Coaching Carousel (Football)

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#651      
bigcityillini
Illini92and96 said:
Fluff? You seem to attribute Bret's actions to ego or reputation driven, and not what is best for the program. Bret appears to be setting a deliberate culture of how he treats people, which has an impact on stable long-term success. Not sure what you do, but I have personally seen, and I would think it is intuitive to many, that organizational culture has a drastic impact on long term results or lack thereof. I guess you don't believe that to be as important.

Despite opinions on issues such as acceptable portal rankings, the fact is that we have had our best 2-year wining stretch ever. All I want is Bret to continue doing what he is doing, as it seems to be working, leash lengths and all. More please.

I'm not defending whether you should or shouldn't hire friends. I was explaining why Henry would have been treated differently than Peterson, which you asked.
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As a player I’d be pissed personally. If I had one year left, an elite offense and missed a chance to play in the playoff because my coach is more worried about setting a professional culture. I work in corporate America. Very well aware of how culture affects things. But this is not one of the instances where you play nice for everyone’s feelings.

We have had a great run for sure. But if you are looking at the past and not the future youve already lost. Henry was treated differently because he’s friends with Bret. It’s really that simple. We can argue back and forth, but at the end of the day the results weren’t there. And now we are behind going into this season. Bret needs to figure out his hiring. It’s what sunk him at Arkansas.

Still team Bret all the way. But he needs to stop with some of these nonsense hires. The staff right now is pretty weak.
 
#652      
From the cheap seats
One thing that seems consistent to me with Bret is that he truly tries to treat his players and staff as FamILLy. Maybe even sometimes to the detriment of a win. But if he didn’t then FamILLy would be a meaningless throw-away motto.
I know of situations where he lived up to that. There may be situations where he did not, but I don’t have personal knowledge about those.
 
#653      
Indy Illini Fan
WeWillWhen said:
Bret said that Hauck is the only guy with who he discussed the position, and the only one he offered. Do we believe that? Was everyone making up the Partridge stuff? FWIW, Hauck looks to me do be a solid hire. Let's get him a few more dudes up front.
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Either the 20 coaches/agents that I talked too ... A couple people in the Seahawks Organization ... And also the entire national media were all just clueless and led to believe something that wasn't true and Chris Partridge himself went along with it ...

OR ...

Bret is putting a little spin on things so that he can make himself, the program and Hauck look good ... Which I have no problem with ...

But I will let everyone decide what really happened ...
 
#654      
HensonHall71
Indy Illini Fan said:
Either the 20 coaches/agents that I talked too ... A couple people in the Seahawks Organization ... And also the entire national media were all just clueless and led to believe something that wasn't true and Chris Partridge himself went along with it ...

OR ...

Bret is putting a little spin on things so that he can make himself, the program and Hauck look good ... Which I have no problem with ...

But I will let everyone decide what really happened ...
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I would want Bret to spin it to make Hauck and the program look good - so like you said - I have no problem with that.

It almost doesn't matter what the real story was, but clearly there were enough media members talking about Patridge to Illinois and it didn't all come from reading this board! Plus the timing of hiring Hauck doesn't add up if he was Bret's pick from the start.
 
#656      
Illini92and96
Indy Illini Fan said:
Either the 20 coaches/agents that I talked too ... A couple people in the Seahawks Organization ... And also the entire national media were all just clueless and led to believe something that wasn't true and Chris Partridge himself went along with it ...

OR ...

Bret is putting a little spin on things so that he can make himself, the program and Hauck look good ... Which I have no problem with ...

But I will let everyone decide what really happened ...
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Yeah, it's clear. I am celebrating the day we are getting our second choice, unlike the Mike Thomas days of "Will you please be our coach?"
 
#657      
band camp
ILLINIGRAD2014 said:
You can make a legit argument that Bret keeping Henry cost the team a chance at the playoff's. The fact is they asked for him to leave and he took a demotion. If they do that right after the season we probably end up with more talent out of the portal. Instead, we waited to let Henry have a softer landing and now have the 59th ranked portal class and multiple staff openings. What aren't you getting about that?
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Are you an Illini fan?
 
#660      
ptgrd23
Whomever Bret hired was going to have major job redesigning and building the defense. Our lack of experienced defensive lineman and linebackers would have been challenge for either. Bret made decision not to spend $NIL to retain McCollum DL , Coenan DL, Durojayi DL Hayden LB , and Hood LB. Knowing the defense scheme was changing it might have made sense to retain at least 2 DLs.

