Defense under Al Golden
- Thread starter THUNDERSTRUCK111
- Start date
If Notre Dame had been willing to wait a month, we could’ve had Fickell.
Previous success doesn't mean they'd fit at Notre dame. I like dabo but I don't think his style would work at ND.
Nick Saban is 70. You wouldn't turn him down but that's a rental at this point.
What has Riley done other that put out good qbs.
Fickel is 1 helluva a coach and human being. He would have been better than Kelly, no argument. I just don't know if he could recruit the talent that ND needs
The fact that he uses terms like make quick decisions "fast" and "free" is totally opposite bvg. Where you had to define the play, make the correct read, and be in the right spot or the d fails.
Building a d that is flexible to allow for mistakes while resulting in big plays is something I'm on board with.
It will be a different year imho. I expect more turnovers on BOTH SIDES. the morons will be out as soon as Buchner throws two picks... He's gonna. A lot. But I also expect many more big plays.
Again dabo plays up his southern roots and southern Christian upbringing. Not sure that plays well in Midwest living rooms.
I'm pretty sure nobody had any clue BVG was going to be such a disappointment, and that would include you. And he came into the ND job with frankly a better resume, more experience, and more success as a DC per se. And plenty of the same fancy talk about how his system was going to be just what the doctor ordered. Al Golden had one stretch actually DC-ing and preparing gameplans and all the rest of it, as the chief defensive tactician on a college coaching staff, and that around 20 years ago. Other than that he spent ten years ambitiously pursuing, his big dream trying to be the head honcho, and then fortunately for him managing to stay in the game since then as a position coach in the NFL.
So I'm failing to see why, on paper at least, he's so highly regarded. BK at LSU hired some dude named Matt House. Early 40s, youthful, pretty good broad range of experience as an asst coach, and finally getting his chance to be a DC at a top SEC program, ready to make his name, his career on a steady upward arc leading up to this point. And I was very much hoping/expecting MF to find someone like that as well. I was quite surprised and not a little disappointed he brought in what amounts to a coaching retread, that absolutely brings to mind the possibility of another BVG....
You could make that argument .. but it would be VERY WEAK!!!! I am glad we don't have to wait long to find out... sept 3rd.... 😁😁😁
I’m guessing if Golden really is a bend don’t break fella, Freeman won’t take issue based on what he called last year.
Luke Fickell badly wants the Ohio State job, and frankly, I do not believe him and his wife, both proud Ohio natives, would have uprooted their 6 kids and moved out of state for another head coaching gig.
Lol. Stop posting paragraphs. No one reads the whole thing from you.
No one thought bvg would be bad, but it wasn't celebrated as a good hire either.
I'm hopeful, that is all.
I think I'll keep posting paragraphs as I see fit. And I'm quite sure you read my posts all the way through, several times over if necessary. But you gotta say something to belittle me, or take me down a peg, since as always you got no substance.
In any case, we'll politely drop the subject....
The truth is, we don't know. He could be a smashing success, or he could be another Bob Davie (another former DC who was promoted to HC). That's the risk you take hiring somebody who's never been a HC before.
So far, everything seems great. But once the games start, then we'll find out whether he can coach or not (as a HC).
No, Fickell's already been a head coach. He's 44-7 over the last 4 years. Freeman's never been a head coach before.
You're dead on with this comment. The thought of the hand wringing that is going to go on the first time we get burned on defense or make a boneheaded mistake on offense is almost enough to make me run for the hills.
Yeah at a non power 5 school. Hes never coached in the big leagues. We have no clue how hed do at Notre Dame. A lot of coaches performed well in the minors and couldn't replicate it when they moved up. We have no clue how Fickell would do here. We know MF can recruit and build a really good staff. So, so far, so good
I don't think that will work - AT ALL - against OSU. I watched them a lot last year and they just killed teams with intermediate passes when they were dropping deep. That one that is returning this year - Jaxon Smith Whatever - is really good at those shorter - over the middle passes. And the new starter - Marvin Harrison Jr. - caught 3 TDs in the Rose Bowl on intermediate passes when he filled in for Olave who sat out for the NFL draft
If you look at the history of Notre Dame football, our most successful coaches have been the ones who had previous D-1 HC experience (except for Rockne). The ones who didn't (e.g., Davie, Weis and Faust) didn't do as well. That's the past history of the program. So if Freeman succeeds, he'll be an exception to that rule. And we all hope he does, obviously.
But having an experienced former HC like Golden on staff should be an asset to him this year.
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I believe you are confusing him with his DC at while Golden was HC at Temple and Miami.
Looks like Golden at Miami was under the NCAA cloud at the time. Not that that would have bothered 80s Miami.
There is more to it then running it for the sake of running it. If Notre Dame needs to limit possessions because they are having trouble scoring, it makes sense to stretch the game out....not necessarily prevent but bend don't break, then be aggressive inside the thirty.
This was a Kelly strategy that I don't know if it will carry over
What happened sometimes with Kelly is we would have this really long defensive drive...then give up a td then go 3 and put on offense... With no depth in our secondary we were the forced to play a lot of prevent because Kelly wouldn't play younger guys and we literally wore our own defense out vs elite teams becUse the offense couldn't sustain drives... The snowball then ran downhill and we get stomped.
Running prevent to give out guys a break at times makes sense, but I'd much rather see a rotation on defense and a more balanced offense that doesn't rely on fades and back shoulders to the outside for 75% of passing plays so we can keep an opponents defense on the field.
