DC Bobby Hauck out at Illinois

#176      
DirtyBurgIllini
illini0440 said:
My guess is Cooper or Bradford will call the defense for the remainder of the season. Then after the season Bret will make a new hire. Probably had to happens, I don’t think Bobby was truly Bret’s first choice when hired, I think someone went back on their word and forced Bret to pivot. Bret has known Bobby for awhile and I think Bobby thought he would be reinvigorated to coach again with just being able to focus on the defense now. Obviously I don’t think that was the case. Too many mistakes that can’t happen at this level, heck even at the high school level you don’t see a lot of this stuff. We will know more tomorrow at Bret’s presser though.
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FWIW Bret and the staff love Roger Cooper… I imagine he gives Roger a chance the rest of the way
 
#180      
BretMyBeachHouse
JSpence said:
He might have made a mistake there. I truly believe that he sees still sees high potential in Henry as a schemer, coach, recruiter, or all of the above. We all think that he's overly optimistic about that, but it's not blind loyalty if he's setting him up as well as possible for his own purposes, such as a return or reunion.. or just avoiding coaching against him.
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He can see all sorts of potential in Henry and hope to be reunited, but this was absolutely a mistake. Nice mights about it.

I love Bielema. He just went too far with his loyalty on this one.
 
#182      
mhuml32
DirtyBurgIllini said:
FWIW Bret and the staff love Roger Cooper… I imagine he gives Roger a chance the rest of the way
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Cooper lifting the entire unit could be the best case scenario if you do not want to continuous flip-flop on 4 and 3 man fronts and if you still believe in this scheme as a long-term benefit. Bielema might think it’s the right strategy but that Hauck was the wrong person.
 
#183      
IlliniWu
JSpence said:
Sure. I'm not sure how many snaps have seen us actually use three down linemen with backers stacked or ends wide. The problem is the personnel - we can't conjure more B1G-ready DTs from nowhere.

Until someone with knowledge of practices and our depth chart tells us that we have big kids ready to go, we've got to assume that our light 4-man and 5-man fronts are no worse than our best attempt at a normal heavy one.

No experienced head coach would allow a new coordinator to stick his program with a 3-3-5 for pride or funsies, and Bret knows his stuff more than most. In that same vein, he wouldn't need to wait until midseason to fire a coach to get a scheme change. In our situation, he can ultimately only be upset at himself for choice of scheme. What he won't and shouldn't hold himself responsible for is the major flubs and perceived inadequate coaching. He's talked about getting that addressed, and this weekend he took it to the next level.

He's not a perfect head coach, but he's a very good one.
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I.White has B1G size at DT/NG. I liked his tape as a recruit so he's intriguing to me. Makes sense for sure to stay in the 3-3-5 but who knows?
 
#186      
88_ILLINI
I think the 9 players on the field and ongoing poor communications were part of the reasons for this. Brett always puts communication and consistency as foundations for his program.
But, I think another major issue for Brett was the lack of results on the field. He and we were told this version of the 3-3-5 would cause disruption and turnovers. Through 4 games our defense has 3 qb sacks and 2 turnovers. For the season this averages to 9 qb sacks and 6 turnovers. I remember back in 1994 Simeon Rice had 16 sacks by himself in a season and 5 in one game.
The poor results, confusion and questions by the players all contributed to the Hauck departure.
 
#189      
Indy Illini Fan
Stinks Spongebob Squarepants GIF
 
#192      
JSpence
I don't know what any of this means, but I also don't know why I'm still awake, so here I go... pretending to stay calm.
 
#195      
blackdog
WolfpackIllini said:
Is Hauck the guy who sent players in/out?
Or did he delegate that to his minions?
If it is the latter, wouldn't the minions be responsible for the 9 men of the field thing, moreso than Hauck?
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Hauck was supposed to call it in to the sidelines who then called it in to the players. Really dumb, overly complicated, and inefficient system.
 
#196      
Indy Illini Fan
IlliniShelt said:
Does this mean that @Indy Illini Fan comes back to the board?
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Lol - my thoughts on Hauck have been pretty well documented … Never was the right hire from the start …

Giving Henry a soft landing is what caused all this … Didn’t attack the portal right …

Now it’s on Bret to fix it … Step 1 complete …

Im Back Ben Barnes GIF by NETFLIX
 
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#197      
OrangeBlue98
JSpence said:
He might have made a mistake there. I truly believe that he sees still sees high potential in Henry as a schemer, coach, recruiter, or all of the above. We all think that he's overly optimistic about that, but it's not blind loyalty if he's setting him up as well as possible for his own purposes, such as a return or reunion.. or just avoiding coaching against him.
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All of that may be true. But sometimes, you just have to make the ruthless move and do the best you can to manage the human fallout.

I’ve had to make personnel changes in my career. They are not fun. I know walking in that a life (and that of a family) will be changed. I want to help the person as much as possible. But the times I’ve regretted those moves were when I was not decisive enough and tried to manage the situation (for whatever reason that was). Especially in such a competitive industry like football coaching where firings are expected and part of the game, sometimes you just have to make the hard move.
 
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