New Defensive Coordinator Robb Smith

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GopherWeatherGuy said:
Sawvel still gets a little overrated on here. And I'm not discrediting Sawvel who was a good DB coach and recruiter. Tracy was still running this defense even as a head coach, and he wasn't coming back. We really don't know how good Sawvel is as a DC without Tracy.
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Sawvel was calling the defense - watch TC on the sidelines? He never called in a play.


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I'd be surprised if aside from O Brien and Sherels any of the Kill/Claeys coaches are retained or that any of them want to be retained. I expect there is some bitterness and anger over how they lost their jobs - it certainly was not due to poor performance by any of them. As for Sherels and O Brien, both were hired after Kill arrived in Minnesota and don't have the longtime NIU connection; and both have serious family health issues that could make a job search and moving almost impossible. Glad that the U kept them on if for no other reason than this.
 



BarnBoy said:
Was this the Reusee Rankings?
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Fair question, but no. It was some national publication they were quoting. Whatever, doesn't matter. What's the sense of even discussing this? Silly for me to bring it up.
 

DoubleAlum said:
Just heard on radio that this coach is ranked 81st among DC's while Sawvel was ranked 25th. Anyone concerned?
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Yes. That's been my biggest concern all along. I've been a big fan of the defensive improvement over the past 5 years - best improvement in my memory. I don't want to see a regression, no matter how exciting the new offense might be.
 

Old Goph said:
Yes. That's been my biggest concern all along. I've been a big fan of the defensive improvement over the past 5 years - best improvement in my memory. I don't want to see a regression, no matter how exciting the new offense might be.
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While I Agree this doesn't feel like a Tubny Smith hire, we don't know the issues on the Arkansas team. Maybe Summers eve was meddling in the play calling? Maybe talent in the defensive side just wasn't there? Fairly certain PJ isn't going to pull this back because the guys and gals on gopherhole don't like it. We'll see how it turns out in the fall. I will be extremely disappointed with a drop off on Defense and pretty sure PJ will too and send him overboard. Maybe he returns to top 10 form, maybe he's the next Elliot Uzelak. It will be up to and on Fleck, so simmer down.


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caliGopher said:
While I Agree this doesn't feel like a Tubny Smith hire, we don't know the issues on the Arkansas team. Maybe Summers eve was meddling in the play calling? Maybe talent in the defensive side just wasn't there? Fairly certain PJ isn't going to pull this back because the guys and gals on gopherhole don't like it. We'll see how it turns out in the fall. I will be extremely disappointed with a drop off on Defense and pretty sure PJ will too and send him overboard. Maybe he returns to top 10 form, maybe he's the next Elliot Uzelak. It will be up to and on Fleck, so simmer down.


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Ok why am I supposed to simmer down? I never heard of this new guy and will obviously withhold judgment until he shows what he can do. I just stated my concern with jettisoning the group who got our defense where it is. If was easy to replicate that level of success, I would have hoped they'd have done it over the previous 20-30 years.
 

beatles said:
Seriously? He has yet to coach a single game for us and there's no argument it's a "step back?" Let's relax and wait and see.
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You know, Brian Van Gorder just got run out of Notre Dame on a rail and had we hired him this board would have went bat crap crazy given what happened with the Irish. But when Van Gorder was at Georgia, his defenses were very good and Bulldog fans hated to see him go.

The over reaction by some drives me nuts. He had some positive accomplishments at Arkansas and some seasons where he fell short of what he would have liked from his defenses. Give him a chance at MINNESOTA before we brand it a failure. Fleck believes in him so I will give him a shot.


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As good as TC's defenses were I do not believe Minnesota can win a conference playing primarily man to man. Was hoping we would switch to a more zone heavy scheme.


I have no idea what the new guy runs but it seems like a downgrade on paper even if he does switch to a scheme I agree with more.


Time will tell either way
 

U2Gopher said:
You know, Brian Van Gorder just got run out of Notre Dame on a rail and had we hired him this board would have went bat crap crazy given what happened with the Irish. But when Van Gorder was at Georgia, his defenses were very good and Bulldog fans hated to see him go.

The over reaction by some drives me nuts. He had some positive accomplishments at Arkansas and some seasons where he fell short of what he would have liked from his defenses. Give him a chance at MINNESOTA before we brand it a failure. Fleck believes in him so I will give him a shot.



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I haven't seen anyone label him a failure yet, talk about over reacting.
 



