IU's new OC ... Walt Bell
- Thread starter grammy2
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DeBoer won bigly everywhere he has been and I mean bigly. This putz is 2-23 as a head coach? Who in their right mind would hire him as an offensive coordinator in the Big Ten?
The pay cut Allen took was to help pay off the atrocious 1 mil extension he gave Sheridan this year, and not to pay the new salary. I agree IU went cheap. I also agree with the poster who wrote that this will probably be Allen's undoing. It looks like another Sheridan to me, except this guy has a track record of sucking ass.
I don't follow recruiting, but whilst some of the posters are gushing over the portal transfers, I don't see any difference makers at first glance. IU needs serious playmakers on the offensive side and not merely guys to fill spots.
He also needs help on game day. 2-23 excuse me. I guess 2-10 head coaches hire 2-23 coordinators. Worst hire ever.
That’s fair. And if everyone was coming from that place it would make sense to me.
Sparky..you were an idiot 20 years ago...and you just proved you still are...congratulations. Wow...you are a piece of work. I can smell your stink from here.
Is this hire a reflection of how potential coaches view the program coming off this 2-10 debacle?? Can’t imagine Bell was Allen’s 1st choice.
Frightening hire. We just hired the guy picked by the worst P5 coach in history to be his OC (FSU).....and two firings down from that. I do, however. see several potential bright spots.--
*This guy is used to disastrous situations. MD, the FSU, then U Mess, then 2-10 IU. If he had lived at the time, he would have been first mate on the Titanic.
*We literally cannot be worse on O.
*Think of all those great U Mess transfers!!
I don't think it has so much to do with the fact that it seems a bit out of left field and that he wasn't on many/any of the lists of potential hires curated here or elsewhere as it does with real questions about his track record. Does his past work honestly make him seem like a good fit here? I would not view it that way. I can't imagine many other P5 schools would've been knocking on his door this off season. It seems as if he's been riding the coattails of one solid year 7 seasons ago and has been producing mediocre or poor results everywhere sense. On top of that, there are questions about how much control he actually had over the offense and play calling in his one breakout season that propelled him to other, bigger jobs due to whom the head coach there.
I'm not saying that this hire is a surefire bust, but I do think that it is genuinely underwhelming and bordering on disappointing from what I've seen and read about him and the other guys who we probably could have gotten to come here had we pursued them and opened the checkbook a bit. This feels, to me anyway, like another "relationship" hire from Allen, pursuing someone his buddies at Arkansas State recommended, or otherwise just a side effect of the athletics department not dedicating serious money to hire a quality coordinator.
I'm hoping that Bell shocks most of us here and produces quality offenses and recruits top talent for us; I genuinely do. However, I can't say that I'm very confident that he will and I'm not sure what in his track record would make anyone very confident of him doing so.
My guess is that weakned the hand, but there were MAC offensive coordinators with a stronger resume that this guy. Those guy Make $250k a year. I find it hard to believe at 600k or more we could not land one of them.
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Will withhold judgement until I see how he calls the game.
Like players,sometimes a change in scenery is good.
I like the fact he at least has OC experience at a Power 5 schools,unlike Sheridan.
He’s young and should be relatable to kids on the recruiting trail.
TA knows how important this hire is,he obviously heard what he wanted to hear from the guy.
The job is not as desirable as some on here made it out to be.
Coaches know what coaches are on the hot seat and some are not willing to leave their current job to go somewhere where they could be out of a job after one season.
Like players,sometimes a change in scenery is good.
I like the fact he at least has OC experience at a Power 5 schools,unlike Sheridan.
He’s young and should be relatable to kids on the recruiting trail.
TA knows how important this hire is,he obviously heard what he wanted to hear from the guy.
The job is not as desirable as some on here made it out to be.
Coaches know what coaches are on the hot seat and some are not willing to leave their current job to go somewhere where they could be out of a job after one season.
Here are two condensed UMASS games from this year (FSU & Pitt).
Didn't score much in either game. From a quick glance, I like the spread formations and there's a hint of DeBoer style spread with a screens & swing passes to get guys in space. If I'm looking for a real silver lining, at least he'll be used to calling a game with a porous OL.
I think his biggest deficiency is being a QB coach. What makes believe that is DeBord gave him QB coaching duties.
Good leaders always tried to hire potential successors.
I will say this: sometimes the learnings from a disatrous situation like Umass are more valuable than those of a glowing success. I have seen that time and again in business.
Don't spend much time on the FB board. IU football will always disappoint you, break your heart.
But I agree. Loser hiring a loser. This is just a waste of time. Thought Allen might have something special to bring to IU, but it's obvious he doesn't have what it takes.
If anyone wants to listen to him. Here is a podcast interview from 2019 on his background and coaching philosophy. Definitely sounds like a TA guy, for better or worse. I am withholding judgment until I see him call plays. UMASS is just a miserable place to coach so I am not holding that against him. I like his work at Arkansas St.
This sounds a lot like when PU hired Diaco.
