Diaco Hired as Purdue DC

[BGIF]

Just imagine having a Diaco defense this past year. We all complained and groaned but we would likely be undefeated right now (of course that is terribly revisionistic).

Navy would be 11-1.

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

Sorry guys!

But there is nothing but nostalgia to back that up :

• The '13 defense was getting hammered by folks because Alabama drew a blueprint of how to disassemble that defense the previous January;
  
• The '14 defense would have been worse under Diaco, because they had no talent left to run that defensive scheme. Period;*
  
• Last year and this year we would have lost to Navy, (undoubtedly) and probably Georgia Tech as well, had Diaco been at the helm!

* See recruiting acumen.

This is a pretty nostalgic view of Diaco's Notre Dame defenses. His defenses gave up plenty of yardage, including 2012. In 2012 the defense toughened up once the opponent reached the red zone, but in other years we had trouble keeping anybody out of the end zone. And we should remember that Van Gorder's defenses were manned by Diaco's recruits. Diaco's defenses kept our offense off the field as our opponents had long drive after long drive. With Diaco's bend-don't break philosophy we were constantly behind in field position.

Van Gorder will be judged over the next two years (if he remains) based upon his ability to recruit players that can help our defense improve.

Please disregard the misspelling of defence in the first column.

https://flic.kr/p/BeeBhx

I went and tallied the numbers for the past 5 years to see if what you both assert is true, and it's not.

"Tons of yardage" would be factored into either the total passing or total rushing. I didn't even show the huge jump in explosive plays given up this year because that's beating a dead horse at this point.

And these bad numbers were produced with a top-5 LB and Butkus award winner and a top 2 or 3 rounds DT who was ranked amongst the tops at his position.

The one argument that has merit is that Diaco sucked at recruiting and put us in a hole with his strict recruit profiling. Our numbers mostly trended up this year but we lose two key contributors, let's hope BVG is recruiting the right talent to run his system. I believe the heat should turn up quickly next year if we have the same issues we saw this past season.

 

[Luckylucci]

Sorry guys!

But there is nothing but nostalgia to back that up :

• The '13 defense was getting hammered by folks because Alabama drew a blueprint of how to disassemble that defense the previous January;
  
• The '14 defense would have been worse under Diaco, because they had no talent left to run that defensive scheme. Period;*
  
• Last year and this year we would have lost to Navy, (undoubtedly) and probably Georgia Tech as well, had Diaco been at the helm!

* See recruiting acumen.

That isn't even remotely close to being true. PA/G: 22.4 (27th of 125). Those are the 2013 season numbers for scoring defense. Oddly enough those numbers are the exact same to this seasons. 2015, PA/G: 22.4 (35th of 128)

2015: 362 yds/game and 1.1 TO's
2013: 366 yds/game and 1.3 TO's


2015 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Stats | College Football at Sports-Reference.com

2013 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Stats | College Football at Sports-Reference.com

The rest is just an opinion with nothing to support it.

On 2014 being worse under Diaco, I completely disagree. That was the worst defensive unit in decades and mainly due to explosive plays and terrible RZ D which are the strengths of Diaco's D.

Recruiting acumen. I realize that Diaco wasn't a perfect recruiter and maybe below average but you do realize that the NFL talent that is fielded by BVG are Diaco recruits, right?

Jaylon Smith, Cole Luke, Sheldon Day, Jarron Jones, Isaac Rochell, Romeo Okwara, KVR, Max Redfield, Shumate, Trumbetti, Martini. All recruited by Diaco, so if anything BVG should thank his lucky stars Diaco was the DC before he came. This wasn't some unstocked cupboard that BVG has had to make due with.

 

[EddytoNow]

Please disregard the misspelling of defence in the first column.

https://flic.kr/p/BeeBhx

I went and tallied the numbers for the past 5 years to see if what you both assert is true, and it's not.

"Tons of yardage" would be factored into either the total passing or total rushing. I didn't even show the huge jump in explosive plays given up this year because that's beating a dead horse at this point.

