Staff changes

After studying on it some, I believe I'm really liking these staff changes. Dan seems to be making some good changes maybe. Now he just needs to let the D staff do their job, get out of their way, and try to hold onto them for more than a year. Overall I believe things are going in a positive direction.

If he'll also put that exceptional offensive intellect of his to work figuring out how to have a running game, score >20 and be more creative in the red zone against good teams, and run much more efficient 2 minute offenses (when needed at end of halves and games) ... then we might start finishing 2nd or 3rd more consistently in SEC W.

Hell, if he does all that and the staff recruits better ... he may even trip up Saban eventually. That is if he doesn't bolt when more elite programs take notice of his more consistent 2nd or 3rd place finishes in west.

Expect to see a lot of 3-4 set next year.

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Originally Posted by defiantdog

Expect to see a lot of 3-4 set next year.

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If so, I'm even more worried about lsu in week 3. Who besides James can occupy blockers at ng?

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Originally Posted by msstate7

If so, I'm even more worried about lsu in week 3. Who besides James can occupy blockers at ng?

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We won't be a complete 3-4 defense.... But we brought in a lot of coaches who are comfortable in a 3-4.

Just curious. Where does this Mullen meddling with the defense come from? Just as recent as the opening weekend of baseball a current defensive player told a friend of mine that Mullen hates defense and doesn't want anything to do with it.

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Originally Posted by Mjoelner

Just curious. Where does this Mullen meddling with the defense come from? Just as recent as the opening weekend of baseball a current defensive player told a friend of mine that Mullen hates defense and doesn't want anything to do with it.

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I guess when your defense is giving up 400 yards almost every game as a head coach you have to feel as if you have to do something.

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Originally Posted by Mjoelner

Just curious. Where does this Mullen meddling with the defense come from? Just as recent as the opening weekend of baseball a current defensive player told a friend of mine that Mullen hates defense and doesn't want anything to do with it.

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I'm not positive that he does. I've seen others who thought so and I've wondered since no matter who the D coordinator is, we seem to run a very similar D from year to year. I also wonder this some since we aren't able to keep D coordinators for more than a year for the most part.

So I just surmise this might be the case. I don't know for sure.

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Originally Posted by defiantdog

We won't be a complete 3-4 defense.... But we brought in a lot of coaches who are comfortable in a 3-4.

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We might see more three down sets, but I have a hard time believing we'd try to run an actual 3-4 defense. We don't have nearly the personnel for it. I'd even be nervous if we were planning on recruiting for it and moving to it within a few years. It needs borderline NFL players or better two deep at every position across the front 7, and that would be a tall recruiting order for us.

I think we will see a hybrid defense that is not like any other in the SEC. Sirmon is a smart guy and I think he'll play mad scientist and tinker with some interesting looks in the 3-4.

I'd rather see us go more 4-2-5 (which we've somewhat done the past two years). The only key need there up from our base 4-3 is a badass hybrid safety/olb, and we've got that in Peters, Gray, and possibly Jung. The staff trend does seem to indicate we'll see at least some 3-4 concepts, which might be a good thing if they can pull it off given our youth on the DL.

I really think that Mullen had begun to learn some lessons about micromanaging the defense with Diaz, and that Diaz coming back indicated that he was probably a better fit with Mullen in terms of personality than any of his other previous DC's. Unfortunately, Manny got an opportunity he couldn't pass up. Gets to return to his home city where his dad was mayor and also get to run the D at a Power 5 program that had had some national success in the not too distant past. I don't think Manny leaving had anything to do with not being able to get along with Mullen (either time).

Hopefully, Mullen saw a lot of the same personality traits in Sirmon that he liked about Diaz when he made the hire. We'll definitely know for sure how much Mullen has his hand in the defense next year, considering that Sirmon has never been a DC before.

Id like to see AJ Jefferson over the center on third downs.

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Originally Posted by Dallas_Dawg

Id like to see AJ Jefferson over the center on third downs.

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That worked well with Preston Smith. I hope AJ takes a big step up this summer. He already got in the backfield a lot, if he can step up even better then we should have a good pass rush between him and Calvin.

Can someone post our entire staff from last year and the new staff + off-field changes? Seems like we are +3 or +4 in net total staff members.

Probably not close to Bama but good to see we are spending some extra cash to get the staff more help.

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Originally Posted by Dallas_Dawg

Id like to see AJ Jefferson over the center on third downs.

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Apparently you didn't pay attention last year. We ran that set several times every week.