Jeff Monken went:
Georgia State
10-5
11-3
10-4
7-4
Army
4-8
2-10
8-5
10-3
11-2
3-1(so far)
Hardly 6 win seasons.
2019-20 Coaching Discussion/Carousel
- Status
Jeff Monken went:
Georgia State
10-5
11-3
10-4
7-4
Army
4-8
2-10
8-5
10-3
11-2
3-1(so far)
Hardly 6 win seasons.
I don’t think we built the Smith Center to attract offensive receiving talent. I think we built the Smith Center to attract any type of high end talent. Paul Johnson recruited plenty of that at GT.
And yeah, the defense is our main issue. We just finished two games where we scored 35 and 38 points consecutively and are 0-2. The spread offense doesn’t affect our ability to recruit defensive talent and frankly, the TOP issues we had Saturday will never come about with Jeff Monken here.
Also, Paul Johnson averaged 7.45 wins per season at GT. Not sure how one can say this offense is build for annual 5-6 win campaigns.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
You have no chance at certain types of QB's (not that you'd be seeking them anyway), and are at a disadvantage with WR's. For the 18-19 other positions on the field, it's all football, and there are guys others will shy away from that can dominate for you.
To each their own. I love it. I'd also do just about anything to win.
Just factual data, but Paul Johnson's Georgia Tech won more than 6 games in 8 of his 11 seasons there, and, I cannot over-emphasize this: WON. THE. ACC.
The most common mistake in changing coaches, not just in college football but everywhere, is that if you narrowly focus on fixing the thing that's wrong, that the thing working well will keep working well. Lou Tepper's offense was woeful so we hired Ron Turner to make it better, and he did! Turner's recruiting was bad so we hired Ron Zook to make it better, and he did! The Bears replaced Lovie Smith with Marc Trestman to make them more dynamic on offense and he did!
Absolutely true. Failure is always a possibility. The question is what choice maximizes the chances of success?
Yeah, but Clemson is looking to improve their facility as we speak (to my understanding).
What you like if you’re looking at the issues that are hindering us currently is that Craig Bohl and his staff have a long, long history of getting kids to play above their recruiting rankings. We all know the Carson Wentz and Josh Allen stories but those are simply two examples of many. Marcus Epps was a no star walk on from California (A state Bohl surprisingly signs a TON of kids from). Brian Hill was a 2* kid with a 247 composite .75 ranking, Chase Roullier was a 2* kid with a .78 ranking. Billy Turner was unranked by 247, Kyle Emanuel was unranked by 247, Joe Haeg was unranked by 247. All of these players went on to have award winning college careers, all of them were drafted into the NFL and I believe all of them are still active players (As in, they didn’t hang out around practice squads for a couple of years and then finally hang em up while still saying they “played in the NFL”).
When you run a program like the one he’s got in Laramie, you have understand your limitations as it relates to HS talent acquisition and find a way to be successful despite them. Bohl and his staff of experienced collegiate assistants has aced that one.
Before 2016-2017, the last time Wyoming had gone to back-to-back bowl games? 1987-1988 and 1966-1967.
When you run a program like the one he’s got in Laramie, you have understand your limitations as it relates to HS talent acquisition and find a way to be successful despite them. Bohl and his staff of experienced collegiate assistants has aced that one.
Before 2016-2017, the last time Wyoming had gone to back-to-back bowl games? 1987-1988 and 1966-1967.
I also think Jay Norvell is an interesting name. Brought Nevada back to prominence last season in only his second year there, he’s got a surprisingly legitimate coaching staff for a Group of 5 team. Jeff Casteel is a household name for anyone who likes defensive play and he’s got Hal Humme’s kid as his OC. HUGE, HUGE recruiting ties in the state of California (Reportedly one of the big reasons he got the job). Took down Purdue at full strength. This game against Hawaii will be crucial and ill be tuning in but on paper, the better of the two Norvell’s (Joke) is a name I’m going to keep watching,
What about Josh Heupel? Is he holding out for higher offer from a power? He makes $1.75 million. We could double that.
Another is Lance Leipold at Buffalo. Has won a lot. Won several Division 3 titles. Turned around Buffalo.
Another is Lance Leipold at Buffalo. Has won a lot. Won several Division 3 titles. Turned around Buffalo.