And these bad numbers were produced with a top-5 LB and Butkus award winner and a top 2 or 3 rounds DT who was ranked amongst the tops at his position.

The one argument that has merit is that Diaco sucked at recruiting and put us in a hole with his strict recruit profiling. Our numbers mostly trended up this year but we lose two key contributors, let's hope BVG is recruiting the right talent to run his system. I believe the heat should turn up quickly next year if we have the same issues we saw this past season.

The 2014 numbers were severely impacted by the number of injuries, the frozen five (which cost us a year of K. Russell and I. Williams), and a depleted defense. The team had no depth, the direct result of Diaco's recruiting in his final two years and the failure to have back-ups ready to play. When healthy the 2014 defense performed reasonably well. As Van Gorder was forced to rely more and more on his bench, the performance declined dramatically.

Van Gorder's success or lack thereof will be evident in the next season or two. Only time will tell if he has recruited adequately to run his system.

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

The 2014 numbers were severely impacted by the number of injuries, the frozen five (which cost us a year of K. Russell and I. Williams), and a depleted defense. The team had no depth, the direct result of Diaco's recruiting in his final two years and the failure to have back-ups ready to play. When healthy the 2014 defense performed reasonably well. As Van Gorder was forced to rely more and more on his bench, the performance declined dramatically.

Van Gorder's success or lack thereof will be evident in the next season or two. Only time will tell if he has recruited adequately to run his system.

So what are the excuses for this year? I gave Kelly an excuse because he didn't have a complete QB to run his offense so I'm willing to give BVG a small pass for 2014 since there was tons of injuries and very young players stepping up to fill the holes but do you have an excuse for 2015?

I'm willing to listen to people make blanket statements and provide them numbers, I'm also willing to hear said people explain away the numbers to save face but the explanations have to be legitimate. What are the excuses for the defensive performance this year? Which is what my whole statement revolved around?

I hope BVG puts it together next year with "his guys" and we make big jumps in all categories but we are outside the playoffs this year because our defense wasn't in the top 25. It didn't need to be elite, say top 10, just top 25.

And we didn't have enough injuries to point fingers. The offense had a much more difficult hand dealt and they played the shit out of it.

Game, blouses.

 

[Luckylucci]

The 2014 numbers were severely impacted by the number of injuries, the frozen five (which cost us a year of K. Russell and I. Williams), and a depleted defense. The team had no depth, the direct result of Diaco's recruiting in his final two years and the failure to have back-ups ready to play. When healthy the 2014 defense performed reasonably well. As Van Gorder was forced to rely more and more on his bench, the performance declined dramatically.

Van Gorder's success or lack thereof will be evident in the next season or two. Only time will tell if he has recruited adequately to run his system.

Sorry but the team that was fielded against NW was plenty capable of playing a winning game which they didn't even come close to. We've went over this a million times so I'm not going to bother and pull the schedule or numbers again but that team underperformed some really bad football teams and not because it lacked talent. What it lacked was the right scheme that those players could execute. It was the epitome of what people say of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Also, the team was fully healthy against UNC and was wrecked. Even BVG said it was because of scheme. However, nothing changed until the offseason.

 

[EddytoNow]

So what are the excuses for this year? I gave Kelly an excuse because he didn't have a complete QB to run his offense so I'm willing to give BVG a small pass for 2014 since there was tons of injuries and very young players stepping up to fill the holes but do you have an excuse for 2015?

I'm willing to listen to people make blanket statements and provide them numbers, I'm also willing to hear said people explain away the numbers to save face but the explanations have to be legitimate. What are the excuses for the defensive performance this year? Which is what my whole statement revolved around?

I hope BVG puts it together next year with "his guys" and we make big jumps in all categories but we are outside the playoffs this year because our defense wasn't in the top 25. It didn't need to be elite, say top 10, just top 25.

And we didn't have enough injuries to point fingers. The offense had a much more difficult hand dealt and they played the shit out of it.

Game, blouses.

