If Fleck doesn't fire Robb Smith...

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There’s no excuse for Smith to still be coaching on Monday
 


Flecknation said:
I was hoping for Les Miles maybe his defense would have been better than a junior high schools team.
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No longer sure who I wanted, but Fleck was the flavor of the day. Guessing Miles came up to see if the coaching budget included or was in addition to his salary. Did not think that was a real option.
 
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Bayfield Gopher said:
Fleck had that "look" on the sidelines. He was pissed.

Smith is gone.
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i'll believe it when i see it. wouldn't be surprised if Fleck keeped him. I mean when even hire him just look at his stats... What was Fleck thinking.
 


I strongly suspect Robb Smith bets the "over" every week.

Makin' hay while the sun shines.

JTG
 

upnorthkid said:
There’s no excuse for Smith to still be coaching on Monday
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I think he should be gone at the end of the season barring a major turnaround. I don't think anything is gained by canning him midseason and making a position coach take over this mess and call the same schemes.
 



What are the Gopher D recruits thinking? Can't afford to loose any.

Will they stay pat if Smith is retained or canned? And how close are they to Smith?

Fleck has a huge problem.
 

fmlizard said:
I think he should be gone at the end of the season barring a major turnaround. I don't think anything is gained by canning him midseason and making a position coach take over this mess and call the same schemes.
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What if he call's better? What if he has what it takes to be our new DC
 

I'd be pretty worried if Fleck hasn't figured out what the problem is... seriously you can't keep having games like these and keep blaming it on young players. When will he realize it's the defensive scheme and the things the defensive coordinator and his coaches are teaching. Fleck, this is your dream job and you're gonna screw it up if you don't wake up and realize soon.
 




It absolutely should be Fleck's call whether or not Smith is fired and I say that as someone who absolutely thinks Smith should be fired. If Fleck wants to tie his fate to Robb Smith, that absolutely should be his right. I do think we need to be concerned about Fleck's connections in the coaching world and who he might turn to next. He didn't bring any of his WMU defensive staff with him to Minnesota and hired Smith (a Greg Schiano guy) to be his defensive coordinator here. Fleck knew him from that coaching tree, which is also where DL coach Joe Rossi is from. The other guys currently on the staff were let go at Arizona during a coaching change (DB's coach) and from a small Texas school (pass rush coach). Outside of Linguist who left for a big pay raise at Texas A&M, Fleck hasn't really hired anyone on this side of the ball that wasn't taking a huge step up or coming off being fired/asked to look around.
 

He should have been fired after the Nebraska game, but instead he got the 100% nod of support from Fleck.

I'm not going to claim that we have a defense full of all stars, but I refuse to believe that we have entire roster of defensive players who are too slow or too stupid to prevent multiple 40+ yd TD plays nearly every game. It's beyond embarrassing at this point.
 

Does PJ deserve any of the blame for the D performance?


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Just to play devil's advocate -

Let's say the Gophers bring in a new Defensive coordinator, with a different scheme. New DC says "I don't have the players I need to run my schemes." So Fleck comes out and says it will take 3 or 4 years of recruiting in order to have the defensive players they need.

Right or wrong, fair or not, firing the DC gives Fleck a built-in excuse to kick the can down the road for a couple of more years. (assuming Coyle is OK with it. And, assuming the new President is OK with it.)
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Just to play devil's advocate -

Let's say the Gophers bring in a new Defensive coordinator, with a different scheme. New DC says "I don't have the players I need to run my schemes." So Fleck comes out and says it will take 3 or 4 years of recruiting in order to have the defensive players they need.

Right or wrong, fair or not, firing the DC gives Fleck a built-in excuse to kick the can down the road for a couple of more years. (assuming Coyle is OK with it. And, assuming the new President is OK with it.)
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Well, the offense is no great shakes either so...he could be history by year 4 anyway. Best case scenario IMO is the offense keeps getting better, PJ is able to hang onto some nice looking defensive recruits until this December, then fires the defensive staff and beings in a new coordinator that can hopefully do a better job. Defense starts trending up, offense trending up and all is well. It’s clear though that winter is coming for this defensive staff. They’re not good.
 

hungan1 said:
I am still perplexed why he hired Smith when he had a dismal record everywhere except the first season at Arkansas. Did he get Bret Bilema fired?
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This is also how I feel. What has he ever done? However, I do have a bit of empathy for the missed tackles, Smith did free up some guys to make tackles and they whiffed terribly. Another atrocious day in the life of Gopher football fans.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Well, the offense is no great shakes either so...he could be history by year 4 anyway. Best case scenario IMO is the offense keeps getting better, PJ is able to hang onto some nice looking defensive recruits until this December, then fires the defensive staff and beings in a new coordinator that can hopefully do a better job. Defense starts trending up, offense trending up and all is well. It’s clear though that winter is coming for this defensive staff. They’re not good.
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Major concerns are the sloppy tackling and defensive players clearly out of position. There has GOT to be better defensive coaches better than this. This is probably the worst defensive play I have seen since the 1983 Gopher squad with Smokey Joe Salem on the sidelines. And as a Gopher fan I have seen a LOT of bad defenses!!!
 

Spoofin said:
Does PJ deserve any of the blame for the D performance?


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Yes he is the head coach he is 100% responsible for the performance and outcomes of his coaches and assistance.
 


Pompous Elitist said:
Well, the offense is no great shakes either so...he could be history by year 4 anyway. Best case scenario IMO is the offense keeps getting better, PJ is able to hang onto some nice looking defensive recruits until this December, then fires the defensive staff and beings in a new coordinator that can hopefully do a better job. Defense starts trending up, offense trending up and all is well. It’s clear though that winter is coming for this defensive staff. They’re not good.
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The offense is doing fine and trending upwards and has a stronger future for the next couple years.
Scoring 30 points a game is pretty solid.


Issue I have is what is a new DC going to do? He's going to make our DB's faster to tackle guys who break past DL and LB's?
 


Face The Facts said:
The offense is doing fine and trending upwards and has a stronger future for the next couple years.
Scoring 30 points a game is pretty solid.


Issue I have is what is a new DC going to do? He's going to make our DB's faster to tackle guys who break past DL and LB's?
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The offense has some good players but is hardly strong enough to carry the team. The team defensively has lost their edge. They didn’t bring in enough immediate help, and the guys look totally lost out there. They can’t tackle. We *seem* to be getting worse as time goes on.

Coaching changes can make a difference. Stop the bleeding.
 

The last thing Fleck needs is another excuse. He's an excuse machine as it is. When you have
a lost season, you can never get it back.

But what do I know....I was excited when Les Miles came to the Cities. I'd just rather have
an older, seasoned, steady head coach who can get you 7-10 wins every year and try to win a
title from there than having a wild card, one out of ten of which MIGHT hit it big the leave.

Again...what do I know?
 



Hard to see Fleck firing a coordinator, even at the end of this season. It would go against his "culture," which is in part being an eternal optimist.
 


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