Coach Reffett

Venson · November 19, 2017

This may be an old topic, but do you think we need to find a new DC? I watched the replay of the Army game on BeIN Sport today and I am not sure if Ref is not doing the right things or not. I saw many times where he had our guys in the right position and the players doing exactly what Coach Littrell and Reffet have been saying they do wrong. Putting their eyes in the wrong place. I saw several times where a defender should have had Bradshaw stopped, but instead they got caught looking inside when he was headed outside and then seemed surprised when he went outside them leaving them just trying to recover and only getting an arm out or they were trying to do too much instead of just doing their job. If it is the players not being disciplined enough to put their eyes where they are coached to or trying to do too much, do we blame Ref, the players or a combination. What are your thoughts?

Aquila_Viridis · November 19, 2017

I’m not gonna name any names but I saw one guy consistently running out of the play. If they get someone productive in that spot we’d do a lot better.

FirefightnRick · November 19, 2017

No. I don't think there's a concern about a DC whose defense has us playing for a championship in only year two.

Rick

Edited November 19, 2017 by FirefightnRick

p_phelps · November 19, 2017

We just need the players to do their jobs. The secondary in particular this season have had opportunities and haven't capitalized.

Ben Gooding · November 19, 2017

27 minutes ago, Venson said:

This may be an old topic, but do you think we need to find a new DC? I watched the replay of the Army game on BeIN Sport today and I am not sure if Ref is not doing the right things or not. I saw many times where he had our guys in the right position and the players doing exactly what Coach Littrell and Reffet have been saying they do wrong. Putting their eyes in the wrong place. I saw several times where a defender should have had Bradshaw stopped, but instead they got caught looking inside when he was headed outside and then seemed surprised when he went outside them leaving them just trying to recover and only getting an arm out or they were trying to do too much instead of just doing their job. If it is the players not being disciplined enough to put their eyes where they are coached to or trying to do too much, do we blame Ref, the players or a combination. What are your thoughts?

We need a new DC. He might be a jolly of a guy, but his unit is lacking. We give up season or career highs to most of all offenses/individuals we play almost on a weekly basis. Yes, the triple option can be a bitch to prepare for or defend, but 500+ yards of rushing is inexcusable regardless. At times the players were in position to make the play. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. But I am not seeing enough adjustments. We stayed status quo all game long last night. Never adjusted a single thing we were doing and got scolded play after play. We played 3 DL hand in the dirt. 0/1 tech and 2 5 techs with walk up 9 techs. And our 9 Techs aren't even DE's he had in there. We had Wheeler and Ejiya walking up as 9 techs on opposite sides of each other. we never overloaded. We never tried to stunt, guess their play, force the interior penetration. We just played this basic formation and said come at us. And Army said, "Uh, OK." And this is just the Army game.

A lot of times coordinating is having to be a good hitter. You have to sit back and wait for your pitch, and attack it. You have to know when to pull strings and adjust and draw up certain plays at certain times. You have to thumb the right strings and pinch the right chords sometimes. Our defensive staff has shown none of the above. We literally give up career and season highs to every team we play outside of UTEP.

We also need better or more active defensive linemen.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Ben Gooding

Ben Gooding · November 19, 2017

6 minutes ago, FirefightnRick said:

No. I don't think there's a concern about a DC whose defense has us playing for a championship in only year two.

Eick

haha. We are playing in this game because of offense. But you know this. We are giving up 5 touchdowns a game, on average.

Venson · November 19, 2017

2 minutes ago, Ben Gooding said:

We need a new DC. He might be a jolly of a guy, but his unit is lacking. We give up season or career highs to most of all offenses/individuals we play almost on a weekly basis. Yes, the triple option can be a bitch to prepare for or defend, but 500+ yards of rushing is inexcusable regardless. At times the players were in position to make the play. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. But I am not seeing enough adjustments. We stayed status quo all game long last night. Never adjusted a single thing we were doing and got scolded play after play. We played 3 DL had in the dirt. 0/1 tech and 2 5 techs with walk up 9 techs. And our 9 Techs aren't even DE's he had in there. We had Wheeler and Ejiya walking up as 9 techs on opposite sides of each other. we never overloaded. We never tried to stunt, guess their play, force the interior penetration. We just played this basic formation and said come at us. And Army said, "Uh, OK." And this is just the Army game.

A lot of times coordinating is having to be a good hitter. You have to sit back and wait for your pitch, and attack it. You have to know when to pull strings and adjust and draw up certain plays at certain times. You have to thumb the right strings and pinch the right chords sometimes. Our defensive staff has shown none of the above. We literally give up career and season highs to every team we play outside of UTEP.

We also need better or more active defensive linemen.

Agreed

Venson · November 19, 2017

I can see all points being made are legitimate ones. This may be the bar room argument that never gets solved. We will see what SL thinks at the end of the season.

