Black Shoe Diaries

Keep posting these

They’re totally making your argument.

speedomike - January 10, 2012 reply

It has nothing to do with my argument.

Well whatever your point

The opinions of message board dolts with NWO girls in their sig don’t hold a lot of weight with me. Doesn’t mean I’m not skeptical of Roof though.

speedomike - January 10, 2012 reply

Hahaha

Trying the optimist's argument,

Roof didn’t have Larry Johnson and Ron Vanderlinden as position coaches.

CvilleLion - January 9, 2012 reply

I believe that O'Brien will make the D better...

…he is a tactical genius. He is a film junkie! He said in his press conference that he will prepare for every game. What I gather from that is we won’t be seeing the same vanilla schemes every game but that he will change per game. I think having LJ and Vandy will secure things and shore it up.

mtibus - January 9, 2012 reply

What do you expect a new coach to say?

“I am going to be worse than the guys before me. We will be at a tactical disadvantage, because I don’t ever study film.”

A little less credulous would do you a lot of good.

M1EK - January 9, 2012 reply

I neglected to say...

that this was a direct quote from Trent Dilfer (take with a grain of salt). He said, “Bill O’Brien is the best tactical mind in the NFL.” Take it FWIW.

mtibus - January 9, 2012 reply

MAGIC FORCIER?!?!?!

OH you said FORCE-FIELD. I was waaaaaay off.

Kunza - January 10, 2012 reply

Obligatory

i like dilfer

he knows he wasn’t a good pro qb but he puts in a ton of effort at making insightful comments and doesn’t just make dumb sweeping statements like most of the people on espn.

424E. - January 10, 2012 reply

exactly, one of the better analyzers out there

Why did I Graduate? - January 10, 2012 reply

I was referring to

this:

He said in his press conference that he will prepare for every game.

M1EK - January 11, 2012 reply

so I know we aren't supposed to make personal attacks

But, in general, you seem like a big tool.

Haha,

emm one, best comment by you ever. I love when people take broad press conference statements at face value. “I expect us to eventually win a championship.” We’re going to be BCS champions!

Dang, M1EK

I liked it better when I disagreed with you on everything. Now that I agree with you on everything, I’m forced to re-think my entire existence.

Good call re: the Bills WRs

I have several friends who are big Buffalo fans, so just through crossover with them, I’ve ended up following the team pretty closely over the years. The Bills under Chan Gailey have done an admirable job of developing diamond-in-the-rough types on offense. If this guy is even partially responsible for the growth of guys like Johnson and Nelson, I’m excited to have him aboard.

PSU_Buch - January 9, 2012 reply

I think you're right

on this. Hixson seems to be doing a pretty good job of coaching up our receivers in Buffalo. I think he’s a good ‘get’ for your staff.

KenK - January 9, 2012 reply

Ted Roof

LOL. That guy is terrible.

I find the Roof hiring baffling

O’Brien was making smart moves that people would really get behind with LJ Sr. and Vanderlinden. Bringing in some other NFL guys for offense is also something a decent amount of PSU fans would like – maybe a risk, but one that a lot of fans have been dying to see for a long time. When it’s time to pick a DC, though, it seems like smart moves would be 1. bring in someone with a good resume if available, 2. if not, bring in a lesser known guy who is up and coming, maybe he could be buoyed by the experience of the retained PSU guys, or 3. if none of the above, promote LJ Sr. or Vanderlinden.

I do not support 4. bring in a guy that has multiple failures on his resume and was, most recently, about to make a lateral move from a team that won the NC to a team that is not very good, mainly because his was failing hard at his AQ school.

PSUCharmas - January 9, 2012 reply

Roof really is terrible.

There are no two ways about it. He was invited to leave Auburn.

One thing I can definitely glean from Auburn's defensive stats from last year:

Florida and South Carolina had shitty offenses.

South Carolina's offense improved once Garcia was tossed.

They played that game without lattimore as well

But as shitty as that offense was they still tore up Nebraska.

carolinaeasy - January 10, 2012 via Android app reply

Ted Roof - makes me start thinking of Red Roof Inn jokes

nuker77 - January 9, 2012 reply

or the blood hound gang....

We dont need no water let the mother f’er burn

PSU_sincebirth - January 9, 2012 reply

Ted Roof- Not only looks like Graham Spanier

But also looks a little bit like an influential high school booster:

Um

Mr. Rosewater - January 10, 2012 reply

We should totally hire Buddy Garrity

Particularly if he brings his daughter Lyla with him.

Or really any of the woman from that show.

Yeah

not liking them. Ugh. Especially DC. Big mistake.

Them?

Hixon and McWhorter are great hires. The jury is out on what Roof can do with a staff that has LJ and Vandy on it, and Barnhart isn’t a coach. I’d say we’re doing pretty well so far, with only two spots left.

Roof's defenses at Auburn were awful.

And that was with absolutely stellar talent.

The defense that kept Oregon to 18 points?

I’m not arguing one way or another, as I don’t have enough evidence yet. But I know for a fact a Ted Roof defense has never had LJSr. and Vandy on staff.

One game.

I see your Oregon – 18 & raise you a Utah State – 38.

Two different seasons, though.

And no Nick Fairly on the ’11 team (plus, I think they lost a lot of other starters from the MNC defense, but I could be wrong). He was an absolute beast for them in ’10, and against Oregon in particular.

I am aware they are different seasons. Roof's defense was also shit in '09.

And I do not care if they lost Jesus on defense, no SEC team should ever surrender 38 to Utah State. As I said, Roof was invited to leave Auburn…that’s pretty telling.

Yeah, I'm just trying to find something good in the stats,

and it’s not easy. Their ‘10 stats weren’t exactly awesome, either. And ’09 might have been worse than ’11.

No Nick Fairly on Penn State either

Kyle_Martin - January 9, 2012 reply

True, not anymore.

Still kind of fit that role this year, and Hill is pretty good, but he’s not Fairley (or Still).

Not like

Still was lighting up the field prior to this year. Hill is a good football player.

AriesGD - January 9, 2012 reply

Right. That's why I said "this year" with Still.

I agree that Hill is a good player, but I don’t think he’s as good as Still yet. Although, if he makes the kind of improvement Still did between ’10 and ’11, he might end up being better.

icavalera - January 10, 2012 reply

"One game."

…is all that matters when it’s for a national championship.

No?

Mike Pettigano - January 10, 2012 reply

Yeah, because there's never a season repeat mach in the MNC

EVERY GAME MATTERS!

letsgopsu - January 10, 2012 reply

Unless you play in the SEC

I don't know about stellar

Just because they’re in the SEC doesn’t make them stellar. Nick Fairley was the best player on their D and looks like a lazy,slow POS in Detroit.

Steebo4PSU - January 9, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Yeah, I think "absolutely stellar" is a bit of an overstatement.

Great hires?

Ehhh, I’m glad to see you’re drinking some kool aid since you are normally kind of a downer, but I am not sol on any of them.

ANY of them? I can see not being sold on Roof, but why the others?

Especially McWhorter and Hixon?

One thing I especially like about Hixon

Not sure if it can all be attributed to him, but the Bills WRs were all good blockers too. Unselfish cats.

Hixon seems like he has potential.

McWhorter has some good experience, and could be a real steal. Or he could be as bad as a lot of Texas fans seemed to think he was, and why he was fired.

To be fair

McWhorter wasn’t the only offensive assistant Texas fans wanted to see gone. Greg Davis and his horizontal offense were right there too.

And I do think Texas fans are crazy

So there might be potential there. I am just not excited about these hires, but of course I hope I am completely wrong.

And

I think McWhorter was a victim of Mack Brown trying to save his skin after his ‘coach in waiting’ left.

Steebo4PSU - January 9, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Normally a downer?

Go figure.

An NFL WR coach that has seen some good positional success, along with a 9-year coach at UT who was forced out after some shitty play by the entire team? I guess I’ll take them. I mean, I heard Saban and Miles turned the positions down, so someone has to coach these guys.

Yeah IMO

you were noramlly a downer when it came to the team under the previous staff. So I am glad to see optimism from you, but I just can’t get excited until I see a good product on the field.

Well I'm not going to argue opinions on my opinions.

I can see how these might not seem like sexy hires. I would have loved for BOB to hire Kirby Smart, Darren Perry, and Mario Cristobal on staff. I’ll also reserve judgment until I see these guys. McWhorter could turn out to be a dud. But he could also turn out to be awesome. He’s already got a leg up in that he’s the only OL coach we have.

I am not trying to be ridiculous

as you are trying to get with your Kirby Smart, Saban, Miles crap. Just stating I would rather have seen coaches with some success at this level, without questionable pasts. McWhorter and Hixson come closest to that, but we’ll see.

newenglandnittanylion - January 9, 2012 reply

I'm being as positive as I can about all the news coming out

But I am really down on the Ted Roof hire.

