They needed to know what the dline market was going to be. Imagine if a NFL team said they ran out of money and only added undrafted players to the defense. Our offense has looked very good and we have been missing several starters. I think it’s crazy to completely neglect the defense during portal season then be shocked it’s bad.
DC Bobby Hauck out at Illinois
They needed to know what the dline market was going to be. Imagine if a NFL team said they ran out of money and only added undrafted players to the defense. Our offense has looked very good and we have been missing several starters. I think it’s crazy to completely neglect the defense during portal season then be shocked it’s bad.
Like ... the Bears?
I think its a good thing that "what we do spend greases the wheels of the offense."
I'd rather be really good on one side and bad on the other, than being average in both.
I get what you’re saying but the bears invested much more on defense than we did.
We spent a lot of money on offensive players that haven’t played a snap so far. Some of that money could’ve been on defense and we would be a much better team.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
The way I interpreted it is that the situation obviously needed to be dealt with and handled differently, Bielema had one vision of the changes that needed to be made, Hauck (who remember is an even more experienced head coach than Bielema is) came on his own with a different vision of the changes to make, and they were so misaligned that it was better to just make a clean break.
I don't think Hauck just up and quit, I don't think Bielema even suggested as much today, he kept saying "there was no point", whatever Hauck wanted to do going forward just wasn't acceptable to Bert.
Talent matters, but I think coaching is way more important. Iowa always seems to overachieve with the least amount of talent, especially on defense. A&M, which I follow because of my wife, always seems to massively underachieve year after year despite having 4- and 5-star recruits at nearly every defensive position.
Heck, Spoon was only a 2- or 3-star recruit when he got here, and he turned out pretty damn good. So I’m one who would rather have a better coach than a roster full of stars.
Heck, Spoon was only a 2- or 3-star recruit when he got here, and he turned out pretty damn good. So I’m one who would rather have a better coach than a roster full of stars.
I think you've got a few things wrong here.
First, I don't recall much talk from insiders that we were going to be able to do better than the guys we lost. Maybe in one or two instances. It was much more about not being able to spend so much on those players. I remember much more about the money constraints than the idea that we'd do better. If you've got some quotes, I'd love to hear them.
I'm still not understanding why you think that the Henry exit wasn't a case of Bret wanting him gone but waiting for him to find a spot to go. It fits the timelines more than anything. If you think that the decision to go with a speed over size defense was made pre-Hauck, then it even supports that notion more. Why not fire Henry right after the season.
As to the five weeks of us finding a landing spot, that's hardly a stretch. If what we mean by a soft landing is one that saves face, then the options there are limited. There aren't many near lateral moves for a DC at a B1G school. He's not getting a head coach in a lesser conference, so it means a position coach at a top program. There aren't that many that come up in a given year, and they often come up as part of the carousel. Not a firing, but someone moving to another spot. Notre Dame's DB coach left for the Ravens a week before they hired Henry.
blackdog
- Champaign
I don't think it's fair to penalize the staff for players getting hurt. Obviously roster construction would look very different if they could predict the future.
TJ Taylor was paid a lot and can’t get on the field. It’s reckless to spend that much money on one side of the ball and then say you ran out of money for defensive linemen.
Regarding money constraints versus coaching, how many here have contributed to ICON or I Fund?
If you haven't, here's how:
I Fund
ICON
You can make a one-time $10 donation to ICON or a couple of slices of pizza. The donation gives you ownership rights. The pizza gives you a warm feeling and a tight belt.
If you haven't, here's how:
I Fund
ICON
You can make a one-time $10 donation to ICON or a couple of slices of pizza. The donation gives you ownership rights. The pizza gives you a warm feeling and a tight belt.
I think it’s more that instituting a completely new defense with a scant budget to get the necessary players to execute it is extremely difficult and doing it under high pressure and scrutiny to get it done in one offseason was just way more to bite off than Hauck was prepared for. He knew it and so did Bret. I think it’s as simple as that. Just a near impossible situation
In what world is Hauck a more experienced Head Coach than Bielema? Was Hauck ever a HC at P4 school...No (closest he came was UNLV where he went 15-48) . Was Hauck ever in the NFL...No. Did he ever win any Major Conf Championships or Bowl Games...No. Did he ever have any prominent NFL players...No. Was he ever a Superbowl winning coach....No. Has Hauck ever been on a high profile College Football Committee likethe D1 College Football Oversite Committe...No. C'mon man.
Hauck had no idea what he wanted to do going forward except not having major responsibilities and pressure of high profile football and a strong preference to be fly fishing or whatever else one does when retired in Montana (which is good livin' btw).
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When signing a player from the portal, Bret takes into account past performance rather than high school rankings. Should Bret take into account past injuries as well? Are some injuries hard to get over than others? Do we give them full body MRIs like the NFL does at the draft combine? If not, why not?
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
After watching Werner and Wagner, I do think this will (perhaps unbelievably) be the right answer. It seems our current situation is this: --- we simply have the wrong defensive scheme in place, along with the wrong set of coaches. No ideal answer.
As bad as it already was in Champaign, my expectations for THIS season and NEXT have just gone down significantly. UPCOMING TEST: Purdue got killed by ND, and if they now come to town and move the ball at will against us, it will confirm how far we have to go to get back to respectability.
Pretty big blemish on Bret's resume. 3 of his 5 Offensive/Defensive Coordinators fired..
Check out the Bears defense and corresponding salaries. Not a bunch of undrafted FA.
The Bears actually have one of the higher paid defenses. They also invested a 1st round pick and signed Kobe Bryant. So you can definitely say they addressed the defense in the off season.
While you aren’t wrong that it’s not ideal, but I’m guessing all teams that aren’t that upper echelon of Big Ten and SEC or big conferences have similar situations…
Either you take off to the top or you don’t. And if you don’t, it’s either head coach or assistants, and if you believe in the head coach, then the assistants gotta go.
If all goes according to plan, that’s when assistants move on and become head coaches or get better opportunities.
The Hauck hire was very risky for a lot of reasons. It was either going to be a home run hire or it would blow up on us.
Eh, I think this is overstating things a bit. It would be great to have Phil Parker as DC for 20 years, but Phil Parkers don't grow on trees. This year is a struggle, but with the lack of talent on defense it was always going to be a struggle. With the portal, even bad teams are only one year away from respectability.
One thing that is really overlooked on this board and on the topic of the defense is we are 15th in BT payroll. And probably 18th on defense payroll.
The last couple of years we were average. Teams have passed us. If this isn’t corrected then we are looking at 2-7 Big Ten seasons for the foreseeable future. We need our NIL to double from approximately $5M to NIL of $10M just to approach the middle of the BT.
The last couple of years we were average. Teams have passed us. If this isn’t corrected then we are looking at 2-7 Big Ten seasons for the foreseeable future. We need our NIL to double from approximately $5M to NIL of $10M just to approach the middle of the BT.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
Wow! Really nicely captured. I agree 100% with this, and you nailed all the relevant points. I particularly think Hauck (as a long-tenured HC) wanted no part of dealing with BB's criticism.
The tone of that seemed to be that he can pivot and make changes without losing much. he also talked about his
NFL experience learning how to change staff/players mid stream.