Do his guys play Nasty?


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Old Goph said:
Ok why am I supposed to simmer down? I never heard of this new guy and will obviously withhold judgment until he shows what he can do. I just stated my concern with jettisoning the group who got our defense where it is. If was easy to replicate that level of success, I would have hoped they'd have done it over the previous 20-30 years.
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Poor choice of words on my part, my apologies. My post wasn't intended for you specifically, although I replied to your post.

My point is, I agree, this is not an inspiring hire ( I tried to make a joke about Joel Maturi's comments before he settled on Tim Brewster when he promised a Tubby Smith type hire and delivered Tim Brewster).

But it's made, and there was zero chance of keeping Sawvel based on the way Coyle spoke at the presser firing Claeys. (Technically could have, but no way Coyle could allow it).

The next thing I tried to do was make a reference to Glen Mason's original OC who tried to turn Corey Sauter into an option QB. That experiment failed and Uzelak was fired at the end of the Season. Relevance being the offense improved dramatically in season two and beyond with a different OC. Even if this guy doesn't pan out, it may not signal no defense again.

I do apologize if I offended on this.






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Some guy said:
As good as TC's defenses were I do not believe Minnesota can win a conference playing primarily man to man. Was hoping we would switch to a more zone heavy scheme.


I have no idea what the new guy runs but it seems like a downgrade on paper even if he does switch to a scheme I agree with more.


Time will tell either way
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Dantonio seemed to do ok with man-man


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Oregon Gopher said:
Dantonio seemed to do ok with man-man


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Yeah, of the things holding us back from taking the next step, our coverage would be about the last thing I would think needed to be changed.
 


Not exactly an inspiring hire but I'll give him a chance.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah, of the things holding us back from taking the next step, our coverage would be about the last thing I would think needed to be changed.
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Well, not necessarily worried about coverage, worried about stopping the run while running man to man. Particularly against mobile quarterbacks it leaves you susceptible to the big play. Wisconsin running for over 200 each of the last two years against us (granted that wasn't via big plays) Rutgers keeping it close..etc

In my opinion, it is easier to overachieve running more conservative systems.

If you have more elite athletes up front, you can cover up some of those big plays by turning them into medium plays.
 

I'll be interested to see how many blitzes he runs. Sawvell blitz too much IMO and we got burned a lot on screen passes. Also, go to my grave thinking Patterson played the game soooooo conservative against us, didn't want to show much early in the season. I think Sawvell finally learned not to blitz as much late in the season and that helped keep us in games and was awesome against WSU. No chance he was going to stay though.
Fleck was not a Kill guy and probably rubbed most of those guys wrong at NIU, so none of the long time Kill guys would stay anyway.

Hope he is Elite!


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When Chris Ash was DC at Arkansas (Bielema's first year), the team ranked 73rd in total defense...and Ash got hired as co-DC at Ohio State. I agree that the trend of his defenses at Arkansas has been concerning, but he's also had two top 10 defenses in just four total years as a defensive coordinator. For being just 41 years old, he's got a lot of experience.
 

The odds that anyone on GH could identify an underrated DC or a DC genius stuck in the wrong situation are about 1,000,000:1. We would be more accurate debating recruits. So stupid. Might as well trust PJF on something like this until proven otherwise.


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Spoofin said:
The odds that anyone on GH could identify an underrated DC or a DC genius stuck in the wrong situation are about 1,000,000:1. We would be more accurate debating recruits. So stupid. Might as well trust PJF on something like this until proven otherwise.


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Agreed.

Also a lot is personal preference on schematics.
 

Is the name Robb Smith to common for a coordinator? Maybe we should of picked a guy with a less common name? :p
 

Spoofin said:
The odds that anyone on GH could identify an underrated DC or a DC genius stuck in the wrong situation are about 1,000,000:1. We would be more accurate debating recruits. So stupid. Might as well trust PJF on something like this until proven otherwise.


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agree thank you
 


Spoofin said:
The odds that anyone on GH could identify an underrated DC or a DC genius stuck in the wrong situation are about 1,000,000:1. We would be more accurate debating recruits. So stupid. Might as well trust PJF on something like this until proven otherwise.


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Bingo.
 


Oregon Gopher said:
Why would you hope to play zone when your pressure is often dependent upon blitz schemes?
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I'm not saying never play man.

In the bowl game most of the pressure was from dropping 7/8 in zone coverage. Maybe sawvel was starting to agree with me.
 

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