New football coaching staff thoughts

[smootness]

Ok so here's the question then. If I missed this my bad. But if Looney was hired to recruit, is he taking someone's spot on the recruiting trail? You can only have a certain number that takes in home visits and things of that nature. By my count, we have Mullen, Knox, Hevesy, Gonzales, Elliot, T Buck, Grantham, English, Looney, Baker. I thought we could only have 9 that actually went out and recruited. If I'm mistaken please correct me, but who is the odd man out of that picture?

I'm pretty sure you can have 10 on-field coaches and all 10 can recruit.

[Really Clark?]

Ok so here's the question then. If I missed this my bad. But if Looney was hired to recruit, is he taking someone's spot on the recruiting trail? You can only have a certain number that takes in home visits and things of that nature. By my count, we have Mullen, Knox, Hevesy, Gonzales, Elliot, T Buck, Grantham, English, Looney, Baker. I thought we could only have 9 that actually went out and recruited. If I'm mistaken please correct me, but who is the odd man out of that picture?

You don't count the HC as they are very limited on off campus recruiting and contact.

[KB21]

Mullen should have fired Hevesy, hired a new OL coach, and then brought Looney in to coach TE's. I thought we were over the ineptness of coaching buddies when Croom was let go. It is apparent that Hevesy is detrimental to our team, and only stays employed because he is Mullen's yankee buddy. . Now, we have another "great friendship" which will never get us to Atlanta in my opinion.

I continue to LOL at these posts from fans who are absolutely certain that John Hevesy is detrimental to our team, even though he is one of the better OL coaches in the country when it comes to developing offensive linemen. He didn't talk right to someone, so he must be a terrible coach.

[Cooterpoot]

Eventually Hev needs to be moved to "OL quality control" or something like that so that DJ Looney can coach OL.

I suspect that Mullen and Looney know that the TEs are going to be a big part of the offense next year so they moved DJ there to get some good stats on his resume. Sallach's career is at a stand still anyway. He has a job here but no one is going to come poach him to do anything. Don't be surprised if you see him move on to what looks like an equal or lesser position somewhere else. However DJ's career is on the rise and Mullen wants to create a huge coaching tree so he needs to fertilize it.

I like the return to intensity on defense and I love the amount of experienced coaching we now have. Both English and Grantham have DC experience when last year no one on that side of the ball had any DC experience. I expect to see a huge difference next year.

I feel good about the talent at State both playing and coaching. I expect great things out of next year's team.

Coaching isn't an issue on the OL. Sorry, it's not. DJ isn't ready for too much yet.

[NCDawg]

I didn't realize Hevesy had such an admiring group of people on this site. I guess watching our RB's get stuffed at the LOS due to inferior blocking and losing out on top OL recruits, such as Lashley and the 2 guys that signed with South Carolina, had nothing to do with Hevesy.

[maroonmania]

Coaching isn't an issue on the OL. Sorry, it's not. DJ isn't ready for too much yet.

If Hevesy is such a great coach then I guess it speaks to how terrible our OL recruiting has been under him. You would think with all of that great coaching that at least one of his players he's brought in could have gotten drafted somewhere along the way. You know even in the last round.

[GTHOM]

One more note: I believe English will probably be one and done as he will go on to better opportunities. I don't have any problem with that as I believe that he will be able to correct our issues at safety in that one year. Peterson might be a candidate to take his place.

Brad Peterson aint coaching Safeties. Brad wants the QB job

[HSVDawg]

I'm pretty sure you can have 10 on-field coaches and all 10 can recruit.

The 10th on-field assistant has not been approved yet, but is expected to be at this spring's NCAA meetings. As of right now, we will have to designate one guy to the office in the interim until the approval goes through. Regardless of who it ends up being, it won't have that big an impact on the 2018 class, I wouldn't imagine.

ETA: I miscounted and we currently only have 9 full-time assistants currently with Sallach out of there. So no need to designate anyone for the office. My guess is that once the approval for the 10th coach goes through, Peterson will be brought on board.

[dawgday166]

If Hevesy is such a great coach then I guess it speaks to how terrible our OL recruiting has been under him. You would think with all of that great coaching that at least one of his players he's brought in could have gotten drafted somewhere along the way. You know even in the last round.

