My biggest criticism of Minter

[solo]

Admittedly I am not a Minter fan. I think he deserves at least one year as the DC before we fire him. I don't believe that he has much talent to work with.

That said, I don't care for the style fo defense he used in our big games. Against average teams and weak teams, you can sit back in a soft zone and wait fo the other team to mess up. That pretty much worked for our 10 wins this year.

But in our 3 losses, we got waxed and the defense played awful. But he didn't seem to stop using the same tactics that weren't working. He needed to aleter the scheme, switch things up. Bring 8 guys if you gotta. You can't let the opposing QB sit back an pick you apart. I'd rather get torched on the big play while being aggressive than:

1. Let them pick us apart or
2. get torched on the big play while playing soft

Did anyone notice that we gave up big plays even while in a soft cover 2 defense? That's not supposed to happen. So if you are going to give up the big play nyway, why not put some heat on the QB and make them earn it? He called WAY too conservative of a game in our 3 losses and still gave up the huge plays.

 

[Satans Little Helper]

Admittedly I am not a Minter fan. I think he deserves at least one year as the DC before we fire him. I don't believe that he has much talent to work with.

That said, I don't care for the style fo defense he used in our big games. Against average teams and weak teams, you can sit back in a soft zone and wait fo the other team to mess up. That pretty much worked for our 10 wins this year.

But in our 3 losses, we got waxed and the defense played awful. But he didn't seem to stop using the same tactics that weren't working. He needed to aleter the scheme, switch things up. Bring 8 guys if you gotta. You can't let the opposing QB sit back an pick you apart. I'd rather get torched on the big play while being aggressive than:

1. Let them pick us apart or
2. get torched on the big play while playing soft

Did anyone notice that we gave up big plays even while in a soft cover 2 defense? That's not supposed to happen. So if you are going to give up the big play nyway, why not put some heat on the QB and make them earn it? He called WAY too conservative of a game in our 3 losses and still gave up the huge plays.

Every big play given up through the air last night involved Ndukewe being beat as the deep safety. Every one of them.

 

[sonomairishfan]

Admittedly I am not a Minter fan. I think he deserves at least one year as the DC before we fire him. I don't believe that he has much talent to work with.

That said, I don't care for the style fo defense he used in our big games. Against average teams and weak teams, you can sit back in a soft zone and wait fo the other team to mess up. That pretty much worked for our 10 wins this year.

But in our 3 losses, we got waxed and the defense played awful. But he didn't seem to stop using the same tactics that weren't working. He needed to aleter the scheme, switch things up. Bring 8 guys if you gotta. You can't let the opposing QB sit back an pick you apart. I'd rather get torched on the big play while being aggressive than:

1. Let them pick us apart or
2. get torched on the big play while playing soft

Did anyone notice that we gave up big plays even while in a soft cover 2 defense? That's not supposed to happen. So if you are going to give up the big play nyway, why not put some heat on the QB and make them earn it? He called WAY too conservative of a game in our 3 losses and still gave up the huge plays.

he called the same schemes his first time around with the same results. he has had his chance, let's get a fresh mind in here now.

poor open field tackling (nobody wraps up except d-line)
bad positioning on basic coverages (safeties more often than not)
bad fundamentals (corners have no first step, hence 10 yard cushion)

all are product of lack of coaching. the same mistakes have been happening consistantly since he has been here. he has improved nothing, so why should he have another year.

 

[FleaFlicker]

Admittedly I am not a Minter fan. I think he deserves at least one year as the DC before we fire him. I don't believe that he has much talent to work with.

That said, I don't care for the style fo defense he used in our big games. Against average teams and weak teams, you can sit back in a soft zone and wait fo the other team to mess up. That pretty much worked for our 10 wins this year.

But in our 3 losses, we got waxed and the defense played awful. But he didn't seem to stop using the same tactics that weren't working. He needed to aleter the scheme, switch things up. Bring 8 guys if you gotta. You can't let the opposing QB sit back an pick you apart. I'd rather get torched on the big play while being aggressive than:

1. Let them pick us apart or
2. get torched on the big play while playing soft

Did anyone notice that we gave up big plays even while in a soft cover 2 defense? That's not supposed to happen. So if you are going to give up the big play nyway, why not put some heat on the QB and make them earn it? He called WAY too conservative of a game in our 3 losses and still gave up the huge plays.

I agree. In terms of players being out of position... When they are out of position constantly, and in our biggest games, yet other teams don't have that problem, with lesser talent, then the coaching is at fault.

It may not be a scheme problem, but the coaches aren't teaching these players how to play up to their potential on defense.

Wake Forest has a much better defense than us this year. Let's look back and see how supposedly has more "talent".

 

[wallym]

I agree...and don't forget about their 25 yard TD run where Ndukwe's pursuit angle was the worst thing I had ever seen. If our team speed was in question, the coaches should have practiced pursuit angles. But, these guys are college athletes and should know this already...I've said it before, and will say it again...Ndukwe has been doing this all year and you would think by watching film he would learn.

