AUbritt 611 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 A couple notes about the succession of failures at DC since the end of the 2008 season: -Roof was here all 3 years that Gus was under Chizik -Loeffler was the OC when BVG was here -CEJ was the only DC until now since Gus became HC So that is 2 DCs that have not worked out at Auburn while Gus was calling the plays. One of them answered not to Gus but to Chizik, who we now know let every single facet of the program (except special teams!) erode dramatically. Occam's razor tells us that the defensive shortcomings of 2009-2011 were Chizik's fault, not Gus's offense's. Ellis Johnson was generally considered a good hire and failed miserably at Auburn with a lot of talent at his disposal. That is troubling. However, he inherited possibly the worst defense Auburn has ever fielded in his first season. Remember, even the seniors in 2013 had never had proper coaching. Sometimes it's harder to un-coach bad habits than it is to coach good ones, especially if they're 3-4 year old habits. That leaves one season, last year, where I look at a defense that played with or under Gus and scratch my head. For me, that's not a trend. Stuff happens. Coaches lose locker rooms, which was widely rumored to have been the case last season. And it was definitely a tale of 2 seasons, with a starkly defined dividing line. We gave up 14.4 ppg in the first 5 games, with the outlier being 21 points in the first game of the season against Arkansas. That's very good. The last 8 games? 34.4 ppg given up, with the only outlier being Samford in November. Sure, the competition was better, but 20 ppg better? No way in hell. Again: Samford. Something happened to that team, and it was shortly after Whitehead was suspended that things went downhill. Gus may or may not be capable of fielding a good defense, but there's no evidence to make me think he can't. Either way, #firetrob. :starorange: :starorange: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keesler 5,924 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 That leaves one season, last year, where I look at a defense that played with or under Gus and scratch my head. For me, that's not a trend. Stuff happens. Coaches lose locker rooms, which was widely rumored to have been the case last season. And it was definitely a tale of 2 seasons, with a starkly defined dividing line. Who's shoulders carry the blame for losing a locker room during the season? Seriously, if LSU/FSU/UAT/UGA/OSU/SoCarl "lost their locker room" last season and it was evident by the production or lack of production on the field, who would you blame? Would it be Les/Jimbo/Nick/Mark/Urban/Steve, or would it be Chavis/Kelly/Smart/Pruitt/Fickell/Ward, or the position coaches? A team loses a whole damn defensive or offensive unit mid-season and can't get reeled back in to get their butts on the field and work for the free education they are receiving, something is wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AU64 10,122 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 That leaves one season, last year, where I look at a defense that played with or under Gus and scratch my head. For me, that's not a trend. Stuff happens. Coaches lose locker rooms, which was widely rumored to have been the case last season. And it was definitely a tale of 2 seasons, with a starkly defined dividing line. Who's shoulders carry the blame for losing a locker room during the season?Seriously, if LSU/FSU/UAT/UGA/OSU/SoCarl "lost their locker room" last season and it was evident by the production or lack of production on the field, who would you blame? Would it be Les/Jimbo/Nick/Mark/Urban/Steve, or would it be Chavis/Kelly/Smart/Pruitt/Fickell/Ward, or the position coaches? A team loses a whole damn defensive or offensive unit mid-season and can't get reeled back in to get their butts on the field and work for the free education they are receiving, something is wrong. Be careful......VERY careful with comments like this...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McLoofus 35,182 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 That leaves one season, last year, where I look at a defense that played with or under Gus and scratch my head. For me, that's not a trend. Stuff happens. Coaches lose locker rooms, which was widely rumored to have been the case last season. And it was definitely a tale of 2 seasons, with a starkly defined dividing line. Who's shoulders carry the blame for losing a locker room during the season?Seriously, if LSU/FSU/UAT/UGA/OSU/SoCarl "lost their locker room" last season and it was evident by the production or lack of production on the field, who would you blame? Would it be Les/Jimbo/Nick/Mark/Urban/Steve, or would it be Chavis/Kelly/Smart/Pruitt/Fickell/Ward, or the position coaches? Half the locker room, as you point out below. But that's fair. Gus evidently failed to keep his house in order, and it's a strike against him. A team loses a whole damn defensive or offensive unit mid-season and can't get reeled back in to get their butts on the field and work for the free education they are receiving, something is wrong. Oxymorons aside, something was clearly wrong. Ellis Johnson lost his job because of it. Again, you're right, the head coach also bears responsibility, but I don't consider that situation a sign that Gus is a bad coach overall or that he can't field a complete football team. And it certainly doesn't dispute the main point, which is that the HUNH is not incompatible with a good defense. Gus is still less than 10 years removed from being a high school coach. He's still learning, and will be for awhile. But he's also the same guy who gave us the 2013 Auburn Tigers one season removed from the 2012 Auburn Tigers. If you take the sum total of what he's done at Auburn, I see a lot more success in the leadership department than failure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REInvestingTiger 2 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Reinvesting, if I knew you better, I'd have known you were joking. Unfortunately, there may be people that dumb on this board. No slight intended. ; - ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warbird82 160 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 First down yardage is important...but Stat, where did we rank in third down conversions, especially third and long? I can remember several games where we gave up first downs on 3rd and 10 or more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CleCoTiger 1,957 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Playing defense on a team with a HUNH offense doesn't seem to have hindered Ole Miss' defense the last few years. And let's not forget TCU. TCU has gone HUNH and they still field a nasty D. The whole "you can't have good D and HUNH" thing is a myth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warbird82 160 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Playing defense on a team with a HUNH offense doesn't seem to have hindered Ole Miss' defense the last few years. And let's not forget TCU. TCU has gone HUNH and they still field a nasty D. The whole "you can't have good D and HUNH" thing is a myth. +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AU64 10,122 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Playing defense on a team with a HUNH offense doesn't seem to have hindered Ole Miss' defense the last few years. And let's not forget TCU. TCU has gone HUNH and they still field a nasty D. The whole "you can't have good D and HUNH" thing is a myth. Well, most of the time...but makes me wonder how Baylor lit them up for 61 points.....made our defense against bama seem normal. Meanwhile, check this site....TCU was the highest rated HUNH team...#16 and check the list....not many HUNH teams in the top 50 defenses though come to think of it, there are not that many HUNH teams these days. http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/1042/p1 Just thinking that maybe there are not enough stats to make much of a case one way or the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AU80cruiser 1,102 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Playing defense on a team with a HUNH offense doesn't seem to have hindered Ole Miss' defense the last few years. And let's not forget TCU. TCU has gone HUNH and they still field a nasty D. The whole "you can't have good D and HUNH" thing is a myth. Well, most of the time...but makes me wonder how Baylor lit them up for 61 points.....made our defense against bama seem normal. Meanwhile, check this site....TCU was the highest rated HUNH team...#16 and check the list....not many HUNH teams in the top 50 defenses though come to think of it, there are not that many HUNH teams these days. http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/1042/p1 Just thinking that maybe there are not enough stats to make much of a case one way or the other. I don't see much difference between HUNH and the offense Florida had. When you go three and out on a consistent basis your defense spends a ton of time on the field. I know Floridas D was ranked pretty high the last two years with that terrible O. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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