I remember those threads, but since then Gibbs went to TT and had underwhelming results at a P5. Time did not stand still.
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He was a decent DC everywhere but Tech. I think some of you are not taking into account a couple of things. He is playing defense parallel to an air raid offense. When UH ran the air raid we never had a stellar defense. Also, it is not easy to recruit to Lubbock. He recruited well in Houston because of the area and I see him doing the same again. Tech will never be able to get great defensive recruits and they never have been able too. One bad stop out of all the great experience he has and you all want to write him off. Maybe you should stop just looking at Tech and instead the overall outlook of his coaching career which includes the NFL.
Initially interviewed 3 folks ( Gibbs 1 ) and interviewed 1 more yesterday.
When it comes to playing defense in parallel, is “air raid” equivalent to “up tempo”? And isn’t the current UH OC who was just extended for 3 years running an “up tempo” offense?
A change was needed at DC but I guess we have to lower our expectations that Gibbs can replicate his past success at UH should he be hired.
I think he’s saying people want him to fail. But fact of the matter is, he already did. He was terrible at tech but we’re expected to hire our old pal back. Sounds like a roll of the dice to me.
This isn’t correct. He vastly improved Tech’s defense over the previous coordinators.
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Like going from 100th to 110th? We might need a definition of what you mean by “vastly improving”. He was bad and literally got worse from a statistical standpoint.
EDIT: I don’t know why anyone is enamored with Gibbs. He WAS great here, but we can do better. It might require our officials to do some searching and research, but he’s not the best solution. Now if CMA wants him, then that’s a totally different issue. Clearly there would be a trend developing with our HC wanting to hire guys who are familiar instead of hiring the best candidate, objectively. This type of hiring strategy will eventually fail at a lemonade stand. We have to be careful.
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Not all P5 teams are created equal. It is harder to recruit to TT than it is to recruit to OU, UT, TCU, Okie St and WV. Even BU has a location advantage. Lubbock is an isolated place with not a lot going for it – and that is as close to a Chamber of Commerce statement as one can get for that place.
It looks more and more like Gibbs will be the guy and I am fine with that and will support him all the way. However, if someone else is the guy, I am fine with that also and will support that guy as well.
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Everyone should also take into consideration all the high powered offenses there are in the big 12. They did better compared to most the teams in the big 12.
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Maybe interviewing Gibbs about what he learned at Tech the last 4-5 years may help CMA determine who we need for the position. Whether we hire him or not, hopefully we got his opinion on what works and what does not.
OU, WVU,TCU, and OKie State are the only high powered offenses in the big 12. The others run some variation of the power-spread or the West Coast.
That’s 4 teams that could easily be interchanged with UCF, Tulsa, Memphis, and SMU.
| David Gibbs at Tech with 2014 (season before him) for comparison… | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | ESPN Defensive Efficiency Ranking | Team Recruit Ranking (Conference) | Opponents Points per Game | |
| — | — | — | — | |
| 2018 | 61 | 10 | 33.9 | |
| 2017 | 79 | 6 | 34.1 | |
| 2016 | 120 | 6 | 45.9 | |
| 2015 | 114 | 6 | 43.5 | |
| 2014 | 109 | 6 | 41.8 | |
| — | — | — | — |
2018 Tech Recruiting Class (19 commits) 10th in Big12 - 6 out of of their bottom 8 ranked recruits were the defensive players of the class.
2017 Tech Recruiting Class (19 commits) 6th in Big12 - heavy on defense, but no defensive player ranked above a 0.86
2016 Tech Recruiting Class (26 commits) 6th in Big12 - low on defense, no defensive recruit ranked above 0.84.
Long story short… Gibbs, who started at Tech in 2015, vastly improved defensive efficiency and cut the points per game allowed by 10 points in only two years despite getting defensive recruits that were ranked lower than ours and were some of the lowest in the Big 12.
That is vastly improved.
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I do know that Gibbs is only one of several that we interviewed for the job and replacing D’O was in the works for a couple of months.
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Belichick?!! He’s a stiff. He’ll never pan out. Did you see what a disaster he was in Cleveland?
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lol I don’t know man. It’s still looking a little shaky to me. Weren’t we giving up 30+ points per game this year and lost some games due to it? That’s suggesting our offense HAS to score 30+ in every game in order to win. That’s even assuming everything goes right on offense in order to do that. Maybe he can take us down to 22 to 24 in ppg. I’d be all for that, but apprehensive about him at the very least. We’ll see I guess.
That is what he did at Tech. Here are his numbers at UH from 2013 and 2014…
| David Gibbs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | ESPN Defensive Efficiency Ranking | Team Recruit Ranking (Conference) | Opponents Points per Game | Turnover Margin per Game |
| — | — | — | — | — |
| 2014 | 60 | 2 | 23 | 44 |
| 2013 | 42 | 3 | 21 | 1 |
| — | — | — | — | — |
Can you handle giving up 21 and 23 points per game?
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If he can do that then yes!
I know he’ll be an upgrade over our last DC because even my grandmother is more aware about situational football than he was, but the question is, are there any upgrades available over Gibbs?
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Well if CMA is going to evaluate Gibbs record the past few years defensively then Gibbs has FAILED miserably …
Last 3 years TT’s record is 5 - 7 … 6 - 7 losing their bowl game to a G5 school … and this year 5 - 7 losing their last five games in a row …
NO WAY to sugarcoat that with ah Mary Poppins spoonful of sugar … yet most here want to bring him aboard and look the other way hoping he returns to the days of glory here …
Opie no doubt WANTS TO BE CERTAIN he is not bringing another disaster DC on board and Gibbs recent record may NOT be giving him that assurance …
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xsmith, I am not saying he will come back in and get that right of way, nor am I saying that he will replicate what he did here in '13 and '14, but I am saying that he improved a really, really awful defense at Tech. Getting good defensive players at Lubbock is harder than people think, P5 be damned.
I think he is a known commodity. Again I would prefer a Pelini, I like Spavital, but people are bashing what Gibbs did at Tech with out looking at where the Tech defense was before he got there, what type of recruits he could get to move to Lubbock, and how much we would have to pay him compared to some other candidates.
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And to your point they gave up 51 to OU, 14 to TCU, 17 to OSU, and actually 35 to WVU. Not all that bad and OU and WVU can score on just about anybody.