What would you say was our major weakness on defense in 2015? I'd like to suggest that the defensive backfield was inadequate. If I'm not mistaken, Russell, Redfield, Shumate, and Luke were all Diaco recruits. There's a reason we are recruiting so many defensive backs last year and this year. It isn't because we have so many defensive backs headed to stellar NFL careers.

 

[Luckylucci]

What would you say was our major weakness on defense in 2015? I'd like to suggest that the defensive backfield was inadequate. If I'm not mistaken, Russell, Redfield, Shumate, and Luke were all Diaco recruits. There's a reason we are recruiting so many defensive backs last year and this year. It isn't because we have so many defensive backs headed to stellar NFL careers.

Like has been posted before, I'd say that has more to do with scheme than actual talent. When smart football minds can't even figure out what coverage the team is in, then I'm assuming that players the age of 18-22 will also have trouble. The players are stuck thinking too much and not playing.

 

[EddytoNow]

Like has been posted before, I'd say that has more to do with scheme than actual talent. When smart football minds can't even figure out what coverage the team is in, then I'm assuming that players the age of 18-22 will also have trouble. The players are stuck thinking too much and not playing.

I agree with what you're saying here, but the problem goes back much farther than Van Gorder. Other true freshmen and redshirt freshmen are able to excel at the college level, but at Notre Dame they seldom see the field as defensive players until their eligibility is nearly over. Even Jaylon started his freshmen year as a back-up to Danny Spond. As much as I liked Danny Spond, it certainly wasn't because Spond was more talented than Jaylon. Why do we continue to start the likes of Carlo Calabrese, Dan Fox, and Joe Schmidt when we have a Morgan, Coney, Bilal, Barajas, etc. waiting in the wings.

Van Gorder has not made this any better with his scheme, but the problem of getting our most athletic defensive players on the field has been an ongoing problem under both Diaco and Van Gorder.

 

[Buster Bluth]

I agree with what you're saying here, but the problem goes back much farther than Van Gorder. Other true freshmen and redshirt freshmen are able to excel at the college level, but at Notre Dame they seldom see the field as defensive players until their eligibility is nearly over. Even Jaylon started his freshmen year as a back-up to Danny Spond. As much as I liked Danny Spond, it certainly wasn't because Spond was more talented than Jaylon. Why do we continue to start the likes of Carlo Calabrese, Dan Fox, and Joe Schmidt when we have a Morgan, Coney, Bilal, Barajas, etc. waiting in the wings.

Van Gorder has not made this any better with his scheme, but the problem of getting our most athletic defensive players on the field has been an ongoing problem under both Diaco and Van Gorder.

Tillery and Crawford?

 

[Luckylucci]

I agree with what you're saying here, but the problem goes back much farther than Van Gorder. Other true freshmen and redshirt freshmen are able to excel at the college level, but at Notre Dame they seldom see the field as defensive players until their eligibility is nearly over. Even Jaylon started his freshmen year as a back-up to Danny Spond. As much as I liked Danny Spond, it certainly wasn't because Spond was more talented than Jaylon. Why do we continue to start the likes of Carlo Calabrese, Dan Fox, and Joe Schmidt when we have a Morgan, Coney, Bilal, Barajas, etc. waiting in the wings.

Van Gorder has not made this any better with his scheme, but the problem of getting our most athletic defensive players on the field has been an ongoing problem under both Diaco and Van Gorder.

Diaco had a lot of players make impacts as true freshman. Aaron Lynch, Jaylon Smith, KVR, Sheldon Day, and Elijah Shumate are the ones that come to mind. But mostly I think thats just a flawed thesis in general. You aren't going to have a lot of freshman play because you should better players ahead of them.

