Per coaching staff and lack of changes there besides the excellent hire of Bostad, I imagine there are two schools of thought: 1) You want to maintain stability and not be a revolving door staff & 2)After 2 poor seasons, maybe more than 1 replacement is needed on the staff.
I can tell you, my Hiller 2.0 is Coach T. Special Teams coordinator & Bull - outside of the natural gifts of J. Lucas last season - the special teams has been a C- grade at best, with 2 years of many costly mistakes along the way by this group. Why he is STC AND coaches the Bull is beyond to me. Let either LB or S coach coach the bull and let him be 100% STC and be judged on results of that area as a "coordinator."
The DL was pretty underwhelming last season and could question if that coach has a great handle on the fundamentals and getting the best out of those players. That would be a question for me and BTW, Wilt was DL coach at Minnesota. What about have him be DC & DL coach, and hire a new LB coach who would handle the Bull too?
The DB's this season sure appeared to regress. Are the CB and S coaches doing okay? And why couldn't we pay a big time DB coach the combined salaries of those two and have one DB coach?
The RB coach - for 2 seasons in a row - granted BOTH with Hiller for 1.75 of those two years - had some odd playing rotations. Last season, pretty much everyone saw that Henderson needed more playing time but they kept riding Shivers (often up the middle) leaving everyone shaking their heads. And the two FR RB's have seemingly not developed or really even seen the field much. Lucas finally got utilized but it took a good 7 games for them to realize what they had there. Not sure about the retired NFL coach, but that was an area of question for me.
WR coach also has NFL pedigree - though he ended with Cowboys in odd fashion. I understand he had some deaths in the family, so give him full benefit of the doubt there. But the parting was mutual and I just don't know how engaged he's been at IU. I did not think the WR's had a great year this year. I've heard the coach found the lack of speed shocking, which may not be on him either but the number of drops this season was somewhat shocking too. As well as difficulty getting open.
TE - I think this coach has done a good job in terms of them playing well, catching the ball, blocking and keeping recruiting pipeline going. My #1 critique here would probably be on Bell for not utilizing Barner and the other TE's very well this season.
Leaves LB - by Coach Wilt, who I think is in an odd position. Most people think his "apprenticeship" should be over now and let him either be the DC or not, not this half-baked version. He does seem like an up and coming coach, but he was another hire who had never done the DC job before, which as good of a guy as he is and seemingly was a solid DL coach at Minny, theoretically he should have had DC experience somewhere else first. But if last year was his "Womack internship year" then let him take over the reigns and be judged on what he does, culture he creates for the Defense, etc.
Coach Allen - without the buyout, he very well could have been gone after this season. He so hurt his credibility or what it said about his judgement in my eyes, with the Hiller debacle, that cost us 2 seasons and had a demoralizing effect on the program. I give him credit for finally making a credible OL hire, but it's definitely 2-3 seasons later than it should have been. His hiring of first time coordinators unfortunately could point out a lack of confidence of having "best and brightest" around him, and a desire to be the most senior person (though he was a first time HC hire) and it's bitten him now a few times. DeBoer was a great hire that he gets credit for and Womack has become a good coach (but he too had a one-year LB only role as an Allen apprentice.) For Allen to say "We need a running QB" at end of season was shocking, as if he just figured that out in year six. Bottom line: he should probably talk less and show more this spring/summer and into next season.
I will give him credit, he seems to do well out recruiting and doesn't sit around moping. I could see him having a lot of reflection this off season, hopefully seeing where he needs to improve, be better and hold himself and coaches (& players) accountable more quickly, be open to making player changes earlier if needed, and perhaps dial down his maniacal sideline/pregame schtick and act like he's been there before a little more. Set a more professional, less all rah rah/intensity tone for the staff and players.
The program is like a gas tank just under a quarter tank. If we can get some good portal guys in and the ones who are remaining at IU can pull together, and specifically our OL shows great improvement over the past 2-3 year debacle, then maybe it would be the equivalent of finding a $25 bucks in the glove compartment and being able to get the gas tank closer to 3/4 full, which could give everyone a better sense of not about to run out of gas but rather "maybe we can make it there to the game!"
