Who's got it better than us -- Coorinators

Would you trade Denbrock/Ash/Biagi straight up for anybody else's situation?

PSU is probably the one set of coordinators I would definitely trade.
Michigan's setup is pretty good, although I like Denbrock a lot more than Lindsey.
Clemson is pretty compelling, although I doubt they're significantly better.
You could probably make a case to trade for Oregon's guys.
I like Grubbs a lot, but Alabama's DC situation is a lot less proven than Ash
This list for the top 40 or so programs still has a whole lot of "Who the F is that guy!?" on it

Team                         OC                                DC                                     ST
Boston College Eagles        Will Lawing                       Tim Lewis                                    Matt Thurin
Clemson Tigers               Garrett Riley                     Tom Allen / Mickey Conn                      Michael Reed
Duke Blue Devils             Jonathan Brewer                   Jonathan Patke                               Gabe Infante
Florida State Seminoles      Gus Malzahn                       Tony White                                   John Papuchis
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets  Buster Faulkner                   Blake Gideon                                 Tim Salem
Louisville Cardinals         Brian Brohm                       Ron English                                  Karl Maslowski
Miami Hurricanes             Shannon Dawson                    Corey Hetherman                              Vacant
North Carolina Tar Heels     Freddie Kitchens                  Stephen Belichick                            Mike Priefer
Stanford Cardinal            Nate Byham                        Bobby April III / Andy Thompson              Bob Gregory
Syracuse Orange              Mike Johnson / Jeff Nixon         Elijah Robinson / Robert Wright              Ricky Brumfield
Arizona State Sun Devils     Marcus Arroyo                     Brian Ward                                   Charlie Ragle
Baylor Bears                 Jake Spavital                     Matt Powledge                                Mark Scott
BYU Cougars                  Aaron Roderick                    Jay Hill                                     Kelly Poppinga
Colorado Buffaloes           Pat Shurmur                       Robert Livingston                            Michael Pollack
Iowa State Cyclones          Taylor Mouser                     Jon Heacock                                  Rob Grande
Kansas Jayhawks              Matt Lubick / Jim Zebrowski       D.K. McDonald                                Taiwo Onatolu
Kansas State Wildcats        Matt Wells                        Joe Klanderman                               Nate Kaczor
Oklahoma State Cowboys       Doug Meacham                      Todd Grantham                                Sean Snyder
TCU Horned Frogs             Kendal Briles / A. J. Ricker      Andy Avalos                                  Mark Tommerdahl
Texas Tech Red Raiders       Mack Leftwich                     Shiel Wood                                   Kenny Perry
Utah Utes                    Jason Beck                        Morgan Scalley                               Sharrieff Shah
West Virginia Mountaineers   Rich Rodriguez (HC)               Zac Alley                                    Pat Kirkland
Illinois Fighting Illini     Barry Lunney Jr.                  Aaron Henry                                  Robbie Discher
Indiana Hoosiers             Mike Shanahan / Chandler Whitmer  Bryant Haines                                Grant Cain
Iowa Hawkeyes                Tim Lester                        Phil Parker                                  LeVar Woods
Michigan Wolverines          Chip Lindsey / Steve Casula       Don Martindale                               J. B. Brown
Michigan State Spartans      Brian Lindgren                Joe Rossi                                    Chad Wilt
Minnesota Golden Gophers     Greg Harbaugh Jr. / Matt Simon    Danny Collins                                Bob Ligashesky
Nebraska Cornhuskers         Dana Holgorsen                John Butler                                  Mike Ekeler
Ohio State Buckeyes          Keenan Bailey / Brian Hartline    Matt Patricia / Tim Walton                   Vacant
Oregon Ducks                 Will Stein                        Chris Hampton / Tosh Lupoi                   Joe Lorig
Penn State Nittany Lions     Andy Kotelnicki                   Jim Knowles / Anthony Poindexter             Justin Lustig
Rutgers Scarlet Knights      Kirk Ciarrocca                    Robb Smith / Zach Sparber                    Vacant
UCLA Bruins                  Tino Sunseri                      Ikaika Malloe                                Vacant
USC Trojans                  Luke Huard                        Eric Henderson / D'Anton Lynn                Ryan Dougherty
Washington Huskies           Jimmie Dougherty                  Ryan Walters                                 Jordan Paopao
Wisconsin Badgers            Jeff Grimes                       Mike Tressel                                 Matt Mitchell
Notre Dame Fighting Irish    Mike Denbrock                     Chris Ash                                    Marty Biagi
Boise State Broncos          Matt Miller / Nate Potter         Erik Chinander / Tyler Stockton              Stacy Collins
Alabama Crimson Tide         Ryan Grubb / Nick Sheridan        Maurice Linguist / Kane Wommack              Jay Nunez
Arkansas Razorbacks          Bobby Petrino                     Travis Williams / Marcus Woodson             Scott Fountain
Auburn Tigers                Derrick Nix                       D. J. Durkin                                 Chad Lunsford
Florida Gators               Russ Callaway                     Robert Bala / Ron Roberts / Vinnie Sunseri   Joe Houston
Georgia Bulldogs             Mike Bobo                         Travaris Robinson / Glenn Schumann     Kirk Benedict
LSU Tigers                   Cortez Hankton / Joe Sloan        Blake Baker                                  Aman Anand
Missouri Tigers              Kirby Moore                       Corey Batoon                                 Erik Link
Oklahoma Sooners             Ben Arbuckle                      Todd Bates / Jay Valai                       Doug Deakin
Ole Miss Rebels              Charlie Weis Jr.                  Bryan Brown / Pete Golding                   Jake Schoonover
South Carolina Gamecocks     Mike Shula                        Clayton White                                Joe DeCamillis
Tennessee Volunteers         Joey Halzle                       Tim Banks                                    Evan Crabtree
Texas Longhorns              Kyle Flood                        Pete Kwiatkowski / Johnny Nansen             Jeff Banks
Texas A&M Aggies             Collin Klein / Holmon Wiggins     Jay Bateman                                  Patrick Dougherty
Vanderbilt Commodores        Tim Beck                          Steve Gregory                                Jeff LePak

