ND Defensive Coordinator search- 2025

[GrangerIrish24]

Why blindly praise a bad hire)

How do you know its a bad hire?

 

[IrishTusker]

If you're going to complain about the hire, name the alternative. We haven't heard which other options people would have preferred. I don't see how Rossi's resume is more impressive than Ash's. Leonhard apparently wants to stay in the NFL. And Knowles apparently wasn't interested. If the alternative is promoting Mickens, fine, but it sounds like that is happening anyway, so it isn't really an "alternative."

 

[Hautian Domer]

How do you know it’s a bad hire?

How’d you know Denbrock was a good hire? For Ash, everything that I’ve read, heard, looked at past results, and career trajectory … I don’t feel like we reeled in the big one.
Maybe I’m wrong. Hope so.

 

[Kingbish01]

You don't have any idea - none whatsoever - that this is a bad hire. You don't know Chris Ash, you have never interviewed Chris Ash, you have never played for Chris Ash, you are completely judging this by what you have heard from other people - and most of other people don't know Chris Ash either...breathe...

I don't know Kirby Smart, I've never interviewed Kirby Smart, I've never played for Kirby Smart...Yes I'll completely judge him by what I've heard and seen. I'd confidently say he'd be a good hire.

Now I feel the same way about Ash, on the flip side.

 

[GrangerIrish24]

How’d you know Denbrock was a good hire? For Ash, everything that I’ve read, heard, looked at past results, and career trajectory … I don’t feel like we reeled in the big one.
Maybe I’m wrong. Hope so.

No one knows if its a good hire until you can see actual results from him coaching at ND. You are assuming he is a bad hire because everyone said its a bad hire.

 

[IrishTusker]

If someone is both very experienced and willing to be a coordinator, that almost always means that they weren't amazingly successful in every job they had. Typically they became a HC and it didn't work out, and so now they're willing to be a coordinator again. That's true of Golden, Knowles, Steve Spagnuolo, etc.

 

[TorontoGold]

I hate Marcus Freeman. I’m done. I’m turning this shit off and going about my day.

I can’t respect Freeman the way he covers his face during conversation. Terrible, terrible look.

6. Coaching - I’ve got dire concerns. Not sure Freeman can win me over at this point. The team is unprepared, undisciplined, inconsistent, sloppy …. And that falls back on him. We’re in year three and this is Freeman’s staff, players, and product, and I’m not seeing any upward trajectory. If anything, they’ve regressed. I don’t think this veteran team is that good. I truly don’t. Top 20-25? Yes, but definitely not Playoff caliber.

I’m not going to blindly praise Coach Free, but he dropped the ball big time here. If I’m Denbrock, I’m also pissed. Denbrock personally dealt with a piss poor coordinator when he was with LSU…they field just an average defense and they win the NC. This guy can’t recruit, apparently is hard to deal with it, bounces from job to job, and has yet to produce noteworthy results. A bad coordinator can ruin a team and coach. I hope I’m wrong and I’d love to run back, own it, and eat my crow, but right now, this flat out sucks.

Lol don't worry, I don't think anyone is going to confuse you for blindly praising him. Maybe you're blindly criticizing him?

 

[Hautian Domer]

No one knows if its a good hire until you can see actual results from him coaching at ND. You are assuming he is a bad hire because everyone said its a bad hire.

No, I’m also assuming it’s a bad hire because I’ve looked at his past. He’s been on a downward trajectory the past 5 seasons. Has he done anything great?

Maybe I’m wrong. I hope I am. I don’t think this is that good of a hire though.

As you said, time will tell. Hopefully I’m dead wrong.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Ash worked under Joe Cullen in Jacksonville. Currently the KC Chiefs DLine coach. With the Raiders, the DC was Patrick Graham, who it appears could be retained by Poodle as he was by Pierce when McDaniels got fired.

I don't know about either and their defensive concepts or concepts of a plan to play defense.

Ash worked under Urban Meyer and Josh McDaniels in the NFL. That alone makes me think some of you should give the guy a fucking break.

I was hoping for Lukabu, but let's ride.

 

[Hautian Domer]

Lol don't worry, I don't think anyone is going to confuse you for blindly praising him. Maybe you're blindly criticizing him?

Neat. You post a few quotes from the Miami of Ohio game which we didn’t look too great and were a week or two from the NIU loss

 

[Madmasher67]

214 days until he gets to face a $4M QB on the road leading what was a top 5 offense last year.

Keyword. WAS!!!!

 

[Giddyup]

His career trajectory looks a lot like this guys:

 

[T-Boone]

I’d give Mickens the co dc job, cornerbacks and the GM job that fella left behind to go to USC. That should keep him busy.

