Year 2: Can GERG coach?

Submitted by stillMichigan on

In a year where personnel is thin at corner, and question marks all over on D, it has become apparent GERG needs to coach his ass off this year. Can he? I asked myself that question and then decided to revisit his track record.  NOT ENCOURAGING.  Defensive stats at 3 of his last 4 stops (not including his cup of coffee at Texas} look really quite bad on paper when you look at progress from when he took over. Except for the Broncos he showed  big declines from where the team was on D when he took over.  Huge drop when he took over DC at Jets. Chiefs got worse on D the 3 yrs he was there. Syracuse's D fell into the abyss at bottom of Big East (I know he was head coach, but sheesh). Is it possible that not only is he not a good coach. Could he be a bad coach? I hope this trend doesn't continue with him. But numbers dont lie. I hope you guys can show me I'm wrong.

Wolverine0056

August 20th, 2010 at 2:38 PM ^

I think your being too negative about this. Just give the boys a chance and they will bring it this year. We may not have the best defense, but I think it will be enough to keep us in some games.

Ziff72

August 20th, 2010 at 2:42 PM ^

Let's throw out the seasons where he won the Super Bowl twice and his season at Texas where they played good.   Let's analyze the years he had shitty talent and break it all down.    Come on man.  I don't know if he's going to be great or not, but picking bad seasons and saying the guys sucks is stupid.  

Why don't we say that M. Shannahan, D. Vermeil, M. Brown and R. Rodriguez all thought enough of the guy to hire him so maybe he knows a little something.

Monocle Smile

August 20th, 2010 at 2:44 PM ^

A) Wait until the season starts.

B) He was a DC for several professional teams. That doesn't scream "bad coach" to me.

C) If you can't trust Mike Shanahan to know coaching talent, there's not a lot of guys you can trust.

D) Wait until the freaking season starts, damn it!

Durham Blue

August 20th, 2010 at 2:46 PM ^

if things don't get at least a little bit better overall on D this year compared to last year, we are pretty much hosed.  In other words, don't expect anything better than 6-6.  I DO expect things to get a little bit better on D.  For one, I truly believe the run D will be pretty stout.  If you can stop the run in the B10, you've won most of the battle.

DenverRob

August 20th, 2010 at 2:47 PM ^

but wasnt Gerg responsible for Roh and Stevie b's position last year? they did quite well and now he is in control of all the LBs

I am optimistic that this group will be improved and that the overall D will improve as well.

M2NASA

August 20th, 2010 at 5:18 PM ^

He was the Defensive Coordinator for Syracuse as well.  And took a proud Syracuse program that turned out great players like Dwight Freeney and Keith Bulluck and ran it into the ground with the worst defenses in over 100 years of Syracuse football.

Hes our coordinator and therefore one of our own, and I really want him to do well.  But dear God has he been terrible.  Ask any SU fan about the Greg Robinson defenses (and remember, SU has Shafer now as a means of comparison).

You can look up the stats.  In one year SU went from epic Greggers fail, with such performances as...

"But the defense was just dreadful in allowing Northeastern to get within striking distance."

...to a top-10 run defense (yeah, secondary), and from Cincinnati's Zach Collaros:

"Syracuse was probably the toughest defense we played against last year in terms of just hitting you. They hit you as hard as they could every play. They've got a good coach there in Doug Marrone who's really got them moving in the right direction."

http://www.nunesmagician.com/2010/8/17/1627551/syracuse-was-probably-th…

umjgheitma

August 20th, 2010 at 2:53 PM ^

I think defense in the NFL really depends on the talent/knowledge you have in the player base. In college you can get away with having just athletes and still be pretty decent. There are players all around the NFL (i.e. Vernon Gholston, Taylor Mays) that were freak-studs at on the D but when put through NFL tests they just came short. I think Taylor Mays can physically do the same things as Troy Polumalo but is Taylor Mays going to have the same impact.....probably not. 

I can picture GERG just getting guys to fly around and have their hat near the ball when the time comes. Last year we didn't have the depth on D (although still really scary slim) that we do this year in pure athletes. I can picture someone like a Josh Furman gettin some time because of his athleticism along with Davion Rogers (human space elevator) rushing the end while putting his stilts (arms) up in QBs faces. The scheme (3-3-5ish) should work with all the speed we do have on the defensive side of the ball, it hopefully will staisfactorally (sp/not word) make up for the lack of true talent.  

CincyBlue

August 20th, 2010 at 3:12 PM ^

We have to stop talking about crazy sh*t and start talking about real football issues. 

He has 2 super bowl rings and has coached since 1975, I think he knows a few things about football.

stillMichigan

August 20th, 2010 at 3:52 PM ^

I just threw out Texas because I was looking at this this from the point of view of progression within a team. Each team.  1 year at a stop makes it impossible to look at year 2. But I do appreciate the optimism by some. I just am so ready for the year to begin to see what happens.

blue in ak

August 20th, 2010 at 4:58 PM ^

Sure, but it still skews things a bit in the negative direction.  You want to isolate the stats, but then you have to take out the success to fit the model.  So maybe just say there's not enough data to make a meaningful comparison along the lines that you want and compare individual seasons.

If we take out all of RR's successful seasons, he'd probably be a pretty bad coach.

maximus_spaniard

August 20th, 2010 at 4:15 PM ^

... so that we will start getting an answer to all these questions. I for one, remain optimist (or naive) that we will be improved, in spite of the loss of Woolfolk. I find it hard to believe that the absence of one player will determine Rich Rod's fate and the direction of the program. 

We'll be fine... just a hunch.

Wolvmarine

August 20th, 2010 at 4:20 PM ^

Ask members of the Defense on those back to back Bronco Super Bowl teams..........I don't really know, we will have to see how year 2 goes.  If he can help our young secondary adapt fast and there is improvement from the front 6.........especially Obi Ezeh, we will have our answer.

jmblue

August 20th, 2010 at 6:25 PM ^

The NFL is a different level of football.  I take all NFL results with a grain of salt.  There is a long list of college coaches who didn't work out in the pros.  Focus on what he's done as a college DC, and overall it's a solid record.

Steve in PA

August 20th, 2010 at 9:00 PM ^

As a longtime Chiefs fan I mentioned how I was less than thrilled with the D when he was there.  I actually think we're going to resemble that team on the field this year in that we'll score a boatload and give up slightly less. 

 

I guess winning games 42-38 is still winning games, so I'll take it.

chunkums

August 20th, 2010 at 9:45 PM ^

Honestly, I want Gerg to do well because his hair is simply fantastic, but he has had some epic failure in his time as a football coach, which is a bit frightening.  He has my full support, but I'm not getting the impression that we'll every really have a truly dominant defense with this platinum headed god at the helm.