the longest tenured coaches
9. Chuck Martin, Miami (Ohio) -- Dec. 3, 2013
11. Chris Creighton, Eastern Michigan -- Dec. 11, 2013
17. Jason Candle, Toledo -- Dec. 2, 2015
20. Mike Neu, Ball State -- Jan. 7, 2016
26. Scot Loeffler, Bowling Green -- Nov. 28, 2018
27. Jim McElwain, Central Michigan -- Dec. 2, 2018
33. Thomas Hammock, Northern Illinois -- Jan. 18, 2019
with Chuck Martin having been there for so long
It's not like he's been a flop.
Don't sleep on the RedHawks this year either. Plenty of guys coming back.
He has gone 2-10 each of his first two years. SP+ ranks them 132nd out of 134 FBS teams. He might need to call United Van Lines in early fall for moving boxes.
(LInk is pay-walled.)
last job before Akron was OC at Oregon goes 4-20 as HC at Akron. Lanning comes to Oregon and has gone 22-5 as HC. Seems like leaving Oregon is not such a good idea. Four other OCs/DCs/HCs who left Oregon recently:
Willie Taggart HC left Oregon in 2017 to HC at FSU, fired after <2 years
Andy Avalos DC left Oregon in 2021 as HC at BSU, fired after <3 years
Mario Cristobal 13 losses in 5 years at Oregon, left to HC at Miami and already has 13 losses in just 2 years.
Kenny Dillingham OC left Oregon in 2023 as HC at ASU, 1st year record 3-9.
I think Lanning is smart to stay put at Oregon.
Now that posse is excited for a retread who said he wants to spread the field, go exclusively to spread and one back, and suck ass.
"I think it's understanding what we're trying to get done more than anything. I think we'll probably be a little more spread looking football team than they've been the last couple years. A little bit more 11 personnel than they've run the last couple years. The reason for that really is to help out the run game, to help the play-action game, to help out getting our athletes out in space and giving them the ability to make some explosive plays. That's what we're going to try to create."
So no he didn’t say he wants to go exclusively to spread and 11 personnel. He said he wants “a little more” spread than we’ve been running and “a little bit more 11 personnel”. Now, I suppose one could say that you can read through that and deduce he wants to run a lot of spread, but if we take him at his word then I don’t get what the issue is here. Almost every good team in CFB has run more spread/11 personnel than we have the last few years.
loss why these people being paid 7 figures per annum can't look at what Harbaugh did at Michigan, which was both predictable and predicted, and understand that it is the blueprint that ND has to follow to have any chance at a national championship.
Oh, and the max pass attempts Michigan had in any game this year? 37, against Purdue. I didn't tabulate it, but I'd guess their average attempts/game were around 20-22.
The very essence of Kellyball . Kellyball just doesn’t work against elite teams. We will hang 40 plus on NIU, but wiill struggle against any elite opponent in the playoffs. It was a really naive decision by Freeman to bring in Denbrock.
should not surprise anybody. As I said when he was hired, I'll hope for the best, but I am definitely expecting a continuation of the Kelly offense.
My hope against hope is that Freeman has the fortitude to put some guardrails on it; but that's probably hoping for too much.
that said, if we get a decent qb, it's enough to win about 10 games a year, give or take 1 or 2. Freeman might be expecting that and figuring that if he adds a stout defense, that might put us over the top.
or so I've been told. My guess is that he couldn't wait to get away from Kelly and that ND was the best looking job out there (A&M???? seriously?)
Holtz knew both sides of the ball...a lot of coaches did from that generation. Until Freeman learns how to run an offense, he'll always be at a disadvantage with his offensive coaches. Sad, because I really want the guy to make it big
No, their program doesn't possess Notre Dame's cache. But A&M is brimming with elite talent, they compete in the best conference in the country, and they pay top dollar for their staff.
Contrast that with Notre Dame. We possess good-to-great talent. We play a schedule that's mostly relegated to the ACC, lining up against the dregs of the college football landscape. And, while we're richer than Croesus, the university leadership doesn't invest those funds in the program at even close to the same level as A&M or most other big football programs.
I love our program and want the Irish to win but let's not lose sight of our actual position in the college football world. We're no longer NOTRE DAME. That reputation died sometime in the early 2000s, probably when Urban Meyer jilted us for Florida. We've been a middling, second-tier afterthought of a program for at least twenty years and coordinators looking for work view us accordingly.
program. We just spent $500 goddamned million on a stadium expansion. We pay a mediocre head coach (based on achievements) millions and millions of dollars. We pay our Director of Athletics Emeritus $2 million.
Our position has indeed plummeted under Jenkins/Swarbrick. But it wasn't lack of money invested.
We are wise spenders, that’s for sure.
of the horrific Kelly offense. Works great when you have a top 5 NFL draft pick at QB. Even then, it's a 3 loss season.
I haven't looked, but I bet the LSU running backs were not that productive.
This is going to be a metallic pea offense. You think I hate it now?
let's hope those kind of sets are limited
I think it means he believes it was his clever scheming (inspired by the Great and Powerful Brian Kelly, of course) that got Jayden Daniels "out in space" so that he could make "explosive plays." No. That was all about an incredibly talented player using his considerable gifts to make something out of nothing whenever those spread principles turned to shit. As far as I know, Jayden Daniels isn't walking through that door at Notre Dame. So I fear we're just going to be looking at the same disjointed, grab bag nonsense that we've endured since Kelly arrived. That is the issue here.
(And please don't start on Denbrock's time at Cincinnati.)
This offense and this OC is like getting a Trabant and painting it mauve.
It is going to be putrid.
I hope to be proven wrong.
Another couple of years should do it.