I can tell you, my Hiller 2.0 is Coach T. Special Teams coordinator & Bull - outside of the natural gifts of J. Lucas last season - the special teams has been a C- grade at best, with 2 years of many costly mistakes along the way by this group. Why he is STC AND coaches the Bull is beyond to me. Let either LB or S coach coach the bull and let him be 100% STC and be judged on results of that area as a "coordinator."
The DL was pretty underwhelming last season and could question if that coach has a great handle on the fundamentals and getting the best out of those players. That would be a question for me and BTW, Wilt was DL coach at Minnesota. What about have him be DC & DL coach, and hire a new LB coach who would handle the Bull too?
The DB's this season sure appeared to regress. Are the CB and S coaches doing okay? And why couldn't we pay a big time DB coach the combined salaries of those two and have one DB coach?
The RB coach - for 2 seasons in a row - granted BOTH with Hiller for 1.75 of those two years - had some odd playing rotations. Last season, pretty much everyone saw that Henderson needed more playing time but they kept riding Shivers (often up the middle) leaving everyone shaking their heads. And the two FR RB's have seemingly not developed or really even seen the field much. Lucas finally got utilized but it took a good 7 games for them to realize what they had there. Not sure about the retired NFL coach, but that was an area of question for me.
WR coach also has NFL pedigree - though he ended with Cowboys in odd fashion. I understand he had some deaths in the family, so give him full benefit of the doubt there. But the parting was mutual and I just don't know how engaged he's been at IU. I did not think the WR's had a great year this year. I've heard the coach found the lack of speed shocking, which may not be on him either but the number of drops this season was somewhat shocking too. As well as difficulty getting open.
TE - I think this coach has done a good job in terms of them playing well, catching the ball, blocking and keeping recruiting pipeline going. My #1 critique here would probably be on Bell for not utilizing Barner and the other TE's very well this season.
Leaves LB - by Coach Wilt, who I think is in an odd position. Most people think his "apprenticeship" should be over now and let him either be the DC or not, not this half-baked version. He does seem like an up and coming coach, but he was another hire who had never done the DC job before, which as good of a guy as he is and seemingly was a solid DL coach at Minny, theoretically he should have had DC experience somewhere else first. But if last year was his "Womack internship year" then let him take over the reigns and be judged on what he does, culture he creates for the Defense, etc.
Coach Allen - without the buyout, he very well could have been gone after this season. He so hurt his credibility or what it said about his judgement in my eyes, with the Hiller debacle, that cost us 2 seasons and had a demoralizing effect on the program. I give him credit for finally making a credible OL hire, but it's definitely 2-3 seasons later than it should have been. His hiring of first time coordinators unfortunately could point out a lack of confidence of having "best and brightest" around him, and a desire to be the most senior person (though he was a first time HC hire) and it's bitten him now a few times. DeBoer was a great hire that he gets credit for and Womack has become a good coach (but he too had a one-year LB only role as an Allen apprentice.) For Allen to say "We need a running QB" at end of season was shocking, as if he just figured that out in year six. Bottom line: he should probably talk less and show more this spring/summer and into next season.
I will give him credit, he seems to do well out recruiting and doesn't sit around moping. I could see him having a lot of reflection this off season, hopefully seeing where he needs to improve, be better and hold himself and coaches (& players) accountable more quickly, be open to making player changes earlier if needed, and perhaps dial down his maniacal sideline/pregame schtick and act like he's been there before a little more. Set a more professional, less all rah rah/intensity tone for the staff and players.
The program is like a gas tank just under a quarter tank. If we can get some good portal guys in and the ones who are remaining at IU can pull together, and specifically our OL shows great improvement over the past 2-3 year debacle, then maybe it would be the equivalent of finding a $25 bucks in the glove compartment and being able to get the gas tank closer to 3/4 full, which could give everyone a better sense of not about to run out of gas but rather "maybe we can make it there to the game!"