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I don't know much about other teams' DCs off the top of my head, but it is premature to put him in the "as good as anyone out there" category.

If nothing else, stepping into Al Golden's shoes has to be at least a short term step backwards. simply because Golden was so good and so experienced (a little older and former 2x head coach).

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Allen
Haines
Parker
Martindale
Knowles
Golding
Kwiatkowski

and I would also admit it's possible that Ash could outperform them -- better than other names from the list. I feel like there's a low chance Ash is completely terrible.

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That guy is headed for disaster, imo

As always with Michigan, I'm rooting for disaster, but I think they're going to have another ferocious defense this year (helped by a joke of a schedule).

I also think the style of play for them is about to get a little less consistent. Harbaugh was great at using the offense to protect the defense. Now with a $10MM QB they're going to have to start slinging it more

9 B1G games, and one of the three non-con's is away at Oklahoma.

If that's a joke schedule, then there might be 10 non-joke schedules across all of college football.

Northwestern
Purdue
Maryland
Nebraska
Michigan State
Washington
Wisconsin

And then non-cons with New Mexico and Central Michigan.

There are 18 teams in the Big Ten.

Setting their rivalry game with OSU aside, Michigan will play the teams that finished 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, and 18.

How did they miss UCLA? How does one team get ALL EIGHT of their conference games from the bottom nine teams?

No Penn State, no Oregon, no Illinois, no Iowa. Not even Minnesota or Indiana.

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I think Moore is sneaky bad. He had a treasure trove of NFL talent. His specialty -- offense -- was a complete disaster. They basically lost the IU game entirely because he idiotically kept inserting Orji.

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whether he can screw up Underwood as badly as he bungled UM's QB situation last year, or if BU is so talented that he will cover up many of Moore's flaws over the next three seasons.

and believe me, I'm no NU homer. I just have to pretend to root for them because my wife has her bachelor's and master's degrees from there.

They played good defense last year holding teams under 20 ppg. They continue to be insanely snakebit in close games, but that won't last forever.

Rhule is starting to develop talent and depth of, say, Iowa or Wisconsin in their better years.

But the big thing is that I think Raiola is the real deal at QB. They threw him in there as a true frosh and he wasn't great but he wasn't awful and he has a cannon for an arm.

NU still has a lot of weaknesses. They don't have a lot of speed on the edges. Their OL is still a work in progress. But I wouldn't be shocked to see them go 9-4 and upend a team like Michigan.

I think he evinces a little bit of a lower level background with how much scheming goes into getting his best players the ball. In the first half of last year PSU put up 7.1 ypp, which is best-in-the-nation type stuff. In the latter part of the year they put up 6.1 ypp, which is Top 40 type stuff. You can see it when he does stuff like puts an OL at move-TE in the run game, which looks genius the first time and then gets figured out quickyl and he has to go to the next trick.

Losing Warren is going to be huge for them. He was the engine of that offense. Akin to losing a good starting QB

Denbrock seems a bit vanilla, but in a good way. If he did learn any lessons from Kelly it's along the lines of "your bread and butter stuff has to work". Kotelnecki is the type of OC that coach-y/scheme-y streamers love because of all the neat things he does. I do also give Kotelnecki a bit of a pass because his QB is such an albatross, so it probably was warranted to scheme up all that crazy stuff to get Warren maximum touches.

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I'm pretty sure Kelly 1.0 was a hardcore spread guy, down to vertical stems and IZ/bubble being his preferred bread and butter. Martin had more 12/gap stuff when he was OC but generally speaking I think Kelly wanted 2000s spread stuff in the first half of his tenure.