Mean Green 93-98 · November 19, 2017

The numbers are concerning; but the way our offense is designed, we're going to give up a lot of clock time, which in turn means we're going to give up a lot of yards and probably a lot of points. If the defense can stop the opponent from scoring more points than our offense, they've pretty much done their job.

If Coach Littrell were to say he wanted to make a change, I'd have no problem with it. For that matter, with what he has accomplished, I'm not going to criticize any staff changes he makes or doesn't make this off-season.

Ben Gooding · November 19, 2017

1 minute ago, Venson said:

I can see all points being made are legitimate ones. This may be the bar room argument that never gets solved. We will see what SL thinks at the end of the season.

I mean there's really nothing to argue. Our defensive stats and ppg kind of speak for themselves.

1 minute ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

The numbers are concerning; but the way our offense is designed, we're going to give up a lot of clock time, which in turn means we're going to give up a lot of yards and probably a lot of points. If the defense can stop the opponent from scoring more points than our offense, they've pretty much done their job.

If Coach Littrell were to say he wanted to make a change, I'd have no problem with it. For that matter, with what he has accomplished, I'm not going to criticize any staff changes he makes or doesn't make this off-season.

I will criticize it for you, no worries. There is no defense for our defense. None. Just because we play a style of offense has much to do with our defense. It's not as if we are averaging 1:20 scoring drives. Even vs Army the TOP wasn't overly lopsided. TOP has broke even for the most part this year. We are not the 2009-2012 Oregon Ducks. We score points and we allow points. Imagine if we had a defense to compliment our offense. It's kind of similar to the recruiting argument. Yeah, we are winning with lightly recruiting players. Imagine only if we had decently recruited players. Can't accept this defense as is. Not sure how anyone could.

Caw Caw · November 19, 2017

See, I think it's a player issue still. I understand the concerns... But man, we're pretty rough at linebacker. If you looked at all the option plays the ran with a pitch, safety was in place for hte pitch man, dive man got swallowed up but the linebackers got lost in the wash. They couldn't get off their blocks/scrape and keep up with Bradshaw. Our D-line is a musical chairs game, they are doing enough.

Our best defensive stands come when D-lineman make plays. Our worst, on wheel routes and when a linebacker has to spy a QB. We need some speed and tenacity from the LB. I'm glad McDonald has helped us fill a void, but man he gets burnt on the edge.

Healthy Wheeler, Healthy Bryce and Rod moved to the outside, I think we are having a way different conversation.

Side Show Joe · November 19, 2017

Our defense is a huge concern for me. I know we can't do much about it at this point in the season. For now, it is what it is. But, changes certainly need to be make before next season. We are in the Championship Game because we have an outstanding offense. Rice and UTEP are the only defenses in C-USA that have given up more points this season. In conference play, no one has given up more points then our defense. I know Army has a really good run attack, but no team should be able to roll up 534 yards and 7 touchdowns of rushing against our defense. I refuse to believe our defense is that untalented. Our coaches on the defensive side of the ball either have a bad scheme, or are not very good at their jobs. Possibly both. Whatever the reason, changes need to be made in the off season.

DeepGreen · November 19, 2017

We sure defended the Army option attack very well when we played Army the first of last season. Only thing missing? We lost a damn good DC.

Last night was a disaster as far as defending the Army option attack. Looked like a road grader of an offense.

Edited November 19, 2017 by DeepGreen

97and03 · November 19, 2017

11 minutes ago, Caw Caw said:

See, I think it's a player issue still. I understand the concerns... But man, we're pretty rough at linebacker. If you looked at all the option plays the ran with a pitch, safety was in place for hte pitch man, dive man got swallowed up but the linebackers got lost in the wash. They couldn't get off their blocks/scrape and keep up with Bradshaw. Our D-line is a musical chairs game, they are doing enough.

Our best defensive stands come when D-lineman make plays. Our worst, on wheel routes and when a linebacker has to spy a QB. We need some speed and tenacity from the LB. I'm glad McDonald has helped us fill a void, but man he gets burnt on the edge.

Healthy Wheeler, Healthy Bryce and Rod moved to the outside, I think we are having a way different conversation.

Watching McDonald makes be wonder about how little talent there is at LB. Missoing on a couple of those JUCO linebackers seems to have really hurt us. 41 is just too slow.

