Major made it very clear in his comments that he thought the defensive struggles were caused by bad tackling, not Coach No D’s scheme.
He even had to clarify that he wasn’t blaming the kids.
So no, Coach No D isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
That interview was very telling. It’s obvious from the interview that the bend but don’t break, no blitz, soft coverage defense is major’s philosophy also. I wasn’t sure if this before the interview-i thought he was maybe deferring to D’Onofrio but it’s clear now that Major strongly believes this is the way to go.
I don’t see Applewhite as being the type of guy to call out a specific coach like you guys are wanting him to in a press conference. He said the team missed tackles which they did. Think about last year. He didn’t call out Johnson’s play calling in a press conference either but after the season he let Johnson go as the OC. Major clearly had an issue with the playcalling last year but kept it close to the vest. He might very well be doing the same with D’Onofrio. We also don’t know what Major has told D’Onofrio in private. From a coaching standpoint, it is not good leadership to have your team see coaches questioning each other in public. This can cause turmoil in the locker room.
This is the correct take.
I’ll bet letting the other team score 63 points causes distrust in the scheme.
How is it possible that CMA could have spent two years watching Todd Orlando’s attacking, blitz happy, turnover generating defense only to come to the conclusion that a passive “bend but don’t break” D was the way to go?
i just read the transcript, applewhite said exactly what i saying in the other thread about people complaining about pressure
Applewhite: But that’s the reality of it. The ball is coming out quick, your pressure is not going to get there, so now go tackle the short route, and we didn’t tackle the short route
Almost last in defense but we have no problems just bad tackles. 3 guys rushing and big ed getting triple team all day.
I think this is correct. I don’t see Applewhite calling out staff in a press conference and he very well could be placing calls for a new DC right now.
But I do think the most effective HCs show some emotion on the sideline. Get their team to respond in kind. Can chew out coordinators on the sideline to initiate a change. This is where he fails. He has the same demeanor if we are up by 30 than if he were down by 30. Makes me wonder (and I’m sure I’m not alone) how emotionally invested he is in this team and this school.
Does he care? If he does, to what extent? Is it just a job for him? Do the players notice?
I don’t he would call out D’Onofrio either and don’t think he should. However, it’s one thing to not call him out but based on the verbiage in the interview I just get the impression this is the type of defense he wants to run. When applewhite specifically says we didn’t blitz because they get rid of the ball too fast and it’s ineffective and it’s better to give them 5 yard completions and force them into a 2nd and 5 situation and eventually force them to kick a field goal it tells me he’s in line with the scheme.
Allowing 5 yard completions would probably have won the game Saturday. It would have been maddening to watch, but still an improvement over what we saw.
I think part of what happened Saturday was the result of an inexperienced team playing its first real road game in a tough place. That doesn’t excuse the horrific defensive execution, and it revealed that we weren’t as prepared as we should have been.
Even so, the refusal to make adjustments and try something different in the second half is in puzzling. Take something away from the offense - anything.
I was at the game but those watching at home said Applewhite was quite heated coming off the field. Also last week against Arizona I had never seen him so hot when officiating missed a holding call. He literally threw his headset down and was flailing his arms at a ref. They did throw a late flag.
In 2016 UH played Oklahoma with Levine/Gibbs players with most not being 3-5 star players. Levine, Gibbs and the rest of the staff were excellent at recognizing talent regardless of stars and Gibbs did an outstanding job of developing the D talent.
But UH played a high risk D against Oklahoma because one of the best D backfields in UH history was on that team.
UH defeated Oklahoma 33-23 and Oklahoma’s only other loss was 45-24 to Ohio State. Oklahoma was 9-0 in the BIG12 and beat Auburn 35-19 in the Sugar Bowl.
So what happened when OU went to Lubbock to play an eventual 5-7 Texas Tech team. OU won 66-59.
We no longer have the DB’s and S to hold an OU to 23 points and we do not have an O that controls clock. If a bad Texas Tech can put 59 points on an OU D that went unbeaten in the BIG12, what can a better Texas Tech team do against a UH team whose DB/S’s are not at the level of talent that the 2016 DB/S’s were.
Coaching can only go so far. UH’s DB/S’s this year are closer to the Lamar DB/S’s than the 2016 UH DB/S’s in talent. The greatest DC in college FB can only do so much. Oh, and with Gibbs at DC, TCU beat Tech 55-52 in Lubbock in 2015 and the year BEFORE Gibbs arrived at Tech, TCU won in Ft. Worth by the score of 82-27. Tech already showed improvement in Gibbs first year. HAHAHA.
Again we don’t see what goes in between coaches and players behind closed doors. You can yell at a kid all you want but it is not going to teach him proper technique. Let’s be real Herman left us empty of great talent at the linebacker and secondary positions. We have converted WRs as starters in the secondary. All the yelling in the world won’t fix that.
Most of the blitzes we did try were from the safety starting deep…so a slow blitz that gives the QB plenty of time to make reads and throw. Horrible idea against a team you know is going to try to throw the ball fast. You’ve got to bring guys from close to the line and mix it up outside, inside, double. If the QB knows he’s not going to get hit he’ll do just what he did.
We’ll have trouble with Tulsa, again, using the current philosophy.
Applewhite isn’t going to throw D’Onofrio or the players under the bus. Who knows what is being said in the closed door meetings.
And if tackling was the problem, and it was certainly very bad at times, that has to be either the players or the coaches fault.
I was taught at the age of 11 to breakdown and focus on the ball carriers belly button and react to the belly button’s movement. It worked really well for as long as I played defense.
Our DBs and sometimes LBs flew at the ball carriers like they expected them to stand still and wait to get clobbered. One quick step to the side and our guys sailed across the turf while the ball carrier took off for a big gain.
Other scenario was when we hit the ball carrier well, even wrapped up, and then slid off like they were covered in axle grease. I can’t explain that.
That’s what I got out of that, and that was the point of my post. There’s obviously a difference between calling out your DC in the press conference and saying things that make clear that you agree with the DC’s schemes and strategy.
When I said that Coach No D isn’t going anywhere, it’s because Major doesn’t disagree with how Coach No D sets up his defense.
Pat Mahomes vs backup true freshman QB.
And, the scheme will work fine if tackles are made. We didn’t make enough tackles. One the other hand, you can fake a blitz. You can move Ed to the corners to get him off the double and triple teams. You can find somebody on campus who can play CB. You can give the ball to you’re three good RBs more than 6 times in the first half. You have Carr, Car, and Williams averaging 5.8 YPC and you give them the ball 24 times. Run-first my butt.