Post by tapsgator on Mar 1, 2023 11:05:10 GMT -5
I'm really struggling to get past this hire. When this is the best sunshine pumping propaganda GC can muster it doesn't help:
www.gatorcountry.com/feature/florida-hires-austin-armstrong-as-defensive-coordinator/
"In 2022, Southern Miss ranked 55th in total defense, allowing 367 yards per game, 10 more yards per contest than the previous season.
The Golden Eagles improved their run defense under Armstrong in 2022, allowing 139 yards per game on the ground, ranking 46th in the FBS. Their pass defense took a slight hit, allowing 228 yards per game, 26 more yards than the previous season."
Weirdly, that's a lie:
59 Southern Miss. 372.2
I have no idea why you would embellish by 5 yards and 4 spots, maybe the NCAA's website included a game that Gator Country decided they shouldn't count for some reason but it's odd to quote the wrong stats. Not like "Oh yeah the dude with 2 years of Sunbelt experience held a weak schedule to 367 yards and was 55th in the country, great hire. Over 370 and ranked 59? that would be a problem."
This is a shit hire. Period. No lipstick on the pig. It's the definition of insanity, repeating the same thing and expecting different results. I could make the argument that this is more treading water than giving Toney another year because at least Toney has now seen the difference in the speed of the game between the best football outside of the NFL and the Sunbelt conference. I follow this stuff way too closely, but I can name 5 guys who would have been better more qualified and better hires without opening Google. Doesn't mean it can't work. People get lucky all the time. Ed O won a national championship. Granted he hired asssistants who overhaul the approach and then got and stayed out of the way, but it does happen.
Bright side: if we can get lined up on defense next year it will be an improvement. Both games I saw we gave up huge plays at critical points because we were not lined up at all including one that followed a lengthy review and a commercial break. It was unbelievable. I'm not talking about changing alignment pre-snap or going from a base to nickel for passing downs, I'm saying that at least 8 snaps in both games we just didn't line up in our base defense. Guys were standing in random spots with theSir hands on their overly wide hips huffing and puffing. It was hard to miss because they were so damn big and visibly out of shape. So the bar is super low. Like unacceptable for a 7th grade team low. Which is actually amazing given that Napier's calling card in the Sunbelt was his attention to detail and disciplined approach.
At some point I'm going to have stop saying this, but I'm hoping that Austin Armstrong is the man to prove me wrong. Our coaching on the Defensive side of the ball can't get worse. I know I said it after Grantham, and I can admit I was wrong because last year despite having at various points Dexter, Cox, Dean, Torrence, Burney, Miller, Marshall, and I'm gonna say Kimber who will all play in the NFL by 2024 plus some other guys who were young but definitely have Sunday potential we didn't even show flashes. Depth was always going to be an issue because Mullen didn't recruit for his last year and a half. Napier did what he could with the transition class but it was an uphill battle especially since we left Mullen in the building to poison the well (strong move by our AD dream team), so he gets a pass. The #14 class in the country ain't going to cut it though.
www.gatorcountry.com/feature/florida-hires-austin-armstrong-as-defensive-coordinator/
"In 2022, Southern Miss ranked 55th in total defense, allowing 367 yards per game, 10 more yards per contest than the previous season.
The Golden Eagles improved their run defense under Armstrong in 2022, allowing 139 yards per game on the ground, ranking 46th in the FBS. Their pass defense took a slight hit, allowing 228 yards per game, 26 more yards than the previous season."
Weirdly, that's a lie:
59 Southern Miss. 372.2
I have no idea why you would embellish by 5 yards and 4 spots, maybe the NCAA's website included a game that Gator Country decided they shouldn't count for some reason but it's odd to quote the wrong stats. Not like "Oh yeah the dude with 2 years of Sunbelt experience held a weak schedule to 367 yards and was 55th in the country, great hire. Over 370 and ranked 59? that would be a problem."
This is a shit hire. Period. No lipstick on the pig. It's the definition of insanity, repeating the same thing and expecting different results. I could make the argument that this is more treading water than giving Toney another year because at least Toney has now seen the difference in the speed of the game between the best football outside of the NFL and the Sunbelt conference. I follow this stuff way too closely, but I can name 5 guys who would have been better more qualified and better hires without opening Google. Doesn't mean it can't work. People get lucky all the time. Ed O won a national championship. Granted he hired asssistants who overhaul the approach and then got and stayed out of the way, but it does happen.
Bright side: if we can get lined up on defense next year it will be an improvement. Both games I saw we gave up huge plays at critical points because we were not lined up at all including one that followed a lengthy review and a commercial break. It was unbelievable. I'm not talking about changing alignment pre-snap or going from a base to nickel for passing downs, I'm saying that at least 8 snaps in both games we just didn't line up in our base defense. Guys were standing in random spots with theSir hands on their overly wide hips huffing and puffing. It was hard to miss because they were so damn big and visibly out of shape. So the bar is super low. Like unacceptable for a 7th grade team low. Which is actually amazing given that Napier's calling card in the Sunbelt was his attention to detail and disciplined approach.
At some point I'm going to have stop saying this, but I'm hoping that Austin Armstrong is the man to prove me wrong. Our coaching on the Defensive side of the ball can't get worse. I know I said it after Grantham, and I can admit I was wrong because last year despite having at various points Dexter, Cox, Dean, Torrence, Burney, Miller, Marshall, and I'm gonna say Kimber who will all play in the NFL by 2024 plus some other guys who were young but definitely have Sunday potential we didn't even show flashes. Depth was always going to be an issue because Mullen didn't recruit for his last year and a half. Napier did what he could with the transition class but it was an uphill battle especially since we left Mullen in the building to poison the well (strong move by our AD dream team), so he gets a pass. The #14 class in the country ain't going to cut it though.