Partridge was sexy hire - Super Bowl Champions, young, experience calling defense plays.

Question marks
- he was calling defensive plays at Ole Miss in 2022 for Lane Kiffin then left to be LB coach at Michigan, not calling plays
- initially blamed by NCAA for deleting text messages and telling players not to cooperate, fired by Michigan immediately. Later "cleared". He was only one fired by Michigan so suspicious ending.
 
#661      
lstewart53x3
bigcityillini said:
As a player I’d be pissed personally. If I had one year left, an elite offense and missed a chance to play in the playoff because my coach is more worried about setting a professional culture. I work in corporate America. Very well aware of how culture affects things. But this is not one of the instances where you play nice for everyone’s feelings.

We have had a great run for sure. But if you are looking at the past and not the future youve already lost. Henry was treated differently because he’s friends with Bret. It’s really that simple. We can argue back and forth, but at the end of the day the results weren’t there. And now we are behind going into this season. Bret needs to figure out his hiring. It’s what sunk him at Arkansas.

Still team Bret all the way. But he needs to stop with some of these nonsense hires. The staff right now is pretty weak.
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Dude, this wasn’t a playoff team and it had very little to do with Henry was on the staff.

This team was ranked #64 in the talent composite rankings. Ohio St had (11) 5 stars and (56) 4 stars. We had (0) 5 stars and (7) 4 stars. The talent differential between the playoff teams and our team was massive. Northwestern had more 4 stars than us.

The fact that the #64 ranked team in talent ended the season #26 in the AP poll, #25 in the coaches poll, and #25 in SP+ is an overachievement, not an underachievement.

Feel free to warn everyone of the impending Illinois football apocalypse, but don’t try to paint the most successful two year stretch in Illinois football history as anything but a massive success.
 
#664      
NashvILLe05
What would our season be if Henry was let go earlier? That super long glide let down, dialed us out of some potential recruits.
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There were many games where the D was subpar but we had Luke. I’m not over the absolute humiliation at Indiana. They could’ve put up 75+ on us. Hard to say you’re a top program on the recruiting trail when being destroyed like that on national TV…and it really pisses me off living in SEC country where I have to hear about it.
 
#666      
NashvILLe05
Indy Illini Fan said:
Comparing Petersen situation to A Hen situation is like Apples and Oranges …

Bret known Henry since he was 17 … Like family … It was never an option to just can him like Petersen …
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I agree this situation with AH was a rare exception and also a situation we can’t have again.

Many of us in the corporate world don’t experience much (if any) grace on a daily basis and when incompetence isn’t addressed, it makes us question leadership. However, BB’s 19 wins in 2 seasons speak for themselves. It’s really a bizarre scenario that’s hard for us to relate to.

I’m interested how JW and BB managed donors who were surely calling for change.
 
#667      
pvaughn8
lstewart53x3 said:
Dude, this wasn’t a playoff team and it had very little to do with Henry was on the staff.

This team was ranked #64 in the talent composite rankings. Ohio St had (11) 5 stars and (56) 4 stars. We had (0) 5 stars and (7) 4 stars. The talent differential between the playoff teams and our team was massive. Northwestern had more 4 stars than us.

The fact that the #64 ranked team in talent ended the season #26 in the AP poll, #25 in the coaches poll, and #25 in SP+ is an overachievement, not an underachievement.

Feel free to warn everyone of the impending Illinois football apocalypse, but don’t try to paint the most successful two year stretch in Illinois football history as anything but a massive success.
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I don't think there's any arguing that it was a massive success. It's just how much more successful could it have been with a better DC? I mean Bret fired Henry so he must think we left something on the table
 
#669      
bigcityillini
lstewart53x3 said:
Dude, this wasn’t a playoff team and it had very little to do with Henry was on the staff.

This team was ranked #64 in the talent composite rankings. Ohio St had (11) 5 stars and (56) 4 stars. We had (0) 5 stars and (7) 4 stars. The talent differential between the playoff teams and our team was massive. Northwestern had more 4 stars than us.

The fact that the #64 ranked team in talent ended the season #26 in the AP poll, #25 in the coaches poll, and #25 in SP+ is an overachievement, not an underachievement.

Feel free to warn everyone of the impending Illinois football apocalypse, but don’t try to paint the most successful two year stretch in Illinois football history as anything but a massive success.
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Where was Indiana in the team talent composition? Surely not very high right? Coaching matters.
 