Bend don't break was a Kelly strategy. No matter who his coordinator was he wanted to slow them down then attack inside the thirty.
Practicing back off concussion protocol … he’s getting some good pub lately… I was hoping he’d earn starting spot this year and maybe he does later in season, but he’ll definitely have big impact next year
You sound like a lot of Clemson and Oklahoma fans when they hired first year coaches.
How can you say Coach Freeman will fail at ND???
The advantage of being able to hire from within is huge.
Having a guy that
1. Already knows the players
2. Knows the culture of the university
3. Knows the fan base and traditions of the university
Also, what about Oklahoma’s new coach? A guy with zero HC experience and an outside hire. My point, what ND has done in hiring Coach Freeman is not unusual.
I don't think anyone would be shocked if MF failed at ND. Why would you be?? What is it about MF, that is reality-based, outside of his handsome face, beaming smile and genuinely charismatic and youthful demeanor and mannerisms, that would ever mark him out for greatness??? Nothing!
So it's entirely possible that he will become one of the great coaches of all time, that he really will be the next Dabo Swinnery, where he got a top HC job he really wasn't qualified for, but in highly improbable fashion ended up having that CEO-coaching knack, which is WAY different than tactical/technical coaching genius.... even though the real reason he got the job was because ND was simply far too smitten to allow him to walk out that door, he nevertheless pulls it off somehow. Dabo has an MBA, and I always figure that played a HUGE role in his success. It's one thing to be a an ambitious, hard-working whippersnapper of a young football coach just looking for a chance to prove himself, but Dabo actually received specific organizational business training. So he knows how to think like a CEO is my point. And presumably is armed with a strong entrepreneurial disposition, and actual training in bringing complicated, multi-layered plans to fruition....
The important thing for MF is that no particular coaching 'genius' is required to be a top HC. They got coordinators for that shit. It's about 'leadership', and having a vision for the program, that sort of thing, as well as enough self-mastery and presence of mind, and caliber of personality to see to it's effective and successful implementation despite all the various adversity and 'noise', to use an economics term, that might distract you or delude you. Which is something he's theoretically quite capable of, in spite of his at times almost unnerving levels of nearly childlike naivety that he seems to evince. And Dabo Swinnery is living proof that you don't need to be, almost don't even want to be, a bonafide coaching badass, in order to be highly effective in that CEO role. There's probably a shit ton of very smart, capable ground-level football coaches that would not distinguish themselves as CEO HCs. It's a different skill set, an organizational skill set, think Dwight Eisenhower vs George Patton
So that's what we can hope for. That MF will thrive as Dabo Swinnery 2.0. But that's not why he was hired. The real reason is that they're in love with MF, and weren't willing to let him go. MF swept Jack Swarbrick, and the rest of the ND hiring/firing brass off their feet. Conceiving of a possible path to glory for MF, like I have, thoughtfully comparing him to Dabo Swinnery, the great fluke coaching success story of all time, is something you do after the fact.... and then you just hope for the best. All the shit you mentioned are the same things Swarbrick told himself, and could be used to rationalize the hire. That's not WHY he was hired....
Let’s address your first paragraph.
“I don't think anyone would be shocked if MF failed at ND. Why would you be?? What is it about MF, that is reality-based, outside of his handsome face, beaming smile and genuinely charismatic and youthful demeanor and mannerisms, that would ever mark him out for greatness??? Nothing!”
Second sentence: What is it about MF?
1. the guy is a great recruiter and develop players. Look at the players Cincinnati recruited and developed. Cincinnati had more players drafted this season than ND.
2. He knows how to game prep. Look at his defenses at Cincinnati. They were always prepared.
3. in game adjustments. Again look at his track record at Cincinnati.
4. Players believe in him. This is the biggest reason. Rewatch the video of the day he was announced to the players as the new HC. There was nothing fake about that response.
He already has the whole team believing!!!
That’s just 4 reasons off the top of my head.
You can add.
High football IQ
Passion
Great work e
I stand rock solid by my thesis. MF wouldn't have sniffed this job if not for his, I would say it's fair to characterize as his superficial traits. And he just so happened to already be coaching at ND, as the DC, at the one school other than maybe Stanford, that they would feel like they died and gone to heaven at the prospect of hiring a dreamboat like Marcus Freeman. And then BK shockingly ups and leaves, and ND all of a sudden needs a coach....
Some people less cynical than myself I suppose might warmly acknowledge my thesis completely, but they would insist on one key difference, and point of emphasis. That yes, ND craves what MF possesses, there's just no denying it... and that yes MF is not really qualified for this job by any typical standard, and there were much more qualified candidates ND could have pursued, and probably successfully hired, like a Matt Campbell. But that the critical part of this coaching serendipity, and why ND made such a bold choice, is because they can absolutely perceive, on account of being around MF for a whole season, and getting a taste of his magic, that above and beyond his dreamy looks, youth and charm, that he does have the chops, he has all the substantive traits as well, and is not just a pretty face. And that's the only reason why no one else wanted to hire him. Because they don't know what ND knows.... And so they feel justified, at least somewhat, in making this eyebrow-raising choice.
Could easily be the case, but this is ND we're talking about, the same place that once hired Gerry Faust, because they were smitten, and unlike tOSU or some serious SEC program, are perfectly willing to go 8-4 if that's what it comes to. That does not mean MF will be a bust, of course, only to say that ND was willing to gamble that maybe he will emerge as some Dabo Swinnery type success, but whatever happens MF will now be and is ND football coach for the next several years, and that's really what they wanted. Come what may.....
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