😅🤣😂 the U
- Thread starter joeydavid
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They didn’t push him out. He’s an elite FL recruiter. I’m sure they would have kept him on as a LB Coach and Co-DC, and let him keep being a recruiting gun for hire.
He just wanted more than that I guess.
As opposed to the 64 year old Kevin Steele who did such a great job last year.
Honestly, with as fast as Miami hired their new DC, I think Steele was maybe on his way out even if he didn’t leave. Or at least was going to be demoted or something.
And I think for the very reason you allude to.
I don’t think Steele is so far removed from those elite Auburn defenses that it’s a lock. But his last defense at Auburn was bad. Then he’s out of the game a year. And then his first defense back is also bad.
And Elliot on the Cover 3 podcast was talking about how Steele didn’t even recruit at Miami.
He’s kinda getting to washed territory as well. And there are rumors that he’s only a one year place holder for Pruitt.
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His defense at Marshall last year was absolutely elite. Like even adjusting for level of competition, all of the analytics have it as a Top 10 defense.
But it’s also a kind of new age defensive system that I would want to see a little more of a sample size before making the hire. Let it play out at Tulane for a year or 2 first. Not that it won’t work, but it’s risky.
Pruitt is untouchable in NCAA limbo. Most think he's headed for a lengthy show cause.
Cristobal totally whiffed on his first major staff hires at the U and is already being forced to shake up his staff. He's a total clown.
Makes sense, I haven’t a clue about Strong. You think that all might be something they sort out before hiring the new DC though given he was the co-DC (if in name only). Looks bad.
I wouldn’t say that.
His QB coach left for an OC job.
His DC left to go be the DC at one of the two premier schools in America that everybody would say yes to.
And his LB coach left because he presumably wants to be a DC.
The OC was the big whiff I’d hold against him. I’m not sure the others are evidence of anything.
Based on how quickly the DC was hired, it probably was already sorted out.
Cristobal takes like months to hire his coordinators. Look at last year where there was like a running countdown clock going for his DC and OC. And he still hasn’t hired his new OC. He takes a comically long time.
I doubt he hired this guy in less than 24 hours. This was probably in the works for a while now, and Strong probably knew that new blood was coming in and he wouldn’t be the guy.
I think Strong is just throwing a fit. Coaches being divas isn’t new.
And Charlie Strong just quit as co-DC. Says he found out about the new DC via ESPN and was never interviewed for the job. The job he held and hadn’t been fired from, lol.
Cristobal seems like a real piece of work. Why wouldn’t he get rid of the current DC before hiring a new one?
Strong decides to leave Hurricanes over DC snub
University of Miami assistant coach Charlie Strong told ESPN on Thursday that he would not return to the Hurricanes' staff in 2023 after being passed over for the defensive coordinator job.www.espn.com
Miami didn't fire Manny until after Mario was hired.
I don't think everyone is knocking on Saban's door to be his DC. And I'm quite sure Kevin Steele wasn't in high demand. That's a total retread familiarity hire by Saban.
Just seems a risky hire for a school that's been throwing money around on staff. It's not like he's some young dude that's been moving up the ranks. He's been toiling at lower level schools for a long time.
I think almost everybody and their mom takes the job if offered. It’s a springboard to other jobs.
But as I said, I think Steele is getting to too old, washed out territory. I’m just not ready to say that for sure yet. And I don’t think Saban and Alabama stealing your coordinator is evidence of how bad a hire it is.
Yeah. But he’s not super old either. And good is good.
F+ has his ‘21 defense ranked 46 in his first year at Marshall.
And then in ‘22 the defense ranked 10.
And the ‘22 offense ranked 120. Dude basically carried them to 9 wins because they struggled to even get first downs.
There are no analytic rankings that I can find for McNeese State.
Western Kentucky was 78 his first year. 64 his second year. But they were 110th and 120th the two years before he got there.