This conversation could go on forever talking about each individual scenario where we should have played player X but instead we played player Y. And we could do so with both coaches. I have no idea why we couldn't get Morgan on the field so I can't comment on that. I don't believe that Diaco was as stubborn about playing freshman as people think. To Diaco's credit, he started 2013 with Fox and Calabrese as starters then shifted Grace (though not a true freshman) into the starting Mike role where he flourished before his horrific injury. He played Sheldon Day, as a true freshman, on one of the best DLines (2012) ND has ever had. KVR started at CB when he was mainly an APB in HS.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Shouldn't say it as it p!sses people off, but for me the statistical differences between 2012 and now are largely due to the absence of anyone remotely resembling Zeke Motta. Motta organized the 2012 back end, rarely got burned for big plays, and got the opponent to have to grind out long drives vs Manti and company. This last year [and worse the year before] we've had "great" eye-test safeties who mis-read things regularly and get burnt all over the field.

Come back Zibby, Bruton, McCarthy, Harrison, Jamoris, and Zeke!!!!

 

[Redbar]

Defense is not offense. You can't know exactly what the offense will do, therefore you can't attack all the time, there needs to be some read and react. There needs to be some "bend but don't break". Everyone wants to be Jim Johnson (an old DC for the Eagles and Notre Dame a long time ago) and do all this exotic blitzing, send everyone and the kitchen sink, every time but it really leaves you exposed. IMO on defense it is better to read more and pursue, get a lot of hats to the ball, and pick your spots to get after the QB or attack a formation. Versus it being a foregone conclusion that you are coming and leaving some of your guys on islands or in space.

It's not just misreading assignments, many times you only need to make one guy miss and you have a big, momentum shifting, demoralizing play. "Sexy" on defense to me is the execution, the emotion, and the teamwork not the schemes. Leave that to the offensive guys to get cute. There wasn't anything "sexy" about Iowa's scheme, now the way they played, that is another story.

 

[Luckylucci]

Defense is not offense. You can't know exactly what the offense will do, therefore you can't attack all the time, there needs to be some read and react. There needs to be some "bend but don't break". Everyone wants to be Jim Johnson (an old DC for the Eagles and Notre Dame a long time ago) and do all this exotic blitzing, send everyone and the kitchen sink, every time but it really leaves you exposed. IMO on defense it is better to read more and pursue, get a lot of hats to the ball, and pick your spots to get after the QB or attack a formation. Versus it being a foregone conclusion that you are coming and leaving some of your guys on islands or in space.

It's not just misreading assignments, many times you only need to make one guy miss and you have a big, momentum shifting, demoralizing play. "Sexy" on defense to me is the execution, the emotion, and the teamwork not the schemes. Leave that to the offensive guys to get cute. There wasn't anything "sexy" about Iowa's scheme, now the way they played, that is another story.

Great post and completely agree.

I'd just add that this is even more important in college, these players haven't reached their peak mental maturation for the game of football yet.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Defense is not offense. You can't know exactly what the offense will do, therefore you can't attack all the time, there needs to be some read and react. There needs to be some "bend but don't break". Everyone wants to be Jim Johnson (an old DC for the Eagles and Notre Dame a long time ago) and do all this exotic blitzing, send everyone and the kitchen sink, every time but it really leaves you exposed. IMO on defense it is better to read more and pursue, get a lot of hats to the ball, and pick your spots to get after the QB or attack a formation. Versus it being a foregone conclusion that you are coming and leaving some of your guys on islands or in space.

It's not just misreading assignments, many times you only need to make one guy miss and you have a big, momentum shifting, demoralizing play. "Sexy" on defense to me is the execution, the emotion, and the teamwork not the schemes. Leave that to the offensive guys to get cute. There wasn't anything "sexy" about Iowa's scheme, now the way they played, that is another story.

Agreed. Especially in college, a simple scheme and sound fundamentals will always be preferable to complex schemes featuring exotic blitzes. "Bend but don't break" is excellent because it forces the opposing offense (also made up of college kids under practice time restrictions) to be perfect, and to earn every yard. Make 'em drive 80 yards with short rushes and passes out to the flats, and your opponents won't be scoring many points on you.

NFL defenses have to be exotic because the QBs are just that good; if you don't confuse them, you've got no chance. That ain't the case in college.