 

[FleaFlicker]

I agree. In terms of players being out of position... When they are out of position constantly, and in our biggest games, yet other teams don't have that problem, with lesser talent, then the coaching is at fault.

It may not be a scheme problem, but the coaches aren't teaching these players how to play up to their potential on defense.

Wake Forest has a much better defense than us this year. Let's look back and see how supposedly has more "talent".

I just checked, and Wake Forest doesn't have a 4 star athlete anywhere on the team. Almost all of them are 2 stars according to Scout.

They would not have given up nearly as many yards and/or points in the last 4 big games we played (OSU, UM, USC, LSU). So clearly, there IS an issue with the defensive staff. And it needs to be remedied.

 

[Irish93]

We give up the big plays against the bad teams too. I think that Duke and Zibby were at least the indirect cause.

In the pre-game stuff, Lou talked about ND keeping all of the plays in front of them. If that was the plan, someone forgot to tell Duke.

 

[Vince Young]

I've been sticking up for Minter all year, but last night pushed me over the edge.

In all 3 of our losses, our D has consistently left our offense with poor field position. If your defense gives up a score, the other team gets to kick off and your offense ends up starting at the 20, give or take 5 yards. And if the other team doesn't score but puts together a field-chewing drive and punts from mid-field, your offense starts out inside their own 20.

We need a defense that can hold opponents back in their own territory and win the battle of field position. When your offense has to start every drive at the 20, you're not gonna score much, no matter how damn good your offense is. You need some short fields.

In two years, I've seen some slight improvement on D, and in the 2nd quarter I was pleasantly surprised by the performance our D turned in. But even then, it looked more like individual players stepping up and making big plays. I didn't see anything clever in the defensive playcalling or scheming.

The talent is an issue too, and I'm not putting 100% of the blame on Minter. But more than enough of the blame DOES go on him to justify moving on to someone better.

I'm on the bandwagon now. Fire Minter.

 

[Satans Little Helper]

What gets me the most for example was last night after seeing the numerous 10+ yard rushes given up, inoticed LSu Wrs would lock up on the cbs and as the rusher is going past them it is like the biggest surprise to the cb to see the RB running past them. abasolutely amazing.

Several times i saw our Dbs actually looking lost trying to find the rusher while locked up and to there surpise, they are already past them or passing them.

 

[ND81]

I've never played a down of football in my life, so my football knowledge and accumen is very limited. But I was disgusted by what I saw last night. It could have been a result of bad talent, a bad scheme, or both. People can argue about a lack of depth, talent, etc. But it as clear a day to me. In two years Weis has helped turn around the careers of Quinn, Samardzija, Stovall, etc. Can you honestly say that Minter has done the same with the defensive players?

 

[Satans Little Helper]

I've never played a down of football in my life, so my football knowledge and accumen is very limited. But I was disgusted by what I saw last night. It could have been a result of bad talent, a bad scheme, or both. People can argue about a lack of depth, talent, etc. But it as clear a day to me. In two years Weis has helped turn around the careers of Quinn, Samardzija, Stovall, etc. Can you honestly say that Minter has done the same with the defensive players?

I hear ya. it does not take a large football acumen to see what the hell was happening in that game yesterday.

 

[Irish52]

Beleive the real problem is finally seeing the light of day.

 

[Junkhead]

We even gave up 26 to North Carolina....Its been nearly every game.

 

[bbrennan]

I am not sure there is enough space on this site to list all of my criticisms of Minter, and Weis for that matter. We were thoroughly outplayed and outcoached all night on offense and defense. Start with the awful decision for the fake punt on the first possession through to the multiple times Ndukwe gets burned or misses a tackle.

My biggest issue is with the lack of adjustments. All night the commentators were talking about conversations they had with Weis and Weis saying he needed to make adjustments throughout the game. The only adjustment I saw all night was our abandoning the run in the second half.

Specific to the defense here is my criticism. All night Russell used 2 check offs at the line, nearly all in the 1 back set. First he would back out from under center and raise his arm or arms. This ALWAYS meant a run off right tackle. The second was he would back out from center and not raise his arm. This was ALWAYS meant a 7-8 yard out pass to the right. He did this ALL NIGHT. It got to where by the 3rd quarter I was calling their plays based on these check offs. Every time the check off would work for a 5-10 yard gain. We never filled the off tackle hole on the run and we never jammed the receiver at the line or jumped the pass. If I can identify this trend why can't one of the 10-14 coaches they have on the sideline or in the pressbox recognize this and make the adjustment.

I am tired of hearing about our lack of speed and the poor recruiting from Ty 3 years ago. Our defense is awful and I don't see it getting any better regardless of our recruits. I don't know if we bottle these guys up too much with our schemes but they are completely lost on the field and lack any aggressiveness. Much of this is coaching not speed and not guys playing out of the position. The same thing happened last night as has happened in many other games against quality opponents. Other teams with lesser talent can hold these teams to less than 500-600 yards of offense. Our's can't.