I believe you and I missed it MM. The reason we struggle is cause all our Olinemen are turning pro in 3 years ****

This past year with 3 seniors (1 was the center) who had started for multiple years, 1 Juco RS Jr, and 2 other RS So who had played and started some games, it took us half a year to progress from looking like a Jr High Oline to a HS Oline *****

Ok ... I might be exaggerating just a tad, but they looked terrible for the first 6 games this year. If Hev is such a great coach, why'd that take so long?

[smootness]

All of the Hevesy bashing is centered around unverifiable statements like 'our OL is trash' and 'we can't run the ball'. Meanwhile, our actual running numbers are usually pretty darn good.

I don't think Hevesy hung the moon, and it does appear he has some issues in relating to some recruits, but he does a pretty good job overall. The idea that he is this gigantic anchor holding us back from where we could be is so overblown and ridiculous. What started as 'he ticks off some recruits' has ballooned into 'he is a disaster who can't perform any real human functions and should be shot in the face'.

It is the classic 'have to have someone to blame' syndrome that fans fall into.

[Joe Schmedlap]

May not be the only thing, but is a humongous part of it in my opinion.

Offensive line has been the weakest link for years and years during Mullen's tenure. That isn't the definition of pulling us forward, is it?

[Todd4State]

All of the Hevesy bashing is centered around unverifiable statements like 'our OL is trash' and 'we can't run the ball'. Meanwhile, our actual running numbers are usually pretty darn good.

I don't think Hevesy hung the moon, and it does appear he has some issues in relating to some recruits, but he does a pretty good job overall. The idea that he is this gigantic anchor holding us back from where we could be is so overblown and ridiculous. What started as 'he ticks off some recruits' has ballooned into 'he is a disaster who can't perform any real human functions and should be shot in the face'.

It is the classic 'have to have someone to blame' syndrome that fans fall into.

Like I said- I think he is a good technical coach. But in college you have to be able to recruit. And actually I think a lot of the problem is he isn't able to bring in enough o-linemen in a cycle because we have had too many years with only three o-line recruits from high school and it's causing us to have to rely on JUCO's. But most of the JUCO's he has brought in haven't panned out. That's causing us to have to rely on young players or move guys like Rufus Warren to o-line.

This year has been typical of him- five o-linemen but one is a solid prospect, one is a solid prospect but a grade risk, and one is a project. And then two JUCO's because we missed on some guys 2-3 years ago.

I think Looney will help us out a lot though.

[dawgday166]

All of the Hevesy bashing is centered around unverifiable statements like 'our OL is trash' and 'we can't run the ball'. Meanwhile, our actual running numbers are usually pretty darn good.

I don't think Hevesy hung the moon, and it does appear he has some issues in relating to some recruits, but he does a pretty good job overall. The idea that he is this gigantic anchor holding us back from where we could be is so overblown and ridiculous. What started as 'he ticks off some recruits' has ballooned into 'he is a disaster who can't perform any real human functions and should be shot in the face'.

It is the classic 'have to have someone to blame' syndrome that fans fall into.

I can watch and replay DVRs. Not only that, I remember what I watched and replayed.

Fitz gets loose for 25. Then stuffed the rest of the drive or not blocking well in crucial situations and costing us points. Regardless of the numbers. And this just in ... points matter.

[maroonmania]

All of the Hevesy bashing is centered around unverifiable statements like 'our OL is trash' and 'we can't run the ball'. Meanwhile, our actual running numbers are usually pretty darn good.

I don't think Hevesy hung the moon, and it does appear he has some issues in relating to some recruits, but he does a pretty good job overall. The idea that he is this gigantic anchor holding us back from where we could be is so overblown and ridiculous. What started as 'he ticks off some recruits' has ballooned into 'he is a disaster who can't perform any real human functions and should be shot in the face'.

It is the classic 'have to have someone to blame' syndrome that fans fall into.

