Not saying you are wrong, but the fact he was on staff then and not on staff now is not conclusive proof for you heaping the credit on him. Seems people quickly form opinions anointing heroes and finding scapegoats with insufficient proof and or expertise.
I trust that if Rob Smith or any other coach is not up to standard that Coach B is both aware and has a plan.
Arkansas had better players on that defense - Trey Flowers, Darius Philon, Martrell Spaight, Tevin Mitchel and Rohan Gaines. I’m not sure there are better players at any of those positions right now. And Brooks Ellis played well that year as a sophomore.
I think the coaches deserve fault for this year’s lack of production, but when comparing this year’s defense against that year’s defense, you have to factor in the next-level talent may not be as good.
So, why do we have lesser talent? If we have to recruit nationally, why are we settling for 3 & 4* talent? Last year we had the best group of prospects come in on a weekend that I ever saw. We missed almost everyone of them (I believe we did miss all the ones that were uncommitted). This year, however it looks like the staff is saying, well we are AR, so there is no choice except to chase 3 & 4* instead of 5*. Since we got them to visit last year (and signed 1), shouldn’t we be trying to get them to visit? That’s the part of the battle that has to happen correct?
You quoted me before I changed my last line to “next-level talent.” There are four of those players I mentioned who are on NFL teams in some capacity, including three on active rosters. I would be surprised if there will be that many from this year’s defense in NFL organizations in a couple of years. Maybe I’m wrong.
It just seems like we are settling this year. I don’t claim to know near as much as Dudley or Richard, but I follow recruiting on a National level. I haven’t seen as many “top” prospects mentioning us as last year. Now, I know there are recruits we don’t hear about for one reason or another, but sometimes I’d like to hear a 5* at least said he’s interested.
If I remember correctly, some of the shannon recruits didn’t pan out. Weren’t some of the ones that went to next level on cAmpus when coach b got here? He signed spaight I’m pretty sure but flowers, philon, and Mitchell were here weren’t they? s far as recruiting, it has been sort of discouraging to hear some of the teams these kids have offers from. Then us. Have we resigned ourselves to the 3 star put them in the oven for a couple of years and hope we did good evaluation? Freshmen starting all over the nation. We sign Sosa and he gets what, 15 plays a game. And he makes plays. Recruiting has been way below par in offensive line, linebacker, and defensive backfield. It’s past time to step it up. Hire coaches that can both coach and recruit.
It’s not evident at all. Shannon, as noted above, was a position coach. To be specific, the linebackers. He did not design the defense, or make the defensive calls. He had nothing to do with the secondary, which has issues with tackling and angles, or the DL. And our linebacker play was not all that great during his time here either.
You’re all delusional. The man leaves and your defense goes into the you know what. The man that supposedly is the defensive master mind and is still here gets out schemed week in and week out…Dline, LB, and secondary play is atrocious but he is the reason the defense was rocking two years ago… On top of that has 9 returning starters and they’re still bad…Give me a break and go get Randy Shannon.
For a guy that is supposedly great at “building programs the right way” sort of amazing that we’re in year 4 and our talent in so many spots is not as good as it was in 14. And to the Randy’s point Flowers, Philon, Mitchell, and Gaines were recruited by Petrino.
Typical whining about 4 years but never recognizing that Petrino left a serious mess. Multiple coaches have had a hard time getting top talent to come here. We have excellent skill position players but Oline deficiencies are holding us back. On defense it is the opposite with the back 7 holding us back.
Most of the Shannon recruits didn’t pan out here–particularly the defensive ones.
He was and is a good coach but if he was the mastermind of a very good defense that is suddenly awful merely by his absence, he would be a HC somewhere.
And, his current defense wouldn’t have given up 38 straight points to an offense that Robb Smith’s bad defense shut down last year.
I’m not sold on Robb Smith at this point. The jury is definitely out on him. But Shannon has tons more talent and his current team is ranked a whopping 4 spots ahead of Arkansas in the polls.
Just like anything else, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Shannon was a good coach here. But, saying he was the mastermind of the Top 10 2014 defense and calling people who disagree with you delusional is just silly.
Randy was also the LB coach in 2013 when our defense gave up 31 points a game. Does he get the credit for that too? Our defense looked great at the end of 2014 when we played:
Ole Miss when Bo Wallace was hurt and couldn’t move
LSU with no QB
Texas with freshman QB Tyrone Swoopes who has never been a good QB
Sure we get credit for taking care of business, but there were some circumstances that made it quite easier