 

[bkess8]

Defense is not offense. You can't know exactly what the offense will do, therefore you can't attack all the time, there needs to be some read and react. There needs to be some "bend but don't break". Everyone wants to be Jim Johnson (an old DC for the Eagles and Notre Dame a long time ago) and do all this exotic blitzing, send everyone and the kitchen sink, every time but it really leaves you exposed. IMO on defense it is better to read more and pursue, get a lot of hats to the ball, and pick your spots to get after the QB or attack a formation. Versus it being a foregone conclusion that you are coming and leaving some of your guys on islands or in space.

It's not just misreading assignments, many times you only need to make one guy miss and you have a big, momentum shifting, demoralizing play. "Sexy" on defense to me is the execution, the emotion, and the teamwork not the schemes. Leave that to the offensive guys to get cute. There wasn't anything "sexy" about Iowa's scheme, now the way they played, that is another story.

Couldn't agree with this more. It has been painful the last couple of seasons to watch our defensive backs not develop into the players we need them to be. IMO BVG likes to put his DBs on an island by blitzing almost every third down over the last couple of seasons. I wish for once he would fake a blitz and maybe drop his LBs in a short zone to confuse the other teams QB but its not happening. There are only so many elite college DBs, maybe less than a handful right now and we don't have them on this roster yet. I think this offseason we should look at a different scheme, something like redbar is saying above.

 

[Luckylucci]

Couldn't agree with this more. It has been painful the last couple of seasons to watch our defensive backs not develop into the players we need them to be. IMO BVG likes to put his DBs on an island by blitzing almost every third down over the last couple of seasons. I wish for once he would fake a blitz and maybe drop his LBs in a short zone to confuse the other teams QB but its not happening. There are only so many elite college DBs, maybe less than a handful right now and we don't have them on this roster yet. I think this offseason we should look at a different scheme, something like redbar is saying above.

A couple things.

1. BVG actually had KVR in off man coverage a lot this year and though he had some big plays out that (USC INT), he was also burnt. IMO, KVR should either be playing zone or press man where his physicality is emphasized.

2. Don't get your hopes up on a full scale scheme change. BVG has a lot of football knowledge so I'd like to believe we'll adapt but he's also been doing this too long to expect a wholesale change in what he believes in. This is who he is and he believes in it, rightly or wrongly.

 

[bkess8]

A couple things.
2. Don't get your hopes up on a full scale scheme change. BVG has a lot of football knowledge so I'd like to believe we'll adapt but he's also been doing this too long to expect a wholesale change in what he believes in. This is who he is and he believes in it, rightly or wrongly.

Not really saying we need a wholesale change but we do need to change up the way we do things in certain situations. We can't continue to leave our players on an island or show blitz every 3rd down and expect not to get beat on hot routes or deep balls.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

Sorry but I had to leave the party, and am just getting back to it, but there are a few points worthy of note :

Not to start a Chimp Poo Fling Fest, but everything on this forum is based upon opinion. Fact doesn't really enter into it so much. All facts can effectively do in a situation with a broadly stated opinion or hypothetical, as in this case, is disprove conjecture or opinion.

Proof positive? Not possible, for example : Did you see the general level of refereeing this year? How do you account for that? I mean just to make a salient point, I didn't used to think that officiating could cost a game, one or two bad calls couldn't change the tide. Not anymore. I think that I saw at least a half-dozen games this year that were controlled, and determined by calls. How do you figure for that kind of phenomena? Targeting, from its inception, has made refs nearly omnipotent.

Yes, I said omnipotent, not impotent, but what I was thinking may be a lot more fitting.

Also, as others have said, there are other changes that manifest huge considerations on any preferred defensive configuration. For one, ND's offensive transition has precluded the bend but don't break defense from working well for the Irish. I don't think the '12 defense had many more plays to give, let alone anyone trying to two-gap with the recruits that filled in after that group moved on. This just isn't something that can be shown with statistics.

Also lost in the statistics is how badly Diaco got torn up by option offenses. Horribly! The fact is that his defense never had the kind of dominant performance against Navy that you might expect. In fact his first second and last year were abysmal. * Small joke for those that found it.

