Reply With QuoteMan, been waiting forever to hear that. Think of what that does for the offense too. I'm getting pretty wooly for this season.
Will Sammon on OOB this am said based on his interviews with Grantham and others close to the program that he has the full reigns of the defense. He said there is a sense of a strong mutual respect between Mullen and Grantham. Mullen doesn't think he needs to babysit him. Grantham knows his shit.
Man, been waiting forever to hear that. Think of what that does for the offense too. I'm getting pretty wooly for this season.
Wait? are you saying that Dan has been meddling in the defense the last 6 to 7 seasons? Like some of us have clearly pointed out on here but been told we were crazy. No way Dan was calling the shots on defense.
If true, the O/U at 5.5 wins is a steal. Dan not meddling in the defense should be worth 1 win more a year at minimum, maybe 2 this year.
You don't pay a guy $1M+ and then do his job. I'm confident this may be one of best teams ever. Whether the records reflect that is a different story.
Death penalty or bust!!!***
You do realize Mullen is the HC, no?Originally Posted by RougeDawg
Now we just need to fire and replace our special teams coach.
Yep, lets infer long term assessments from the beat reporter who has been following state for .05 football seasons.
I don't think anyone ever said he didn't stick his nose in and override the DC at times. What was argued against was the idea that no matter who the DC was, he ran Mullen's defense. That idea was and still is idiotic. The supposed proof was that we look the same and do the same things every year on defense no matter who the DC is, which was laughably false.
In any case, everyone should be excited that Mullen finally has a DC he apparently trusts to handle the other side of the ball 100%.
Not sure if you are serious or not. Defenses never look the same because you never have the same personnel. You apparently took the people literally when they said the defenses were the same.
Here's the point that should have been taken away from all the "defense looks the same" comments---- Our defenses played react and bend but don't break when Dan was meddling. On any given Saturday there was more aggression in the concession stand lines than on our defense. It's the same way Dan runs the offense, especially in big games. Play not to lose, rarely take chances, and hope the other team makes mistakes. I'm sorry you couldn't see that.
Your message board themed oversimplification is off the mark.
Much of the problem has been a lack of talent (esp. Safety) or speed (LB) in some years. Those problems have to be masked somehow.
Also we value red zone defense above all else, and that's a huge component of winning games. Would you be ultra aggressive when the talent level can't support it?
If we had Bama's talent and could get pressure with 4, I think some people on this board would call us "aggressive".
So we should have blitzed more and brought more pressure outside of the red zone and played zone in the red zone until the other team got close to the goal line.
The defense we ran under Dan previously completely exposed our weaknesses and didn't take advantage of our strengths.
If what is being passed around about our defense and coaching, we will surprise a lot of people, and we will be better than the media gives us credit.
What was the salary for our new D.C.?
Bo said we are paying him 1 million a year.
I think the problem was poor fundamentals by our players, especially with tackling. If I had a dollar for every time I saw the first guy whiff on a tackle in the backfield over the last 5 years I'd never have to pay for season tickets again.
They looked confused to me. Which can lead to being out of position and fundamentals breaking down.
That's what I saw also. Lot of guys running around looking completely lost
Last year's defense was awful every which way you slice it. Confusion, missed assignments, being out of place, poor tackling, you name it. Grantham has nowhere to go but up, and his track record says that's exactly where he's going to go. How much and how soon is the question. Overall, I think the talent's there to get it done in no longer than a season or so.
As for whether and to what extent Mullen has meddled with the defense, I'm not sure what I think. If he does actively meddle with DCs and inflexibly require them to run "his" system, we've had some pretty varied results with Mullen pulling the strings. In other words, some DCs have had success under whatever system Mullen imposes -- Diaz in 2010, Collins in 2013 and 2014 -- and others -- Torbush in 2009, Wilson in 2012, and Sirmon in 2016 -- have not. In scoring D and total D in conference play, we've been as high as 3rd in the SEC and as low as 11th. We've seen similar swings in rushing D, sacks, TFLs, 3rd Down D, and Red Zone D. Top 3 in the conference under one DC, bottom third in the conference under another, often within the span of a single calendar year. Ditto for advanced stats rankings. We've been in the Top 25 of the defensive FEI rankings multiple times under Mullen, including a Top 15 finish in 2010, yet we've also finished at 50th or worse multiple times. Those are some pretty big swings that are happening while we're changing coordinators every year or two under Mullen.
And as for style of play, some seasons the defense is aggressive and disruptive, and other seasons it's not. In 2014, for instance, in SEC play we were 3rd in sacks, 1st in 3rd down conversion D, 3rd in interceptions, and 1st in PBUs. Those are not the numbers of a "bend but don't break," passive defense. And in 2010 under Diaz, we were 5th in sacks, 4th in TFLs, and 4th in PBUs. But in 2012 under Chris Wilson, we were 11th in the conference in sacks and TFLs, and seemed to waste our two NFL-caliber corners by playing off coverage for huge swaths of the season (though we did have ok overall INT numbers that year). And if you look at advanced stats, there are similar swings. In 2014 and 2015, our "Havoc rate" ranks were top 20 and top 35 nationally, showing a penchant for a fairly disruptive style of defense. ("Havoc" rate, by the way, is "a team's total tackles for loss, passes defensed, and forced fumbles divided by total plays.") But in 2016, we were 82nd nationally in that category.
Last edited by Prediction? Pain.; 08-07-2017 at 03:04 PM.
I don't think Dan has been that detrimental to the defense in how he's run it considering the staff and the budget at the time. He may be justified in his ways. A lot of good coaches tend to micro manage.
On that side of the ball the biggest ever gripe I have is hiring Sirmon. Stupid hire and Dan's usually a pretty smart guy.
Getting Grantham is like manna from heaven.
My thoughts exactly, but apparently anything less than a Joe Lee Dunn all out attack is "bend don't break, play not to lose" in the eyes of many.
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