Yes, thanks to Vandy and LJ, we’ll have good recruits who’ve been coached by the best at DL and LB. That may be enough to keep our defense from being terrible. But is there any evidence to suggest that Roof is capable of consistently coordinating an effective defense? Looking at his track record, I’m seeing a lot of evidence that he’s a bad coach.

"The jury is out"?

Ehhh that’s a little too kind.

Kyle_Martin - January 9, 2012 reply

Roof is wait and see

He gets maligned for the Auburn defenses, but when he was at Minnesota he was good. He’ll also have LJsr & Vandy, along with better talent, and whoever we bring in at DB coaches (Darren Perry? I dunno)

the rest are good hires.

He will not have better talent than was available to him at AU.

Uhhhh.... yeah he will, defensively

No, he won't.

Because y'know, we don't have more players than Nick Fairley & Neiko Thorpe

Auburn's recruiting classes are superior to ours.

And yes, you’re going to fight me about stars, but that’s really the only way to evaluate starting talent.

Bradley and his staff have done an excellent job developing the talent that they have brought it, but if you think they’ve had more talent that Auburn on D, you’re mistaken.

Now we have to rely upon roof to maintain that same level of development that Bradley achieved.

Actually, the argument I would make is stars

Auby gets a lot of highly ranked offensive players. Defensive, it’s not that high.

If you look at the guys Tim Roof had, he didn’t have the # of 4 star LB’ers that we had, or DL.

Not true.

Roof started in 2009, so lets start with the recruiting class from 2005 and work our way up to 2011, since those are the players he would have had available. Focusing on 4*+ defenders…

2005: AU – 5; PSU – 4
2006: AU – 6; PSU – 8
2007: AU – 4; PSU – 6
2008: AU – 4; PSU – 4
2009: AU – 3; PSU – 4
2010: AU – 7; PSU – 4
2011: AU – 6; PSU – 3

Total – AU – 35; PSU – 33

So AU’s defensive recruiting garnered slightly better talent, resulting in far worse defensive results.

Ah, for what it's worth, I only went form 05' to 09', because a lot of those guys from 10' & 11' didn't see the field

Hopefully, LJSr & Vandy can keep roof from destroying the D.

I think we can both agree on that.

Alternative results

From Rivals, defensive * averages for PSU and Auburn from ‘07-’11
‘11 – PSU 3.43, Auburn 3.23
’10 – PSU 3.50, Auburn 3.57
’09 – PSU 3.09, Auburn 3.08
’08 – PSU 3.22, Auburn 3.07
’07 – PSU 3.56, Auburn 3.54
Pretty even, slight * edge to PSU overall.
**
As a side note, from ’07-’11, Auburn signed 143 (28.6/yr) recruits to PSU’s 97 (19.4/yr). Our highest year (‘09) only yielded 27, not even Auburn’s average. I would hope that w/ 9 extra recruits per year a team (any SEC team) would be able to hide their recruiting/evaluation failures.

emccomb1 - January 9, 2012 reply

Did you factor in the Athletes for AU that were recruiting to play D?

Recruited, that is.

I didn't take the time to figure them all out

If there were some I was sure of (PSU or Auburn) I did factor them in, or remove them from the list in some cases because a D player may have moved to O.
If I wasn’t sure, I would take the average of the athletes and split them half O and half D as a “guess.” So if there were 4 Athletes, two 3* and two 4* I counted them as two 3.5 stars on D, or one 3 and one 4.

emccomb1 - January 11, 2012 reply

how many

Recruits decommitted when Chizick was hired I heard the explosion from here when he got the AU job?

Steebo4PSU - January 9, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Oh great, A debate about stars

/flashbang gif

psuphysicist - January 10, 2012 reply

TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFF!!!!!

Dr.TobiasFunke - January 9, 2012 reply

Rusted!

newenglandnittanylion - January 9, 2012 reply

Sundae!

Hixon and McW=awesome

Bernhardt and Roof=terrible.

LJ and Vandy will put the talent on the field; I just hope Roof doesn’t screw it up. Does he have blackmail on BOB or something?

newenglandnittanylion - January 9, 2012 via Android app reply

Didn't BOB work under Roof at Duke?

the scary part

Auburn to UCF is not a laterial…its a demotion. Pays to have friends

PSU_sincebirth - January 9, 2012 reply

To me that is an insult to LJ and Vanderlinden...........and Bradley.

These guys have had top rated defenses many, many times. How many DLs and LBs they coached are playing on Sundays? I hope I m wrong, but I can see trouble on the defensive horizon. I think LJ and Vanderlinden may have trouble taking orders fom a guy like that.

run4peach - January 9, 2012 reply

Agree completely

Plus I don’t like anyone associated with the cesspool that is Aurburn athletics coming to Penn State.

It's not an insult to Bradley at all.

From all indications, Bradley had no interest in being the DC. Even Derry said that Bradley was only interviewed for HC.

Chris Grovich - January 9, 2012 reply

I disagree...............

When Bradley was talked to Saturday night, he let it be known that he wasn’t let go, that he just wasn’t getting the head coaching job. Also, when he issued his media interpreted “goodbye” statement, he quickly pointed out that it wasn’t a goodbye. To me, indications were that he would have stayed on. The way he talks about Penn State, I think he wanted to stay. I think he might be back someday.

Bradley's said several times that he only wants to be an assistant for Joe Paterno

I don’t think he’s willing to be a DC anywhere (I know RUTS thinks he might end up in Iowa — which seems not only like a lateral move, but also a stomach punch to PSU (which seems out of character)).

Bradley didn’t get the head coach job here; he’s going to take a HC job somewhere else soon. That’s the best future for him, much better than going back to being DC on the staff for a job he arguably deserved. No one wants to remain in place after they’re passed over, and it’s best for all parties if he moves on.

I agree with everything

except that would require him sitting around with no job for the next 12 months, something I can’t see from the man. He’d be better off going to another program, being a DC, getting exposure, and then pursuing HC for 2013.

MattPSU02 - January 10, 2012 reply

He's not a 34 year old assistant who needs to stay fresh to be relevant

After all the BS from the scandal and the stress, not to mention already having a resume/reputation, I’d say the guy could probably use a sabbatical for one year. Not to mention being off a coaching staff lets him sit back and wait for mid-season firings so he can choose where/when he wants to jump back to an HC position.

I don't think he could have brought Bradley in

He would always be looking over his shoulder. I would be afraid the locker room would be split with. I will give BO’B figuring out who he wants. It makes sense to bring in people he has dealt with. I feel he kept the 2 best coaches at PSU (besides JoePA) he could. Those 2 positions didn’t need a upgrade or anything. I feel everything else has. I want to see what defense scheme he brings and maybe we will see some blitzes.

jetskijoe - January 9, 2012 reply

my only hope

Is that LJ and Vandy here here for longer than this year, and they weren’t used to placate fans and shore up this years class.

Steebo4PSU - January 9, 2012 via iPhone app reply

I'd be curious to know whether either Vandy or LJ were offered the DC spot

Because it seems kind of natural that one of them would be promoted, no?

Not if BOB intended to bring in Roof, someone with whom he is comfortable.

Do we KNOW for sure he's been brought in as DC?

Or is this speculation. I know he will be o staff, but where’s the report of him as DC?

There aren't any official reports of hires.

But he’s the DC, per pretty much every beat reporter. Two spots left…

could he be DB coach?

possibility?

No, he's the defensive coordinator.

I think a lot of it has to do with two simple things: 1) BOB is very familiar with Roof, and 2) Roof has HC experience that BOB doesn’t have.

That's two former D1 HC's on the defensive staff already

so how about Friedgen?? Going for lucky number 3??

All ACC incidentally

Third would be on offense, obviously

I would be shocked if he ever considered taking an OC position.

really? He's 64..... you think there will be other schoolsknocingdownhisdoor?

... other schools knocking down his door (I meant)

Yea, the Fridge rumors were shot down pretty quickly.

Rumor has it BOB might assume OC duties and not even name an OC. There are two spots left, with an OC and DB coach open. If there is no OC, that means DB and dedicated special teams coach, or split DB (like the previous regime).

I didn't see the Fridge rumors shot down?

what about QB?

do you think BOB will be OC & QB coach??

McGloin already said BoB would be the QB coach.

BMAN13 - January 10, 2012 reply

I know

which is why this confuses me so much.

Great

2-24 at Duke.

He wasn't there long enough to change Duke

Two years isn’t enough to turn around that program. That’s like asking a captain to turn a air craft carrier around in two miles after going full throttle in the other direction for days.

Dienhart went on record with it earlier on twitter

And said he was hired as DC

Alright, well let's hope the Happy Valley defensive air is a life changer for him

Although he had good numbers during his last nrief visit to the Big Ten

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_BOB

New staff Wu-Tang names

Bill O’Brien: B-loved Genius
Charles London: Mad Swami
Stan Hixon: Lazy-assed Bandit
Mac McWhorter: E-ratic Menace
John Strollo: Midnight Killah
Ted Roof: Foolish Bastard

Courtesy of http://www.mess.be/inickgenwuname.php

speedomike - January 9, 2012 reply

I think BOB's Wu-Tang name would have to be

Killer BOB

I’ve been thinking that ever since the BOB nickname started popping up around here

newenglandnittanylion - January 9, 2012 reply

ODB

Old Dirty BOB?

moosepsu - January 9, 2012 via Android app reply

No Bobby Digital?