The stats supplied for each of the five years used to show that Diaco defenses were superior to BVG's, are ND's annual ranking among the division one teams, correct?
This doesn't provide an absolute scale to make an accurate cross-year comparison.
Not only do things vary from year to year, among all of D1 football,
There is no common medium for comparison,

1. Nothing accounts for annual change in strength of schedule;
2. Or change in type of opponents, which is a big thing with a team like ND (independent, non conference with same opponents year in and year out.

Let alone changes in personnel, etc. (You all are right, recruiting is an entirely different animal, and one of the things I like east about Bob D., is that he is at times incredibly inflexible. And that ain't good for any program!

 

[IrishLion]

Also lost in the statistics is how badly Diaco got torn up by option offenses. Horribly! The fact is that his defense never had the kind of dominant performance against Navy that you might expect. In fact his first second and last year were abysmal. * Small joke for those that found it.

To be fair, the changes that were made to better prepare for the option probably would have been made even if Diaco were still here, due to the new rules about hiring "non-gameday" coaches.

BVG's defense got torn up by Navy last year. Whether it's Diaco or BVG, I think BK finally said "enough is enough." That would have happened regardless of who the DC is, so I don't really think the argument about the option really fits here.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

To be fair, the changes that were made to better prepare for the option probably would have been made even if Diaco were still here, due to the new rules about hiring "non-gameday" coaches.

BVG's defense got torn up by Navy last year. Whether it's Diaco or BVG, I think BK finally said "enough is enough." That would have happened regardless of who the DC is, so I don't really think the argument about the option really fits here.

I get both of your points and see their merit! Reps, man!

But the gestalt of this whole defensive conversation is bigger than Bob Diaco or Brian VanGorder. What we are really getting to, especially with your post, is the growth in Brian Kelly's coaching acumen, and the overall staff. In my opinion, Diaco was a reflection of Kelly's micro-managerial self, as he was when he came to ND; and currently with BVG and non-gameday coaches, that is a reflection of his growth and current philosophy. So maybe we are comparing apples to an apple tree!

On the second point. Never did BVG's defense, now I am actually talking on the line, man to man, get torn up like Diaco's did every year. The pinnacle was Diaco's last year where he had everybody line up and take Navy's first two steps off the ball. It was injurious, humiliating, and a bit comical, in that Diaco's refusal to abandon that approach led to the Midshipmen's first time abandoning the triple-option in Niumatalolo's tenure. They implemented a man blocking scheme, ran a blast straight ahead, and were unstoppable!

That is really my only point remaining in this conversation. Other than one and one half years, people said the same negative things about BD as they are BVG. So it's not like there was a consistent winning comparison based upon the threshold set by BD. After the '10 Navy game (alone), BK had to defend Diaco from the wolves, worse than he ever has BVG!

 

[Luckylucci]

I get both of your points and see their merit! Reps, man!

But the gestalt of this whole defensive conversation is bigger than Bob Diaco or Brian VanGorder. What we are really getting to, especially with your post, is the growth in Brian Kelly's coaching acumen, and the overall staff. In my opinion, Diaco was a reflection of Kelly's micro-managerial self, as he was when he came to ND; and currently with BVG and non-gameday coaches, that is a reflection of his growth and current philosophy. So maybe we are comparing apples to an apple tree!

On the second point. Never did BVG's defense, now I am actually talking on the line, man to man, get torn up like Diaco's did every year. The pinnacle was Diaco's last year where he had everybody line up and take Navy's first two steps off the ball. It was injurious, humiliating, and a bit comical, in that Diaco's refusal to abandon that approach led to the Midshipmen's first time abandoning the triple-option in Niumatalolo's tenure. They implemented a man blocking scheme, ran a blast straight ahead, and were unstoppable!

That is really my only point remaining in this conversation. Other than one and one half years, people said the same negative things about BD as they are BVG. So it's not like there was a consistent winning comparison based upon the threshold set by BD. After the '10 Navy game (alone), BK had to defend Diaco from the wolves, worse than he ever has BVG!

