I really dont know what to say. He completely dismantled what Ellis Johnson had going here and hired (or at least strongly recommended) absolutely awful defensive coaches (Deke Adams ring a bell). He will not be special assistant to head coach. I GUESS(?) Dabo know what he is doing? I really think its dumb but whatever. If Dabo listens to him the it will speed up the downfall of Clemsons program.
Whammy taking job at Clemson
- Thread starter CCUIrmo
- Start date
Bad coaching fraternity Alpha Zero Tank strikes Clemson. Let's hope he can duplicate for them what he did for us.
I don't know about Ward. Yeah, the D sucked at the end but our talent also fell off dramatically, as Spurrier has noted we were basically mailing it in with recruiting. The 2012 and 2013 defenses he oversaw were very good, which of course he was working with better players. Any coach does better with better players, though. For '14 and '15, I don't know how you separate Ward's performance from the fact that those teams were completely and totally dysfunctional from top to bottom. To the point that our coach walked away mid-season. Spurrier has admitted he let things go to crap at the end with the kinds of players we were bringing in.
However, it was Whammy that was wanting these players and even if Spurrier mailed it in, he and other defensive coaches didnt have to. What it tells me is that he didnt really mail it in, he just had poor evaluation skills and lack of ability to develop. He could do good with good players and that works with most everyone. However, when he had to go get the same level players and develop them, he could do neither. The players also didnt want to play for coaches who were fighting on the sidelines. If transfer portal was bigger then like now, we would have lost TONS of players.
I'm sure Clemson fans or closeted Clemson fans will argue with me, but the reason I'm excited about this hire for them, is our defense got progressively worse under him, it got much worse then the offense did in the final years of Spurrier.
Lets look at 2014, shall we? Ward's third and final year as sole DC.
This was Spurrier's tenth season, in his first 9, the defenses allowed more then 550 yards twice, a game vs Ark and that SEC Championship game. The 2014 team, allowed more then 550 yards, 3 times in the season
Game 1 Texas A&M, Ward's unit allows 680 yards
Game 8, Auburn, 551 yards
Game 9, Tenn, 645 yards and 45 points
We blew, 3 two touchdowns leads that year
Then he went to Fresno State for 2016 and they went 1-11 and the Head Coach was fired during the season, LOL
Then he went to Louisville for 2 years and in his second year they went 2-10 and the Head Coach was fired, and Ward became the interim coach and they went 0-2 LOL
He was at Chattanooga since 2019, so he must of done all right there, at that level.
Dabo hired his old buddy from Alabama, its as simple as that, I love when other schools make dumb buddy hires, this is so great!
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I'm not sure how much of it falls on Ward. The whole recruiting system was in shambles from the top down. He was one part of a completely broken system that was dysfunctional and non-functional in every way. The entire team was cancerous. I'm unable to look at the situation and say he was singularly responsible for the demise of our defense.
Lo Ward was a lesser version of Charlie Strong.
If he had hired T-Rob, I would've been a bit more concerned.
If he had hired T-Rob, I would've been a bit more concerned.
lol he’s an analyst not an on field coach. All it is another set of eyes. The main thing that happened back when he was here was this state had an enormous run of talent that all came here. When that talent dried up it makes the coaches look much worse. Anybody that would blame a defensive coach for the downfall of a team is just looking for an excuse. As a matter of fact if you go back and look I bet his win loss record while he was here is much higher than our all time record.
Oh crap, now you’ve done it, you’ve (tried to), make them think
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