Sawvel to Wake Forest (Update: Sawvel out at WF)

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Can't claim to know anything about circumstances at Wake Forest, but looking at the defensive staff listed in the article, I don't recognize any of the names as people who spent time on the Kill/Claeys Minnesota staff. It could well be that he was in a new role as DC without the support of anyone with whom he was familiar. That doesn't necessarily doom a coach to failure, but it can be an issue for someone who has a background of stability both in terms of systems and personnel. I was quite impressed with his work here and I'm sure that he'll land on his feet.
 

I liked Jay and all but with TC running the show it is hard to know if anyone under him could be a good DC, it was TC's defense. No way to be sure anyone under him necessarily is gong to do well later.
 





I think it's pretty conclusive that Sawvel is a great DB coach.

Whether he is a competent D-Coordinator can be debated, but it didn't work out well for him at WF.
 

John Galt said:
I think it's pretty conclusive that Sawvel is a great DB coach.

Whether he is a competent D-Coordinator can be debated, but it didn't work out well for him at WF.
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Yep true, Eric Murray, BBC, Damarius Travis, Cedric Thompson and Jalen Myrick all had great Gopher careers.

One thing that always drove me nuts with Sawvels corners (especially Murray was the amount of pass interference penalties due to failing to look back for the ball.
 

Clawson has had a mostly upwards trajectory as an HC.

Started at Fordham, when the Patriot League was still non-scholarship, and had them winning the league in year 4 (10 wins) followed by 9 wins in year 5. Then went to full scholarship Richmond (which at the time played in the top I-AA conference). By year 4, 11 wins and I-AA playoff semi-finals. Then to Bowling Green in the MAC. 10 wins in year 5, and won the MAC, went to a bowl game but he was poached before coaching in the bowl (ended up losing to Pitt by 3 points). Now at Wake, where his record has gone up every year and was up to 8 wins and two bowl wins in a row by year 4. This is year 5 at Wake.

Granted, BC and Notre Dame are two tough teams (BC is up this year and has a potent RB and QB). I wouldn't necessarily expect Wake to win the games, and they were competitive games.


I would say Clawson knows what he is doing ...
 



Wake Forest has worse recruiting than MN under Kill and is far from a powerhouse program. Looks like they graduated some NFL guys and have struggled. Maybe it was Claeys all along and Sawvel is best as a PC, or maybe it’s a poor fit/personality thing, or maybe Clawson is impatient to turn lead into gold as was the defensive transformation in MN and wants someone he can direct better. Little I’ve read indicates a Bielema Robb type situation.
 

Quote Originally Posted by Face The Facts View Post
Well, in this thread, it's post #'s:
3,4,5
10,14,18,
19,22, 26
30, and 33

And a little of #17 as well.

You'll have to search other threads to find more of the glowing reviews.

fan of Ray Williams said:
Not one of the posts had anything near “greatest ever”. Keep up the charade.
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How about posts #67 and #68 in this thread? Are we getting close?
 

Face The Facts said:
Quote Originally Posted by Face The Facts View Post
Well, in this thread, it's post #'s:
3,4,5
10,14,18,
19,22, 26
30, and 33

And a little of #17 as well.

You'll have to search other threads to find more of the glowing reviews.



How about posts #67 and #68 in this thread? Are we getting close?
Click to expand...

Keep searching
 

Face The Facts said:
Quote Originally Posted by Face The Facts View Post
Well, in this thread, it's post #'s:
3,4,5
10,14,18,
19,22, 26
30, and 33

And a little of #17 as well.

You'll have to search other threads to find more of the glowing reviews.



How about posts #67 and #68 in this thread? Are we getting close?
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You and Scools picked up the torch to disparage the previous staff. It's always part of your agenda. If it makes you feel better, I guess keep it up.
 



Sawvel could definitely coach DBs. Personally, I would probably still take him as a defensive coordinator, I just like that scheme better.

I am wondering how much of the issue could be attributed to not having guys who perfectly fit his system. Sawvel had the luxury of coaching with Claeyes for most of his career. They had to be completely aligned on the type of player they were going to recruit, the schemes that put his players in the best positions to succeed and which players to actually play. This isn't a rip on Clawson, just different people have different strategies.
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
Yep true, Eric Murray, BBC, Damarius Travis, Cedric Thompson and Jalen Myrick all had great Gopher careers.

One thing that always drove me nuts with Sawvels corners (especially Murray was the amount of pass interference penalties due to failing to look back for the ball.
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That may have been a Claeys thing. Washington St got flagged about 5 times last week against USC for doing this very thing...
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
Yep true, Eric Murray, BBC, Damarius Travis, Cedric Thompson and Jalen Myrick all had great Gopher careers.

One thing that always drove me nuts with Sawvels corners (especially Murray was the amount of pass interference penalties due to failing to look back for the ball.
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It’s a man to man thing. If you play man to man, you look at the ball less.
 



