At Cincinnati, he's been much more variable. Leonhard hasn't done much of that during his time at Wisconsin, but when he was in the NFL, his DCs used more of a hybrid scheme.įickell was primarily a 4-3 over defense when he was DC of Ohio State. I use "multiple" in the sense that they're both used to using both over and under techniques with both 3 and 4-man fronts. Fickell and Leonhard both have experience with "multiple" defensive fronts. I actually don't think it would be that radical, for a couple reasons. Maybe the best thing would be for everyone would be for Leonhard to help Fickell bridge the gap for a year or two while Leonhard gets to keep his family in Madison for a couple more year and wait for something to come along that's more than just another stepping stone job.īut mixing and matching different parts of different defensive schemes? JL could give input but ultimately the players operate under a single plan on a given play. I wouldn't blame him one bit for leaving for another HC job or NFL DC job. The question is whether or not Leonhard wants to stay or not. If Leonhard wants to stay, I think it's obvious that Fickell would try to keep him. Keeping Leonhard would be the best way to keep around the players that are currently on the roster and being recruited. I'm fairly confident that Fickell negotiated some significant increases to the assistant coach salary pool, and he needs to hire someone as a DC. I actually think it would be really interesting to see them mesh their concepts. There are some similarities in their philosophies and scheme, but they do some different things. If Jimmy wants to be a HC, he has a decade to figure it out. Fickell figured it out at Cincy in his mid-and-late 40s. About the same age Fickell was when he was Interim HC at OSU. I wasn't solid on Mac as AD, but this is a very good first start. Ideally, maybe Tressel gets promoted to Cincy HC and Fickell can't bring him along.Įither way, I see in Fickell a guy that can do all of the things a Head Coach needs to do ( in a style that has looked oddly Wisconsin-esque in Cincy) and I'm especially excited to see what recruiting looks like the next several years. I want to think Mac has been meeting with Jimmy the last several weeks and had conversations with Jim about hiring Fickell with the intention that he stays. Maybe a professional atmosphere like Alabama, Georgia, etc are what will take Wisconsin to the next level and better weather these storms. It's a tight personal bond that you love to see, but when times get tough, it's just hard on everyone in ways that are difficult to recover from. I also see risk in the type of relationship building Chryst and Leonhard are apt to have with players. I would've felt more comfortable with taking an offensive risk that fails than seeing the same offensive troubles early in the year linger through to the last game. Seeing the Offense stutter the last several games showed that he didn't step in with changes in a way a Head Coach needs to do. We know Jim has the scheme, but today I think I see a Def scheme specialist rather than a football program building generalist. Head Coaches are responsible for so much in recruiting, scheduling, overall scheme, team chemistry, etc. I don't think the time is right for Jim to be Head Coach yet.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |