Grade the Coaches

[IrishLax]

Nobody give anybody a hard time, 100% subjective thoughts. Grades as you will, provide justification as you see fit for some or all of your grades.

Brian Kelly - A... I think given the injuries and all of the adversity, to win 10 games and have Notre Dame squarely in the playoff hunt all year is a success. Moreover, both losses were nail biter to top 10 foes on the road. I want him to win those games, but it's hard to not think he has the team playing at an elite level.

Mike Sanford - A+... elite offense aside, the job he did as QB coach after Zaire went down was tremendous.

Mike Denbrock - A... got elite production out of Will Fuller, had a large hand in the dynamic offense, and is an overall good fit as a "lieutenant"

Harry Hiestand - A-... I don't think the OL was as good as it could've been in some games, but most of the guys were nursing injuries most of the year. I really like the overall cohesion of the unit, but there is some room for improvement.

Autry Denson - A+... the job he did with Prosise and Adams is absurd. One of the best coaching jobs I have ever seen. Huge upgrade over Alford.

Scott Booker - B-... Special teams were pretty darn good, but the lack of production and development at the TE position bothers me. Blocking from TEs was an issue all year.

Brian Van Gorder - C... defense finishes ranked somewhere in the 30s or 40s in advanced stats. That's not good, but it also isn't terrible. I'm tempted to give him a lower grade for some of the defenses critical flaws, but at the same time the overall body of work is average.

Keith Gilmore - B... got much more production out of a group of guys that Elston got very little out of, even after losing Jones before the season. Development of Tillery and Cage was especially impressive.

Mike Elston - D... pretty obvious he failed in a couple different respects, namely his inability to get the most talented players onto the field. That means they either weren't developed OR they weren't played in error by the coach.

Todd Lyght - C-... it's tough to get a read on how he was as a coach, because what his players were asked to do is very difficult. Also, cupboard was left VERY bare at DB. But in general, every game that was "closer than it should've been" had DBs making big mistakes at big moments. And the Stanford loss falls mostly on DBs for not making plays.

BONUS: David Grimes gets an F for yelling at officials, Longo gets a ? because I have no idea if any/all of these injuries were in part his fault, Jeff Quinn and Bob Elliot get a collective B+ for at minimum being valued added.

 

[phillyirish]

Sanford, excellent in his first year, but I'm not sure I'd say A+. I know he's a fan favorite but its not like the offense struggled last year. Improvements so were about 20 yards/gm and 3-4 points a game. Good but not earth shattering. The biggest improvement probably was reducing turnovers but I think a lot of that is getting rid of Golson. And I'm probably in the minority but I give Kelly the credit as a QB guru himself with his history of going through 4 Qbs in one year at Cinnci; and lets be real, he put Tommy Reese in position to throw 3000 yards and 27 TDs--- thats amazing looking back. An A is far but I don't think he was our best assistant, and certainly not deserving of the heir apparent title bestowed on him by IE.

Gilomore was excellent, DLine was awesome I thought. Giving a B is fair but I wouldn't go short of B+/A-. Okwara having a breakout year. Cage and Tillery playing well early. Day being Day. Add in losing Jarron early on, he is my pick in doing the best job this year.

All in all though, these two newcomers really were homerun hires.

 

[NDinL.A.]

Sanford, excellent in his first year, but I'm not sure I'd say A+. I know he's a fan favorite but its not like the offense struggled last year. Improvements so were about 20 yards/gm and 3-4 points a game. Good but not earth shattering. The biggest improvement probably was reducing turnovers but I think a lot of that is getting rid of Golson. And I'm probably in the minority but I give Kelly the credit as a QB guru himself with his history of going through 4 Qbs in one year at Cinnci; and lets be real, he put Tommy Reese in position to throw 3000 yards and 27 TDs--- thats amazing looking back. An A is far but I don't think he was our best assistant, and certainly not deserving of the heir apparent title bestowed on him by IE.

Gilomore was excellent, DLine was awesome I thought. Giving a B is fair but I wouldn't go short of B+/A-. Okwara having a breakout year. Cage and Tillery playing well early. Day being Day. Add in losing Jarron early on, he is my pick in doing the best job this year.

All in all though, these two newcomers really were homerun hires.

Sanford took a back-up with bad passing fundamentals and made him a QB who could throw the ball to the tune of 19-22 against TX. I saw him in the spring and he was working with the backups while Golson was getting more coaching from Kelly.

He then took a 3rd stringer with zero career snaps and turned him into a legit, possible top 10 QB right now. Kelly gave all the credit for Sanford for cleaning up these guys' fundamentals. You say those numbers were not earth-shattering...you're ignoring that the offense got better despite being on their 3rd string freshman QB, back-up TE's, and 4th string freshman RB.

Sanford absolutely deserves that A+ imho.

 

[dang227]

Grade the Coaches

Kelly - A. Has this team on solid footing. It is amazing this team could have won 12 games with all the injuries. It should have won 11.

Sanford. - A. Great work with the QB's. It will suck if we lose him.

Denson- A. Again, great work with the backs. Position production was off the charts

Denbrock - A-. Showtime series really gave some good insight to him as a coach. Really like his style. WR group was pretty impressive. CRob took a step back.

Booker- B-. His position group continues to underperform. He is the one outlier on a otherwise strong offensive staff. Personally I think he is overmatched at this level. Special Teams played much better but I credit the whole staff for that.

Hiestand - B. Banged up group but I thought they underperformed this year. Inside running game continued to get very little push up front all year. Most of our big runs were on the perimeter.

Elston - D. Whatever position group he coaches under performs. Bottom line. Schmidt was awful and Jaylon didn't have the gains to match his ability. One of the weaker position coaches on the team.

Gilmore -B+. I thought the defensive line played well this year. Especially considering the loss of Jones. He would have received an A but for the lack of a pass rush. Big upgrade from Elston.

Lyght - D+. I was excited when we hired him but based on performance he deserves the grade. All year it was pretty much chaos back there across the board. Why werent Watkins and Coleman able to play? We had to have a WR play Nickel. Technique looks awful from every starter. May be a personnel issue but way too many errors. They cost us an 11th win.

BVG- D-. Final ranking won't justify this grade but this defense regressed as the year went on. It shouldn't take 3-4 years to implement a scheme. We went from an overly simple scheme to one that is overly complex. The players look tentative from the minute the other team lines up in formation. Too much thinking going on. The players do not play free at all. He is doing less with more. He gave up historic chunk plays and forced few turnovers. He should adapt his scheme to get the best out of his players and that is not happening. There is no excuse for allowing Stanford to look like an offensive juggernaught. There isn't much hope for the next couple years. Football shouldn't be harder then learning Chinese. It appears he thinks the players should fit his scheme not the other way around. Blitzing Joe Schmidt repeatedly all year long is a sign of this. He physically couldn't do it. The last time him and his scheme were successful in college was 10 years ago.

Overall ND has a very strong offensive staff and a below average defensive staff. I am worried we are going to end up like Baylor. Winning 10 games with all the injuries is a credit to Kelly's leadership.

 

[Grahambo]

Brian Kelly - A... outstanding job this year. Probably his best year from top to bottom.

Mike Sanford - A+... can't disagree

Mike Denbrock - A... he's a coach who I really had no idea about. But watching him in A Season With and I absolutely loved him as a coach. While Corey Robinson took a step back, Chris Brown took a step forward as did Torii Hunter Jr.

Harry Hiestand - A-... One of the best OL coaches in all the land. And I think next season, his group will be the most athletic he's had in some time. Big question is who replaces Stanley and what kind of job does he do. Big Mike is another 1st round pick waiting to happen. Would make the 3rd 1st round pick for Harry.

Autry Denson - A ... Really did awesome this year with the injuries.

Scott Booker - C+... I think its time to move on from him.

Brian Van Gorder - B... I think people are a bit too harsh on him. Shumate and Redfield have always had question marks about them. Redfield struggled with Diaco too. Shumate is better against the run but actually took a step forward this year. I know people talk about the scheme but give him better players. I mean, enough Joe Schmidt already. KVR was coming off a season in which he missed the entire year. Jarron Jones was a huge loss. I'm still a fan.

Keith Gilmore - B... No clue if its just coincidence but what he did for Romeo Okwara was huge. Tillery/Cage are big time players and add those two with Jarron Jones and watch out.

Mike Elston - D... The most disappointing this year IMO. How Nyles didn't get any burn is mind boggling. A wasted year at the LB position. But..I will say that Grace came back and made a few plays and Martini looks to be a solid player. I wasn't sure about Greer but he definitely deserves to see the field. Onwalu is out of position and should have stayed at Safety.

Todd Lyght - C ... Jury is still out but I think he's a better coach then the secondary showed this year. He was working with a lot of ? type players. Shumate did take a step up somewhat. Farley was dependable when put in a position to succeed in. KVR was shaking off rust. Redfield is a big bust IMO. 2016 should help us get a better feel.

 

[Cackalacky]

Nobody give anybody a hard time, 100% subjective thoughts. Grades as you will, provide justification as you see fit for some or all of your grades.

Brian Kelly - A... I think given the injuries and all of the adversity, to win 10 games and have Notre Dame squarely in the playoff hunt all year is a success. Moreover, both losses were nail biter to top 10 foes on the road. I want him to win those games, but it's hard to not think he has the team playing at an elite level.

Mike Sanford - A+... elite offense aside, the job he did as QB coach after Zaire went down was tremendous.

Mike Denbrock - A... got elite production out of Will Fuller, had a large hand in the dynamic offense, and is an overall good fit as a "lieutenant"

Harry Hiestand - A-... I don't think the OL was as good as it could've been in some games, but most of the guys were nursing injuries most of the year. I really like the overall cohesion of the unit, but there is some room for improvement.

Autry Denson - A+... the job he did with Prosise and Adams is absurd. One of the best coaching jobs I have ever seen. Huge upgrade over Alford.

Scott Booker - B-... Special teams were pretty darn good, but the lack of production and development at the TE position bothers me. Blocking from TEs was an issue all year.

Brian Van Gorder - C... defense finishes ranked somewhere in the 30s or 40s in advanced stats. That's not good, but it also isn't terrible. I'm tempted to give him a lower grade for some of the defenses critical flaws, but at the same time the overall body of work is average.

Keith Gilmore - B... got much more production out of a group of guys that Elston got very little out of, even after losing Jones before the season. Development of Tillery and Cage was especially impressive.

Mike Elston - D... pretty obvious he failed in a couple different respects, namely his inability to get the most talented players onto the field. That means they either weren't developed OR they weren't played in error by the coach.

Todd Lyght - C-... it's tough to get a read on how he was as a coach, because what his players were asked to do is very difficult. Also, cupboard was left VERY bare at DB. But in general, every game that was "closer than it should've been" had DBs making big mistakes at big moments. And the Stanford loss falls mostly on DBs for not making plays.

BONUS: David Grimes gets an F for yelling at officials, Longo gets a ? because I have no idea if any/all of these injuries were in part his fault, Jeff Quinn and Bob Elliot get a collective B+ for at minimum being valued added.

I don't disagree with this assessment at all and is pretty much where I am. I could conceivably give Elston a "F" though that is harsh.

 

[NDRock]

Hard to really grade coaches but based on how each position group performed I would say:

Kelly - A-

Denbrock - B+. Really liked the play calling this year. The red zone woes are the only thing keeping this from an A but they are also a big part of losing our two games.

Sanford - A. Got the QBs ready to play and at a high level.

Denson - A. Similar to Sanford.

Harry - A. Best OL I've seen at ND since the Holtz/Moore years.

Booker - D. TE production has dropped every year he has been here. Special teams were good this year which is why he didn't get an F. Would not be upset if he moved on.

Gilmore - A. Much improved DL over previous years.

Elston - D. In the Scott Booker camp for me.

Lyght - C+/B-. It seems like many of the issues with the secondary were from guys being out of place from broken down assignments. Seemed more like a scheme issue. I think KVR & Luke played better than others have said.

BVG - D. I'm not sure what the advanced metrics say but it's not a good sign when I was hoping they would overturn Kizer's TD because I thought 30 seconds was too much time for this D. He was absolutely awful at Auburn in 2012 and has been bad here for two years.

 

[GoldenDomer]

I wanted to give a shoutout to Keith Gilmore. We were writing that DL off bad before he got here, but they turned out to be a very productive group. I really liked the way they played yesterday, giving our LB's run-thru's all day long.

 

[IrishinSyria]

Two years in a row of a freakishly high number of non-concussion season ending injuries has to have Longo on the block. Are they his fault? Who knows? But injury prevention is certainly part of his job.

 

[irishandy]

Coach Kelly-- A...this is his best year at ND, last year all the analysts talked about how well Ohio St. did with their 3rd string QB, would Ohio St. still done as well if they had as many injuries as ND did this year? Kelly did an overall great job this year.

Coach Sanford-- A+...our starting QB goes down the second game of the year, enough said.

Coach Denbrock-- A-...hard to complain much about how this offense was ran this year.

Coach Hiestand-- B+...our offensive line played solid this year, I think we have one of the top OL coaches in the country; heck of a recruiter as well.

Coach Denson-- A+...when was the last time Notre Dame had a 1,000 yard rusher? He did a nice job preparing Adams and Procsise when called upon. He is only going to get better.

Coach Booker-- C-...not really too impressed with our tight ends this year, I know Kelly likes his blocking tight ends, but watch some video tape of Rudolph & Eifert and see what tight ends can do.

Coach Gilmore-- B...a solid pick up in the offseason and he did improve our DL. I think he'll improve more with his recruiting.

Coach Elston-- D...it wouldn't upset me at all of ND moved on with him and this guy is our recruiting coordinator....

Coach Lyght-- C...when was the last time ND had dangerous defensive backs?? I think he'll get better every year, he understands ND football.

Coach BVG-- F...everyone returns & you add Keivarae Russell should be a top 25 defense.

 

[koonja]

Longo gets an F.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Here are OFD's grades for the assistant coaches. Very high marks across the board except for BvG, Elston, Lyght and Booker.

 

[koonja]

LOL:

Paul Longo, Director of Football Strength and Conditioning

GRADE: B+

"The Irish continue to be able to show superior speed and power against lesser foes, and stand toe to toe with other very strong teams. No signs of fatigue in the 4th quarter of games, or severely overmatched players. Small knock due to some of the injury trouble this season, but it's unknown entirely how much of that is on strength and conditioning vs football being football. I'm sure Longo and CBK will discuss in the offseason to make sure that they're doing everything they can to prevent these injuries moving forward."


What a joke. Kick him off of the tour.

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

LOL:

Paul Longo, Director of Football Strength and Conditioning

GRADE: B+

"The Irish continue to be able to show superior speed and power against lesser foes, and stand toe to toe with other very strong teams. No signs of fatigue in the 4th quarter of games, or severely overmatched players. Small knock due to some of the injury trouble this season, but it's unknown entirely how much of that is on strength and conditioning vs football being football. I'm sure Longo and CBK will discuss in the offseason to make sure that they're doing everything they can to prevent these injuries moving forward."


What a joke. Kick him off of the tour.

With the way our line pushed Stanford around all game, I think it's appropriate. Somewhere in the B range unless you have a reason to lower it?

 

[koonja]

With the way our line pushed Stanford around all game, I think it's appropriate. Somewhere in the B range unless you have a reason to lower it?

I think Longo killed Kennedy so don't take me seriously on this topic.

 

[Dizzyphil]

Please don't blast me but, IMHO BVG gets B+. The NT position is a huge part of the run game. The Irish was/is 65th in the rushing department and 31st in passing defense. I will take the rank in passing based on what we have in the secondary all day long. But Tillery played well as a Freshman and not having JJ in all year hurt the run defense. I believe Jarron would have made a significant difference in the middle of the defense. Would the Irish be alot higher in the rank on the rush side? I don't know but, I believe it would have been much better than 65th and that cannot be blamed on BVG.

Just my .02 brothas

 

[IrishJayhawk]

I think Longo killed Kennedy so don't take me seriously on this topic.

Sort of looks like his silhouette...

 

[phillyirish]

I think Longo killed Kennedy so don't take me seriously on this topic.

Why do you hate Longo so much though??? Are you blaming him for the injuries??? If so I can understand. But other than Bama (hate to bring that up), and maybe recently Clemson's Dline against our Oline, we are almost always the most physical team or just as physical and able to establish our will.

 

[shalom]

Sanford, excellent in his first year, but I'm not sure I'd say A+. I know he's a fan favorite but its not like the offense struggled last year. Improvements so were about 20 yards/gm and 3-4 points a game. Good but not earth shattering. The biggest improvement probably was reducing turnovers but I think a lot of that is getting rid of Golson. And I'm probably in the minority but I give Kelly the credit as a QB guru himself with his history of going through 4 Qbs in one year at Cinnci; and lets be real, he put Tommy Reese in position to throw 3000 yards and 27 TDs--- thats amazing looking back. An A is far but I don't think he was our best assistant, and certainly not deserving of the heir apparent title bestowed on him by IE.

Gilomore was excellent, DLine was awesome I thought. Giving a B is fair but I wouldn't go short of B+/A-. Okwara having a breakout year. Cage and Tillery playing well early. Day being Day. Add in losing Jarron early on, he is my pick in doing the best job this year.

All in all though, these two newcomers really were homerun hires.

Sanford did a good job but it's plain funny to see dudes give him A++++ and give Kelly an A or A-. The rationale is funny too... talking about what a good job Sanford with the QBs when MZ went down, yet Kelly managed not only the vacancy at QB but 8 positions as well.

I think it's largely a question of bedside manner. Most ppl have no clue if their doctor does a good job or if he's prescribing the right dosage of medication. They just know if they like him or not. Mike is an OC who doesn't call the plays, and a QB guru who has another QB guru Brian Kelly hands-on with his QBs every practice. It's pretty hard to give him an A+ and not give the other cooks in the kitchen similar grades.

From what we've seen on the show Kelly definitely works on the mechanicals with QBs for each game, and as we saw in Virginia Kizer came out and could hit his throws from the start. When BW got in he could bomb those too, and we know that both those guys got very few reps before moving up in the depth chart, let alone tutoring from Sanford who was hustling to get MZ and then Kizer game-ready. What you can say about Sanford is that he seemed to be a great motivator and a great fit for Kizer... a kid who didn't need much motivation or mechanical tweaking, but who definitely grew in confidence and command as the season went on. You got to give Sanford a lot of credit for properly managing that. One knock on Kelly is that except for some notables like Manti Te'o and Jaylon Smith who really bought into the program, Kelly has been hit and miss with his motivation. Particularly with his QBs whom you can argue he has worn down or even broken down/chased away.

Some of the other stuff, like Kizer's inability to fix his red zone issues later in the year has to also be figured into the grading, but again any demerits should be applied evenly, not just to Sanford or Kizer but to everyone with the hands in the mix including other coaches and players.

 

[Cackalacky]

Elston just signed a three year extension.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

Longo runs a solid program. He's a quality S and C coach. Most of the it injuries were due to contact. And some stuff is just going to happen, whether it be a genetic defect, prior issue waiting to happen, or just bad luck. Most of the major injuries were contact based (MZ, JJ). Stuff is going to happen regardless of the physical preparation program. Other than the Grimes thing, they do a solid job and the team performs very well, particularly in the second half.