Will be interesting to see where Rod Smith ends up.
The Illinois Coaching Staff Search
- Status
After reading Tony Petersen's wiki page, my guess is that BB sees a coach who will know how to develop and run a balanced attack and who's a good teacher.
In my imagination, BB wants to make it work with IW, and a guy like Petersen -- who has seen it all, was a successful QB himself, and apparently an all-around stud athlete -- is just the type of guy to make it happen. (I got all giddy last week when someone here "compared" IW to Kyler Murray!)
This is one of those situations where I'll assume BB knows something we don't... skepticism is of course fine, but I don't reckon there's a need for outright pessimism just yet ("BB whiffed on everyone else so he settled" etc.).
I'm excited.
In my imagination, BB wants to make it work with IW, and a guy like Petersen -- who has seen it all, was a successful QB himself, and apparently an all-around stud athlete -- is just the type of guy to make it happen. (I got all giddy last week when someone here "compared" IW to Kyler Murray!)
This is one of those situations where I'll assume BB knows something we don't... skepticism is of course fine, but I don't reckon there's a need for outright pessimism just yet ("BB whiffed on everyone else so he settled" etc.).
I'm excited.
altenberger22
- South Carolina
Well I'm still sorta hoping for a 4-star 6'5 transfer QB with 3 years of eligibility, who can throw for 2500 yards in 2021....along with the ability to run for 300-400 yards. I feel it's going to take this type of QB to ensure our annual floor is a 6-6 record in the regular season
Short of that, I guess the semi-good news is that we (may) have Peters to bridge us into 2022, or alternatively 5 young QB's with tons of eligibility from which to choose:
IW - FR
Spann - FR (5 to play 4)
Collier - FR (5 to play 4)
Taylor - SO
Robinson - SO
Seems to me that I. Williams has to be able to hit 56-60% of his passes to be truly effective. I don't want to watch a replay of this year's Penn State game week after week. I'd rather put him in the slot.
Short of that, I guess the semi-good news is that we (may) have Peters to bridge us into 2022, or alternatively 5 young QB's with tons of eligibility from which to choose:
IW - FR
Spann - FR (5 to play 4)
Collier - FR (5 to play 4)
Taylor - SO
Robinson - SO
Seems to me that I. Williams has to be able to hit 56-60% of his passes to be truly effective. I don't want to watch a replay of this year's Penn State game week after week. I'd rather put him in the slot.
Deleted member 29907
D
Guest
That may also depend on the skills of the App State QB. Lets hope our coaches know how to utilize the talent on the back of the truck while at the same time trying to find guys more to their scheme (if that is different).
I’m not sure where Byron Leftwich and Chad Pennington were in their development, but he was the QB/OC at Marshall while they were there.
The guy seems qualified to me. I don’t have any issues with it right now.
After watching a few interviews of Petersen, he comes across as an experienced coach who is able to run several kinds of offenses.
Also, he seems like a coach who will adapt his offense to the players he has versus making the current roster adapt to him.
He mentions the importance of developing young players, which is refreshing to hear as well. Pass the Orange Kool-Aid & lets play ball!
Also, he seems like a coach who will adapt his offense to the players he has versus making the current roster adapt to him.
He mentions the importance of developing young players, which is refreshing to hear as well. Pass the Orange Kool-Aid & lets play ball!
*edit meant to quote the Chad Pennington / Byron Leftwich post
And Gardner Minshew at ECU. And Driskell throwing for 4000 yards at LaTech after flaming out at Florida. And 2 x 3 year starters that showed great year over year progression from 2000-2006 at Minnesota (Asad Abdul-Khaliq and Bryan Cupito - both career leaders at UM and multiple bowl wins - I remember feeling like they were both “forever in B10” guys who were annoyingly solid to play against).
He has a surprisingly solid track record of player success. I also like the change in offensive schemes from stop to stop. This isn’t going to be a system guy trying to shove a square peg into round hole - he should be able so succeed with our personnel and mold our offensive to whatever cohesive O/D/ST strategy BB is aiming for.
We haven’t had a top 50 offense since 2010. 10 years! And probably for 8 or 9 of those years we’ve been in the 90-130 rank range. Literally could be the worst P5 offense of the last decade. We don’t need to swing for the fences or go crazy system guy we don’t have personnel for - if he can mold something to our players and bring consistency and growth he’s shown for last 20 years of his career I‘d be elated to have an O ranking in the 40-50 range paired with a BB defense
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Well but that's the thing, Ryan Cubit was not a career duffer, Ryan Cubit was a bring-your-kid-to-work-day joke. Which is worse, obviously.