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#670      
ILLINIGRAD2014
lstewart53x3 said:
Dude, this wasn’t a playoff team and it had very little to do with Henry was on the staff.

This team was ranked #64 in the talent composite rankings. Ohio St had (11) 5 stars and (56) 4 stars. We had (0) 5 stars and (7) 4 stars. The talent differential between the playoff teams and our team was massive. Northwestern had more 4 stars than us.

The fact that the #64 ranked team in talent ended the season #26 in the AP poll, #25 in the coaches poll, and #25 in SP+ is an overachievement, not an underachievement.

Feel free to warn everyone of the impending Illinois football apocalypse, but don’t try to paint the most successful two year stretch in Illinois football history as anything but a massive success.
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Didn't we just watch Indiana win a natty with a team talent composite ranking in the 50's?
 
#671      
lstewart53x3
pvaughn8 said:
I don't think there's any arguing that it was a massive success. It's just how much more successful could it have been with a better DC? I mean Bret fired Henry so he must think we left something on the table
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The comment I was replying to said specifically:

As a player I’d be pissed personally. If I had one year left, an elite offense and missed a chance to play in the playoff because my coach is more worried about setting a professional culture.
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And another poster said this:

You can make a legit argument that Bret keeping Henry cost the team a chance at the playoff's.
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So they're arguing that last season was not a massive success because we did not make the playoffs and Henry was the reason why.

Which is ridiculous. Aaron Henry isn't the reason Illinois football didn't make the playoffs. Could we have won another game this year with a better DC? Sure. That still doesn't get us into the playoffs. We would have needed to win 3 more, including one of Ohio State or Indiana. Because if 10-2 Notre Dame and 10-2 Vanderbilt didn't make the playoffs, neither would 10-2 Illinois.
 
#672      
Greensboro
bigcityillini said:
is this allowed?? /s

But seriously. Idk how you argue that. You can’t recruit to a system and DC you don’t have in place. There was no reason to wait as long as we did. If partridge was always the plan why did we have Ahen meeting with recruits on campus? To get them to commit to a system they weren’t ever gonna play in?
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I think it is hard to argue that we didn't need to make a defensive change. If we could have hired someone sooner it would have been a plus, but regardless it is important to make the best hire you can. I 'm not sure anyone here knows the whole back story of how we ended up here, hopefully Hauck is the right hire, personally I'm optimistic the defense will be better next year regardless of transfer rankings (partly because that is a fairly low bar). In the meantime, if you trust Henry to recruit in the intern while we were naming the next DC, you pretty much have to roll the dice with that in the interm. I'll take my chances with the 59th transfer class to pull the bandage off what was a bad defense. (vs 43 last year & 46 in 2024)
 
#673      
lstewart53x3
bigcityillini said:
Where was Indiana in the team talent composition? Surely not very high right? Coaching matters.
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ILLINIGRAD2014 said:
Didn't we just watch Indiana win a natty with a team talent composite ranking in the 50's?
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Bigcity, why’d you create a second account bro? No need to astroturf your opinions.

Yes, Indiana was also ranked low in the talent composite.

But, Indiana had 11 projected draft picks on their roster. We had 3.

IMG_0573.png


IMG_0682.png


Talent matters.
 
#674      
Kendall Gill’s Uncle
pvaughn8 said:
I don't think there's any arguing that it was a massive success. It's just how much more successful could it have been with a better DC? I mean Bret fired Henry so he must think we left something on the table
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Who can say the other coach would have brought in better players? Who can say their system would have been better?

None of this “if” discussion matters because it’s all conjecture. “If” people are upset about how Bielema handled the situation, that’s fine, but hindsight is 20/20. Do you want someone else running the program?

I’m pretty happy with where we are as a program and I’d personally like to avoid going back to the Beckman/Lovie era. Bret’s a human, he’s not infallible and to expect that isn’t reality. I’m glad Whitman is our AD, but he hired Lovie. We all make mistakes.
 
#675      
bigcityillini
lstewart53x3 said:
Bigcity, why’d you create a second account bro? No need to astroturf your opinions.

Yes, Indiana was also ranked low in the talent composite.

But, Indiana had 11 projected draft picks on their roster. We had 3.

View attachment 47497

View attachment 47498

Talent matters.
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You have been taking L’s left and right. First it was the faulty recruiting rankings graphic yesterday and now this. Wanna take a guess where Indiana sourced most of those picks from…. The portal!!!

If you have the right coaches in place and use the portal correctly you can overcome large talent gaps. Shocking!!!
 
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