Defense under Al Golden

[THUNDERSTRUCK111]

I haven’t read too much about Al Golden”s defense. From reading other boards and listening to their thoughts I haven’t heard too many good things. Like ?
“Bend but don’t break defense “
“Runs a 3-4 scheme “
“Very vanilla “
“Wait till it’s 3 and goal on the 2 and he calls a prevent D. “
“ not aggressive enough”
Sounds like Bob Diaco 2.0.
What have you guys heard ? And are you concerned at all ?

 

[Golson5]

I haven’t read too much about Al Golden”s defense. From reading other boards and listening to their thoughts I haven’t heard too many good things. Like ?
“Bend but don’t break defense “
“Runs a 3-4 scheme “
“Very vanilla “
“Wait till it’s 3 and goal on the 2 and he calls a prevent D. “
“ not aggressive enough”
Sounds like Bob Diaco 2.0.
What have you guys heard ? And are you concerned at all ?

I haven't heard any of that

 

[hvillebill]

What we'll probably see are elements of both Golden's and Freeman's defensive philosophies.

Should be interesting.

 

[mirer03]

Only thing I've heard is letting guys play free. They may make the wrong choice but they will be decisive and aggressive.

 

[tbone3114]

I haven’t read too much about Al Golden”s defense. From reading other boards and listening to their thoughts I haven’t heard too many good things. Like ?
“Bend but don’t break defense “
“Runs a 3-4 scheme “
“Very vanilla “
“Wait till it’s 3 and goal on the 2 and he calls a prevent D. “
“ not aggressive enough”
Sounds like Bob Diaco 2.0.
What have you guys heard ? And are you concerned at all ?

LOL! fast and free! and very aggressive! I will go with Mike Goolsby's take!

 

[mbd11]

I went back and looked up his defensive rankings way back when he was the DC at Virginia (2001-05). His last 3 years there, his defenses ranked 67th, 19th, and 61st nationally in total yards. In points allowed, they were ranked 26th, 18th and 41st. So they did a little better in points than in yards.

But that was a long time ago. Offenses have evolved, and probably so has Golden. And maybe he learned some new things in the NFL the last few years, too. The Bengals had an excellent defense that he was a part of.

 

[IrishMike409]

We’ve got NFL talent all over the DL, and 2 studs in the secondary. Marist coming back too. The D is going to be fine.

 

[Zorich 88]

I haven’t read too much about Al Golden”s defense. From reading other boards and listening to their thoughts I haven’t heard too many good things. Like ?
“Bend but don’t break defense “
“Runs a 3-4 scheme “
“Very vanilla “
“Wait till it’s 3 and goal on the 2 and he calls a prevent D. “
“ not aggressive enough”
Sounds like Bob Diaco 2.0.
What have you guys heard ? And are you concerned at all ?

You are probably referring to the posts you make and then reread them to yourself.

Or, simply add the links of where you are “reading” this nonsense.

 

[d1042]

You are probably referring to the posts you make and then reread them to yourself.

Or, simply add the links of where you are “reading” this nonsense.

fast n free? hmmm reminds me of playground plays: go about 20 steps and cut right then 3 steps to the sidewalk! turn at the hedges, and catch the ball! (don’t get hit by a car! )

 

[Shakin' Down the Thunder]

Every report from what the D-coordinator is gonna run is the same. "We're gonna be aggressive. Play fast. Shut down the run. Harass the QB. Create turnovers."

It's going to be interesting watching the first game, as we have no idea what Golden has prepared for OSU. This could be an advantage, especially in the first half.

 

[THUNDERSTRUCK111]

You are probably referring to the posts you make and then reread them to yourself.

Or, simply add the links of where you are “reading” this nonsense.

Lol. Many of the negative posts I’ve read came from
The college football sound off on rivals.
Miami fans especially . A few temple guys chimed in. Plus there was others.
Probably just sour grapes.

 

[THUNDERSTRUCK111]

Every report from what the D-coordinator is gonna run is the same. "We're gonna be aggressive. Play fast. Shut down the run. Harass the QB. Create turnovers."

It's going to be interesting watching the first game, as we have no idea what Golden has prepared for OSU. This could be an advantage, especially in the first half.

That’s the D I would love to see. Build on last years success.
Thanks guys for sharing what you’ve heard.

 

[tbonesays]

Lol. Many of the negative posts I’ve read came from
The college football sound off on rivals.
Miami fans especially . A few temple guys chimed in. Plus there was others.
Probably just sour grapes.