No BOBity, No Doubt

So Roof is our new JayPa?

speedomike - January 9, 2012 reply

pretty much

Guy who most people dont like, but some defend, brought in not because of his accomplishments but because of his personal connection with the head coach.

THIS.

Roof. Rhymes with “OOF”.

Ibleedblueandwhite - January 9, 2012 reply

/actually has "oof" in it...

Kyle_Martin - January 11, 2012 reply

Roof is the first hire that makes me nervous

I feel good about the rest of them, but Roof is a serious question mark. I did read somewhere that his defense at Auburn was fairly highly ranked by some of the more advanced stats… but that just feels like I’m trying to sell myself on it.

I was at Michigan for grad school during the RR era and this feels like the Greg Robinson hire. God, I hope I’m wrong.

i'm (unfortunately) at that terrible place for grad school right now

did you actively follow these clowns?

NuclearLion - January 9, 2012 reply

Yeah

I couldn’t turn down another chance to go to college games every Saturday. Plus MGoBlog puts out some great articles and breakdowns that sucked me in. It’s great in depth coverage you don’t really get anywhere else.

That being said, it was awesome to stand in the middle of the student section in all my Penn State gear while DC 17 torched their secondary with a flamethrower.

Ibleedblueandwhite - January 9, 2012 reply

that's fantastic

as long as you keep your priorities straight lol. the 2005 game completely destroyed me with respect to being able to root for them.

i had some of my penn state buddies up here for the UM/Minny game. We left at halftime to go downtown to watch PSU scrape it out against indiana. i’ve been less than impressed with the big house thus far, but i guess i should go to a big time game before i trash it too much…

NuclearLion - January 9, 2012 reply

The big house is not beaver stadium

It never gets that loud, but with the new press boxes it’s much better then it used to be. They also have some of the dumbest in game traditions like shaking your keys on third down because it’s a “key play.” I always wanted to shout at every to put their keys in their goddamn pockets and make some noise. Despite that, big games are pretty awesome and the ND game in ‘09 was one of the best I’ve ever been to.

Priorities are firmly in place, it’s just nice to have a second team to cheer for on a Saturday, even if it is those douchers in yellow and blue.

Ibleedblueandwhite - January 9, 2012 reply

To be fair, Beaver Stadium didn't used to get all that loud, either,

before the club section and luxury boxes were added. The noise is held in the stadium much better now.

icavalera - January 10, 2012 reply

What?

Little Brown Jug is always a big game in my book.

Truck O'Saurus - January 10, 2012 via Android app reply

Awesome

And here I thought the TicketCity Bowl was a complete waste of time and a disaster.

Instead, it was Penn State fans’ chance to see the future! We are…the Houston Cougars.

Jitterbug - January 9, 2012 reply

Oh, no!

GERG’d!

esteele - January 9, 2012 reply

Dude, Roof is fine.

He gave up 30 for an SEC team. That’s like -7 for a Big Ten team.

MainLion - January 9, 2012 reply

And obviously the backups

which were better, couldn’t get in the game.

On the bright side

everyones 40 time dropped .3 seconds due to a DC that coached SEC SPEEEEED

Mo Humphrey - January 9, 2012 reply

Is Roof definitely being offered DC? Or is there a possibility of a lower asst position?

Was Roof Auburn's scapegoat?

Isn’t Auburn head coach Gene Chizik a defensive specialist? Wasn’t he a defensive coordinator at Auburn and Texas before taking the head job at Iowa State and then coming back to Auburn?

Don’t you think Chizik has a god amount of input on Auburn’s defensive game planning and maybe should shoulder the bulk of the blame? Chizik knows that Auburn has fired successful coaches before. Roof may just be his sacrificial lamb.

Just food for thought…

ptm1132 - January 9, 2012 reply

It's a really interesting point.

Chizik was a D coach all the way through, DC at four places before heading to Iowa State.

Chizik

…is in as much trouble as a coach one year removed from a title can be.

This isn’t meant to defend Roof, exactly, as I don’t know enough to do that, but there’s an increasing sense that Chizik is casting about. His OC and top offensive player just bolted for … Arkansas State. This adds to the feel that people are trying to GTFO.

tuscaloosalion - January 10, 2012 reply

Agreed

Yeah, I'm willing to wait and see on this one.

I’m not sure there was an obvious DC candidate to be had here. BOB probably trusted LJ and Vandy enough to remain as stud recruiters and position coaches, but not enough to make either of them DC. We’ll see. If this means there are lots of 35-31 games in our future, pass the Pepto.

I'm going to assume 31 points

is our total for the season.

I'm really curious now. I thought LJ and Vandy was BOB showing genius. Then the Roof hire looked like him showing stupidity and nepotism.

Is it possible there’s a blend of them at work here? That he wanted to bring in Roof partly out of familiarity and loyalty, but didn’t give Roof free reign to choose assistants? Instead he said, “Well we’re keeping LJ and Vandy because it’s smart football and it’s smart politics. Now Mr. Roof, if you want in on this, come on down. These guys will be your assistants because they are awesome.”

I think BOB realized...

it would ease the fears of a lot of fans if he retained some of the defensive staff. Plus, he has to acknowledge their ability to recruit. Bringing in his own guy that he will be able to control allows Roof to act as a buffer between BOB and “the old guard,” practically ensuring that he’ll still be able to run the defense the way he likes (as opposed to rigidly conforming to the old way) but keeping the upside of having those guys around.

Let’s face it guys/gals, we’re going to see changes on both sides of the ball. So long as we continue to have very talented DL and Linebackers (and good coaches for them), a little change might not really hurt anything. Especially when it comes to defending against pass-heavy offenses that definitely showed this year they can torch us. There’s no way we get a NC without having a defense that can also defend the pass very well, regardless of significantly upgrading the offense.

BNittsDeMilo - January 10, 2012 reply

Awesome...awesome...awesome...WTF?

Those were my reactions to O’Brien’s coaching hires. I’ll be honest though. I will give O’Brien the benefit of the doubt here. Maybe he knows something we don’t. Entirely possible and highly likely. Adding Roof as the DC is definitely questionable at best. Obviously retaining Scrap was never in the cards but I have to think O’Brien could have done better. Who knows, maybe Roof and O’Brien will field better defenses because it’s what Penn State is known for. Getting the recruits to play defense won’t be an issue. Though Urban at tOSU certainly doesn’t help. Like I said at the beginning, I’ll give it time and see how it goes, but I certainly don’t love this move. Considering BOB was smart enough to keep LJ and Vandy, he has earned a little grace from me.

EREX21 - January 9, 2012 reply

At this juncture

Seems to me Penn State went from being led by Scrap, to now being led by scraps.

Jitterbug - January 9, 2012 reply

Disappointing

I’ll reserve judgement, but I’d rather he’d just promote LJ.

reedjohnmiller - January 9, 2012 via mobile reply

If Roof performs as poorly as people think he might

I’m betting he’s gone in 1.5 years. I think his hire is more about having a guy with HC experience for BOB to lean on. After they get through the first year, if the D isnt performing to the level we’re used to , I can see PSU fans calling for his head, especially if we have LJ and Vandy on staff. One of those two could easily step up and fill that role.

Exactly

Again, it goes back to the inherent insanity of the situation. It’s bad enough that PSU had so little time to hire the replacement of a 46-year icon (and then took more time than it should have), but now, because of recruiting, BOB had DAYS to hire a DC. In the “real world” how many six figure high profile jobs are decided on in five days? He had to pick somebody he already knew.

I’m definitely nervous about this and it would not have been my first choice but I’m somewhat heartened by the stories I hear about Roof running “aggressive” defenses. Is that not true?

I guess it depends on what he means by aggressive

there’s aggressive defenses, and risk taking defenses. Agressive can mean you take shots when you can and attack the offense or it can mean “aggressive” as in taking risks with the D in the hopes that you force the offense into making a big mistake. Sortof like the Saints D when they won the Superbowl. It worked great that year due to having all the right players and a little bit of luck, but was terrible the next year because things didnt go their way. I personally prefer an aggressive D, but not one that takes big risks all the time.

Too bad Vic Koenning wasn't available

I think this is worth repeating...

we’re beating a guy up over one hire of a whole bunch that he had to make in an insanely quick timeframe. Insanely quick!

If we assume Bradley wasn’t willing to do it (or that he wanted something from the situation that PSU or BOB couldn’t provide), and we assume someone well qualified that he doesn’t know wouldn’t be willing to leave a good job (anyone qualified would have at least a decent job), then we’re immediately scraping the bottom of the barrel. Particularly when there’s no time to really work on negotiating a contract with a better hire.

