnight flit, and in the ensuing panic ND's higher ups are fumbling around while the greater ND nation erupts into wild rage and anarchy, and they're trying to figure out how they're going to replace ND's all-time winning coach, AND keep around this hotshot young asst. And then finally, in their exasperation, they make the decision to just offer the job directly to MF, that's just the safest option, if keeping MF is really their top priority. Defying the deeply held, institutional article of faith that you can't be no rookie HC at ND. Which through hard experience they've learned is sound precept, given the short and unspectacular tenures of Weis, Boob Davie, and who can forget the inimitable Gerry Faust.
But ND is incorrigible, and they wanted MF on this campus, representing this institution. And so their hand was forced! And aren't they glad they did! And as a gesture, MF is returning the favor and is making sure not to himself hire a rookie coordinator, even if MM cuts a pretty good figure, and looks like he's ready to make the leap. And so now we got Chris Ash. I just don't like his name, it's not a very good name.
There's to much talent to give him 3 years. He should hit the ground running.
Fair point. It's already a top 10 defense, as is with a lot of talent/experience coming back.
Sasquatch last spotted with his twerking partner at LSU.
Watts is a big loss, but they got some talented guys and a transfer to compete for his spot. Why can't ND be a top 10 defense?
Starting D:
Young
Rubio
Hinish
Botelho
KVA
Bowen
Sneed
Gray
Moore
Shuler
Stronman/Blair/Johnson?
You also got these guys behind the starters competing for playing time:
Burnham
Traore
JT
Thomas
Dawson
Mukam
Vernon
Ausberry
Faramio
Zinter
The two Kia dudes
Smith (likely starts at nickel corner)
Urlacher
Talich
I like your line up. Except Hinish.
I love the kids effort etc.
But we need a big Riley Mills / Jerry tillery etc type guy there. And a couple of those Louis Nix type guys for NT girth and hat on hat type stuff.
Jmo.
I think the best way to utilize the guys at the DT position is to have Rubio and Sevillano (forgot to mention him previous post) play together on 1st down and short yardage situations, as they'll probably be the two best against the run. Then you gotta figure out who's the best against the pass. Dawson will almost certainly be in on obvious passing downs and then we need someone from Hinish, Onye (another guy I forgot to mention) Hughes, Mukam, Vernnon or maybe even Young shifts inside to give us an adequate passing rush. Mills and Cross played way too much as season went on and I'm hoping to see a solid 4-5 man rotation at the DT position.
I like sevillano myself. Wish he was more of a factor this season.
You are absolutely correct. Mills and cross played way too much. Way too much.
Saw them in many , many games this season when we had the game in hand.