I posted basically the same thing on boards at programs that hired Diaco. He had a string of 1 year stints where the HC was on his way out and did the last ditch fire both coordinators.

 

[savvyandsassier]

Lol. Many of the negative posts I’ve read came from
The college football sound off on rivals.
Miami fans especially . A few temple guys chimed in. Plus there was others.
Probably just sour grapes.

You know what, that's not what sour grapes means. Just doesn't mean that at all. However awesome Al Golden ends up being or not for us, nobody at Miami is secretly fuming because he's not coaching their defense. They already fired him and presumably don't particularly want him back as a coach in any capacity. Unless you know for a fact that Mario Cristobal very deliberately pursued him to be their new DC, but he picked ND instead. I never heard anything about that.....

 

[THUNDERSTRUCK111]

You know what, that's not what sour grapes means. Just doesn't mean that at all. However awesome Al Golden ends up being or not for us, nobody at Miami is secretly fuming because he's not coaching their defense. They already fired him and presumably don't particularly want him back as a coach in any capacity. Unless you know for a fact that Mario Cristobal very deliberately pursued him to be their new DC, but he picked ND instead. I never heard anything about that.....

No nothing like the last part of your response.
Just chatter about his schemes. Stuff people didn’t like. I think Tennessee fans said the same stuff about heistand.

 

[ivan brunetti]

I was hoping Golden was coaching Miami when they came up with the turnover chain. But that was two years after he was fired. I would love to see a ND verison of that thing.

 

[savvyandsassier]

Classic!

I'm just hoping Golden entirely eschews the whole plain white shirtsleeves and tie look, clearly emulating the now infamous Joe Paterno. And otherwise doesn't do anything off-putting, and just coaches the defense good and keeps his mouth shut.

To me, that's why he's a questionable choice for a rookie HC at a staid place like ND. Because he was such a goof and a douchebag at Miami. Hopefully, he's got that fully out of his system and has learned the error of his ways. And the NFL has duly humbled him. Because you want to talk about something that could help tank MF's time at ND, is someone like Al Golden getting all full of himself......

 

[Golson5]

Classic!

I'm just hoping Golden entirely eschews the whole plain white shirtsleeves and tie look, clearly emulating the now infamous Joe Paterno. And otherwise doesn't do anything off-putting, and just coaches the defense good and keeps his mouth shut.

To me, that's why he's a questionable choice for a rookie HC at a staid place like ND. Because he was such a goof and a douchebag at Miami. Hopefully, he's got that fully out of his system and has learned the error of his ways. And the NFL has duly humbled him. Because you want to talk about something that could help tank MF's time at ND, is someone like Al Golden getting all full of himself......

You are the biggest clown on this board. So much better when you were gone

 

[Shakin' Down the Thunder]

Now there's a thought an enmorous gold plated ND chain for the players to Don after forcing a turnover. Yeah... pretty sure it's not happening.

 

[d1042]

Lol. Many of the negative posts I’ve read came from
The college football sound off on rivals.
Miami fans especially . A few temple guys chimed in. Plus there was others.
Probably just sour grapes.

yep! and BVG was unjustly criticized

 

[mirer03]

The fact is until we see him call a game no one will really have. A good idea of this.

The secondary still has 1 good cb and potentially 2 average cbs until proven otherwise. How he covers for this deficiency with pressure will determine his success against more skilled teams like OSU.

 

[Get Nasty]

The fact is until we see him call a game no one will really have. A good idea of this.

The secondary still has 1 good cb and potentially 2 average cbs until proven otherwise. How he covers for this deficiency with pressure will determine his success against more skilled teams like OSU.

Agree here, the fact there isn't a clear second safety starter and second corner start lets you know we don't have talented players ready because bracy and lewis are looking like options 2 and 3 and they aren't that good or talented. Same with brown and griffith at safety.

ALso, need to know if Marist is healthy or in trouble, doesn't make sense why he's being held back if he's not in trouble and 100%. IF our starting lbs are Betrand, bauer, Kiser our D will be very similar to last year instead of taking a step forward, and that's not even close to good enough.

 

[Notre Dame du Lac]

If we see a lot of prevent I might off myself

 

[Get Nasty]

If we see a lot of prevent I might off myself

Freeman's D last year was attack attack, then the most ridiculous prevent D i've ever seen. THe attacking worked a lot (minus a few poor players that may play a lot this year) but the prevent never worked.

I sure hope we're an attacking D that improves on some of freeman's scheme deficiencies.

