General News about Key and his Staff

[RamblinCharger]

I'm starting to think they complain so much cause they live I Alabama

Huntsville was just named the #1 place to live in America. I think we’re doing just fine.

 

[RamblinCharger]

Agreed. I watched every game, as my wife is a Bammer. The reason their D was not as dominant this year as previous years is because they did not have difference makers on the DL. I mean they were better than 97.5% of the other teams in the country, but they were not able to get pressure on QBs with 3 & 4 man rushes like they have historically.

Like you said, their D was not terrible, but UA fans are spoiled.

As a UAH grad, and having a ton of Bama grad friends, I watch every Bama game as well. If you believe in the eye test bama’s defense has taken a step back. They’re still top 10 because it’s Bama but they used to be pretty unfairly dominant. Bama fans are definitely spoiled, but I only made the comment in regards to Charles Kelly. Bama seems to get beat over the top fairly often for some reason. Again, this is just the eye test from watching games. I’ll support whoever comes on board. Just want to see the jackets win games again.

 

[GT05]

Huntsville was just named the #1 place to live in America. I think we’re doing just fine.

Come again?

 

[GT05]

Come again?

I kid. I’ve done time there for work. Not a bad place to be.

 

[RamblinCharger]

Come again?

https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/best-places-to-live

 

[RamblinCharger]

I kid. I’ve done time there for work. Not a bad place to be.

Really up and coming. I still hope to get back to Atlanta before we have kids, mostly for GT and the Braves, but Alabama isn’t all bad.

 

[RamblinCharger]

To get back on track, I’d personally like to see the defensive staff retained, at least for the most part. The defense this year was the most competent defense I think I’ve seen since 2008. The offense on the other hand needs a lot of work. I’m hoping he hires a quality OC. Someone mentioned weinke and TC as CO-OCs which sounded like a nice idea. Get TC back and give him a raise and title bump. The other options will probably have to come from someone doing well at a G5 school.

 

[1976jacket]

https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/best-places-to-live

It’s like another country compared to rest of Alabama per my son who lives there.

 

[takethepoints]

Let Thacker go and bring in Shane Bowen, let him decide who stays and who goes on the defensive staff. Find a new OC and cut Long loose. Weinke is good at QB development but not sure he is the answer for OC. I want a guy who runs the ball first and passes second. I want a tougher hard nosed offensive football team that can pound the rock and wear down the opposition. Not interested in any of these air shows. Maybe Tashard Choice would be a good candidate.

Go Jackets!

PS - Damn glad Brent Key is our permanent Head Coach.

Ah. Bohannon would be the top guy, I think.

 

[ChicagobasedJacket]

Maybe Key could give Choice a call, and ask about Brennan Marion. Excellent recruiter, a history of calling plays successfully (at Howard + William & Mary), some pretty strong P5 experience under great offensive minds, and creator of a pretty funky/dynamic offense.

Brennan Marion - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I was reading that Brennan is an OC option for other P5 schools too

 

[BainbridgeJacket]

How much credit for the defense this past year is due to David Turner?

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

I'm honestly surprised we don't play southern more frequently. Would be a fun rivalry game. More than playing state or Kennesaw

Honestly, you could switch them with the pups and I would be OK. Now back to staff.

 

[85Escape]

Really up and coming. I still hope to get back to Atlanta before we have kids, mostly for GT and the Braves, but Alabama isn’t all bad.

Oh, I'd rather live in Huntsville than Atlanta. Same for most of the the 'Villes' (Huntsville, Greenville, Charlottesville, Asheville...okay maybe not Knoxville.) When we still lived in ATL we'd go to one of the Ville's for concerts. Waaaay more enjoyable. We went to a couple in Huntsville. It was very nice.

But lets be honest, Huntsville is a bit of an outlier. At the very least you have to admit that it looks quite a bit different than 90% of the state!

 

[slugboy]

Interesting. I know what you're saying and I'll admit those were really the only two Bama games I watched closely, but their defense didn't impress me. But, hey, maybe I'm wrong. I did watch their two worst defensive performances, I guess. But LSU's offense isn't a world beater (I doubt they'll score 32 on UGa) and UT got snuffed out by Georgia's D....so the comparison isn't a good one for Bama.

The UGA is not only the #1 defense, but its head and shoulders ahead of any other defense this year. Clemson in 2019 was comparable. Bama is top 10 this year, though.
The runners who lost to Usain Bolt in the finals weren’t slow, they just weren’t Usain Bolt.

 

[Yoda]

Honestly, Godsey doesn't excite me like he would have years ago.

Unless Key says “Get Ralph’s playbook out of the closet. That’s what we’re running”.

 

[bke1984]

Were already paying the dude, can he become an analyst for the remainder of his contract?

Demotions don’t work for many reasons. If we go another direction he’s got to go.

 

[bke1984]

I’m not as much of a super hater of Long as some. We just need to fix the Oline, hit the portal hard for a receiver, and keep a QB as our starter for more than a game or two cause of one reason or another.

O line played pretty damn well against georgia and we still didn’t do too much. The offense looked a little better, but aside from the first scripted drive the play calling didn’t seem too imaginative.