There are so many things that go into W-L records and stats, especially when you start looking at different Universities. I’ll reserve my judgment of Roof until at least the end of the non-con schedule next season.

BNittsDeMilo - January 10, 2012 reply

I dont think this should be an excuse at all

every college HC has to make quick hires when filling out his staff. College football is year round with recruiting. It’s not like PSU is at more of a disadvantage than any other school. And part of how a HC should be judged is how well he can pick his staff. If you can’t select and manage a staff well enough, then maybe you shouldnt be a head coach.

I'd be shocked

if he didn’t lay out a transition plan during his interview. No way he gets hired and says, “crap, better find some coaches!”

Ted Roof?

Can anyone say, “Greg Robinson?”

rodney20 - January 9, 2012 via mobile reply

Don't say that.

reedjohnmiller - January 9, 2012 via mobile reply

On the plus side

I imagine O’Brien will be more willing to fire assistants that aren’t getting it done than Paterno ever was.

reedjohnmiller - January 9, 2012 via mobile reply

FTFY

I imagine O’Brien will be more willing to ~~fire~~ hire assistants that aren’t getting it done than Paterno ever was.

Really though

Other than Roof, I like all of the choices so far.

Agree

And even with Roof, I can give it some time. We’ll see. As long as LJ and Vandy are here, we’ll be ok.

iamrobk - January 9, 2012 reply

I'd like to see

What a defense can do that’s not on the field for 57 minutes a game.

Jitterbug - January 9, 2012 reply

The numbers are dumbfounding

PSU allowed 16.77/game in 2011, 12.44/gm if you allow that everything was a wash post-November 7th. Auburn? 28.92/gm. PSU allowed over 5.73 yards a play twice: Wiscy and Houston. Auburn allowed 5.73 yards per play per the whole season. War Damn Eagle allowed 1093 more yards on 18 more plays. I agree that maybe Vandy and LJ will help things, but why hire a guy to stay the hell out of the way? Maybe we can offer Zooker a spot on offense to do the same?

That's pretty ugly

I’m hoping Mahlzan’s funk spread can share some blame. I can’t think of a spread team with a good defense.

bscaff - January 9, 2012 via iPhone app reply

However

At Duke, GT, and Minnesota, he presided over massive year over year improvements. So that’s something. We’ll see.

reedjohnmiller - January 9, 2012 via mobile reply

I see what you did there...

Roof’s last year at Duke(2007), they allowed 5092 yards of total offense. In 2008, they allowed a svelte 4283. 2009 – 4423. Maybe that’s the theory: keep him for a couple years, then when he’s ousted, the numbers will really be massive year over year improvements.

Or did you mean just record-wise?

Because Duke fired him after losing 9 in a row. I understand its not a strong program, but its the ACC. What did he improve from? 1-22?

He wasn't there long enough to have chance to change much.

Also

If you type “fire ted” in google, 3 of the top 5 autocomplete results are: fire ted roof, fire ted roof auburn, and fire ted roof 2011. I guess the last 2 are so you don’t accidentally wind up on one of the Duke “fire ted roof” pages. Impressive

otisnixon'sparty - January 10, 2012 reply

To be fair, how many guys named Ted are even employed right now?

WorldBFat - January 10, 2012 reply

And that is why you need Eddie Van Halen

Cam WIlliams

Has gone to the dark side, committ to OSU now.

AriesGD - January 9, 2012 reply

Crap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm080jEt2hc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Recruits Voice Displeasure Over Departure of Coach Kenney

hope we don't lose any more from not keeping Coach Kenney

After the players met with new head coach Bill O’Brien, word got out that coach Bil Kenney, who coaches offensive tackles and tight ends, would not be retained.
This is most important because of his current recruiting duties. Kenney was the lead recruiter for standout commits 4 star LB Camren Williams and 4 star CB Armani Reeves. Their friend and future teammate, Jake Kiley broke the news about Kenney on Twitter, voicing his displeasure but later reaffirmed his commitment to PSU.
Reeves and Williams were quiet…and busy.

jebatzel - January 10, 2012 reply

Where do you see this?

Sekrah?

It was on PennLive.com yesterday

They’re not happy, but it also stated they should be visiting this weekend. I’m thinking it’s nothing LJ can’t smooth over, but Urbs is whispering poison in their ears.

Isn't OSU running out of scholarships?

I hate them so very very much.

I don't think there has been anything about an official decommit

which the OP seemed to say.

No there hasn't

UNPOSSIBLE.

Recruits love NFL experience.

I’m just bitter, ignore me for the moment.

FUnny how a defensive recruit who loved PSU

seemingly is wavering because an o-line coach many hated has left. I mean obviously that and the scandal, but just crazy how things work sometimes.

Yep.

http://eye-on-collegefootball.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/34291604

I have not seen anything yet that say he is going to OSU. His dad has said he will make his decision between OSU and PSU

Ben16 - January 10, 2012 reply

look for some good things on Ted Roof

Roof’s career is not without a number of high points. He helmed several top-30 defenses for O’Leary during Georgia Tech’s early-Aughts run as an ACC contender, sparked massive improvements for both the Blue Devils and Minnesota in one-year stints as defensive coordinator, and of course helped Chizik’s Tigers to the national title a year ago with the SEC’s No. 1 rush defense. Roof’s specialty has been shutting down run-first pro-style schemes, a plus when considering the presence of Wisconsin in the Nittany Lions’ division.

jebatzel - January 10, 2012 reply

It isn't that hard to improve on Duke and Minnesota

Improving on Penn State’s defense is a lot harder.

True, but hopefully he just won't make it worse.

When the standard is consistent top 10 to 15 defenses

Well, lets just say its best to not look down…

hires

Isnt the idea to find the best people for the positions and not give them to old colleagues who have never accomplished a thing? I am very worried already.

Jog73 - January 10, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Not quite

It’s not true that these guys haven’t accomplished anything. It just isn’t.

And given that the situation requires him to hire seven people in under a week, he has to hire people he knows he can get along with. It’s just another part of the inherent absurdity of how college football works.

Why can't we give the guy a chance.

From what I read about all the coaches they sound good. There are bad things and good things about coaches. Yes Bradley was a PSU guy but he had his flaws as a defensive coordinator. That is like saying JayPa was such a bad coach and we would laugh at the school that picks him up. I think Jay was a good coach not a great one but did good with what he had. We really don’t know who was running the Offense before but we do know Jay put in the spread HD that helped PSU win games. I say we wait to see what they can before we start firing them already.

It's hard to be patient

One way or the other, we won’t know what we’ve got for at least two years. Two years. That’s 730 days of stress and aggravation about something we can’t control. Everyone needs to relax.

No one has said, "Raise the Roof" yet

Mr. Rosewater - January 10, 2012 reply

The Roof, the Roof, the Roof is on fire

Doesn’t seem like the best fit for PSU, but with LJ and Vandy there it should be interesting. As good as PSU’s system was, its consistency was also its weakness. The zone forced teams to drive on PSU to beat it, but efficient QBs absolutely torched it. It was a D system that generally annihilated mediocrity, yet rarely matched up well to excellent offensive units.

If there’s a mix of continuity and new ideas, I’m on board. Not that it matters. The interesting part is LJ staying on with PSU. He’s been on the verge of leaving and was rumored to be retiring at the end of JoePa’s tenure. Very odd he sticks around at his same post following the regime change.

gcdyersb - January 10, 2012 reply

I can hear it now

Ted Roof, Ted Roof, Ted Roof should be fired………we don’t need no defense let the ……………score, score…………….score.

So here's a question to all the people who hate the DC hire

How many points a game would the PSU defense have given up if they played in the SEC every week?

I really liked Tom Bradley and I think the defense he ran was very successful, but I’m pretty sure it also struggled against better teams. I’m not saying this new DC is going to be a great hire, but I just think he deserves a chance….seeing how he has yet to coach 1 game for PSU so far.

GMac14 - January 10, 2012 reply

I think the argument is that he doesn’t deserve a chance because he doesn’t have a very good track record as a defensive coach. Still think he could do fine — that’s true of any hire — but I think people are worried. I understand it.

I also want to point out that this argument that “He has LJ and Vandy so this could be interesting” is a strange one to me. If that’s the best thing you can say about him I don’t understand why we’re saying that at all. You could say the same thing if I got the DC job, it wouldn’t make me qualified.

I’m just going to hope Chizik was actually running that defense, and that this guy is a very good team manager/stabilizer because of his HC experience, and that’s why he got the job. Otherwise this is just nepotism, as bad or worse than Joe letting Galen Hall stick around for all those years.

And for the sake of balance — I think the rest of these hires are great.

They're all A-B hires aside from roof

I was just hoping that for an offensive guy like BOB, he would go out and hire a solid, proven D-Coordinator or provided the opportunity to someone like Vandy or LJ, who have been part of building solid defenses. That to me is the first and most important hire you make.