Diaco's defense averaged the best scoring average over his tenure since Holtz was here. His defenses didn't get torn up, thats just plain false. Did they in some games, sure, every good defense will at times. His career at ND was a smashing success of consistent defense backed up with statistics that blow away decades of DC's at ND.

On the other hand, last 5 or 6 games of last season was the worst stretch of defense ND has seen in decades. It was that bad, that now that we have decent its a godsend.

Comical was watching NW run roughshod in ND stadium on our D last year to the tune of 540+ yards, the most they put up all season, because they were terrible.

Yea no comparison for success at all, cmon Bogs everyone of this board knows that isn't true in the slightest. Look up the stats and make a "winning" comparison to other DC's at ND. Also, he was the DC over possibly the best ND defense EVER.

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

Diaco's defense averaged the best scoring average over his tenure since Holtz was here. His defenses didn't get torn up, thats just plain false. Did they in some games, sure, every good defense will at times. His career at ND was a smashing success of consistent defense backed up with statistics that blow away decades of DC's at ND.

On the other hand, last 5 or 6 games of last season was the worst stretch of defense ND has seen in decades. It was that bad, that now that we have decent its a godsend.

Comical was watching NW run roughshod in ND stadium on our D last year to the tune of 540+ yards, the most they put up all season, because they were terrible.

Yea no comparison for success at all, cmon Bogs everyone of this board knows that isn't true in the slightest. Look up the stats and make a "winning" comparison to other DC's at ND. Also, he was the DC over possibly the best ND defense EVER.

This. I've stopped replying because lots of words don't make better points. The numbers don't lie, BVG needs to be better. He had a Butkus award winner, a top 5 DT and plenty of supporting cast yet our safeties always looked lost and our corners were beat on a large number of plays.

BVGs defenses have not been very good outside of stopping/slowing the triple option. We've routinely made average QBs look like Heisman candidates and we've surrendered large chunk plays at an alarming rate.

Luckily, Kelly has also managed to create more large chunk plays so we can exchange haymakers but for once, I'd like to be the complete fighter and just KO some teams. We need BVG to up his game for that.

 

[Grahambo]

I say make a run at Luke Fickell.

 

[Luckylucci]

I say make a run at Luke Fickell.

That would get my attention. Can't say I know too much about his philosophy/scheme but he's been successful there and I know the players really like him. Recruits very well.

 

[Grahambo]

That would get my attention. Can't say I know too much about his philosophy/scheme but he's been successful there and I know the players really like him. Recruits very well.

Players seemed to like him a few years back when he was interim HC. Defense seems to have been really good since he's been there and has been screwed over for the DC position several times. Doesn't hurt to bring him over. I'm sure it's not going to happen but something worth exploring.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Players seemed to like him a few years back when he was interim HC. Defense seems to have been really good since he's been there and has been screwed over for the DC position several times. Doesn't hurt to bring him over. I'm sure it's not going to happen but something worth exploring.

Screwed over? Hasn't he been co-DC the whole time?

I'd love to see him in South Bend but I don't think he's hating the situation over there.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Grahambo]

Screwed over? Hasn't he been co-DC the whole time?

I'd love to see him in South Bend but I don't think he's hating the situation over there.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Maybe that was harsh by me but my thinking was that he was named co-DC with Ash and when Ash moved on, instead of promoting him to DC, Urban hires Schiano. "The news release said Schiano will work “alongside Luke Fickell coordinating” the Ohio State defense, as Ash did."

Everything I read has had Schiano as the DC.

Just me spitballing is all.

 

[KPENN]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">SOURCE: UConn football coach Bob Diaco has agreed to a two-year contact extension through 2020.</p>— Pete Thamel (@SIPeteThamel) <a href="https://twitter.com/SIPeteThamel/status/732268015765590017">May 16, 2016</a></blockquote>
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[tko]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">SOURCE: UConn football coach Bob Diaco has agreed to a two-year contact extension through 2020.</p>— Pete Thamel (@SIPeteThamel) <a href="https://twitter.com/SIPeteThamel/status/732268015765590017">May 16, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Werewolf