 

[jcswoopnh]

Golden is another who is going to surprise. He has been a great coach everywhere except Miami, which was a poor fit. Others have every right to hold that job against him.

 

[mirer03]

Golden is another who is going to surprise. He has been a great coach everywhere except Miami, which was a poor fit. Others have every right to hold that job against him.

Remember he took the Miami job not knowing they were being sanctioned and the NCAA hammer came down before he coached a game. He was set up to fail there.

The defense freeman played was based on the principle of limiting possessions. It wasn't a true prevent. It was the bend don't break then make things hard in the red zone. I don't have a problem with the philosophy as that is pretty common nowadays.

As long as the 3-3 stacked look is gone I'll be happy. I never understood the idea of adding secondary players and taking a lb or dl off the field when those are the strengths of the team.

I think with our lbs and dl we should be able to flow back and forth between 4-3 and 3-4 looks, but our dline might be too small to play too much 3-4 against teams with strong runners like OSU.

 

[savvyandsassier]

Golden is another who is going to surprise. He has been a great coach everywhere except Miami, which was a poor fit. Others have every right to hold that job against him.

You mean the one job where it was actually challenging, and he couldn't do it? They call that the Peter principle. Hopefully, if he really was this excellent DC way back when, and it's been about fifteen years now, he could be as good now as he was when Charlie Weis was maybe going to hire him, maybe that would have saved Weis' job.

Which reminds me, did ND make any kind of push at that other ex-Temple coach, who's now in the NFL? Or did we just hire MF because we panicked at the thought of losing him. And no one could bear the thought of this dashing young coach just walking out the door. Why couldn't we have just done that?? Did any of the geniuses with the latest cutting-edge business school science think of something like that? Don't hire MF as HC, but lock him up with a massive pay packet for the next few years. And hire someone else with the condition that they have to retain MF as DC.

Boom! You honestly think Matt Campbell would have balked at that, at being required to keep MF as DC? He wouldn't have. And then we could keep MF on staff, which is really all ND wanted so desperately, rather than having to go to the length of making him HC just to keep him around and affiliated with ND. But then they wouldn't have been able to keep Tommy Rees, because they wouldn't be able to make a new coach stick with BOTH coordinators.

Anyways, now ND gets to have Al Golden be on staff. So that's the silver lining....

 

[Golson5]

You mean the one job where it was actually challenging, and he couldn't do it? They call that the Peter principle. Hopefully, if he really was this excellent DC way back when, and it's been about fifteen years now, he could be as good now as he was when Charlie Weis was maybe going to hire him, maybe that would have saved Weis' job.

Which reminds me, did ND make any kind of push at that other ex-Temple coach, who's now in the NFL? Or did we just hire MF because we panicked at the thought of losing him. And no one could bear the thought of this dashing young coach just walking out the door. Why couldn't we have just done that?? Did any of the geniuses with the latest cutting-edge business school science think of something like that? Don't hire MF as HC, but lock him up with a massive pay packet for the next few years. And hire someone else with the condition that they have to retain MF as DC.

Boom! You honestly think Matt Campbell would have balked at that, at being required to keep MF as DC? He wouldn't have. And then we could keep MF on staff, which is really all ND wanted so desperately, rather than having to go to the length of making him HC just to keep him around and affiliated with ND. But then they wouldn't have been able to keep Tommy Rees, because they wouldn't be able to make a new coach stick with BOTH coordinators.

Anyways, now ND gets to have Al Golden be on staff. So that's the silver lining....

We could have had Campbell.

We wanted Freeman instead.

Good decision imo

 

[savvyandsassier]

Remember he took the Miami job not knowing they were being sanctioned and the NCAA hammer came down before he coached a game. He was set up to fail there.

The defense freeman played was based on the principle of limiting possessions. It wasn't a true prevent. It was the bend don't break then make things hard in the red zone. I don't have a problem with the philosophy as that is pretty common nowadays.

As long as the 3-3 stacked look is gone I'll be happy. I never understood the idea of adding secondary players and taking a lb or dl off the field when those are the strengths of the team.

I think with our lbs and dl we should be able to flow back and forth between 4-3 and 3-4 looks, but our dline might be too small to play too much 3-4 against teams with strong runners like OSU.

Classic! I never thought I'd see the day when ND fans were going to rally around and martyrize Al fricken' Golden. I thought he was supposed to be the butt of jokes, and a figure of fun, and derision... But that was before MF became our new HC and brought this erstwhile Paterno protege into ND's orbit. And thus now he will be recast as a misunderstood coaching giant.