Actually about 95% of the complaints on Hevesy on this board are strictly about his inability to recruit because of his overly abrasive personality, not about his actual coaching ability. I personally think his technical coaching ability is more than adequate if he had more highly talented guys to work with. If making bowl games is our end all be all then we are doing great with the level of OL play we have, if we actually want to seriously compete in the West consistently then we aren't doing so great at the current level. Granted OL play is not the only thing we are deficient at to reach that level but it is a key area.

[lamont]

All of the Hevesy bashing is centered around unverifiable statements like 'our OL is trash' and 'we can't run the ball'. Meanwhile, our actual running numbers are usually pretty darn good.

I don't think Hevesy hung the moon, and it does appear he has some issues in relating to some recruits, but he does a pretty good job overall. The idea that he is this gigantic anchor holding us back from where we could be is so overblown and ridiculous. What started as 'he ticks off some recruits' has ballooned into 'he is a disaster who can't perform any real human functions and should be shot in the face'.

It is the classic 'have to have someone to blame' syndrome that fans fall into.

Our lack of talent on the OL is an actual fact. We are the only SEC school that hasnt had an OL draft pick in the last 5 years. THE ONLY ONE. Only reason we had one before then was because of Croom's recruiting. Thats awful for an SEC school.

He can coach OL- and is good at it. Recruiting? Not so much. Its not even debatable at this point

[maroonmania]

Our lack of talent on the OL is an actual fact. We are the only SEC school that hasnt had an OL draft pick in the last 5 years. THE ONLY ONE. Only reason we had one before then was because of Croom's recruiting. Thats awful for an SEC school.

He can coach OL- and is good at it. Recruiting? Not so much. Its not even debatable at this point

Well we did have Gabe Jackson in 2013 but he was a Croom recruit.

[dawgday166]

Well we did have Gabe Jackson in 2013 but he was a Croom recruit.

Kind of a sad statement that Croom's Oline recruiting and development has been better than Mullen's. Of course Croom did play Oline at Bama, so maybe that is why. That and being a RB coach in NFL probably taught him a thing or two.

ETA: I'm going to add something else. We're in the 40s and below every year in total offense except for Dak's last 2 years, one of which had an Oline that had been together for about 3 years or so, except for J. Senior. Maybe it's just me, but I think we should [B]very rarely[B] be in the 40s with Dan as our offensive coordinator. Even in the mighty SEC W.

[smootness]

Our lack of talent on the OL is an actual fact. We are the only SEC school that hasnt had an OL draft pick in the last 5 years. THE ONLY ONE. Only reason we had one before then was because of Croom's recruiting. Thats awful for an SEC school.

He can coach OL- and is good at it. Recruiting? Not so much. Its not even debatable at this point

Never said he was a good recruiter. I said pretending he's the main reason we're not winning the West is stupid.

[Joe Schmedlap]

Never said he was a good recruiter. I said pretending he's the main reason we're not winning the West is stupid.

Hev's unit is the weakest link. It's not debatable. Bellard, Felker, Sherrill, Crxxm: none of those coaches had problems getting offensive linemen on the team that other SEC opponents actually wanted.

[Todd4State]

Never said he was a good recruiter. I said pretending he's the main reason we're not winning the West is stupid.

Well....

Maybe not the SEC West but his unit did hurt us really bad and kept us from going to the BCS Playoffs and a Sugar Bowl in back to back years. To me ahem...given our history that's just as bad as not winning the West.

But for me it wasn't so much that it was just that in a nutshell- it's the fact that for years nothing was done about it until yesterday. I've certainly said that he should be fired before I'm sure. Nonetheless I'm actually OK with him being on the staff even now as long as his recruiting is compensated for. I would be just as vocal if Dan kept someone like Sirmon on the staff year after year with poor production.

The fact of the matter is even in this era of football you still win the game in the trenches on both sides of the ball. And to do that we have to add as much talent as possible. Hevesy has done enough where we can win consistently against lower level teams and against SEC teams that are less talented than us- which make no mistake again given our history is a good thing. At the same time, our recent history has shown that we can occasionally pull off an upset of a team with more talent than us. We're not going to beat Alabama consistently- but I do want us to do everything within our power to give us the best chance to do so and maybe do it one out of every 4-5 years or so. And even in the losses give those elite teams everything that they want and make them lick their wounds for at least a week and make their game with us an absolute war.