Coaching Carousel

Status
Not open for further replies.
#276      
MustangWally
TheDrinkinLincoln said:
That we are likely to be a perennial bottom 5 B1G team in the new world order. Didn't quite capitalize on the buzz and excitement of a surprise year with a top 5 NFL draft choice by being inconsistent. Also don't really have anything innovative or exciting about our coaching staff or culture. Until we start to really turn the ship around and really develop an identity and culture. We'll be an okay stop for a year or two to gain experience, but you want to get out before you become associated with lack of success.

Now if we keep having strong defenses and don't back slide into giving up bunches of points, and start to pull of consistent wins against our peers and throw an upset every few years at an Oregon, USC, OSU, Michigan then we might have people who aren't actively trying to leave every year.
Click to expand...
Northwestern turned their ship around from 1-11 to 8-5 in one year. What do they have that we don't?
 
#277      
TheDrinkinLincoln
Honestly, Pat Fitzgerald for 17 years. Say what you will about him as a person. He gave NW an identity. I know that NW was going to come out and be a physical defense and run some iteration of a run heavy spread. He was going to bring in his guys and when you were brought in regardless of how you were ranked you knew you had a job and where you fit in the scheme. Also helps that in those 17 years he had 9 winning seasons and of those 9 season 5 were 9+ win seasons. So while a little inconsistent you can basically figure NW was going to have a winning season every other year.

Over the same time period, we have had 5 head coaches and who had a total of 4 winning seasons only one of which was a 9 win season.

Mind you Pat had Gary Bennet and Randy Walker prior to him to stabilize the program and their tenures look more similar (but still better) to what Illinois has gone through since 2006 just with slightly higher highs and not as low lows.
 
#278      
OskieWowWow
TheDrinkinLincoln said:
That we are likely to be a perennial bottom 5 B1G team in the new world order. Didn't quite capitalize on the buzz and excitement of a surprise year with a top 5 NFL draft choice by being inconsistent. Also don't really have anything innovative or exciting about our coaching staff or culture. Until we start to really turn the ship around and really develop an identity and culture. We'll be an okay stop for a year or two to gain experience, but you want to get out before you become associated with lack of success.

Now if we keep having strong defenses and don't back slide into giving up bunches of points, and start to pull of consistent wins against our peers and throw an upset every few years at an Oregon, USC, OSU, Michigan then we might have people who aren't actively trying to leave every year.
Click to expand...
The identity from Day 1 of the Bielema tenure is to emulate Iowa and Wisconsin (well, the old Wisconsin). All about developing the lines on both sides of the ball. If you have a monster OL and DL, you can run the ball/stop the run and usually come out on top in 1 possession games and that should be enough to get to 6-6.

But I am more reassured by the type of linemen we've been recruiting in the last few classes (Dennis, Hansen, Henderson) vs the linemen we got in BB's first few classes. So invest whatever money we have into S&C, and good OL/DL coaches that focus on developing over recruiting
 
#280      
TheDrinkinLincoln
OskieWowWow said:
The identity from Day 1 of the Bielema tenure is to emulate Iowa and Wisconsin (well, the old Wisconsin). All about developing the lines on both sides of the ball. If you have a monster OL and DL, you can run the ball/stop the run and usually come out on top in 1 possession games and that should be enough to get to 6-6.

But I am more reassured by the type of linemen we've been recruiting in the last few classes (Dennis, Hansen, Henderson) vs the linemen we got in BB's first few classes. So invest whatever money we have into S&C, and good OL/DL coaches that focus on developing over recruiting
Click to expand...


I understand that was the plan, but I'm not seeing it in application yet. We aren't lining up and out physical-ing defenses from an offensive standpoint. I also don't remember old Wisconsin or current Iowa lining up in 97% shotgun, spread formation. Which again goes towards identity. We're supposed to be a road grader physical offense that just punches you in the mouth and year 3 should have been the year we started to see it with BB and Miller, but despite the messaging we are a spread team with big slow power backs with very little of that Iowa/Wisconsin zone read 1-cut runners.

On defense we at least had the law firm, and tried to be that pressure style defense but our identity is aggressive and over penalized.

Neither is overly innovative or makes coaches want to stay and build. However, I think that if we stay the course we could get there by year 5 and after a little more roster and coach churn we might see some level of stability if we can consistently be a 7 to 8 win team that upsets a blue blood every 3ish years for a 9 to 10 win season.
 
#281      
redwingillini11
Over from Michigan's 247 page:

Sources have confirmed that contact has been made with two previously mentioned targets, former Wisconsin defensive coordinator and current Illinois defensive analyst Jim Leonhard, and former Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt. Agent sources I’ve spoken with think it will be tough to pull either away from the lure of the NFL, but Moore at least has Michigan in the mix (though more so with Hurtt than with Leonhard).
247sports.com

Real Recognize Real report (1/29) - Rumblings on the defensive coordinator search

We share the latest on a handful of names tied to Sherrone Moore's search for Michigan's next defensive coordinator.
247sports.com 247sports.com
Click to expand...

