Since DD will most likely never be fired

El Paso Eagle · October 25, 2005

Look at a couple of Mid-major programs that are on the fast track for turning things around – UTEP and UCF – Mike Price George O’Leary (sp).

The first thought is that they were able to land High-profile coaches that under normal circumstances that would not have been able to hire. But regardless of why they got hired they both insisted on upgrading the assistant coaches before the signed.

This is not a bash on NT’s assistant coaches; they might all be great coaches BUT what if we could take our level of assistants up a notch or two? How big of a difference could that make in the success of the program? This past year the Defensive Coordinator at UTEP was (almost) hired away by Michigan State as a position coach (sound familiar?). The reason I say almost was the UTEP was able to counter offer and keep him. Maybe DD could “change his ways” if he had a little more horse power behind him.

Coffee and TV · October 25, 2005

Its obvious how big of a loss DeLoach was when you look at our defensive numbers over the last 4 1/2 years too.

GoMeanGreen1999 · October 25, 2005

Well, if RV would go to Dickey and make him get a new OC then that would be a step in the right direction. Dickey probably would not do that unless of course he was forced to do it. I think the Defense is not as good as years past, but would probably be better if they weren't on the field for so long.

MeanMag · October 25, 2005

I think the defense lies in their own grave. They let the other team march down the field and use the back of the endzone as a 12th man. Which is why they've forced so many turnovers down there. I just don't see the swarming, hard hitting, make them pay defense i've seen in years past.

If they want off the field, hold them to 3 and out.

My question is this: Is our offense this year, compared to years past, getting more or less offensive drives per game? What is the total number of drives our offense has this year, compared to last year?

GreenFlag · October 25, 2005

My question is this: Is our offense this year, compared to years past, getting more or less offensive drives per game? What is the total number of drives our offense has this year, compared to last year?

Is three and out considered a "drive"? I see the lack of sustaining-back-breaking-demoralizing-time comsuming drives we have had in the past. Now that was cool! You would just see the opponents wilting after 2 or 3 of those. Then it became a PC or JT track meet.

DD has made mention a few times in his press conferences about the lack of first downs.

If I had to guess we would have a higher number of "drives" this year. Not a good thing with the offense we run.

Quality, not quantity.

meanrob · October 25, 2005

Not to downplay Deloach too much but here's what he had to work with-

Cody Spencer

Booger Kennedy

Jonas Buckles

Mike Pruitt

Taylor Casey

Chris Hurd

Craig Jones

Adrian Awasome

M Knowlton

Evan Cardwell

that's a pretty good group to stack a defense with.

mhow2 · October 25, 2005

Not to downplay Deloach too much but here's what he had to work with-
Cody Spencer
Booger Kennedy
Jonas Buckles
Mike Pruitt
Taylor Casey
Chris Hurd
Craig Jones
Adrian Awasome
M Knowlton
Evan Cardwell
that's a pretty good group to stack a defense with.
←

most of those players were recruited by DeLO

ipEAGLE · October 25, 2005

Not to downplay Deloach too much but here's what he had to work with-
Cody Spencer
Booger Kennedy
Jonas Buckles
Mike Pruitt
Taylor Casey
Chris Hurd
Craig Jones
Adrian Awasome
M Knowlton
Evan Cardwell
that's a pretty good group to stack a defense with.
←

Why can't they still be here?

El Paso Eagle · October 26, 2005

Not to downplay Deloach too much but here's what he had to work with-
Cody Spencer
Booger Kennedy
Jonas Buckles
Mike Pruitt
Taylor Casey
Chris Hurd
Craig Jones
Adrian Awasome
M Knowlton
Evan Cardwell
that's a pretty good group to stack a defense with.
←

Whose to say they would have turned into the players they became without Deloach?

FirefightnRick · October 26, 2005

Cody Spencer
Booger Kennedy
Jonas Buckles
Mike Pruitt
Taylor Casey
Chris Hurd
Craig Jones
Adrian Awasome
M Knowlton
Evan Cardwell

And these guys were all recruited without anything to offer them other than a chance to play and an education. No winning records, no conference championships or bowl games to look forward to, no facilities including anything that could be remotely considered as a nice study center, only a small outdated weight room to offer, no decent team meeting rooms, no new dorms to offer, no fan base to cheer for them, nothing.

Rick

H-towngreen · October 26, 2005

Yes we can improve what we have to work with. Through recruiting. Now that we have all these new things poping up, I see better classes coming to NT. It will be intresting to see how this upcoming recruiting season will be. Will we have better recruits visiting? Will we be able to persuade some to sign? Will it only be a few players or will this whole class be vastly better when compared to others? The only thing we can do is wait and see