Wag Tag · November 19, 2017

Let’s talk after FAU.. we have played them and have plenty of time to game plan against them. This would be my barometer for staying or leaving. I also thought the safeties played poorly on the perimeter runs. GMG

Edited November 19, 2017 by Wag Tag

Caw Caw · November 19, 2017

15 minutes ago, Wag Tag said:

Let’s talk after FAU.. we have played them and have plenty of time to game plan against them. This would be my barometer for staying or leaving. I also thought the safeties played poorly on the perimeter runs. GMG

Every time I watched, The safety did his job, he ran past the qb and hit the RB with or without the ball. I looks like a bad play, but that's his assignment. I saw one or two pitches work out, which is honestly pretty good.

dmaxel · November 19, 2017

54 minutes ago, FirefightnRick said:

No. I don't think there's a concern about a DC whose defense has us playing for a championship in only year two.

Eick

#NewDenton is about higher expectations. If we eventually want a season with 1 loss max, then I respectfully disagree.

NorthTexan95 · November 19, 2017

15 minutes ago, Caw Caw said:

Every time I watched, The safety did his job, he ran past the qb and hit the RB with or without the ball. I looks like a bad play, but that's his assignment. I saw one or two pitches work out, which is honestly pretty good.

I saw plenty of times when a safety came up and missed the tackle. There's enough blame to go around to all the positions on the field.

I wouldn't argue against a change as there are coordinators who seem to get more out of their talent that Reffert does. The problem is finding the right DC and that might be harder than it sounds. If Seth is happy then I'm happy.

outoftown · November 19, 2017

I am a bit unsure. Personally I think UNT hasn't recruited like it should at DL and LB in the last 2 seasons. The guys we did get were ok, but the numbers and depth are lacking and that is a particular problem when you get some injuries and when you play a team like army or...FAU. Combine that with the basic tendencies of Reffets system which at its core is less oriented for defending this kind of offense.

I guess I'd give him another season as it is not easy coaching defense with this focus on offense, but I'd have him on alert. I also not gonna think what the hell is going on in SLs brain if he does make a change.

BTG_Fan1 · November 19, 2017

Yes a new DC is much needed

GreenN'walinsVet · November 19, 2017

1 hour ago, DeepGreen said:

We sure defended the Army option attack very well when we played Army the first of last season. Only thing missing? We lost a damn good DC.

Last night was a disaster as far as defending the Army option attack. Looked like a road grader of an offense.

Word was it was Reffitt that had the gameplay against Army last year. Im no coach, but it sure appeared to me that we ran basically a generic base defense last night.

I wonder if this was the plan. Instead of revamping our defense late in the year for what amounts to a meaningless game, i wonder if we just played base, and decided to put the game into the offenses hands.

NorthTexan95 · November 19, 2017

6 minutes ago, GreenN'walinsVet said:

Word was it was Reffitt that had the gameplay against Army last year. Im no coach, but it sure appeared to me that we ran basically a generic base defense last night.

I wonder if this was the plan. Instead of revamping our defense late in the year for what amounts to a meaningless game, i wonder if we just played base, and decided to put the game into the offenses hands.

This is what I thought as well. With only one week they didn't feel it was enough time to make big changes.

GrandGreen · November 19, 2017

Defense is were relatively poor recruiting is showing up. Every fb division team NT has played with the exception of UTEP has substantially better ranked recruiting classes. There is some talent on defense, but not a lot of depth and teams like FAU and Army have exploited that. Reffitt has a very tough job and I think it is very difficult to judge him based on the talent he has available.

Recruiting on the offensive side has not been much better, but NT's offensive schemes and a budding super-star QB have covered that up.

LongJim · November 19, 2017

How about he gets a year with all his DL? I sure would like to have seen that wrecking ball in the middle.

Funny how the offense gets a full year of QB and RB play, and a six-gun of WRs and the coaches are geniuses.

GMG24 · November 19, 2017

3 hours ago, Ben Gooding said:

We need a new DC. He might be a jolly of a guy, but his unit is lacking. We give up season or career highs to most of all offenses/individuals we play almost on a weekly basis. Yes, the triple option can be a bitch to prepare for or defend, but 500+ yards of rushing is inexcusable regardless. At times the players were in position to make the play. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. But I am not seeing enough adjustments. We stayed status quo all game long last night. Never adjusted a single thing we were doing and got scolded play after play. We played 3 DL hand in the dirt. 0/1 tech and 2 5 techs with walk up 9 techs. And our 9 Techs aren't even DE's he had in there. We had Wheeler and Ejiya walking up as 9 techs on opposite sides of each other. we never overloaded. We never tried to stunt, guess their play, force the interior penetration. We just played this basic formation and said come at us. And Army said, "Uh, OK." And this is just the Army game.

A lot of times coordinating is having to be a good hitter. You have to sit back and wait for your pitch, and attack it. You have to know when to pull strings and adjust and draw up certain plays at certain times. You have to thumb the right strings and pinch the right chords sometimes. Our defensive staff has shown none of the above. We literally give up career and season highs to every team we play outside of UTEP.

We also need better or more active defensive linemen.

You know anything about our dline issues right now? No DL, and a d2 LB will always cause issues.