We’ve already seen the rumor that boosters want Collins to take over DC duties and Thacker to move to LB coach. I’m a little confused about assignments because last year Thacker was DC/Linebackers and Coleman was DE+Linebackers.
We’ve also seen rumors that Collins was micromanaging the defense, and overruling calls. I don’t know for sure that it’s true, but I’ve seen Collins yelling at Thacker on the sidelines and some arguments.
For defense, my view of the odds are
- Fairly likely: Collins is DC but Thacker keeps the DC title
- Also fairly likely: Collins agrees to take over DC duties, but the responsibilities are a lot like last year (Thacker with the same responsibilities as last year, but without a Co-DC). This is what almost no one wants.
- Not very likely: Collins is HC/DC and Thacker is LB coach. If Thacker was going to get a title change, why hasn't he?
- I’d be surprised if: we hire a new DC. Maybe we're waiting on other announcements to see if we can get someone we really want, but it's after early signing day. I suppose there's a possibility we're waiting on someone who is coaching a bowl, but it just feels like we're looking for another assistant.
For offense, I hope Long has enough credibility that he just takes over managing the entire offense, and Collins is focused entirely on defense and special teams.
For last year, I’ll say that everyone on offense looked like they were all running the same play. On defense, the corners, the safeties, the LBs, and the DL looked disjointed. We talked about the corners and the safeties looking like they were confused about who had which assignment, but everyone behind the DL looked like they weren’t on the same page.