 

[sixstar]

Hopefully we at least pay Ash $3M/yr so he feels wanted

 

[KMac151993]

As long as we keep Mickens and the players are ok with it then I say let it play out.

 

[NDRock]

I’m -

As long as we keep Mickens and the players are ok with it then I say let it play out.

We also have a defensive coach. I'm not worried at all.

 

[GATTACA!]

Ash Wednesday came early this year.

 

[GoIrish41]

No, I’m also assuming it’s a bad hire because I’ve looked at his past. He’s been on a downward trajectory the past 5 seasons. Has he done anything great?

Maybe I’m wrong. I hope I am. I don’t think this is that good of a hire though.

As you said, time will tell. Hopefully I’m dead wrong.

Judging from your last comically dire and disproven assessments, we can all assume that you are.

 

[MacIrish75]

View attachment 3058111

 

[Irishokie]

Fresh off a natty appearance and we can't bag any of our top choices. Cool.

Same happens during a night at the bar sometimes. But do we give up? No! We keep drinking! And soon those women in 4th-10th place start looking just like our top choices.

 

[TorontoGold]

Neat. You post a few quotes from the Miami of Ohio game which we didn’t look too great and were a week or two from the NIU loss

Exactly, we're just over a week from ND playing in the championship and you're assuming the hire is going to be a fail but you were ready to write off MF after a bad loss.

You see how this would come off as someone biased to take a negative position?

 

[GATTACA!]

Same happens during a night at the bar sometimes. But do we give up? No! We keep drinking! And soon those women in 4th-10th place start looking just like our top choices.

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor!?

 

[IRISHDODGER]

I can look at past results and his track record. It’s not overly impressive.

well Urban Meyer brought him in to run the defense b/c he obviously wasn’t content w/ just letting Fickell run it. Say what you want about Meyer, you can’t argue anyone wanted to win more than him. And they did…they won the first CFP that year & increased their interceptions total drastically over year prior. He also had a nice run at Wisconsin where he was able to build up some continuity. Tom Herman brought him in to run the defense at Texas in his final season b/c he was on the hot seat. I still can’t believe he had Todd Orlando as his DC in Austin. He inherited less than optimal talent considering it was Texas (I mean Ovie Ogufu transferred there & started) & yet he’s not the reason Herman was fired. Also have to factor in the B12 was a heavy pass first offense league so none of the B12 defenses looked good on the stat sheet.

So what issues do you have w/ the above career arc?

If it’s his poor tenure as Rutgers HC, I’d say that’s less about his defensive coaching acumen & more about him seeing $$$$ despite that being a near impossible program to turn around. There’s a reason they had to dip back into the Schiano well. Just a poor career choice on Ash’s part.

I think MF has earned the benefit of the doubt. It’s not like MF is following Saban at Bama or Urban at OSU. It’s fair to say he has had success at the college level in close to a decade but Al Golden turned out to be a Godsend & his past results & track record has their share of unimpressive moments.

 

[Kingbish01]

If an ND rival settled for Chris Ash, after offering Knowles 3 Milly...we'd all be clowning. I don't think the haters are the only ones that need to relax.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

If an ND rival settled for Chris Ash, after offering Knowles 3 Milly...we'd all be clowning. I don't think the haters are the only ones that need to relax.

 

[Hautian Domer]

Exactly, we're just over a week from ND playing in the championship and you're assuming the hire is going to be a fail but you were ready to write off MF after a bad loss.

You see how this would come off as someone biased to take a negative position?

That wasn’t a healthy time for the program. Did you forget the boos raining down at the conclusion of that game? They’ve never been so loud

 

[DomeFieldAdvantage]

I think the fair position is to say that this isn't a home run hire from the perspective of outsiders, but also that we cannot call it a failure because none of us were part of the conversations and interview process.

 

[Grahambo]

I dont’t know if Mickens is ready to DC a national contending team yet, especially with that gauntlet of a schedule coming up. Not a bad idea to hire someone like Ash who has loads of experience to help. Will it work? Nobody knows but the concept makes sense. An elite DC isn’t coming here to share a title with Mickens.

Haven’t read the articles but do they mention who will call the plays?

 

[Hautian Domer]

I think the fair position is to say that this isn't a home run hire from the perspective of outsiders, but also that we cannot call it a failure because none of us were part of the conversations and interview process.

That’s fair. I think that’s the best approach. I’m not super thrilled - as you can tell - but that stance is fair. We’ll see ….. time will tell …

 

[Plankton]

Fuckin A. I see that pic and all I can think of is...