So he’s been pretty damn good overall.
The sample size just isn’t big. And I don’t think he was running that weird defense he ran at Marshall, that long.
That’s the risky part.
The product on the field says it was a bad hire.
The Bama DC job isn't a springboard for a 60 year old retread whose only stint as a HC was a spectacular failure.
Steele is a total familiarity hire by Saban.
I can understand Strong's pov. He should have been informed by the HC.
Imagine this happening at your job? Let's say you are Senior Director of Bulls*it and then VP of Bulls*it leaves. You might be interested in the VP position but two days later a new VP is hired and you hear about it though the grapevine. That would be annoying.
But... Strong is an excellent recruiter with Florida ties. Pitt should consider bringing him on if doable.
Imagine this happening at your job? Let's say you are Senior Director of Bulls*it and then VP of Bulls*it leaves. You might be interested in the VP position but two days later a new VP is hired and you hear about it though the grapevine. That would be annoying.
But... Strong is an excellent recruiter with Florida ties. Pitt should consider bringing him on if doable.
It could be a bad hire. I said as much discussing Steele. I think he is kind of getting into washed territory.
But there’s two kinds of “bad hires.
1. Scott Frost to Nebraska. That is only a bad hire in retrospect.
2. Herm Edwards to ASU. Where everybody laughed and knew it was only the kind of hire you make when you have no idea what you’re doing.
I don’t think Steele is an Edwards type hire even today. As I don’t think it’s 100% a lock that he’s washed. And Saban isn’t hiring him, familiarity or not, if that is 100% apparent.
So it’s not a hire I’m going to hold against Cristobal, as evidence that he doesn’t know how to make hires. Especially when he has a long history of hiring guys that become HCs. He’s made pretty good hires. Which is why he’s had some success as a guy that isn’t exactly a coaching genius.
Gattis is probably the one hire he made where it didn’t seem like it was a great fit in real time. Bunching the box and playing big boy football probably wasn’t going to work in South Florida.
I think being informed about the exact hire is unnecessary.
Being informed that you aren’t going to be the hire, probably is necessary.
But to believe Strong didn’t know he wasn’t going to be the guy, regardless of who the guy was, you’d have to believe Cristobal made a quick hire at DC.
And that’s just not believable. He just doesn’t hire like that. He *still* hasn’t hired an OC, even after my post a few days ago saying he hasn’t yet hired one.
Dude hires at an absolute joke pace. So bringing in new blood at DC was probably in the works for a while. And I doubt the defensive staff would have been ignorant of that.
It's really important to communicate with your staff about these things. "Charlie you have a lot of experience but I'm looking for a DC with a difference set if experiences..." You'd think he would have learned something from Saban. Cristobal must think he is above it all, and with being related to Miami's biggest donor, he probably doesn't have to answer to anyone. Only going to end badly.
Either way, he had to replace both coordinators after one year. That's not a good start on the hiring front.
And I still think the new DC hire is a head scratcher. I don't think Miami needs to get creative with defensive alignment to mask a lack of athletes or talent. They should have that in spades.
I don’t think that’s necessarily the reason for it.
It’s like Kirby Smart saying his defense plays the pass on every down in today’s game, and then is taught to react if the other team happens to run.
Now Smart does that out of his traditional defensive alignments.
But the next evolution of defense is going to both personnel and alignments that are actually based on that premise.
We already see that with teams ditching the OLB and going to a hybrid.
I don’t think it’s a talent issue. Those tend to be bend-don’t-break schemes. This is the opposite of that. So it fits Miami in that you’re right, with the talent they should be able to get, they should be attacking with their scheme.
What Marshall ran is just Kirby Smart’s mentality actually put to scheme. And that will probably be the norm across all programs at some point, regardless of talent.
Really, based on how bad Miami was in pass defense last year, the biggest concern for them, at least as it relates to next year, is are they even talented enough to run this DB heavy scheme?
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