DC Bobby Hauck out at Illinois

#326      
Hingle McCringleberry
therealmiket86 said:
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.
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There was a near zero percent chance he was going to be a home run hire. He's never recruited at this level and just retired because he hated the current state of high level college football (NIL etc), he had never even been a DC.

He was 100% a desperation hire because we had no other viable options and Brett was hoping he would do a decent job until he could find a solid DC next.

And yes, if he miraculously did a great job, then he would have been able to stay as long as he wanted before he re-retired. But we all know this played out.

HUGE black eye on Brett for letting it come to this under his watch.
 
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#327      
AssemblyHallForever
Second place is 1st loser said:
People don't want to admit that because it's self soothing to believe that firing one guy fixes the problem, when the problem is the lack of money we have to spend and what we do spend greases the wheels of the offense.

This is a talent problem. This will be our third DC in 4 games. We'll see what he can do to better things.
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It didn’t help that the players apparently didn’t buy in or believed in him.
 
#328      
AssemblyHallForever
DeonThomas said:
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..
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The only OC that was fired was Peterson. No DC was necessarily fired. Walters took the Purdue job and Henry left for ND. We do not really know what transpired this weekend on if Hauck got fired or he decided this was not the job for him.
 
#330      
217sports
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
BB very much indicated that it was Hauck’s decision to move on. And that he had no intention of firing him.
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But he also mentioned he has quiety demoted people in the past and he had changes coming to the defense. Whether Hauck heard that and said I'm out before he was actually fired can be up for debate sure.
 
#331      
therealmiket86
Hingle McCringleberry said:
There was a near zero percent chance he was going to be a home run hire. He's never recruited at this level and just retired because he hated the current state of high level college football (NIL etc), he had never even been a DC.

He was 100% a desperation hire because we had no other viable options and Brett was hoping he would do a decent job until he could find a solid DC next.

And yes, if he miraculously did a great job, then he would have been able to stay as long as he wanted before he re-retired. But we all know this played out.

HUGE black eye on Brett for letting it come to this under his watch.
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He wasn’t brought in to recruit. Going to this scheme was a high risk high reward move. It. Blew up in our face
 
#332      
gibb52
Brent Venables might be available in the offseason. 2-2 with TX/FL/GA/MSU/MO left.
 
#334      
Illini4Chief
DeonThomas said:
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..
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Agreed......hoping some things to cheer about......but wow, was I disappointed with the season and the outloook.
 
#336      
illini0440
STLini25 said:
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.
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You think we spent $5 million dollars on the roster?
 
#339      
ChiefGritty
Hingle McCringleberry said:
In what world is Hauck a more experienced Head Coach than Bielema?
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Simply speaking in terms of years in the role and number of games coached.

Bielema and Hauck met to discuss how to fix this situation, and across that table the more experienced head coach was Hauck and the more experienced DC was Bielema.

I'm just speculating but if Hauck was proposing a change that fit better with his skillset, seems plausible that it would have a head coach-ier more oversight type role and that Bret had the reaction of "that's not what I hired you for".

Hingle McCringleberry said:
HUGE black eye on Brett for letting it come to this under his watch.
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It was a big mistake.

But ultimately the broader level question is how (or if it's even possible) to have Illinois' football NIL resources add up to a winning team. The whole Hauck concept was downstream from that challenge biting us.
 
#340      
RabidDawgClassic
therealmiket86 said:
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.
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I have no problem with making this move considering the roster dollars constraints. When there’s a significant gap between the top tier teams and you, you have to do something different. There’s no guarantee that something will work, but you can’t expect to successfully compete doing the exact same thing as those with much greater resources.

During the 2006 World Series, Tony LaRussa made several unconventional moves that ended up working. When asked what made him choose some moves that were not by the book, his response was simple. He essentially said “why would I go by the book? The book says we’re gonna lose this series. If I go by the book, we lose. I have to think outside the book.”

So Bret made a not-by-the-book move. It does not appear to have worked out (at least after four games). I’m grateful he’s recognized that rather quickly. But the simple truth is, until roster dollars equalize (if that ever happens), Illinois football will have to continue thinking outside the book in areas where the roster is lacking.
 