Excellent year at ND, terrible HC at UCONN, terrible at Nebraska, ok year at La Tech. Then Bombed in 1 season at Purdue.
Sometimes bad years dont mean they learned anything. Sometimes they're just bad.
Yes, DeBoer recommended Sheridan, but the idea that it's only in hindsight that people are saying the Sheridan promotion (as OC) was a bad move is not accurate. The decision was widely questioned at the time, particularly since IU was coming off an 8-5 season, a Gator Bowl appearance, and the HC himself acknowledged that there was a great deal of outside interest in the job.
A 2-10 season, after a preseason national ranking, obviously doesn't generate the same level of interest. Bell, right now, might be as good as it gets.
I don't know much about Bell other than that he was successful at Arkansas State, not so much at Maryland and FSU, and a disaster at UMass, but I will say this. He must be a pretty good salesman to quickly land a high-paying P5 gig after the debacle in Amherst. Hopefully that salesmanship will translate to effective recruiting. And if he can do something - - anything - - to improve our atrocious offensive line play, we should be competitive again.
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It's insane. Totally insane hire. Again, this guy could turn into a rockstar but let's be honest. Tom Allen is clueless.
The head coach was an offensive guru. Without that guy this dude has shown nothing on his own.
It's amazing to me that some on here are so cocksure about predicting failure, or that they can absolutely determine Tom Allen's motivation. On its face, I'll admit to being underwhelmed if this is the hire. If it means that Hiller is being retained, I'm even more skeptical. But I'm not brash (or ignorant) enough to declare that I know how this is going to work out nine months before we play our first game. Nor would I presume to know enough about the inner workings of IU football to state without doubt that I know why these moves are being made. That level of arrogance and ignorance is indicative of stupidity - especially if things turn out differently. If next year is successful, I hope those of you declaring abject failure today have the character to return and admit that you were wrong.
From what I can gather, Tom Allen has once again made the decision to hire someone he has a prior relationship with. I would assume that it also means he thinks Hiller can fix the OL problems. We will know in September. I agree that it is a bold move because if Bell and Hiller fail, it will be Tom Allen who loses his job ( and rightfully so). But I'm not walking out on the limb with a saw in my hand willing to look like a fool and plunge to the ground if it turns out that I miscalculated how much I really know.
DeBord and Sheridan were underwhelming hires who produced underwhelming results. I was excited when DeBoer was hired and that excitement was proven right. Bell is on the same level as Sheridan as far as excitement goes.
If that's the case he's the most brilliant hire ever.
All I know is that even Sheridan is saying "You dumped me for this guy?"
A reasonable response! Not many of those today. Agree with your post. Need to give the guy a chance. He is already being deemed a failure before he has officially been announced!
Bell had solid progression from TE Coach to OC/QB coach at multiple P5 schools (NC/MY/FSU), and to head coach at UMass. Would have liked to see more success as an OC. Seems like a solid recruiter. We had two of TA's coordinator hires get head coaching gigs and had 2 OCs fail. I'll wait and see how this one goes.
I do like the momentum on Portal Commits and having Mullen/Monster back on Def is huge. Need to continue to recruit the portal at multiple positions and secure our commitments on signing day. Having an OC in place will allow us to recruit the offensive side of the ball, so hope to see some news there over the next week or two.
All true, but if this is Arkansas State reunion time, doesn’t that mean Hiller stays?
For everyone complaining about hiring a losing coach from “historically terrible” UMASS, have you been around or read up on IU football? We have a total of six head coaches with winning records. 3 of them had tenures in the 19th century and our last one (before Tom Allen before this year) coached during WWII. Our last team to win a bowl game played 30 years ago. Our biggest mistake in 30 years was letting him go and we still haven’t really recovered, but he’s departed this world and can’t help us now anyway. We have more losses than anyone in history.
Do I want better? Yes. Should we be better considering we are a P5 State school? Sure. I’d love for us to have a home run hire. But let’s be realistic and just cheer on next year.
Do I want better? Yes. Should we be better considering we are a P5 State school? Sure. I’d love for us to have a home run hire. But let’s be realistic and just cheer on next year.
Bell did work with Greg Frey at FSU and Frey is looking for a job as far as I can tell. I would love to see him come back to coach OL.
Bell already has a track record in the Big Ten East with Maryland, and they went 2-7 and 3-6 in conference. Let's hope he has learned a hell of a lot in the past several years. There are a bunch of question marks. Allen has to get this hire correct.
I’d feel much better if we could get Greg Frey back.
To be fair, those were a couple of Maryland's "Every QB on the roster is hurt" years.
Not too different from how things went at that spot for us this year.
And when he did have a QB, at least for the first three quarters of the game,
his offense did put 51 on the board in Maryland's first win over Texas.
The overall stats are off-putting, but he still flashed in spots.
I would love to be wrong. But all we have to go on at this juncture is Bell’s resume.
Plus in those years, even with the QB injuries, the defense was the primary issue - in 2016, Maryland gave up 650 yds (IU), 660 (UM), and 580 (OSU) in consecutive weeks