It also makes me wonder if LJ and Vandy were retained more for PR than anything else. I mean, neither coach would be a detriment to the staff, and keeping them would help build good will amongst the fans. But the fact that you are limiting their roles on the team is a little worrisome to me that they could get cut out if BOB so desires.

I'm worried about the Roof hire

but I’m not sure who he was supposed to go out and get. He has had 3 days…in 2 months our search committee couldn’t find a solid, proven head coach. It makes absolute sense that he would call up people he knows to fill a staff on short notice.

I dont think time is an issue

staffs need to be assembled quickly in college all the time. If this is really the only defensive guy he knows, I understand, but I think you need to really consider all of your options and weigh them appropriately. In my personal opinion, LJ or Vandy would have been better options.

Also, I find it hard to believe that he’s the only defensive coach he knows that is capable to handle this position. My guess is that Roof was included because of his HC experience and to help BOB out from that end.

Yeah, but he doesn't know LJ and Vandy well enough to just hand them a DC job.

Hell, we don’t know if he’s just temporarily keeping LJ and Vandy for recruiting purposes, and planning to get his own guys in here next year.

He's gonna have to build up a lot of goodwill

if he wants to pull that off without causing a ruckus among the fans.

12-0 next year might not even be enough

That would just be shitty, and I would rather lose than be coached by shitty people.

It would be hard to fire anyone on any team after 14-0 (that's what we're talking about, right?)

Honestly it’ll play itself out. LJSR says over and over again he cares about the players he recruits and that’s why it’s hard to leave. But he’s getting older, and now that we have more than 2.5 coaches actually recruiting he might not feel so tied to the classes. Vandy has to at some point desire career elevation.

If BOB did this for PR reasons, which is almost certainly part of why he did it, it’ll play itself out without him having to get his hands dirty, I don’t think.

I agree with you, but my point

was that I would rather lose the “right way” then win the “wrong way”.

Depends how you define those things.

I agree, and with regard to what Chris said

I think at minimum, those who express the sentiment that winning “the right way” is the only way mean that they would not take an undefeated season and BCS championship game win if it meant we’d have Cam Newton pay-for-play rumors or sanctiontastic USC and OSU situations.

Some people might have even higher standards than that. For instance, as a PSU alum, I’ll be sorely disappointed if PSU football academics reputation drops from the pinnacle of D1 college athletics to merely “good.” But I doubt everyone in Central PA would be quite as worried about that after a 14-0 season.

If we do very well

he can’t fire them, because… we just did very well. Why mess with success?

If we do poorly and the D stunk, fans will be convinced it’s Roof’s fault. Plus, they’ll want BOB’s head.

Really, a no-win situation if he’s trying to buy a year before he brings in some dude he knows that used to coach a losing Duke team.

Risk Reward

Hire Ted Roof, a guy who has seemingly (I’ll be nice here) struggled at this position and level of play (Auburn) but you probably trust, or hire LJ or Vandy, who are both solid defensive coaches whom you might not trust completely. Thats basically what you have to weigh between those two options.

The only thing with the trust aspect though, is that its not in LJ or Vandy’s best interest to betray any trust BOB might put in them. He can easily fire those two, as they have no connection to BOB. They need to perform or else they are gone. The only way that situation would make sense is if both Vandy and LJ were aware that BOB plans to let them go after this season and agreed to be here to help with the transition/PR.

If he’s just keeping them around a season and planning to dump them once he gets what he wants from them, thats pretty shitty and would be a poor move on BOB’s part. And from all indications so far, he knows how precarious his situation is in and how easily the fans can and will turn against him, so I would doubt this to be the case.

Yeah, I could see them voluntarily leaving after this year

I hope not, but it would be understandable.

I don't know who else he would have known, defensively, that could fill that role

But its not like Chins was hanging around with top-flight defenses at Duke and GT. So maybe this really is the best he could do on short notice.

From a purely football point of view I think LJ or Vandy make sense, but then you’ve promoted a fan favorite to be the heir-apparent if you mess up. I wouldn’t be surprised if that factored into his decision.

Excellent point.

Thats true too

it again comes to risk/reward. If BOB fails as a coach, he’s gone anyways, regardless of what LJ’s role is. Though I would imagine if the O fails terribly, you could see LJ take over in his stead.

This also brings up the frightening prospect that if BOB should have to miss games or practices for any reason, Ted Roof is probably your acting head coach.

That does not mean you should hire someone just because you know them.

Especially if you are aware he has regularly performed his job poorly.

BOB clearly doesn't see it that way.

Maybe he’s wrong, but he obviously thinks Roof can do the job. He wouldn’t have gotten as far in his career as he has making bad choices.

That's my point

Time is an issue and it’s always an issue in these situations.

I don't think it's technically nepotism if they aren't related

And it’s hardly unique. All coaches hire the guys they know. It’s just a crappy part of the business necessitated by the constrained timeframes. It’s a lousy way to run an industry.

Galen Hall looked like a great hire at the time, it’s just that he didn’t really do much once he got here and shared O responsibilities with Jay and McQuery. It was just a mess. But the players speak highly of Galen’s wisdom and one on one teaching.

Well I meant it loosely, and we can call it Galenism if that works better. And I totally agree about the running a business point.

Galenism is fine.

Sounds good.

If you need me I’ll be building the term’s wiki page.

Would you rather Roof

have no LJ and Vandy? If the answer is no, then I’d say retaining them does make it interesting.

gcdyersb - January 10, 2012 reply

Does hiring Roof make that more interesting?

To me it’s not any different than being encouraged about this hire because he’s never coached in a 108k seat stadium before.

I’m coming off way more negative about this hire than I really feel — in fact I can see some of the logic in it, even if it’s not very exciting — but if the best thing we can say about him is that he has a built in advantage that applies equally to literally ever single person BOB could have hired for the job…well I guess that’s why this hire is sticking out compared to all the other empirically good ones.

One small point in Roof's favor

We’ve talked about the recruiting advantage of having a Super Bowl ring on BOB’s hand. Roof has a MNC ring as a DC.

PSU Mudder - January 10, 2012 reply

I also want to point out that this argument that "He has LJ and Vandy so this could be interesting" is a strange one to me. If that’s the best thing you can say about him I don’t understand why we’re saying that at all. You could say the same thing if I got the DC job, it wouldn’t make me qualified.

Why not? Many of us have seen companies succeed with the idiot son in charge, thanks to a really strong management team under him.

I say that half in jest. I have no idea if Roof is an “idiot son” type. I just don’t think that a defense with LJ and Vandy recruits and coaching will ever truly suck. At least not in the Big Ten.

CvilleLion - January 10, 2012 reply

He went from Auburn

to Central Florida. Our defense did ok against the national champs from the SEC this year. Actually the past two years.

His defense was terrible this year.

He was a running joke in SEC circles.

SEC Cirlces =/= The Vienna Circle

Just saying.
They tend to be a bit knee-jerk and irrational down there.

No more so than anyone else.

Ha ha ha ha ha

oh wait, you might be serious.

I graduated from PSU & a SEC school

Having first hand experience of both, I can say the fanbases are pretty similar when it comes to reacting to poor coaching.

Probably true

I wasn’t making a comparison. Just saying that the opinions of a bunch of Auburn fans on the internet are not Gospel.

As a PSU fan, I don’t have much first-hand experience with this sort of thing since firing Joe never seemed a credible threat during my lifetime (since 1972) and I never had any realistic expectation that Joe would fire Jay, Anderson, Hall, etc.

That's nice

but I will disagree and feel very confident about my position.

That's nice.

But, to the extent I can draw from my personal experience, you would be wrong.

I am sure you are used to it.

;-)

You being wrong?

Yes, yes I am. ;-) haha

Touche

you inbred hick!

Hahaha.

That would be bad for the Commonwealth, I’m a PA city boy.

Not sure who you disagree with

I think the fans in the south are a bit quicker to freak out simply because I think that, for the typical sports fan in the south, college football takes up a bigger part of their daily outrage output.

In Pennsylvania, fans can only devote so much of their total outrage toward Penn State. They have to save some for the Pirates, Eagles, Flyers, high school wrestling, yelling at kids to get off their lawn, Amish buggies slowing down traffic, and all sorts of stuff like that.

I am not saying that the SEC folks aren't more feverent...

But the belief that they’re quicker to overreact/react to perceived poor play/coaching is simply false. It just so happens to in many of those states, college football is all they have…so when they’re vocal about something, they’re REALLY vocal.

...that in many of those states...

Uhaul

Anywhere they show their opinions, SEC fans show how irrational and knee-jerk their reactions and opinions are.

Sometimes generalizations are right.

Meaning

In response to reedjohnmiller’s question I was disagreeing with uhaul and the above is my opinion, however I agree to disagree with the reasonable sir from south of the mason dixon line.

I take message board ramblings with a grain of salt, though I do find them to be entertaining.

Most fanbases are not accurately represented by those that take to screaming on the internet. There’s a serious difference between what we do on here (for the most part), and what I see on other message boards.