I am going to say this as nice as possible running the triple option in the big ten is stupid
Leipold is a guy I’d like to dig into more, I know very little about him or that program.
Heupel, I mean, if he leaves UCF it won’t be for us,
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Let's do Leipold and Bohl. They both had dynastic success at lower levels of college football in their previous jobs, so they make sense as a comparison. Fun fact: they also worked together on Frank Solich's staff at Nebraska from 2001-02.
At UW-Whitewater Leipold inherited an excellent program whose only losses the previous two years had been in two D3 national title games. He created a dynasty, going 109-6, fastest coach to 100 wins in NCAA history, and won 7 national titles in 9 seasons. My brother was at UW-Oshkosh during this period, often the #2 team in the conference, and he said Whitewater just effortlessly outclassed everybody. This is D3 football of course, no scholarships, not really recruiting in the commonly understood sense, but this was an amazing level of dominance.
He got his shot to try his hand in big boy football at Buffalo, considered one of the toughest jobs in FBS. I say considered because both Jeff Quinn and Turner Gill before him had had intermittent success, he didn't inherit a total dumpster fire, and he didn't have instant success either. But their 10 win season last year was the most in school history, and they look like one of the better teams in the MAC again.
Whitewater, WI is just across the border with Illinois, they had Illinois kids on the team up there, he'll know some of the area HS coaches. The thing that makes me a bit skittish with Leipold is just his affect. He's a very low key, unassuming guy, with maybe a bit of rube about him. Spend any time in Wisconsin and you'll meet 1000 Lance Leipolds. How would that play here? How would that play in big-time recruiting, with big-time assistant coaches, big-time media, big-time everything? He is not the guy you'd choose from YouTube videos, put it that way.
Bohl got fired as Nebraska DC after their first non-winnng season in 40 years. He took over a then D2 program at North Dakota State, moved with them into FCS, and slowly but surely created a monster, ending with three consecutive national championships. From there, Wyoming almost didn't seem like enough of a step up (his successor Chris Kleiman jumped from NDSU to Kansas State), but he has taken a tough job there and had some success there too.
I think the case against Bohl, other than his age (61), is that his Wyoming tenure isn't THAT impressive. That's not a program that's had a ton of success over the years, but he didn't take over some smoking crater from Dave Christensen. He's 31-36 in six seasons there, never winning more than 8 games. Per the Sagarin ratings he's never had a team there better than his last 3 NDSU teams, not even close really. Being a nerd about these things I've always been watching him waiting for Wyoming to take off, but they really never have, including that year with Josh Allen where they came in with a lot of hype.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
For all of 12 months. Minny and Northwestern moved into new facilities last year, Purdue the year before.
Has anybody watched Wisconsin play defense?
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Yeah, true. Jim Leonhard. Only his fourth year as a football coach, anywhere, and he seems as connected to that program as Bucky Badger or Jump Around, but yeah, he's gotta be in the frame for head coaching jobs at this point, he's been unbelievable.
All good points, very well researched.
I still obviously know very little about Leipold but looking through his staff, aside of Ianello (Didn’t realize he was over there) and Scott Fuchs (Who was fired by Bohl in Laramie after he came over from NDSU) that group is EXTREMELY light on non-MAC conference experience and has no real Power 5 credentials. Both of his coordinators came with him from UWW, most all of his assistants came to him from other MAC schools or Division 2 programs like Grand Valley and Drake. We can’t fire Lovie Smith and justify it with reasoning that includes a poor, under qualified staff and then essentially hire someone who brings assistants of his own who may not be able to coach or recruit at this level. With Craig Bohl, I’m getting some names. With Leipold, I need to see more.
Such an interesting reference. Back when the Marquez Beason “Crutches gate” debacle was developing (Still ridiculous), there was a conversation about how he may be impacted long term if he did tear his ACL. I posted then that if it was indeed an ACL, his chance at a full recovery in a 12 month period was very high but that if it was a patellar tendon injury the kid was in some trouble. I’d seen multiple players rupture their patellar and never come back from it. One of those players? Jim Leonhard.
Craig Bohl is interesting because I am 90% sure he would take this job. There are rumblings in Wyoming (of all places to not be happy with 6-8 win teams) that if he doesn't have a great season this year that he will be on the hot seat.