Petersen has been an OC in college for Chad Pennington and Asad Abdul-Khaliq (hearing that name again brought back memories), he's been around forever. He's pounded the run game, he's thrown the ball all over the place, he's gone fast, he's gone slow. It's a cool career and I bet he's got stories to tell, but the fact is, he got a big step-up opportunity at East Carolina, linked up with Scottie Montgomery who was a very highly regarded coaching prospect at the time, at a program that has done a lot of winning recently, and it was a total, unmitigated disaster that ended with one of the worst offenses in the country.
Petersen's not some idiot or fraud, it just didn't work out, and so he bounced around a bit and found his way back doing his thing at another mid-major school. That's what I mean by "career duffer". He's a journeyman, seen good times and bad rolling around the lesser conferences.
And we've seen that and quadrupled his salary.
Imagine typing those two sentences in the same post.
This is where I’m at too. Know far less about schemes and such than many on here, but I like that it seems like he’s been adaptable in his approach. Welcome to the Orange & Blue Tony Petersen.
Don't love this hire -- mostly because I don't think it bodes well for offensive staff (doubt Hiestand is happening)
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
I get it, we pine for a big splashy hire coming from some kind of obvious success. However, that would be asking a successful coach to come to a program who's dumpster fire is like the eternal flame at JFK's grave. Or at least it's a 5 alarm dumpster fire that requires every fire house in the city along with all surrounding town's fire departments. And even when we have seemed to put it out over the last 20 years...they carelessly leave the dumpster smoldering in an alley where it will inevitably burst back into flames.
That's why Bielema got 4.2mil and why Petersen is getting a huge raise to come and put out this eternal dumpster fire.
I kid, except I'm not kidding.
That's why Bielema got 4.2mil and why Petersen is getting a huge raise to come and put out this eternal dumpster fire.
I kid, except I'm not kidding.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
It's nine million years ago and it truly doesn't matter in assessing Petersen's qualifications for the job, but because it's interesting, this appears to be the story at Minnesota:
Steve Loney resigned as OC in early 2000 and Petersen took the reins of calling the offense. He and Mitch Browning were titled as co-coordinators.
At some point in the intervening couple of years (after they were bad in 2001 maybe?), Browning became the "real" OC, and ended up being a finalist for the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant in 2003. In 2005 Browning got the title change to just "Offensive Coordinator". And then they all got fired in 2006 after they memorably blew that colossal lead in the bowl game against Mike Leach's Texas Tech.
It wouldn't matter either way, but that appears to be the truth of the situation. And anyway, it brings back memories, I very nearly went to Minnesota during that period. Thank goodness I didn't, imagine having to root for PJ Fleck
Steve Loney resigned as OC in early 2000 and Petersen took the reins of calling the offense. He and Mitch Browning were titled as co-coordinators.
At some point in the intervening couple of years (after they were bad in 2001 maybe?), Browning became the "real" OC, and ended up being a finalist for the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant in 2003. In 2005 Browning got the title change to just "Offensive Coordinator". And then they all got fired in 2006 after they memorably blew that colossal lead in the bowl game against Mike Leach's Texas Tech.
It wouldn't matter either way, but that appears to be the truth of the situation. And anyway, it brings back memories, I very nearly went to Minnesota during that period. Thank goodness I didn't, imagine having to root for PJ Fleck
While not the "flashy" hire many were hoping for, seems to be a safe, solid one. He can run a balanced offense, depending on the personel he has available, it appears. If this is the guy BB thinks can get this team rolling from the get go, then I'll be content to wait and see the results on the field. Depending on transfers, if any, he'll have a wide variety of QB choices to work with this spring. Or maybe he'll bring one of his QB's he recruited to App St. with him. On to the next hire!
Don't go all logical on us, this board doesn't always handle that well.
Well, I'll be optimistic because being pessimistic doesn't really make me feel good. But here are my takes.
As many have noted, lots of big names have tanked here and less sexy names succeeded. So many factors go into the success of a head coach or an assistant that it's really hard to accurately assess almost any tenure in the past and the likelihood of success in the future.
I'm concerned about his recruiting ability. Hopefully those extra dollars are going to be dropped on some top notch recruiting assistants. Perhaps Bielema wanted a more conventional OC at the top and put the so called up and comers in the secondary positions.
Nevertheless, I am concerned about how this bodes for the rest of the positions. This is not an ideal spot to go to and we'd be foolish to believe that this hire doesn't indicate this. We can be optimistic about the chance for success while still acknowledging that there is almost no way that this was BB's first choice.