Bring back the Axe said:
That may have been a Claeys thing. Washington St got flagged about 5 times last week against USC for doing this very thing...
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On the plus side, you rarely saw them get beat deep. His defense was definitely a bend but don't break type.
 

I have no idea if Sawvel can be a good DC without Claeys. He may not be a good DB coach without Claeys. It may just be his style meshed really well with Claeys defense. Or it could be he really is a great coach, Clawson isn't recruiting players to fit his style of defense. I just know the secondaries when he was here were very good, and I'd love to have them here again.

That said, there is near zero chance any coach at MN during the Claeys era will ever be hired at MN as long as Coyle is here, maybe ever.

I know a lot of people don't like Robb Smith, but even if Smith leaves or is fired, I just don't see Sawvel being welcome here.
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
I have no idea if Sawvel can be a good DC without Claeys. He may not be a good DB coach without Claeys. It may just be his style meshed really well with Claeys defense. Or it could be he really is a great coach, Clawson isn't recruiting players to fit his style of defense. I just know the secondaries when he was here were very good, and I'd love to have them here again.

That said, there is near zero chance any coach at MN during the Claeys era will ever be hired at MN as long as Coyle is here, maybe ever.

I know a lot of people don't like Robb Smith, but even if Smith leaves or is fired, I just don't see Sawvel being welcome here.
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Well that and Fleck was on Kill's first NIU staff. From what I've heard from a friend who played at NIU during that time, Fleck's style didn't mesh with the rest of the staff so I doubt there's any love loss between any of those guys

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 

bemidjigopher said:
Well that and Fleck was on Kill's first NIU staff. From what I've heard from a friend who played at NIU during that time, Fleck's style didn't mesh with the rest of the staff so I doubt there's any love loss between any of those guys

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
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I met Sawvel at an event a while ago and he seemed like he was an odd fit personality wise with the rest of the staff. Seemed like he'd prefer someone like Fleck. Very gregarious, where most of the rest of the staff kind of looked like they were interacting because they were forced to (though apparently Limey and Claeys weren't forced to because I never saw either even though they were "there").

Not trying say there was friction or anything (didn't see anything like that), sometimes contrasting styles work well together. It just seemed like he was the odd man out in some ways. Like the millennial sitting at the VFW bar. From what little I saw, I could have seen his personality working well with Fleck's persona.

Oh well, we'll never know...
 


Lakeville Goldy said:
I have no idea if Sawvel can be a good DC without Claeys. He may not be a good DB coach without Claeys. It may just be his style meshed really well with Claeys defense. Or it could be he really is a great coach, Clawson isn't recruiting players to fit his style of defense. I just know the secondaries when he was here were very good, and I'd love to have them here again.

That said, there is near zero chance any coach at MN during the Claeys era will ever be hired at MN as long as Coyle is here, maybe ever.

I know a lot of people don't like Robb Smith, but even if Smith leaves or is fired, I just don't see Sawvel being welcome here.
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100% agree with your last two paragraphs.

Coyle saw it as a toxic culture. Not bringing any of it back under his watch
 

Some guy said:
Coyle saw it as a toxic culture. Not bringing any of it back under his watch
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Maybe he said that, but would guess he was just saying/doing what he had to do to get Claeys outta there so he could hire the guy he wanted to hire.
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
I have no idea if Sawvel can be a good DC without Claeys. He may not be a good DB coach without Claeys. It may just be his style meshed really well with Claeys defense. Or it could be he really is a great coach, Clawson isn't recruiting players to fit his style of defense. I just know the secondaries when he was here were very good, and I'd love to have them here again.

That said, there is near zero chance any coach at MN during the Claeys era will ever be hired at MN as long as Coyle is here, maybe ever.

I know a lot of people don't like Robb Smith, but even if Smith leaves or is fired, I just don't see Sawvel being welcome here.
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I guess he may be psudo banned .... but I'm also not sure anyone here was going to hire him anyway .... kinda a moot ban ;)

Outside of some hardcore fan interest most coach hiring tens to be a lot of networking / visibility and I'm not sure Sawvel is in the PJ network or the type of highly visible / desirable dude enough that he would ... even be considered for a role anyway.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I guess he may be psudo banned .... but I'm also not sure anyone here was going to hire him anyway .... kinda a moot ban ;)

Outside of some hardcore fan interest most coach hiring tens to be a lot of networking / visibility and I'm not sure Sawvel is in the PJ network or the type of highly visible / desirable dude enough that he would ... even be considered for a role anyway.
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From what I saw of Sawvel in the open practices, I don't think his style and PJ's style would mesh very well. I think both styles can work, but I don't think they go together well.
 

Word said:
From what I saw of Sawvel in the open practices, I don't think his style and PJ's style would mesh very well. I think both styles can work, but I don't think they go together well.
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How do you mean?
 


Looks like Wake fixed all of their defensive problems by firing Sawvel
 

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