Winston DeLattiboudere — New D-Line Coach?

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I was looking for an answer like:

"it's hearsay from a person I know"
"it was posted as a rumor on GI"
"so and so Tweeted it"
 

This will stop the rotating door at DLine coach, which will be good. Players will actually get to have the same coach for consecutive years, plus as a former player who is also on the younger side I'm sure he'll connect with recruits really well.

I'm sure he'll be here for a long time since it's his Alma Mater.
 

It's pretty much a done deal according to reports and a great hire. It's what we've been waiting for. Cultural sustainability! Fleck is now starting to get guys that were Gophers and care about this program to come home and carry on the program. Even going back to Kill, there are some really good players from the last 10+ years that are out there coaching that could find a way back here in the right situation. Fleck can and will be that bridge.

Saw a stat about how much Coach D helped improve the Akron Run defense this last year. They were last in MAC with allowing 248 rushing yards a game in 2021 and dropped to 162 this year. However, they were dead last in sacks. Akron was 2-10 and last in the MAC, so a bit hard to know what he was working with.
 

www.thedailygopher.com

Minnesota to hire Akron defensive line coach Winston DeLattiboudere

DeLattiboudere played for three seasons under P.J. Fleck
www.thedailygopher.com www.thedailygopher.com

After graduating, he spent one season as a graduate assistant at Oregon. He was then hired as defensive line coach by Akron, earning the title of assistant head coach prior to this season.

This hire makes a lot of sense for Minnesota. Defensive line coach has been a revolving door under Fleck, and DeLattiboudere is a young and up-and-coming assistant with ties to the program and who already understands and fits the culture.
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Gophers_4life said:
I was looking for an answer like:

"it's hearsay from a person I know"
"it was posted as a rumor on GI"
"so and so Tweeted it"
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It's a rumor from a random person from the internet (me). I don't expect any one to put too much stock in it, but it's what I hear from a person I know is close to the program.

This isn't a rip on Haley (or sour grapes), I could see where PJ's style is less of a fit for a super experienced guy like Haley.
 

btowngopher said:
I don’t get how you can have a good defense if the dline play is supposedly awful. There’s more to dline play than sacks.
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I don’t think that is contended.

But a QB rush is pivotal and the Gophs have been astonishingly weak and frail at this skill. Pass rushing will be more important now as the QBs in the B1G West should be much improved over last few years. Need to cause disruption.
 

OK, thanks. I could buy that (the last bit you said) all day.

PJ likes to mold deciples
 

btowngopher said:
I don’t get how you can have a good defense if the dline play is supposedly awful. There’s more to dline play than sacks.
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Well yeah, against the run. In that case, you want the DL to occupy blockers and/or gaps. Sure, if you can get (sometimes luck into) great penetration and blow the play up in the backfield, awesome. But it's often the LBers who are ideally schemed to make the tackles.


Against the pass .... unless you have the best secondary in the country, you have to get pressure on the QB to have a consistent pass defense.
 



End rush is important. We will see what Collins can bring. Pressure up the middle is just as important as well as a strong blitz.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Well yeah, against the run. In that case, you want the DL to occupy blockers and/or gaps. Sure, if you can get (sometimes luck into) great penetration and blow the play up in the backfield, awesome. But it's often the LBers who are ideally schemed to make the tackles.


Against the pass .... unless you have the best secondary in the country, you have to get pressure on the QB to have a consistent pass defense.
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Yards per game our Pass defense was better than Run defense in the B1G.

Overall Yards #4
Rush Yards #6
Pass Yards #2
Points per game #2
All while being #14 in sacks
But #4 in Interceptions and #13 in forced fumbles.

This defense is really good and didn't need to have sacks to do it.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
This is the next step for our defense. Without a disruptive pass rush, defense has plateaued.
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I pretty much agree. However if a defensive coord does not have a couple of guys, or at least one, who is fast enough to get off his blocks, creating a pass rush will be incredibly difficult. Whoever our DC is next year, he will need some talent to create a pass rush, and fast defensive linemen are at a premium. Go Gophers!
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Yards per game our Pass defense was better than Run defense in the B1G.

Overall Yards #4
Rush Yards #6
Pass Yards #2
Points per game #2
All while being #14 in sacks
But #4 in Interceptions and #13 in forced fumbles.

This defense is really good and didn't need to have sacks to do it.
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You can have QB pressure without sacks.


Total pass yards could simply be because we allowed them to fewer total offensive plays, since we try to shorten the game.

What about pass yards per pass play attempted?
 



Also going against teams that run the ball more than they pass.

