UB Football fan. We are hiring former UH DC Joe Cauthen as our DC under new UB HC Maurice Linguist.
Lance Leipold leaving UB last week was awful timing and we have been scrambling.
Cauthen seems like a veteran, solid hire and I wanted to get your thoughts on his time at UH.
Specifically, what scheme did he run and did it work on the AAC level?
I thought he meant the Bills.
Thx for visiting. Cauthen was let go for reasons I don’t understand. We didn’t lose last year because of the defense. It was our inconsistent stagnant offense that led to most of the losses. Most games we had drives stall or three announce that led to the defense being on the field for a large majority of the game. Honestly, I expected Hogerson to find a new OC but instead he dumped Cauthen.
Considering our D lacked depth and several JC transfers had very little impact, and we played a true freshman for a large part of the season, I thought the defense exceeded expectations. There were definitely head scratching games over the last few years but the offense often puttered out and put them in a bad spot.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Cauthen was successful at Buffalo
He runs a strange 4-2-5. We had our problems against the pass but Memphis, UCF and BYU are really good offensive schools.
That was the problem, against the pass, our D suffered. The problem is that a lot of teams we play pass a lot. That and we would wear down as the game wore on.
He very aggressive at Arkansas St, before coming to Houston. Not as aggressive here as there but way better than our previous guy.
You will need lots of depth for him to take full advantage of his schemes so if you have good defenders in the portal, getting them back will be key.
You will need speed on the edges. He took one of our very good developing LBs and made him a DE. Kid is listed at 6’2 245 and has wheels . He seems to be the type of guy Joe likes. On the other side, technically at LB but always playing up was a kid listed at 6’3 245 with wheels.
Here’s both of them doing what Cauthen likes on the same play. #12 and #31. 2020 American Football Highlights: Houston 56, USF 21 - YouTube In high school, #31 was a medalist on a Jr. Olympic 4x100 team. He’s lost some of that speed because of the weight he’s gained but still pretty good.
So the question is about our ex-DC and you answer it by busting on the offense?
He will do okay as your DC.
I thought this was about the Bill’s. Cauthen was OK. He wasn’t amazing but he wasn’t terrible either.
That said, Cauthen will most likely be a head coach somewhere down the line.
Did a good job. You guys got a good man.
JC was not let go because he did poorly. He got caught up in a numbers problem. Other teams were looking at hiring Belk; our best recruiter. In order to keep Belk, he had to be promoted. The only promotion available was DC. So, it came down to whether we kept Belk or Cauthen.
Glad to hear to landed on his feet and found a good home.
He’s pretty good. He was let go so that we could keep a valuable assistant who was getting major offers as a secondary coach. We promoted him to DC. The defense definitely improved from season 1 to 2. We went from #118 to #55 in total defense. He’s a good coach.
Thx for the clarification on why he was let go, Sam. Yes, section230, I’m pointing that our offense was an issue and Cauthen wasn’t released for putting a bad defense on the field. No need to make an issue out of it.
He was an effective DC for us, considering the guy before him. And I mean that as a compliment. We allowed 32 points-per game last season (80th nationally), after allowing 34 PPG (113th) in 2019. The improvement has been steady, if slow however, as the unit allowed 37.2 PPG in 2018 (118th). The D allowed 167.5 yards-per-game rushing (66th nationally) last season and 4.3 yards-per-rush (67th). This was down from the 179 YPG on the ground (85th) and 5.2 YPR (117th) during the 2019 season. The pass defense allowed 231 passing yards-per-game (62nd) but allowed to many big plays in the passing game, allowing 13.2 yards-per-reception. This was an improvement over 2019 after allowing 288.4 YPG (124th) through the air. The defense allowed 398.5 yards-per-game of total defense (55th) last season and 5.8 yards-per-play (74th) after allowing 467.4 total YPG (118th) and 6.8 YPP (127th) in 2019. Those stats were also an improvement over 2018 in which the Cougars finished near the bottom nationally in nearly every major defensive statistic among the 129 FBS football programs. They finished 115th in rushing defense (221.1 ypg) and 127th in total defense (496.8 ypg) that season. They also were 90th in yards allowed per play (5.95).
Just throwing all those stats out since I’m doing position preview articles starting in June. Something to get us through the dog days of summer. lol
I think we gave up some defensive touchdowns, which would skew the ppg average.
Yep, and as someone previously mentioned, depth is key for smaller programs. The drop off from the 1st unit to the 2nd is steep. CDH mentioned when our MLB, Donavan Mutin was lost for the season after the third game our D, and run D particularly, really suffered.
Man, Jimmy, I liked this post but you brought back some bad memories. The future is bright, though.
Yeah, what’s up with that? Why does a pick-six go against a defense’s ppg?
Yes. I hope the drop-off is NOT so steep this year.
Thanks. Appreciate the info.
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