Magnus

September 9th, 2013 at 7:53 PM ^

Well, one thing that changed was all those players were a year older. Let's be honest - aside from a good player or two (Brandon Graham, Mike Martin), that was not a good crew of players. And while it may be true that some of those guys were bad because they were young, that doesn't change the fact that some of those players were bad at the time...or they were poorly coached, which was just as much Rodriguez's fault as Greg Robinson's.

Greg Robinson has had decent defensive performances at times, and he didn't forget how to coach overnight. The fact that he failed miserably at Michigan reflects more on Rodriguez, Rodriguez's recruiting, and Rodriguez's priorities than anyone else.

Joined: 07/17/2008

MGoPoints: 166230

Blue Mind and Heart

September 9th, 2013 at 10:33 PM ^

as you state Magnus, Robinson's failure stems more from RR's failures than his own shortcomings as a coach.  The organizational focus on the offense and belief that a clever 3-3-5 system and an best-in-class S&C system would make give Mich a big edge on defense too would doom any D coach under RR.  The 3-3-5 was never clearly understood by the coaching staff (and certianly not the players) and the S&C program fooled the staff into thinking they could do more with less.  

Joined: 12/31/2010

MGoPoints: 413

UMaD

September 9th, 2013 at 10:15 PM ^

DL

  • Nearly entire DL one year older (Martin, Van Bergen, Roh, Campbell, Washington) .
  • Added Heininger (health) in place of Patterson/Banks rotation.  [People forget Heininger was already playing in '09]

LB

  • Jake Ryan (RR recruit) off red-shirt, replaces Mouton
  • Desmond Morgan arrives (RR recruit) passes the crappy vets immediately
  • Demens (year older), replaces Ezeh

DB

  • Countess (RR recruit) arrives
  • Added Woolfolk (health) in place of James Rogers
  • Kovacs & Gordan a year older
  • JT Floyd healthy all year

That's a MAJOR change in available personnel.  GERG sucks, but he never had a chance in '10.  The '11 D lost nothing besides Mouton and gain a heck of a lot of talent and experience.

When your available options in the secondary are James Rogers, Mike Williams, a freshman Gordon, a sophomore Kovacs, and a bunch of very bad freshman (2-star Ray Vinopal was the best option) - you're gonna die.

Would GERG have done as well in '11? No way in hell, if you ask me.  But even Mattison would not have saved the '10 defense, certainly not if asked to run 3-3-5.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 4960

El Jeffe

September 9th, 2013 at 7:10 PM ^

That quote was taken out of context. Here is the actual exchange (brackets denote excised text).

Reporter: would you say the players GERG coached at Michigan were squares?

Brown: [No,] they had really bad players. [Like "baaaad" as in "cool." Does anyone else here speak 1970s blaxploitation film dialogue?]

exeunt

Joined: 07/07/2008

MGoPoints: 27329

Hagen

September 9th, 2013 at 7:11 PM ^

It's a shame those "really bad players" will never get a chance to face this bum.  Yes, the 3-3-5 didn't help GERG's cause, but it's not like anything else he did while he worked any better.  Brown and co. will be out at Texas soon enough. 

Joined: 03/03/2012

MGoPoints: 1014

WolvinLA2

September 9th, 2013 at 7:17 PM ^

You could make that argument, but for starters, I'm sure the defensive assistants aren't blowing it out of the water in Austin or they wouldn't be in this mess.  And let's say I concede that our guys were young, or bad.  They weren't 100th in the nation young/bad. 

GERG strikes me as the DC who could do OK with very good talent.  But he's being asked to actually turn around a bad defense.  That ain't happenin'.

Joined: 11/13/2009

MGoPoints: 58191

LSAClassOf2000

September 9th, 2013 at 7:17 PM ^

What Mack Brown either doesn't know or fails to mention is that some of the same "bad players", of course, have since had the opportunity to play on the 17th and 13th ranked defense in the nation on the same team with different coaching. So yeah, Mack Brown was speaking out of an orifice that was not on his face. 

 

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130677

not TOM BRADY

September 9th, 2013 at 7:26 PM ^

Mack Brown is turning into a joke. I cant believe he is still going to have a job after the past two seasons of losing with a lot of talent. Maybe they should have made Mack retire as Muschamp was walking out the door for Florida. If you think GERG is going to save your season, you have lost all hope. There AD should start looking for a new coach. It shouldnt be that hard to find one.

Joined: 06/02/2012

MGoPoints: 30549

WolverineHistorian

September 9th, 2013 at 7:38 PM ^

It's interesting.  Gerg's one year as DC at Texas (in 2004) was an O.K. year.  But aside from Oklahoma who they lost to, the Horns didn't play a team better than 7-5 during the regular season.  When we played them in the Rose Bowl that year, we put 37 points and a ton of offensive yards against Gerg's defense with a freshman QB and a freshman running back.  But that was quickly written off as "impressive" because the argument was we were only in the game because of Steve Breaston's kickoff returns.  The impressive numbers that Henne and Braylon put up were all of the sudden moot.  

If that one season (almost a decade ago) is good enough in Brown's eyes to get Gerg back, let him live in lala land.  But reality will very soon smack him in the face.

Joined: 08/10/2009

MGoPoints: 55468

alum96

September 9th, 2013 at 7:42 PM ^

Unfortunately I doubt Texas will be meeting us in the Rose Bowl this year.  I do hear the Meineke Car Care Bowl should be available if Texas can squeeze out 7 wins. 

Joined: 04/28/2012

MGoPoints: 82558

manball27

September 9th, 2013 at 7:51 PM ^

Gerg recruited them and coached them to be one of the worst defenses in the country. Then Mattison turned them into one of the best the following year.

Joined: 09/04/2013

MGoPoints: 19

WolvinLA2

September 9th, 2013 at 8:06 PM ^

Another interesting question is how this affects recruiting.  I know GERG didn't do any recruiting for us, and I imagine Diaz did.  I have to imagine this shake up will hurt Texas's recruiting, in addition to the whole situation they find themselves in.  They weren't exactly lighting the world on fire on the recruiting trail anyway.\

EDIT:  After a little research, Texas currently had one (1) commit in the top 10 players in the state of Texas according to the 247 composite.  TAMU and Baylor(!) each have 2.  4 are uncommitted, but of them, two don't even list Texas in the crystal ball and third has Texas at 12%.

Joined: 11/13/2009

MGoPoints: 58191

Don

September 9th, 2013 at 8:24 PM ^

and bodes ill for Brown's tenure. When the big program in the state is getting outrecruited by a historic doormat and the most hated instate rival, the UT alums can't be anything other than apoplectic. They're not used to finishing second in the Republic of Texas.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 148449

ADSellers

September 9th, 2013 at 8:05 PM ^

Brandon Graham, Mike Martin, Donovan Warren, Stevie Brown, Jonas Mouton, Jordan Kovacs. The players were NOT the problem.

Joined: 08/26/2013

MGoPoints: 982

True Blue Grit

September 9th, 2013 at 8:17 PM ^

loyalty to people he used to work with who are not competent.  I can admit being 54 years old that the older you get, the greater your tendency to fall back on what's worked in the past.  This is a problem for coaches reaching retirement age.  GERG is a terrible choice for everyone outside his world.  This clearly shows why he needs to go.  

Joined: 01/21/2011

MGoPoints: 32382