I have been reading about Tracy Cleayes from Minnesota…recently fired as head coach for backing up his players despite winning his only two bowl games. The guy is a really good DC. A quote from him about his defensive philosophy:
You have to control the running game. If you play well on third down and you don’t give up big plays, you’ll have an opportunity to win. People ask, ‘How many times a game you are going to blitz?’ I don’t know. All I know is that pressure is a big part of it. If you can get there with three or four (players), it’s great. But the longer you let the quarterback hold the ball, the worse it’s going to be. I do believe that you have to make (your opponent) make plays under pressure in passing situations.
Yes, most DC’s say similar things…Minnesota was pretty successful, defensively.
If, IF there are any staff changes you know how it will go down…CBB will drag on and on and on and on and on and then hire someone nobody has heard of for twice the salary they were paid before because he met them at a conference at one time and liked their ideas and demeanor…
I think CBB overall has hired assistants that have been universally respected and have had a history of success. They have also been coveted by other big name schools and the NFL. I’m not sure there is anything wrong with hiring people that you know and that you like their style of coaching. Taking your time is also not a negative trait. Just because fans are inpatient does not mean the coach should be.
Seldom do any coaches hire someone they don’t at least know a little bit. I don’t think that’s any different from any business anywhere. Trust and familiarity are important.
One thing I do know, Bielema seems intent on moving to the 3-4. I would think he’s going to look for someone with a 3-4 background as he works on his defensive staff. And, yes, I’d suspect there will be changes on the defensive staff.
Someone with ties back to Kansas State/Iowa with knowledge of a 3-4 would be my guess on possible defensive coaches. I think he likes some of what they are doing at Oklahoma/Clemson/Kansas State in defensive scheme. I watched Oklahoma closely in how they defended Gus. It was 3-4 based. I noticed some young linebackers making plays on the outside. I saw pressure coming from the field, then the boundary. It was exactly some of the stuff that Bielema talked about leading up to the bowl. Now, Oklahoma numbers were not always good on defense this year. There were some wild games in the Big 12.
How would Auburn had done with a healthy Sean White? Not sure. But Oklahoma looked like it had defensive answers for what Auburn was doing. I’m sure personnel has something to do with it.
When you look at the Stoops brothers, they have ties back to the Iowa/Kansas State tree with Fry/Snyder. Perhaps someone in that Stoops tree (and I’m not talking about them specifically) ends up at Arkansas.
Segrest was an assistant at Samford, We beat Samford (by 10 points) in CBB’s first year and he liked how Segrest coached the DL and special teams…has that carried over to UA?
Anderson I don’t think was an assistant at Buffalo but was an assistant to an assistant
and so on…
Seagrist may get canned, but he did spend four years in the NFL on the Eagles staff, including two years as DL coach, in between the stints at Samford, and was a GA at Auburn. He also played at Alabama. So his resume was not exactly barren when he got hired by BB.
If you look at the resumes for the rest of the current staff, they were all experienced guys when hired. Anderson, for example, started out as a GA at Michigan, then went to Eastern Michigan as a position coach for several years, and then went to the NFL. He did not get fired from his NFL job, he got hired for a bit better gig by BB.
I certainly think there need to be some changes based on production, but the idea that unqualified people got hired is just not true.
You might want to check out Seagrist’s resume a little closer. I believe you will find some NFL experience in there. I also think CBB knows what he is doing. But keep trying to make you point.
Fine, you have your opinion and others, including me have theirs. Not trying to flame anyone but just with the staff turnover year after year and the performance on the field especially this year is understandable that many hog fans would question CBB’s ability to make staff hires. It is not an unreasonable concern.
So if you ignore prior experience no coach should ever be hired who is not currently coaching at what you deem an appropriately exalted level. That mind-set ignores the reality of being an assistant coach in college or the pros. Good coaches lose their jobs every year, for a variety of reasons, many of which having nothing to do with the kind of job the guy did that season. Not every good coach who loses a job is able to land in the same spot somewhere else.
Now, if you have any information that Seagrist or any of the others underperformed at their previous gigs, that would be relevant to the point you are trying to make. But the logo on the polo the guy wore at his last job, in and of itself, is a lot less important than how he’s performed during his career.
If for no other reason, history tells us there will be staff changes. That has happened every year. After a season like this last one, it would seem inevitable. Posters have talked about who they want to see go and who are candidates to replace these people, and that’s certainly well within their rights to do so. But let’s not throw caution to the wind: There are those on this staff that we’d hate to see leave (i.e, Enos, Mike Smith, etc.). So, be careful what you wish for, because you may get more than you want. Otherwise, carry on!
Anderson did have part of year as the top line coach, when main assistant was suspended. Segrest was in charge of DL at least part of his time in Philly.