Of course that is true

and I would never judge an entire fanbase, or region, by snippets of the Finebaum show, unless of course it is conveniant.

The Finebaum people are crazy as hell.

Complete lunatics.

Les Miles

here in NOLA (and other places in SELA) i think there are a few folks ready to fire Les Miles today. seriously.

fixnola - January 10, 2012 reply

I thought Rudolf Carnap hosted a call-in show from Starkville after emigrating to the US.

SubLime - January 10, 2012 reply

Plus

look at his resume. All really short stints. It’s just not a good sign, that’s all.

Well, it's a good sign

if he sucks. Just saying.

CvilleLion - January 10, 2012 reply

Does Alabama's D do well because of Kirby Smart?

Perhaps…but I remember seeing footage on Saban and his training camp two years ago. He was teaching the CBs proper technique. He was very adamant about it…screaming when kids weren’t getting it. So while Kirby may be calling plays…I honestly believe that Saban developed those D schemes. I think O’Brien will pursue a similar role. Roof may be calling the plays but O’Brien will be developing schemes for the D. I could be wrong though…

My understanding is that Saban is the dedicated DB coach for Alabama

So being hands on with the DBs doesn’t mean he’s the guru of the entire defense. Then again, Saban seems like a workaholic control freak, so it wouldn’t surprise me if any delegation of authority comes with a requirement that his subordinates give him daily hour long briefings on what they had for breakfast and whether everyone showed up for practice at least ten minutes early.

Saban is a defense guy

Chins is offense. I would hope that he doesn’t take over drawing up defensive schemes in addition to calling plays and being the HC

Wait

You’re saying Saban is coming as our DC? NICE!

You mean the announcement wasn't made last night???

Saban's DCs at LSU were DCs in training.

Nick does the important stuff. Think of it as an apprenticeship for his DC.

SubLime - January 10, 2012 reply

Don't forget

Remember that Bradley/he-that-we-are-not-mentioning had some pretty godawful defenses from time to time. Remember the “Gino Capone Era?”

I’m not comfortable with the choice, but I just don’t think there’s enough data to prove that he’s a bad coach. We’ll see.

Like I said, it’s a ridiculous situation. I don’t know what O’Brien could have done better. He has to pick a guy he knows and gets along with. A DC that the HC can’t talk to would be as big of a disaster as a lousy DC.

The test will be what happens when things go south. Will BOB be willing to cut his old friend loose?

All the more reason why Joyner must go. I’m very concerned that if Joyner hangs around, we won’t be able to fire anybody that he’s hired (or pressure BOB to fire guys he’s hired) because Joyner won’t want to admit his own mistake. This is common in all business. But if we just got a new AD who has no skin in that game, so to speak, he’d be free to make better choices.

I agree, Joyner needs to be replaced

and soon. He did what he was needed to do. We can argue about how well, but it’s done nonetheless. They need a new hire at AD.

As Joe once said, an AD usually only gets to fire the football coach once

And I consider the non-hiring of Bradley to be equivalent to Joyner firing him, so BOB et al are now all on his head. If they succeed, he looks like a crazy genius. If they fail, well, he goes down in Penn State lore as a massive tool who betrayed us.

If Joyner is replaced soon, it will only be by another "acting" AD

As Curley is still technically the AD. Once that issue is resolved, it will depend on where in the process they are at in finding a new university president. If the search is on-going they’ll probably hire an interm-AD. There is a perceived problem in our athletic department, and if you want to get a top president, it will make it more attractive if he can hire his own guy, one he fully trusts to fix the “problem”.

I'm not convinced of that

We could hire another “acting” guy with the promise that he’ll be the real guy as soon as we can resolve Curley’s status.

And I’m still not convinced the new president will insist on “his guy.” It’s never been that way in the past.

Of course, that’s not ideal. Curley was, to a large extent, Paterno’s guy. That’s pretty typical of ADs around the country. They’re ex-coaches or close to the most important coach on campus. That’s worked for us, mostly, but that’s not really a good way to run a modern AD. It would be better if the AD were more of a real businessman and saw himself as accountable to the president (and the president being accountable to the board and the board accountable to the students, faculty, and alums) not just the football coach.

"and the board accountable to the students, faculty, and alums"

I wouldn’t hold on your breath on that one.

DrewRusse - January 10, 2012 reply

Someday, maybe.

I certainly think there’s an opportunity for improvement right now that has never been there before. People are energized.

Not saying he/she will insist, but it makes it more appealing knowing he will have that option without having to fire somebody

There’s a perceived problem in the way our athletic program was run, even if the fact don’t support that argument.

And I’m still not convinced the new president will insist on "his guy." It’s never been that way in the past.

True at Penn State, not true every where else.

I agree, a business exec would be a much better choice as an AD right now, just like at Michigan.

I'm struggling to stay positive. The negative nancies are making a lot of sense. Stop it.

So I think we just have to make an existential choice, Kierkegaard-style, to stay positive about this.

Dr. Egon Spengler: Not necessarily. There’s definitely a very slim chance we’ll survive.
[pause while they consider this]

Dr. Peter Venkman: [slaps Ray] I love this plan! I’m excited to be a part of it! LET’S DO IT!

Ghostbusters Autorec

Its ok to be doubtful of the hire yet be hopefull things work out differently this time. It just depends if you are the kind of person that can do that or not. I think what makes this harder is that we just got rid of a top DC and have 2 very capable assistants on the staff who were passed up for the position as well.

How do we know

1) Bradley was not offered to stay and he turned it down
2) Either one of the assistants were not offered the DC job and turned it down
3) LJ turned down the DC job for Recruiting Coordinator

I highly doubt the last two scenarios

why would they turn down an opportunity to have a position of higher respect (and pay probably)? That makes no sense, especially considering LJ almost jumped at an opportunity to be DC at Illinois a few years ago and Vandy was a HC at one point. I mean, why would you turn down a promotion to a job you obviously want?

As for point 1 (where I’m assuming you mean he was offered to stay), that very well may be the case, but it still doesnt change the fact that he was here and now is gone. I think its natural for people to make a comparision between the person who previously held the job and the person who currently holds it. Bradley set the standard for him.

On the other hand...

It is highly likely that BOB told Vandy and LJsr that he was planning to bring in Roof and they agreed to stay in their jobs under him. So that’s reassuring, sort of.

Of course, Vandy and LJsr have been around a bit more than our other coaches. They’re probably better at rolling with the changes than a lot of PSU guys would be.

I would hope they knew that beforehand

it would be unfair to them if they werent aware of what their roles were going to be going into this thing. And thats also probably why Scrap left (assuming he was offered a position).

I'm assuming that because who the hell takes a job without knowing who their immediate report is going to be?

Oh wait. I did that once. Or more accurately, they changed my boss on the third day I was there. Oops. But I wasn’t in a position to walk away like these guys are.

Agreed

LJ did turn down nearly double the salary and promotion to go to Illinois a few years ago

My impression that he ended up wanting to stay at Penn State and coach with Joe

He has a connection to the players he recruited and the coach who gave him a shot. He still was looking however. So that to me says that he would probably love to take the DC job here.

He also said something about being happy in SC

He’s a grampa now and likes it here. He seems like a guy who is very secure in himself and is accomplishments.

Yeah, I'm sure he would've loved the salary increase

But it still comes down to, “do I really want to move my life to eastern Illnois?”

right

My point is that its highly unlikely he was offered the position and turned it down. The only scenario where I can see that happenning is if LJ wanted to stay just for a year to help with the transition and then retire. But in that scenario, I find it hard to believe BOB would keep a guy who’s only really partially committed to the team. Especially after his speech about commitments.

Stop making sense.

Wait just a minute.

These are the guys defensive stats during his time as UCF DC:
-no rushing yards allowed
-no passing yards allowed
-no total yards allowed
-no points allowed

When you have a chance to hire a guy who runs a defense that gave up no yards and no points at his previous school, you jump on it.

Math, people. You can't mess with it.

By this same logic

While I was the DC at UCF, I also coached a D that allowed no points or yards.

By this logic, my agent should have me lined up with a D1 coordinator spot in less than a week.

Yes, well, why don't you?

You need a new agent.

A lot of lawyers around these parts

Any volunteers to be my agent?

You are missing a crucial element.

Having actually been DC at UCF. Stop being jealous of Ted’s accomplishments.

I don't want shootouts

I want a defense that crushes it’s enemies and hears the lamentations of the women.

I agree.

I love games where the PSU defense just doesn’t let the other team move forward, at all.

After all

That is what is best in life.

InScoresOfOtherGames - January 10, 2012 reply

Most SEC offenses are not outstanding

I’m withholding judgement on Roof, but it’s not like there are a lot of stellar offenses in the SEC. This isn’t the 90’s/00’s pass happy florida, tennessee with Peyton, Bama with Shawn Alexander, et al. In fact, the only outstanding offense in the SEC over the last 5 years was Auburn last season. So what’s concerning isn’t necessarily the stats, but that the stats were accrued against teams focused on building defenses, not offenses.