#341      
eas23
It's obviously true the talent deficiency is crippling and limits the team's overall ceiling, but it also should be obvious that the players literally not knowing the call and formation exacerbated the problem and should improve going forward.
 
#342      
Illini2010-11
eas23 said:
It's obviously true the talent deficiency is crippling and limits the team's overall ceiling, but it also should be obvious that the players literally not knowing the call and formation exacerbated the problem and should improve going forward.
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Heck, I am looking forward to having 11 players on the field consistently.
 
#343      
therealmiket86
RabidDawgClassic said:
I have no problem with making this move considering the roster dollars constraints. When there’s a significant gap between the top tier teams and you, you have to do something different. There’s no guarantee that something will work, but you can’t expect to successfully compete doing the exact same thing as those with much greater resources.

During the 2006 World Series, Tony LaRussa made several unconventional moves that ended up working. When asked what made him choose some moves that were not by the book, his response was simple. He essentially said “why would I go by the book? The book says we’re gonna lose this series. If I go by the book, we lose. I have to think outside the book.”

So Bret made a not-by-the-book move. It does not appear to have worked out (at least after four games). I’m grateful he’s recognized that rather quickly. But the simple truth is, until roster dollars equalize (if that ever happens), Illinois football will have to continue thinking outside the book in areas where the roster is lacking.
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The problem I have is this is a 62 year old who has never coached in a P4 conference. It’s a lot different to scheme for stopping teams in thr big sky than it is to stop Ohio state and Jeremiah Smith. He’s also a guy who has never called a defense.
 
#344      
Battle89
DeonThomas said:
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..
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I think the blemishes have different weightings, but overall agree.

When a school has a poor reputation (for historically winning), it's no different hiring coaches than it is recruiting players. Hard to get guys to come here. So in the early years, I weight the first couple of firings less against Bret. Not zero, but less.

Aaron Henry is another story altogether. As I do believe the soft landing theory, this latest is very much on Bret.

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#345      
Battle89
AssemblyHallForever said:
The only OC that was fired was Peterson. No DC was necessarily fired. Walters took the Purdue job and Henry left for ND. We do not really know what transpired this weekend on if Hauck got fired or he decided this was not the job for him.
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Technically correct but glossing over the defensive coaching losses, including Walters taking Kane. Not a firing per se, but another time when Bret had a choice and chose Henry over Kane for the successor DC role.

Now you could easily say that Kane has not set the world on fire since, and I would not disagree. But at the time I think the CVs of the two were close and there was legitimate debate over who to retain (or try to retain anyway, but I don't feel Kane was all-in on leaving initially).
 
#346      
SouthFLILLINI
The 3-3-5 was doomed from the start because BB doesn't have the athletes to run it correctly. It is a great defensee if you have an excellent front 3, a good DL rotation, athletic LB's and really good DB's. The defense easily switches between dropping eight players into coverage or sending creative, multi-angled blitzes. Besides Bailey, BB didn't have the personel to run it. An added concern, our DB's arer horrid this year. NIL needs to grow a lot bigger to even think about running it.
 
#349      
fuddrules
therealmiket86 said:
The problem I have is this is a 62 year old who has never coached in a P4 conference. It’s a lot different to scheme for stopping teams in thr big sky than it is to stop Ohio state and Jeremiah Smith. He’s also a guy who has never called a defense.
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David Braun has done a nice job at a place that's tougher to win at than Illinois. He never coached P4 or G6 prior to Northwestern.

Braun was a DC but never a HC. Bielema says often he likes to hire those with HC experience.

I think Cooper and/or Bradford will do a better job and will listen to Bielema (and others) far more than Hauck did.

Bielema got exactly who he hired.
 
#350      
Battle89
SouthFLILLINI said:
The 3-3-5 was doomed from the start because BB doesn't have the athletes to run it correctly. It is a great defensee if you have an excellent front 3, a good DL rotation, athletic LB's and really good DB's. The defense easily switches between dropping eight players into coverage or sending creative, multi-angled blitzes. Besides Bailey, BB didn't have the personel to run it. An added concern, our DB's arer horrid this year. NIL needs to grow a lot bigger to even think about running it.
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I'm not against the 3-3-5 in principle (I've watched CG run it for many years now) but ANY defense would be good under the bolded above.
 
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