All's I can say about Al Golden is he always came off as a pretty shameless self-promoter, and it was probably more that, that got him the Miami job, rather than his fairly modest success at Temple. And that this geek wore the straight-up Joe Paterno gameday uniform, with the suit and tie and the plain white shirt, with the jacket always coming off... Which was a totally dorky, poser thing to do, even before the scandal broke.

Was he a good DC at UVA? Which is what you'd probably want to know, before hiring him as your DC now.... I don't know, was anyone closely watching the progress of the Cavalier defense, circa 2007? If so, get back to us.....

Check that, 2005! I just googled it. That's SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO.... That he last coordinated a defense. God dammit, man....

 

[Telx1]

Agree here, the fact there isn't a clear second safety starter and second corner start lets you know we don't have talented players ready because bracy and lewis are looking like options 2 and 3 and they aren't that good or talented. Same with brown and griffith at safety.

ALso, need to know if Marist is healthy or in trouble, doesn't make sense why he's being held back if he's not in trouble and 100%. IF our starting lbs are Betrand, bauer, Kiser our D will be very similar to last year instead of taking a step forward, and that's not even close to good enough.

I share the concern about Lewis or Bracy at the corner opposite Hart. Doubt they’ll start a true freshman, but Mickey might just take this spot as the season progresses. As for safety, agree that Griffin is a liability in coverage, but I apparently think better of Brown than you do. I also see Henderson as a viable starter. Frankly, I’d like to see Henderson at safety and eitherBrown or Bracy at nickel, with Mickey at corner.

 

[mirer03]

Classic! I never thought I'd see the day when ND fans were going to rally around and martyrize Al fricken' Golden. I thought he was supposed to be the butt of jokes, and a figure of fun, and derision... But that was before MF became our new HC and brought this erstwhile Paterno protege into ND's orbit. And thus now he will be recast as a misunderstood coaching giant.

All's I can say about Al Golden is he always came off as a pretty shameless self-promoter, and it was probably more that, that got him the Miami job, rather than his fairly modest success at Temple. And that this geek wore the straight-up Joe Paterno gameday uniform, with the suit and tie and the plain white shirt, with the jacket always coming off... Which was a totally dorky, poser thing to do, even before the scandal broke.

Was he a good DC at UVA? Which is what you'd probably want to know, before hiring him as your DC now.... I don't know, was anyone closely watching the progress of the Cavalier defense, circa 2007? If so, get back to us.....

Check that, 2005! I just googled it. That's SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO.... That he last coordinated a defense. God dammit, man....

Great reply as always...*sarcasm

Completely ignored the statement you supposedly replied to.

 

[mirer03]

Classic! I never thought I'd see the day when ND fans were going to rally around and martyrize Al fricken' Golden. I thought he was supposed to be the butt of jokes, and a figure of fun, and derision... But that was before MF became our new HC and brought this erstwhile Paterno protege into ND's orbit. And thus now he will be recast as a misunderstood coaching giant.

All's I can say about Al Golden is he always came off as a pretty shameless self-promoter, and it was probably more that, that got him the Miami job, rather than his fairly modest success at Temple. And that this geek wore the straight-up Joe Paterno gameday uniform, with the suit and tie and the plain white shirt, with the jacket always coming off... Which was a totally dorky, poser thing to do, even before the scandal broke.

Was he a good DC at UVA? Which is what you'd probably want to know, before hiring him as your DC now.... I don't know, was anyone closely watching the progress of the Cavalier defense, circa 2007? If so, get back to us.....

Check that, 2005! I just googled it. That's SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO.... That he last coordinated a defense. God dammit, man....

If he calls games like he did 10 years ago there is a problem. The game is different. I expect his defense to be more based on his time in the NFL than the last time he called plays on college

 

[savvyandsassier]

If he calls games like he did 10 years ago there is a problem. The game is different. I expect his defense to be more based on his time in the NFL than the last time he called plays on college

Let's hope so. What we really need to be hoping for is that this doesn't turn into a BVG situation. The parallels aren't identical, but they're not too far off....

 

[jcswoopnh]

It's obvious we will continue to disagree on Golden.
Freeman was a no brainer. ND needs a coach that can recruit. If not for nil, ND would be 1-2.
Campbell is a very good coach, not the one to take nd to the next level.
How was your time out?