People underestimate SEC offenses.

When they are not playing SEC defenses, SEC offenses regularly drop serious point totals on teams.

But when they are not playing SEC defenses, they are playing FCS defenses

elefantstn - January 10, 2012 reply

For example, from this bowl season...

Florida: One offensive TD vs Ohio St (compare with our what, 3?)
Georgia: 21 offensive points in 3OT vs Mich St (compare with the half century Wisconsin dropped on them twice)
Arkansas: Two offensive TDs vs K St, who gave up 50+ points in three consecutive games in the Big 12

Going through those box scores just reinforced for me how many defensive and special teams points these teams score.

elefantstn - January 10, 2012 reply

Nobody is saying SEC offenses are the best things since sliced bread.

But they are not inept. And when you combine them with defenses that are incredible, they are extremely difficult to beat. That’s not the case with say the Big 12, where they play less than zero defense. Hell, I’m trying to remember the last time a Big 12 team beat a SEC team.

And if you assume, arguendo, that the SEC offenses are that poor, then that makes the Roof hire even worse.

I have wondered many times how the Auburn defenses impacted this decision.

Whether you believe him or not, I think BOB views himself as running a low TOP offense that scores a lot of points. The worst countermeasure you can face is a ball control offense. Tom Bradley’s defense would play into that. If you wanted to keep the ball out of the BOB offense’s hands, the Bradely D would help you control the possessions. If the BOB offense is anything like the BB offense, then you need to minimize possessions and would almost prefer facing a Bradley type D and prefer your chance to win a low scoring game.

I think, in BOB’s mind, the Auburb D’s may have been exactly what he thinks he needs to win. That is, aggressive in that you either force turnovers or give up points, But either way you get the ball back in your offenses hands, and you believe the percentages in your favor if you have more offensive opportunities.

Wild speculation, and it assumes that you do not believe you can build both a very high scoring offense and a great defense. But just food for thought.

I like defenses

that don’t give up a lot of points. Just my opinion though.

I agree.

100%. And I’m against the hire. Just throwing out one possible reasoning that led to the selection.

A good project for someone with some time

see how Chizik’s defenses performed at Iowa State before he moved to Auburn to see if maybe theres correlation to Chizik being more in charge of the D and it failing than Roof.

He was only at ISU for 10 minutes.

Sample size is not large enough to mean anything.

oh

I thought he was there for a couple years first. Guess that wont work.

he was at ISU for two seasons (2007-2008)

i remember being shocked Auburn hired him because I don’t think those cyclone teams were very good.

NuclearLion - January 10, 2012 reply

He took a team heading in the right direction and just derailed it. Must give a heck of an interview to upgrade to Auburn.

Truck O'Saurus - January 10, 2012 via Android app reply

"I have this plan to get Cam Newton to Auburn..."

Kyle_Martin - January 11, 2012 reply

There is definitely something to be said about tradeoffs between offense and defense.

If your offense is going to be that good, then it’s going to be very difficult to have your defense put up great numbers. Houston fans were talking about this non-stop leading up to the bowl game, and look how it turned out. Yeah, I still believe the game’s completely different with McGloin in there, but even Robo had great games against cupcake non-con opponents. Houston’s defense wasn’t quite as bad as we thought they’d be. The numbers are definitely a bit skewed because the defense was on the field for literally 60-70% of every game.

It’s exactly like our problems this and last year. We’ve been complaining that the defense can’t be expected to play great for the entire game when the offense contributes nothing and and the defense is on the field the entire game. If our offense ends up being so good they can’t help but score quickly, we’re going to have the exact same “offense can’t stay on the field” problems.

Sounds like the best problem of all time. Sign me up.

The point of offense is to score points and control the ball

The point of defense is not to allow points and to take control of the ball. Each unit has both goals. You win football games by scoring more points than the other team, but the other team can’t score if they don’t have the ball (safeties aside).

This is obvious and intuitive, but an offense that always scores quickly is not maximizing for ideal outcomes. You want an offense that sustains drives and scores TDs and a defense that ends drives and avoids TDs.

I agree with you.

And that is how I prefer my football. But I don’t think it is totally black and white. If you believe your offense will score more points per possession than the other offense no matter what, then the argument could be made that total possessions for your offense are more important than controlling the ball.

This line of thinking will cause most PSU fans to faint.

Not if it leads to lots of wins.

As much as everyone likes to think the fanbase will rebel if we become an offense-oriented team, the bottom line is that if BOB wins PSU football will be as popular as ever.

Agreed.

But I was mostly referring to our initial reaction.

but the rules nearly guarantee that both teams have equal possessions

The best offense one could possibly create is not one that scores the first time it touches the ball. It would be one that scores after controlling the ball for the longest possible time. I’m not sure that’s debatable.

But that isn't the point, having more possessions than the other offense.

It’s just about maximizing possessions for your own offense. if you believe your offense will score more points per possession, you want to maximize the total number of possessions even though its for both offenses. If you are correct (by assuming that you will score more PPP), then you need to increase the sample size and have more possessions to eliminate statistical anomolies and maximize your chance to win/increase the possible margin of victory. If you can score 4ppp and the other team 3ppp over a large enough sample size, then you are gaining a 1 point edge for every set of possessions.

And by the way,

I hope he doesn’t believe in it because it’s really an NFL view. The rules in the NFL are now set up where the defense has so many disadvantages, that offensive scoring efficiency is arguably more important than defensive capability.

I think in the college game defenses are (1) on more equal footing under the rules, and (2) the offenses are less complex generally so you can improve your chances to outscore your opponent more effectively by minimizing their PPP through making them make plays (the Bradley defense).

Basically, I am agreeing with your view of how the college game should be approached. I’m just trying to put my Patriots hat on and try to get some insight into the Roof hire. If it isn’t this line of thinking, then we are in for a good Gerg’ing.

I get the PPP and sample size argument

But that is really a pretty radical approach to football that only the run ‘n gun really employed. I think the Pats’ strategy, for example, is not always to score as quickly as possible; the Pats are all about situational football so I’m sure if you asked Belichek (or BOB) if the team should maximize for total possessions in the game or ball control, he’d say “it depends” (which is true). But my guess is that on most drives, the Pats try to control the ball and score — not just score.

The “Bradley Defense” aka Bend But Don’t Suck (BBDS) is all about keeping the offense in front of you and avoiding points. It’s more about stopping scoring than it is about taking the ball away. (For example, the corners play off receivers to stop big plays, understanding that in so doing they lose chances for interceptions.) If the Roof defense is more about taking the ball away than about stopping scoring, and for example, we see corners playing up, that’s a fair approach.

It’s hard to maximize for both points and time of possession. The Paterno (and Bradley) approach was mostly predicated on time of possession/ball control. The score more points approach can work too. And if it does, we’ll all fall in line quickly (at least I will). But I think it’s extreme and probably out of the realm of the way football is currently practiced at the highest levels to suggest that a team should maximize ONLY for points on offense and for taking the ball away on defense. I think BOB’s teams will probably have a shifting philosophy based on the opponent and situation; I hope so — that is the essence of pragmatism.

The flaw here

is that this isn’t the highest level of football, in fact far from it. Why else are the high-scoring-offense-but-meh-on-defense type teams so plentiful and successful? The talent at the college level makes it a perfectly legitimate argument that in general, your offense has the opportunity to be more successful than your defense.

high-scoring offesne but meh-on-defense

are plentiful in the Big 12, the PAC 12, and most of the mid-majors. The vast majority of B1G and SEC (particularly) teams don’t meet that description.

Houston beating PSU in a bowl game under unusuals circumstances is no proof of the quality of one approach to the other. I do think that, due to the talent differential in college, a good QB can hide a lot of warts, so that if your otherwise mediocre but have a really good QB that approach has relatively more strengths. Weather also matters (MAC teams tend to be less like described than the rest of the mid-majors).

Given the talent levels and the weather in teh B1G, though, I think that it’s fair to say a balanced approach is best, Drew Brees and Purdue notwithstanding.

The stats actually show

that it’s better to be pass-happy during rainy and snowy games. The route runner has a huge advantage over the guy who’s trying to follow him when field conditions are bad.

The game of football is set up so the offense fundamentally has the edge. I also think it’s a stretch to say that the talent level is high enough anywhere in college (save for the oversigning NFL-esque SEC) for a defense to overcome this.

Ball-control has certainly been the popular choice in the B1G, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the best. Coaches make poor decisions all the time, right in the face of statistics that would say otherwise.

statistics that would tell them to do otherwise*

Well, I agree with you on what the Patriots try to do.

In terms of game planning on a per-opponent basis. And if it is indeed possible to execute, I also agree that it is the highest and best use of your talent. I just question with the time committments of student athletes, the ability to be truly effective doing that in the college game. Can you install a mostly new gameplan in 20 hours? I think you are going to need some offensive identity, and it seems to me that will be in the passing game (although I would love to be proven very wrong here).