This seems to suggest that Leonhard has the NFL in his sights. Things heading in the direction that Leonhard won't be back next year? Maybe that's one of the things that have been happening behind the scenes?
 
#282      
GatorMcKlusky
TheDrinkinLincoln said:
That we are likely to be a perennial bottom 5 B1G team in the new world order. Didn't quite capitalize on the buzz and excitement of a surprise year with a top 5 NFL draft choice by being inconsistent. Also don't really have anything innovative or exciting about our coaching staff or culture. Until we start to really turn the ship around and really develop an identity and culture. We'll be an okay stop for a year or two to gain experience, but you want to get out before you become associated with lack of success.

Now if we keep having strong defenses and don't back slide into giving up bunches of points, and start to pull of consistent wins against our peers and throw an upset every few years at an Oregon, USC, OSU, Michigan then we might have people who aren't actively trying to leave every year.
Click to expand...
Can anyone tell me what Josh was thinking when he put Mizzou on the schedule? Was it to appease some St. Louis/Belleville alums? Or did he have a Ron Guenther inspired "moment"? We have to stop these self-inflicted wounds. One of these decades.
 
#285      
illini0440
Keanu Reeves Matrix GIF by PeacockTV
one bullet dodged
 
#294      
Redbull
MustangWally said:
Northwestern turned their ship around from 1-11 to 8-5 in one year. What do they have that we don't?
Click to expand...
Besides NW, Kansas who had never won more than 3 games in the 10 previous years has now gone 6-7 and 9-4 in the last two years. Mizzou didn’t have to turn their program completely around but they have risen rapidly in the past couple of years. If you think the issue is because we are a basketball school then so is Duke, KY, and Kansas and they all have shown improvement. So, like Mustang Wally why haven’t we??
 
#295      
BZuppke
STLflyinIllini said:
I love your optimism, but we just went 5-7 in one of the worst B1G West divisions ever. Over half the teams had first year head coaches, and we had a cheat code All American DL, and we still went 5-7.

Our arrow is pointed up under BB compared to the past few decades. It's WONDERFUL to have some hope again, but we have a long, long way to go.
Click to expand...
Not really. We were within a score of winning many of those losses. We’re going to have a break out year soon.
 
#298      
Champaign Toast
GatorMcKlusky said:
Can anyone tell me what Josh was thinking when he put Mizzou on the schedule? Was it to appease some St. Louis/Belleville alums? Or did he have a Ron Guenther inspired "moment"? We have to stop these self-inflicted wounds. One of these decades.
Click to expand...

I'm not yet concerned about the upcoming non-conference series with Missouri (or Duke, for that matter). A lot can happen.

Missouri series starts in 2026. What's to say, among other variables, that Coach Drinkwitz couldn't by then have moved on to another program--for the sake of argument, say... Clemson--putting Missouri in a state of transition?

Duke series is 2025-6. They're coming off a period of success under Coach Elko, with Manny Diaz taking over and getting another shot in the ACC. Diaz was good but not great with the blue blood-ish Miami Hurricanes.

All that being said... it's a fact that 2026 having both Duke and Missouri in the non-conference slate carries extra potential for oomph in a single season's schedule. In the new Big Ten, I wouldn't fault our program for scheduling three non-power conference opponents to help us get to 6 wins. That is: focus less on strength of schedule, ignore any haters, and get bowl-eligible.
 
#299      
GatorMcKlusky
Redbull said:
Besides NW, Kansas who had never won more than 3 games in the 10 previous years has now gone 6-7 and 9-4 in the last two years. Mizzou didn’t have to turn their program completely around but they have risen rapidly in the past couple of years. If you think the issue is because we are a basketball school then so is Duke, KY, and Kansas and they all have shown improvement. So, like Mustang Wally why haven’t we??
Click to expand...
I remember something Gary Barnett said after the Wildcats beat ND in Soldier Field in 1995. He said something to the effect, you not only have to convince your players you can win the game, you have to convince the referees you can win the game as well. Words to live by.
 
#300      
GatorMcKlusky
Champaign Toast said:
I'm not yet concerned about the upcoming non-conference series with Missouri (or Duke, for that matter). A lot can happen.

Missouri series starts in 2026. What's to say, among other variables, that Coach Drinkwitz couldn't by then have moved on to another program--for the sake of argument, say... Clemson--putting Missouri in a state of transition?

Duke series is 2025-6. They're coming off a period of success under Coach Elko, with Manny Diaz taking over and getting another shot in the ACC. Diaz was good but not great with the blue blood-ish Miami Hurricanes.

All that being said... it's a fact that 2026 having both Duke and Missouri in the non-conference slate carries extra potential for oomph in a single season's schedule. In the new Big Ten, I wouldn't fault our program for scheduling three non-power conference opponents to help us get to 6 wins. That is: focus less on strength of schedule, ignore any haters, and get bowl-eligible.
Click to expand...
All I know is that Wisconsin became Wisconsin by scheduling three cupcakes every year for decades. If we want to be like them, we have to schedule like them.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back