I think Jaylon being is sophomore is a pretty weak excuse when we're running an entirely new defensive scheme. Joe Schmidt had no more experience under BVG than Jaylon Smith or Andrew Trumbetti for that matter.
Jaylon had never played ILB before this season, whereas that's the only position Schmidt has ever played.
I think your use of the term "contingency planning" is illustrative. We didn't have a plan of "IF Joe goes down, we do X." Instead, we acted like he'd always be there and then when he did go down, we acted like an injury to your defensive play caller is something we never could have considered happening.
My argument is that "Schmidt QBs the youngest ND defense in recent memory"
was already Plan E. When you're dealing with a decimated defensive roster, there comes a point where "next man in" is unworkable because that guy is either a true freshman or a walk-on.
Is there an element here of forcing a system on incompatible personnel? I'm a big believer in coaching towards the players you have rather than trying to fit your square pegs into a round hole.
Absolutely. See the posts above by Lax and Emcee. The roster hole at ILB and DL that Diaco had created before he left made it so that a scheme change was almost mandatory. We simply didn't have the personnel to run a 3-4 anymore. Which is exacerbating our current depth issues, because we now have a lot of square pegs that don't fit into BvG's round holes. Kelly obviously can't come out and say that, which is why we heard the bullsh!t about this year's defense being more or less unchanged from last year, but we're definitely experiencing some growth pains as we transition schemes.
How do you not have somebody?? The moment Joe Schmidt becomes Plan A, it's the obligation of the staff to do whatever it takes to get a new plan B prepared. If plan B = disaster, that's completely on the staff. I don't care who is hurt or suspended. Get somebody prepared. Anyone. Just do it. They get paid hundreds of thousands to figure it out, not me.
See my 2nd response to wizards above.
Look, if Diaco sucked at recruiting, it's ultimately BK's fault that he relied on Diaco. BK can't be so disconnected from recruiting on that side of the ball that recruiting 2 ILBs didn't raise a red flag. And if he is that disconnected, that's his fault. I'm just to the point where I'm not going to give BK passes anymore, as much as I like him.
I agree that some of this falls on BK. We all saw the roster holes coming a couple years ago, and had no idea why the staff was passing on slightly undersized but undeniably talented defensive recruits who were practically begging for an offer. Fortunately, our defensive recruiting strategy since BvG's hire seems much more coherent, but it'll take some time to ride out the scheme transition.