 

[Get Nasty]

I share the concern about Lewis or Bracy at the corner opposite Hart. Doubt they’ll start a true freshman, but Mickey might just take this spot as the season progresses. As for safety, agree that Griffin is a liability in coverage, but I apparently think better of Brown than you do. I also see Henderson as a viable starter. Frankly, I’d like to see Henderson at safety and eitherBrown or Bracy at nickel, with Mickey at corner.

I’m just still bothered by how bad brown played early last year. He almost cost us fsu and Toledo

 

[savvyandsassier]

It's obvious we will continue to disagree on Golden.
Freeman was a no brainer. ND needs a coach that can recruit. If not for nil, ND would be 1-2.
Campbell is a very good coach, not the one to take nd to the next level.
How was your time out?

Hiring MF was not a no-brainer. In fact, you probably would say that the decision to hire MF is the exact polar opposite of a no-brainer. The kind of decision you'd have to think really long and hard about it, and sort of violently rack your brain over it... And then after you made the decision have no effin' idea wether you made a brilliant, inspired decision or not, or whether you just did the stupidest thing you could have ever done. And that feeling would be so strong, that you'd be in a perpetually adrenalized quasi-denial state, on account of how you just made such a supremely questionable decision, on such a weighty matter, on the basis of equally questionable criteria and priorities. But this is ND we're talking about....

And then just sort of hide under the table and hope everything turns out okay. I think Duke was the only school vaguely mentioned in connection with possibly hiring MF. And maybe Cincinnati would have - if Fickell had taken some other job, like for instance the ND job - which would have been a major score for MF, and presumably was what he was maybe hoping for. But instead he actually got the ND job.....

Which is doubly perfect, because if Fickell had been available, and Cincy had been snubbed out of the playoff like many pundits were saying they deserved to be, I bet you ND would have gone for him. But maybe not, maybe ND was/is in love with MF so completely, that they would have passed on just about anyone else, and I'm not even sure who they would have picked over MF, and there's literally no one else they would have preferred, even if they had the #1 overall pick in a HC's draft! Even though no one else in the country was interested in MF at all. And so ND must have figured they were just that far ahead of the curve....

So here goes nothing! MF is ND football coach, and let's hope he's got at least a bit of Dabo Swinnery in him, which is the guy I think it's best to compare him to if you're trying to imagine a scenario where MF becomes a huge success. Sort of hired out of nowhere, and not really any sort of next-level coaching savant, but he can be a good recruiter and head cheerleader, and hopefully hire really good assistants....

 

[jcswoopnh]

The only proven coaches who could take ND to the next level are Dabo, Nick, Day, maybe Kirby and Lincoln. None would ever take the ND job. Nickel would not leave Cincy do to timing
MF was a no brainer due to is recruiting ability and potential. He has a couple of experienced coaches to help with the transition.

 

[savvyandsassier]

The only proven coaches who could take ND to the next level are Dabo, Nick, Day, maybe Kirby and Lincoln. None would ever take the ND job. Nickel would not leave Cincy do to timing
MF was a no brainer due to is recruiting ability and potential. He has a couple of experienced coaches to help with the transition.

I think you could make the argument that every single last coach in D-1 football would have been a better hire - across the board - than MF. That he was utterly unqualified, strictly on the merits, if you remove his boyish good looks and charm, which in any case is really the simple reason why ND hired him. And the hope is, the cross-your-fingers hope is, that he's not just a pretty face, that he's a totally awesome young coach as well with real coaching substance, and ND was just lucky enough to be able to identify him before anyone else.

I think that's a fair of description of how and why ND hired him. They want him and took him for his irresistible superficial traits, and they're hoping like the dickens that he's got the coaching chops too.

 

[NENextt]

Every report from what the D-coordinator is gonna run is the same. "We're gonna be aggressive. Play fast. Shut down the run. Harass the QB. Create turnovers."

It's going to be interesting watching the first game, as we have no idea what Golden has prepared for OSU. This could be an advantage, especially in the first half.

Ohio State can run that 12 personnel, twins WR to the wide side and you pick your poison with where your safety provides support to. Going to single cover Marvin Harrison Jr and Jaxon Smith Njigba or get bashed in the run game by Treveyon? This is where recruiting matters.

 

[Golson5]

The only proven coaches who could take ND to the next level are Dabo, Nick, Day, maybe Kirby and Lincoln. None would ever take the ND job. Nickel would not leave Cincy do to timing
MF was a no brainer due to is recruiting ability and potential. He has a couple of experienced coaches to help with the transition.

Maybe Lincoln. The other ones yes