Playing Iowa will be a "boost" for any team's pass defense.
 

Gophers_4life said:
You can have QB pressure without sacks.


Total pass yards could simply be because we allowed them to fewer total offensive plays, since we try to shorten the game.

What about pass yards per pass play attempted?
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I agree and we do get pressures. #7 in average per rush and #5 in average per pass. #5 in completion %.

You are correct in fewest plays. We were #1 in Runs against and #3 in passes against.
 


denguegopher said:
I pretty much agree. However if a defensive coord does not have a couple of guys, or at least one, who is fast enough to get off his blocks, creating a pass rush will be incredibly difficult. Whoever our DC is next year, he will need some talent to create a pass rush, and fast defensive linemen are at a premium. Go Gophers!
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Are you assuming Rossi is leaving for some reason?
 


Unregistered User said:
Plateaued at top 10 defense the past two years?

OK...I'll take it.
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It's a great plateau, I'll certainly admit. Beats the heck out of what we once had on defense. It will gets us to 8-9 wins most every year, which is really good. But I think to beat teams like Ohio State, Michigan, perhaps a few others, we will have to be more disruptive on defense. We were 131st in the FBS, dead last, in tackles for loss in 2022; we were 118th in QB sacks; Colman Bryson's pick six against Syracuse was our team’s first pick six since 2019 (Cooper DeJean of Iowa had 3 pick sixes this year himself); and we were one of only 30 FBS teams that didn't block at least one kick last year. We have a really good defense; it is winning us a lot of games against toss-up opponents. But I believe we will have a hard time busting through to the 10-11 win category unless our defense becomes more disruptive. I'm not complaining. I love Rossi's defenses. They are masterful at keeping opponent scores down. But I think the Gophers are close to becoming a 10-11 win team, if the defense takes one more step forward Just my opinion.
 
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Unregistered User said:
Plateaued at top 10 defense the past two years?

OK...I'll take it.
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It’s also consistent scheduling of some of the worst offenses in P5, driven by the fact that we are in the West. I am not hating on the defense - happy to have competence. But our pass rush has been bad and context of opponents matter.

Need better pass rush. Whether through personnel or schemes, has to be better. Rushing the QB has been a weakness.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Well yeah, against the run. In that case, you want the DL to occupy blockers and/or gaps. Sure, if you can get (sometimes luck into) great penetration and blow the play up in the backfield, awesome. But it's often the LBers who are ideally schemed to make the tackles.


Against the pass .... unless you have the best secondary in the country, you have to get pressure on the QB to have a consistent pass defense.
Click to expand...
Keeping mobile qb’s in the pocket rather than letting them out to throw in the move or make big runs also requires good gap discipline and not pushing too far back. This was a strength in 2019.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
It's pretty much a done deal according to reports and a great hire. It's what we've been waiting for. Cultural sustainability! Fleck is now starting to get guys that were Gophers and care about this program to come home and carry on the program. Even going back to Kill, there are some really good players from the last 10+ years that are out there coaching that could find a way back here in the right situation. Fleck can and will be that bridge.

Saw a stat about how much Coach D helped improve the Akron Run defense this last year. They were last in MAC with allowing 248 rushing yards a game in 2021 and dropped to 162 this year. However, they were dead last in sacks. Akron was 2-10 and last in the MAC, so a bit hard to know what he was working with.
Click to expand...
I would think another huge benefit of this hire is on the recruiting side where he can lean on direct experience playing for Fleck and relay what that is like to the players in a way that someone who has only worked with Fleck in a professional capacity would not be able to.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I would think another huge benefit of this hire is on the recruiting side where he can lean on direct experience playing for Fleck and relay what that is like to the players in a way that someone who has only worked with Fleck in a professional capacity would not be able to.
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Correct. He's 24 and can relate.
 



CoachBrewMotivator said:



Would be great if this comes to fruition. Winston was such a great leader for this team, would love to have him back here.
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I would absolutely LOVE this move! This is a position in need of substantial work as they really lack a pass rusher at this time and he 'could' really make dramatic change here!

This guy was a leader and a great ambassador for the program and though I don't think recruiting for DLine has been terrible, I think he could elevate this to a level we've not seen before.

🤞
 

CoachBrewMotivator said:



Would be great if this comes to fruition. Winston was such a great leader for this team, would love to have him back here.
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I'd love it. Granted, I'm biased as he's the source of my signature "We don't suck."
 

One thing to keep in mind with the pass rush discussion, I think Wenger is actually the coach of the rush ends. I am not sure if that includes all our DEs or just guys like Thomas Rush

I also don’t know if that is still the case with Winston,
 

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