If Roof’s approach is to force turnovers, and the tradeoff is giving up more big plays, then I think you are talking about more total possessions in that you are exposing yourself to more quick possessions. The hook there is that you need to have confidence in an offense that has a high PPP. Now, certainly one way to have a high PPP is to have a great ball control offense that still scores, to minimize possessions but still scoring. But again, in the college game I think the more plays you run the less likely you are to execute and score (when compared to efficient NFL offenses), and the more likely a college offense is to make mistakes (especially given the time committment). It certainly flies in the face of what Bradley has shown us so frequently.

I think I am getting a bit circular and repetitive at this point, so it’s the last I’ll probably chime in on the issue. I guess we agree on the ideal scenario. I’m just concered about this Roof hire and trying to ascribe some logic. At least some logic based on what a cursory statistical review of his defenses tells me.

I think it's safe to say that

the college game is set up where the offense has many of the advantages as well. All you really need to field a good offense is a good QB in college. The talent level in college makes execution way more important than schematics, so maximizing possessions could easily lead to success.

To run the ball-control gameplan, you need to execute well on both sides of the ball for the entire game. Failure to execute on offense will lead to a season like PSU 2010 and 2011. Failure to execute on defense will lead to seasons like UM under RR. To run a possession-maximized gameplan, you don’t necessarily have to execute on defense for the entire game, just one possession more than your opponent.

I disagree slightly.

The point of offense is to score, and the point of defense is to give the ball back to your offense. Controlling the ball is a certain strategy towards those goals. The same could be said about maximizing total possessions, where the goal is both to score quickly and to for the defense to force a change of possession quickly.

Or BOSSton could state my point way more succinctly than I could.

You're right that ball control is a strategy

if you control the ball longer, but score fewer points than your opponent, the record book still calls it a loss. But to me it is the only legit strategy in football; no others need apply.

i admittedly regret my last sentence

I got the spirit of your statement,

which is why I didn’t continue. I absolutely understand that it’s many people’s preferred strategy, and it’s proven to work quite well for us.

While the sentence is maybe hyperbolic,

I agree. And it’s why I’m not liking what I see out of the Roof hire so far.

It sounds like you're a die hard ball control strategist

That is all well and good. I really like ball control strategy, too. But ultimately, the only thing that matters is who has more points at the end. From a team building and game planning perspective, I prefer ball control as the avenue to get there. But if it turns out that we get a pick six or a kickoff return and pull out a game where the other team dominated TOP, I will still be very, very happy.

Esteban d' Amur - January 10, 2012 reply

I believe the 1994 team's....

average TOP on scoring drives was around 2 minutes.

What the hell is Bernhardt going to do?

Also, glad we picked up some coaching talent from Texas. Should help with recruiting new territory.

Artiefufkin10 - January 10, 2012 reply

I'm not getting too excited about the Texas factor.

But we’ll see. Texas gets whoever they want in that state, followed by other Big 12 and SEC powers. I wouldn’t count on PSU getting much, if any, premium talent from Texas. But Roof and MacWhorter are both originally Georgia guys, so maybe we can work a little random magic there.

If nothing else...

hopefully he’s an upgrade over Anderson and Kenney.

And good point, Texas runs that region and I don’t think PSU would win a recruiting battle over a 5 star talent, but perhaps if there’s some diamonds in the rough (3 star guys) that Texas passes over, PSU could pick them up.

Artiefufkin10 - January 10, 2012 reply

Drew Brees is from Texas

Just saying.

Texas has so much talent that you could probably field a top 15 team with players UT completely ignored.

Eh, needs more SEC back-ups.

Texas A&M will have plenty now.

:)

Esteban d' Amur - January 10, 2012 reply

There's plently of talent to go around...

maybe you get a less hearlded guy like a Drew Brees out of there.

Texas gets whoever they want

But they don’t always want the best guys, nor do they always develop what they get. My Longhorn friend rants about this mercilessly. It’s a pretty good case study in the failure of the recruiting starts. Texas gets five star guys like crazy, yet I think the recruiting services skew ratings for Texas players due to the big time semi-pro dynamic of Texas high school football. Taking all the five stars in Texas is like drafting only guys who had big numbers at Div. 1A colleges for the NFL. Lots of these guys are not even NFL material, let alone willing to put in the work that certain players from smaller schools do who really have the drive to excel.

I think having any presence in Texas for PSU, to even get a guy or two each year, would just make it all that much more likely that some future football machine kid will give PSU a serious look instead of automatically going to a Big 12 school.

Nice read on Roof...

Penn State’s new defensive coordinator, Ted Roof, is a longtime friend of head coach Bill O’Brien’s who likes to play multiple, aggressive defenses and who helped Auburn win a national title in 2010.

Chizik wanted a more conservative approach on defense, sources said, and that led to him and Roof having disagreements about the schemes. It also led to Roof having to become more conservative and play more zone than he had throughout his career, sources said.

a href=“http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/557069/PSU-s-new-defensive-coordinator-Roof-likes-multiple—aggressive-schemes-out-of-4-3-base.html?nav=5017” target="new">

This is encouraging, at least in theory.

Of all the things you can say about coaches, the one that is true just about all of the time is that if you force them to do things they are’t good at you won’t get good results.

That’s the undertold story of GERG. It wasn’t that he was very bad — we honestly can’t tell — because he was being forced by head offensive head coach to run a specific, foreign scheme that GERG wasn’t an expert in.

So if Auburn’s problem was that they were playing two halfs of two different defenses, there’s an optimistic way of look at this.

I find this very intersting out of the article

Roof likes to use a 4-3 base scheme but runs multiple looks out of that. He also likes to be very aggressive and blitz a lot, sources said, does not like to play zone and is very inventive.

Chizik wanted a more conservative approach on defense, sources said, and that led to him and Roof having disagreements about the schemes. It also led to Roof having to become more conservative and play more zone than he had throughout his career, sources said.

This philosophy is diametrically opposed to what Tom Bradley runs

which would provide at least one reason not to retain him. If BOB wants to play a blitzing D with press coverage, Tom Bradley is not the guy you hire to be in charge of it. It would be a Roof/Auburn situation in reverse.

PSU Mudder - January 10, 2012 reply

is this not what we have been asking for?

It's exactly what we've been asking for

Next year is a complete case study from many angles of “Be careful what you wish for”…

PSU Mudder - January 10, 2012 reply

I agree with that.

Just something that I always wanted to see a more aggressive D with press coverage.

It is what we need to do because we have not had the talent up front

to get to the QB only using four guys

jrock4 - January 10, 2012 reply

Exactly.

Especially when the cornerbacks are often safeties in disguise.

CvilleLion - January 10, 2012 reply

I found this part of the article compelling

Chizik wanted a more conservative approach on defense, sources said, and that led to him and Roof having disagreements about the schemes. It also led to Roof having to become more conservative and play more zone than he had throughout his career, sources said.

jtothep - January 10, 2012 reply

You guys are missing the best part.

Chizik wanted a more conservative approach on defense, sources said, and that led to him and Roof having disagreements about the schemes. It also led to Roof having to become more conservative and play more zone than he had throughout his career, sources said.

Rec'd

speedomike - January 10, 2012 reply

Link that works

Roof Article":http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/557069/PSU-s-new-defensive-coordinator-Roof-likes-multiple—aggressive-schemes-out-of-4-3-base.html?nav=5017" target="new">

or that doesn't work...sheesh

gotta select the text

then hit the link button and put in the link in the box that pops up. Also, check “open in new window” for the sake of everyone else.

Thanks

http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/557069/PSU-s-new-defensive-coordinator-Roof-likes-multiple—aggressive-schemes-out-of-4-3-base.html?nav=5017

Link

anyway...if you copy and paste it in your address bar...you'll read it. my apologies.

Altoona Mirror site trolled me so hard

with three Old Republic ads framing the article. Must…survive…a full day of work…

This is sort off topic, but...

You often see that some coach or player or insider or whatever “texted ESPN”. This annoys me. I am pretty sure they texted some person at ESPN, unless there is actually an ESPN phone sitting somewhere in Bristol. If this is actually the case, we need to 1) change the ringtone to the Fox Sports anthem and 2) get that number. I volunteer for a midnight raid.

good job!

letsgopsu - January 10, 2012 reply

Link Try

Here

OlderBudweiser - January 10, 2012 reply

BOB fires Jay

Jay Paterno has been fired per ESPN

con10der - January 10, 2012 reply

per @cnn, he "quit" "amidst scandal"

jerks.

Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Add CNN to the ‘FUCKING DISGRACE’ list.

He leaves in early November? Quits amidst scandal. Leaves after a new coach arrives? Is not retained.

How hard can that be to understand?

Great. Now I’m fucking irate. Thanks.

yeah I've seen no less than a dozen people tweet at cnn about this

including you, now ;)

and you're welcome, btw

anytime!