 

[bke1984]

To get back on track, I’d personally like to see the defensive staff retained, at least for the most part.

The staff definitely showed what they can accomplish with some talent. Thomas developed here, but the other two key contributors were transfers in. I’m curious if they can develop the young guys.

Powell-Lee has a bright future.

 

[Richard7125]

O line played pretty damn well against georgia and we still didn’t do too much. The offense looked a little better, but aside from the first scripted drive the play calling didn’t seem too imaginative.

Hmmm. I thought the play calling was good. We had a couple of bad drops and a couple of debatable catches that were ruled incomplete. I’m not saying we would have won if those went our way, but things would have been different. We were playing the #1 team with the #1 defense. We couldn’t afford drops and we needed the debatable calls to go our way. I thought we looked like a football team with a coherent plan.

 

[slugboy]

I’d want to think of the units as consistent teams where the defensive staff all plays well together. But, to keep things simple, let’s do Wins Against Replacement (WAR) without a stat like that for the coaches.

Our defense is #39 in DFEI. It was good this year. (Tulane, believe it or not, was #25). Our Offense was #108 in OFEI this year. Yes, we went down two QBs during the year, but the offense ranking stayed below 90 all year, even when Sims and Pyron were around.

So, if you have to pick your battles and use your resources effectively, the place you make changes is on offense.

Before I start on offense, I will say this on defense—you could move Semore to mainly Special Teams and Thacker back to LB and solve the punting issues and the staffing balance. We mainly use 2 LB, so it’s a question of “do you want to do this”? Alternatively, if you really like Semore as an LB coach, Thacker could be DC and Special Teams Coordinator. You might lose someone on defense, but I hope not.

For OC, the $850k for Long is already spent, so financially think of him as a “free” OC since his salary is a sunk cost. Is it worth another $800k or thereabouts to bring in someone else? Probably. Especially if Weinke was doing the signal calling the last two games—that means that Long isn’t really working as your OC. We didn’t put up good numbers in the TE position and our PFF ratings in that position were pretty low (including blocking), so unless Long recruits like mad, he’s not a high WAR OC or TE coach. You also need an OL coach, so if your OC is also the OL coach, that works really well. The more likely scenario is that the OC is also the QB coach, which means Weinke is out of a spot. Eley is working at RB coach right now instead of Daniels. I think that’s more “you’re a coach and we have a hole here, can you fill in?”. My guess is that Eley goes back to being an analyst next season or coaches a different position.

Unless you leave Long as OC or promote Weinke to OC, there is a game of musical chairs that happens on offense. I think that it’s most likely that we hire a new OC and there are wholesale changes on offense. I think both of the two primary OCs that have been mentioned as targets are also QB position coaches, so Weinke would need to move to a different spot, or become an analyst, and that’s the minimum change. Godsey could coach TE, but I don’t think he’ll be coming here. It’s more likely that there’s a completely new offensive coaching staff next season, or maybe one or two return, if you have a new OC.

The other option to me is Weinke as OC and filling the TE and OL slots. That’s two coaching positions—Long and the OL coach. You could do that with two OL coaches where one did GCG and the other did T+TE. Or the TEs could get lumped in with the WRs or the RBs, or have their own coach.

If you want to bring in Pruitt or Charles Kelly as DC, they both coach secondary, which means that Tillman would be gone and Thacker would be gone. You wouldn’t really improve your secondary that much. I don’t know why you would want to replace Turner.

So, my guesses from most likely to least likely

1. New OC and significant coaching changes on offense.
2. Weinke becomes OC and we hire OL and TE coaches (the continuity option)
3. Godsey comes in as OC and TE coach, we keep Weinke, and there are a 1-2 additional changes in the offensive staff
4. Long stays, hire OL coach. (the other continuity option)

On defense, my guesses are (1 most likely, and then less likely):

1. Coaching staff stays pretty much as-is.
2. Thacker leaves and we promote Turner or Tillman to DC
3. Key brings in Kelly or Pruitt and we lose Tillman and Thacker.
4. Key brings in another DC that coaches LB and we lose Thacker and Semore.

I think the defense is going in the right direction, and I don’t see the need for wholesale changes. If you do change the defense, it better be a major out-of-the-gate improvement.

BTW, here’s the list from RamblinWreck.com. It’s out of date. Mike Daniel’s link goes to nowhere.

• David Turner – Assistant Head Coach (Defense)/Defensive Run Game Coordinator
• Chip Long – Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends
• Andrew Thacker – Defensive Coordinator
• Travares Tillman – Defensive Backs/Defensive Pass Game Coordinator
• Del Alexander – Wide Receivers
• Mike Daniels – Running Backs
• Larry Knight – Defensive Line
• Jason Semore – Linebackers/Special Teams
• Chris Weinke – Quarterbacks

O line played pretty damn well against georgia and we still didn’t do too much. The offense looked a little better, but aside from the first scripted drive the play calling didn’t seem too imaginative.

If the rumor that Weinke did the play calling against UNC and UGA is true (and it was just something posted here and on other boards), then that might explain the play calling. Also, the last two games don’t help Long that much if he wasn’t calling plays.