Josh Allen was injured in a year where they clearly had a chance to win 9 games. Bohl's overall record in Wyoming isn't great but again, it's Wyoming. They took down Missouri this year which is a plus.
Could he be successful here?
I have a gut feeling that he would be. Plus he could assemble a great staff.
Josh Allen was injured in a year where they clearly had a chance to win 9 games. Bohl's overall record in Wyoming isn't great but again, it's Wyoming. They took down Missouri this year which is a plus.
Could he be successful here?
I have a gut feeling that he would be. Plus he could assemble a great staff.
I’m still watching Jim McElwain at Central Michigan as well. His ability to recruit is not debatable and he always wins in part by putting together a quality staff. His staff, top to bottom in terms of coaching and recruiting at the Power 5 level, is better than ours is right now. And he’s at Central Michigan.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
In that his classes at Florida were worse than both his predecessor and his successor?
If you aren't getting top 10 classes at Florida, you're not a difference-making recruiter.
McElwain's calling card is that he's a wall-to-wall program guy, he'll get everything running at peak performance. That's an appealing pitch for the situation Illinois is in, and he looks to be making an instant impact at CMU, but he's not Mr. Congeniality, and was regarded as a bit of a nutcase at Florida. He's a guy you'd want to do your homework on very carefully.
Hyperbole might be a tad strong there, as Dan Mullen has not recruited a top 10 class to Gainesville as of yet whereas Will Muschamp ran one of the best recruiting classes I’ve ever seen outside of Saban and Dabo into the ground.
ILLINIShox24
Orange Krush '04 & '05
Yeah but we aren't talking about those other coachces. We are talking about hiring Monken.
Illinir1
- Camdenton, MO
I'm dating myself, but I want to duplicate the most exciting Illini football I have experienced in 39 yrs. Quarterbacks: Wilson, Eason, Trudeau. Receiver crossing patterns that nobody could stop. 76,000+ fans for the 1983 Illini vs. Michigan Memorial Stadium victory, which was a step to the only ever Big Ten team to defeat all 9 other teams in a year. Some of the teams during the White Mike era gave up too many points on defense. But when the offense got the ball, it was ELECTRIC. And that sold seat. Sooooo much more exciting that watching Lou Tepper's marvelous defenses win games for us 9 - 7. I'll sign on for Illini football winning in any manner, but given a choice, I like high scoring offenses.
That's just glossing over actual data that shows the system can work.
I'm not saying it's better than normal systems. I am saying that if a winning program is the goal you can't get caught up in what offense the team runs.
I don't care if we have 5,000 yards passing in a year or 3,000 rushing yards. I care if we win. and the coach in question, Monken, has won.
We(at least I would) would be thrilled to have a coach with a record like Paul Johnson had at GT, or Monken had at both Army and Georgia State.
But you do you.
Last edited:
Deleted member 649710
D
Guest
I want a disciplined, winning team. I don’t care what schemes it runs.
Can’t say I’d be too excited about the Illini hiring an option coach. I find it a rad bit boring. I enjoy tuning in to watch an occasional game between a service academy against a team they shouldn’t beat to watch them do so or at least hang close, but a regular diet of it wouldn’t be my cup of tea. Maybe the Illini winning more consistently would make it more tolerable, but I have serious doubts about how much long-term success it would have in B1G. Maybe it is my ignorance of the ACC, but it always seemed a slightly lesser conference overall with one or two good teams a year. Now that has changed over the past few seasons and I don’t think it is a coincidence that GT was a game under .500 under Johnson last 4 years (yes I know still a lot better better than Illini). I just don’t think Illini would win consistently with it. And it isn’t an either or thing — either Illini go option or they don’t have shot at winning. If Lovie has to go then hire someone who can bring in good assistants, recruit, coach and develop players, and instill discipline. Not ready to believe only option or even best option is THE option.
FYI, interesting articles by SI on the move back to traditional offense. One of them is about GT having to rebrand itself other about personnel issues with shift back. I also see shift hasn’t gone too smoothly so far as they lost to Citadel.
FYI, interesting articles by SI on the move back to traditional offense. One of them is about GT having to rebrand itself other about personnel issues with shift back. I also see shift hasn’t gone too smoothly so far as they lost to Citadel.
- Status