DC Bobby Hauck out at Illinois
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It was one of those hires that was pretty obviously a bad fit from the start - similar to Petersen. That's not just 20/20 hindsight - when 95% of the reaction from this board is "WTH?" when they are hired, it usually ends up poorly. Hiring retired guys from lower levels of football given how complex offenses are in schemes these days is just not a good path
I imagine Bret plays a much more active role in the defense for the rest of the season - whether it's Cooper or someone else stepping up, I would think Bret will have his hands all over it - he wouldn't have let Hauck go if he wasn't going to do that
I imagine Bret plays a much more active role in the defense for the rest of the season - whether it's Cooper or someone else stepping up, I would think Bret will have his hands all over it - he wouldn't have let Hauck go if he wasn't going to do that
Giving Henry the soft landing and striking out on Chris Partridge completely handcuffing himself and landing on Hauck and limited transfer portal options.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 …
Bert learning from this is great, we all appreciate the hustle and decisiveness... does not absolve the incredibly poor process for the 4th season in a row (with the defensive leadership) and the second straight coordinator.
Hope he learns for good that while loyalty is a great trait you have to do whats best for the program always. No more soft landing spots, no more ex-HC who want to collect paychecks, go get a real teacher and defensive mind.
As others have said, cheer against NC State and start backing the brinks truck up to Raleigh
Even Montana fans were like, yeah we appreciate what he's done but he's not a fit for the modern game anymore.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
This thread has the correct amount of blame assigned to Hauck having one foot out the door of the profession, WAY WAY WAY too much blame assigned to FCS football somehow being less sophisticated (it's not, innovation actually often arrives there first, the players are just slightly less big/strong/fast, that's the only difference. I PROMISE you there are 11 players on the field on every snap in the Big Sky), and WAY WAY WAY too little about Hauck never having been a defensive coordinator before, ever, at any level.
The whole "back to meat and potatoes coaching" thing belied the reality that this was a job that was never his core skillset in his prior career. He was a rah-rah program guy special teams coach who woke up at age 62 fresh out of rah-rah's.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Beckman, and it’s not even close.Bigger joke, Hauck or Beckman?
Have to credit Bielema for being decisive.
After the way his departure went down, we'd definitely be better off this year if Henry were still the DC. Shocked to see such an important hire missed so bad, but when you hire in February you're dramatically limiting your options for who's available. Bielema babying Henry may have cost us a whole season of defense.
I wonder if some of those departing defensive players would have stayed if Henry was still the DC? Hindsight is 20/20 I know. I just wish Henry would have been more aggressive and attacking in his play calling. He might still be here if that were the case.
By all accounts Brett botched the entire handling of the DC role due to :
1) the priority of his decision to make sure AHen was taken care of over best positioning our program's D
2) his over-confidence that he could still land a good DC even with #1 above
When the DC talent pool dried up and his identified candidate(s) backed out, he had left himself (and our program) with zero good options. So he pulled Hauck out of retirement with a fat paycheck and hoped that changing the D scheme would make up for Bobby's lack of DC experience.
Clearly that blew up in his / our face.
But kudos to Brett for not hesitating in pulling the trigger and ousting Hauck (who I assume is not bummed at all to get a huge payday for literally a few months of work and can now retire comfortably) as Bobby was not giving anything to the program except mistakes that cost us games.
We will see how deep Brett's hat is, as he looks for rabbit for this season on D. Which is a shame considering how good our offense is.
Let's hope that Brett can finally solve the DC challenge that he has had for the past 4 seasons.
1) the priority of his decision to make sure AHen was taken care of over best positioning our program's D
2) his over-confidence that he could still land a good DC even with #1 above
When the DC talent pool dried up and his identified candidate(s) backed out, he had left himself (and our program) with zero good options. So he pulled Hauck out of retirement with a fat paycheck and hoped that changing the D scheme would make up for Bobby's lack of DC experience.
Clearly that blew up in his / our face.
But kudos to Brett for not hesitating in pulling the trigger and ousting Hauck (who I assume is not bummed at all to get a huge payday for literally a few months of work and can now retire comfortably) as Bobby was not giving anything to the program except mistakes that cost us games.
We will see how deep Brett's hat is, as he looks for rabbit for this season on D. Which is a shame considering how good our offense is.
Let's hope that Brett can finally solve the DC challenge that he has had for the past 4 seasons.
That’s exactly how Hauck got hired.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Timing was no doubt a big factor in having a limited pool of top candidates to choose from - but the timing now is even worse!
I will say this with 100% certainty
the change would not have been made without BB knowing exactly how to finish out the season from a defense play calling basis
it’s either himself or someone else he has identified already
Epsilon
M tipping over
- Pdx
Well I’m hoping this is addition by subtraction but do we have any idea what our ceiling is for the defense this year? I’m assuming the two guys @illini0440 mentioned (Cooper or Bradford) will be at least slightly better because they actually ran the defense at Montana, even if the scheme is outdated… Obviously things can always get worse, but am I crazy to think that we will actually improve modestly?
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Agreed, however, this decisive action could very well save this current season. We will see.
I have never been a fan of a three man front. It only works when you have 4 solid linebackers to make plays as the defensive front creates openings. Plus you need a fast blitzing LB like a LT or even a Ricky Jackson/Pat Swilling like New Orleans had. Plus, I never liked a DC in the booth. Needs to be on the sideline directing and calling the D. This multiple confusing communication from the booth to the field never works. If Cooper is the choice, I hope he calls the game from the field and gets the trust of the players. When Bailey basically calls out his coach, you know something is wrong.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 …
I agree. To fix this, it’s a three step plan starting the day after the season or bowl game. Step one complete. Step two will be hire the right DC by mid January if not sooner. Wake maybe can get into a Bowl game so if Doernen is available, you hire him. That said, step 2 is hire a DC. Step three is sign portal players who fit what the DC plays.
We actually don’t need the defense to improve that much to have a realistic shot at 7-8 wins. Cautiously optimistic we will see enough change/improvement that it will make a difference.
The announcers were so busy praising O. State on the touchdown when we only had 9 players, they didn't even notice it. Makes you sick! They were to busy praising the offensive line for Ohio State. Look this may be another subject altogether but I gotta put this in. At times, we moved the ball on their defense pretty easy. They might win the conference but I don't see them doing much in the playoffs for that reason. Patricia got his butt beat this last Saturday and if not for some of our mistakes, we may have hit 30pts.
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