Opinions
- Thread starter Williesfan
- Start date
There’s no way you go from a top 10 defense to one of the worst I’ve ever seen in one year. Especially when you had a bunch of guys with experience back. Taking a step back was expected but this is too the point where it’s a complete embarrassment and is inexcusable. It might be to the point where Fitz has to do something drastic because this is nowhere near just a talent issue. This defense would never look like this with Hank.
Paddy Fisher and Blake Gallagher were that good, and their replacements that bad.
Fitz spent years building this program. Now he’s sprayed gas on the whole thing and lit the match. It’s just unfathomable that he’s chosen this path.
Just a guess, but I don’t think this is what he envisioned when he made the hire. It wasn’t deliberate and I am confident FItz will do what it takes to correct his mistake.
Give me a break. 2 players don’t make you go from a top 10 defense to one of the worst that we’ve ever seen.
Taking a step back is one thing. You can argue about the talent on LB or any position, but there's no way the defense should look this bad.
Our defense mostly looks poorly coached/schemed. Players not in position to make plays; that's on the coaching staff.
If Hank was our defensive coordinator, we'd look much, much better than what we're seeing now.
Our defense mostly looks poorly coached/schemed. Players not in position to make plays; that's on the coaching staff.
If Hank was our defensive coordinator, we'd look much, much better than what we're seeing now.
I wish I shared your confidence. Fitz has been a terrific coach but he hasn’t been quick to correct bad hires.
He's been one to three years behind in changes that have been obvious to even casual fans.
First thing Fitz needs to do is tell him to undo all the change he made to the schemes. Go back to what worked under Hank.
I mean yeah, at some point, he's got to just give McGarigle or MacPherson a shot if trying to get JON to fix it doesn't work. This is just bad to the point of being untenable.
Agree with this. Give me one of those guys that had several years with Hank and saw what a successful defense looks like. Right now this is about as low as it gets.
I am very glad to hear that. Maybe someday we’ll learn what Fitz saw in him that the rest of us did not by simply looking at his results.
Sometimes a game like this can make the obvious decision a little easier to execute.
We’ve given up 49 points to UNL in 36 minutes. So we’re technically on pace to give up over 81.
How is JON still on the sideline?
Relationships. I can forgive Fitz for giving O'Neil a chance (despite the red flags of his NFL teams' performances), they go back a long time; he was here on Walk's staff. We all know that.
I'd imagine O'Neil was the first person to call Fitz when Hank announced he was retiring.
Fitz has relied on relationships for hires before with Ayeni, McGarigle, etc. That's okay in my mind because it makes sense; he should have people he's comfortable with and who know the program and what it requires to succeed.
The problem will be if this situation doesn't change in my mind. O'Neil just clearly doesn't appear to be able to handle the DC position.
So Fitz really hired one of his most important assistants because he was at NU as a grad assistant 18 years ago? How is that acceptable behavior for a $5 million head coach?
For every game O’Neill coaches from here on out, Fitz should forfeit 1/12 of his yearly salary.
He's been a defensive coach for the past 20 years; obviously the results were not there when he was a DC, but Fitz knew him and interviewed him, and hoped that with our assistants that it could create better results than it did when he was an NFL DC.
Clearly that didn't end up being true.
I'm not going to blame Fitz for trying, but you are right that this has been an unmitigated disaster and that we should have just promoted McGarigle or MacPherson or hired anybody else that wasn't overseeing bottom tier NFL defenses and then got demoted. I can't imagine either of them overseeing a defense this bad.
Obviously hindsight is 20-20, and Fitz has to make changes as soon as possible.
The stakes are higher when you go outside the org following a successful tenure. Fitz had to know for sure JON would bring expertise his staff lacked. Because JON had never succeeded at this job before. And now he has a bunch of assistants who know Fitz chose this clueless guy over them.
I'm not big on McGarigle for promotion based on the LB play. To be sure, it seems like O'Neil is bringing everyone down.
I assume it'd be MacPherson simply because he's been on the staff for so long (even if he's only been on defense for 3 years).
You are right about this and it's why this has to change fast; there's no way to keep a guy this out of his depth as DC when it should be clear to everyone (assistants and players) that the defense is being managed this badly.
It’s the kind of decision that undermines your entire culture, and culture is Fitz’s schtick.
Hopefully, this first experience w the AD will end any future power for fitz to unilaterally hire coaches. The AD has no reason to trust fitz hires and fitz has no options - we ain’t firing him, he ain’t quitting.
Of course not, to suggest this is dumb. He hired him because he thought he would be a good hire. That obviously was incorrect.
Perhaps - but new AD with no reputation and a bad basketball team. If fitz let’s the FB team crumble due to bad hires, that’s a short career for that AD. Always need a fall guy and fitz is not firable.
If it’s me - each open coach spot - I let fitz invite an interviewee and I find a couple. I seek good outside info on the fitz guy. If not a great choice, I find a way to torpedo. Fitz might hate me, but he won’t cost me my job.
And if he goes to Ryan, I bet I can have a private conversation filled with facts like JON, McCall, Springer, Cushing, etc and prove my interference has been for the better of the team.
Like I said, what’s fitz gonna do - quit? Nope. Maybe just hate me.