As many have noted, lots of big names have tanked here and less sexy names succeeded. So many factors go into the success of a head coach or an assistant that it's really hard to accurately assess almost any tenure in the past and the likelihood of success in the future.
I'm concerned about his recruiting ability. Hopefully those extra dollars are going to be dropped on some top notch recruiting assistants. Perhaps Bielema wanted a more conventional OC at the top and put the so called up and comers in the secondary positions.
Nevertheless, I am concerned about how this bodes for the rest of the positions. This is not an ideal spot to go to and we'd be foolish to believe that this hire doesn't indicate this. We can be optimistic about the chance for success while still acknowledging that there is almost no way that this was BB's first choice.
It seems to me that the one of the biggest attractions for a prospective assistant coach to come to Illinois now is that you'll be working for a head coach who has a 6 year contract and you're getting in on the ground floor. Do a good job and you could have 6 years of job security...which has to be fairly important in a such an unstable workplace arena as college football. Not to mention the $$$ available for salary. The bar is pretty low as far as win
expectations go, so not the extreme pressure situation you'd be walking into if you were going to a Michigan, Auburn, etc situation. As long as the word in the coaching ranks on BB is that he's great to work for(no idea if this is fact or just the opposite)...then it seems these initial openings would be very attractive for quality hires.
No idea if Petersen is a good hire or not...seems the general consensus is that it's not impressive. Hopefully the next hires generate more enthusiasm...and TP is better than some think he is.
Deleted member 747671
D
Guest
One thing this hire tells us: nobody here has any clue about what is going on with the coaching staff hiring process. Everyone could've written their own lists of 20 OCs and nobody would've guessed Tony Petersen. That's not necessarily a good or bad thing, just an observation. BB went off the grid in terms of coaching connections. I would guess we won't see many hires completely out of left field like this, but who knows. The guy seems to at least know how to coach offense. A lot of the names that were floating around were quality coaches, but were more "name" than substance and had more defined systems. Petersen seems more adaptable and varied in his offensive approach, something I'm sure BB really wanted.
Edit: I guess I shouldn't say off the grid. Guys that have been around as long as BB and Petersen have crossed paths, just maybe never on the same staff. They obviously know each other well enough to have made this connection and significant of a hire.
Edit: I guess I shouldn't say off the grid. Guys that have been around as long as BB and Petersen have crossed paths, just maybe never on the same staff. They obviously know each other well enough to have made this connection and significant of a hire.
Last edited by a moderator:
Guessing this guy was pretty far down Bielema's OC Wish List... Yes the $$$ is there but at the end of the day getting a good OC (who likely has options) is gunna take more than $$$ - and Illinois doesn't exactly have a great history of coordinators coming out better than when they came in - and Champaign can be a bit of hard sell especially for coaches wives who prefer a more 'metropolitan' area
Deleted member 654622
D
Guest
I would also add to the "attractiveness of Illinois" is we are on the easy side of the B1G
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Indeed, because the question here is process.
The thing really boils down to whether Dan Enos turned the job down, or whether Bielema picked Petersen over Enos.
That's oversimplifying a tad, but the facts are that Enos:
1. Walked away from an FBS head coaching job to be Bielema's OC at Arkansas
2. Was his most recent OC and his side of the ball wasn't what sunk things (#34 offense in 2017 per SP+), they worked really well together all three years
3. Enos is currently a non-OC at a non-Power Five school
The mystery of the Bielema record is what happened at Arkansas and how you should that affect your view of him. The bad version of it is that Bielema showed himself to be a clown and a headcase unworthy of the job, and someone's whose stature and credibility in the profession had plummeted as a result. Reflected further in losing a key assistant to a lateral move after every one of his Arkansas seasons. A guy like Enos refusing to take a promotion and raise to reignite a very successful partnership would be overwhelmingly suggestive of that issue. And above anything about Bielema, that would be a really damning indictment of Whitman's process, for whom Bielema's (genuine!) history of hiring top-quality assistants was a big selling point and something he's mentioned over and over in the past couple weeks.
And then if Bielema hired Petersen instead of Enos, who is just an objectively more qualified, higher valued coach, who, again, coordinated excellent offenses for Bielema the last time he was a head coach, the question is what is the galaxy-brained rationale for hiring some rando he knows nothing about instead?
One of the reason we all had trepidation about hiring a hot coordinator type for the job was that they would need to cobble together a mishmashed staff without a deep well of connections to work with. WELP.
- Status