It wasn't really until Denbrock got to run the show at Cincinnati that he became a full on IZ/TE flat/QB alley guy as far as base systems go. It kind of makes sense - he's been a TE coach his whole career so had probably wanted to center that part of the game more than Kelly would've let him. It's a pretty nice system though. By the time he came to LSU i think it was clear to even Kelly that his GVSU version of the spread had been superseded

I think back to their massive G2G failure in the fourth quarter against OSU last season when he (1) didn't get the ball to Warren once in 4 plays and (2) repeatedly had an OL in motion who didn't actually block anyone when the play ran. I think he's too cute by half with some of the bells & whistles.

I'm biased, but I wouldn't trade our two coordinators as a pair for anyone else's. Lot of them are getting carried by raw talent.

of Kyle Flood and Pete Kwiatkowski is pretty good.

Also IMO I think PSU v ND is draw according to your personal preference.

I don't think things would go well if Fickell hired him away from Texas to run the Wisconsin offense.

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the Ole Miss offense without Lane -- though Charlie Jr. appears to be doing a good job for himself.

And I think the II podcast guys referred to the fact that Elko is taking over D playcalling at A&M. So they are going from Bateman to Batman in that respect.

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falling. The frankly insane idea to bring Mac Longo to Wisconsin betrayed just how little of a clue Fickell actually has when it comes to offensive football. Seems pretty clear that Denbrock helmed that cincinnati offense to whatever heights they reached.

I think Denbrock is pretty damn good when it comes to college football. He has an inside zone core that builds out well in several personnel scenarios and keeps things pretty comprehensible for his players. I have to imagine the's the only active guy who has put together a Top 10 yards per play offense at three different schools.

Is that he really wants to be at ND for the rest of his career. We don’t have to worry about him leaving if he performs at a consistently high level. He’s where he wants to be.

guys we would trade Ash for right now. And I'd put my money on that list getting shorter rather than longer.

Maybe because I feel we’re overdue for a dud at DC, but it’s been awhile since he was a good/great DC. I know he did a year at Texas and they showed improvement but I just worry of the combo of losing our smart, experienced leaders of Watts, Kiser, Cross and Mills right when we get a new DC on campus. Maybe I just need to be pessimistic about something but if Golden stayed I would say I absolutely would not trade our coordinators for anyone. Now, I just need to see Ash adjust to college ball again before I believe in him.

On another note, I know it would have taken a boatload but the Texas DC is a HUGE Notre Dame fan. I wish we kicked the tires on stealing him away (maybe we did).

Away from the college game for longer and had never been a DC at any level. On its face, that was a pretty risky (and ballsy) hire with a reasonable probability for failure.

Further, I have been encouraged by the way Ash has not only talked about but repeatedly stressed not fixing what ain't broke. He seems to be cognizant that he's inherited a strong staff and personnel. And I have zero worries about player leadership after everything the defense overcame last season.

I think the floor is pretty high with Ash, and even in a nightmare mode he can be marginalized and Freeman can run the defense with a very experienced D staff helping him out

He hired Alex Grinch prior to his last season at OSU. Their defense was deplorable that year, although they still finished 12-1 and won the Rose Bowl because of fucking course they did. Meyer 'retired' at the conclusion and Grinch went on to Norman to ruin whatever semblance of a defense the Sooners previously had.

He had much more of a reputation as a "program and recruiting" kind of guy. It wasn't until he came to ND after the NFL that he was a total scheme-o.

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* one of the hosts had a recent sit down with Jack about his hiring (why) Freeman. A what did you see piece, if you will.

One thing they made clear is Swarbrick hired Golden. Jack was super impressed with Golden going back years from a job interview. They didn't say it but you kinda think Swarbrick viewed Golden as a BK replacement and kept an eye on him. BK leaves and Marcus emerges as the top candidate. Politically Golden over Freeman doesn't work so Jack hedges his bets by telling Freeman, the job is yours BUT Al Golden is your #2.

I obviously had heard that before but never heard it said as explicitly.

Much more likely that Swarbrick, having been impressed by Golden going back to his Temple days, urged Freeman to consider Golden as his first DC and they meshed strongly when Freeman brought him in for an interview.

I also strongly doubt that JS really thought he could sell Golden, at the time a position coach in the NFL after being fired by Miami (whether you think the firing was justified or not), as the successor to Kelly. The howls of outrage would have been deafening.

He was essentially a failed HC in college and seemed to be headed for a career as an NFL position coach (6 years). I just assumed that they brought him in to mentor Freeman on being a HC, I didn’t expect him to be the best DC in college football.

I have no reason to doubt Ash, but he’s got big shoes to fill.

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the Polo Grounds - 20250422

Hard to say with Ash

guys I would trade for Ash

No thanks on Martindale

In what way?

Haven't they had two all-world DTs for the past two years?

Michigan's schedule is no joke this year

They somehow got the entire bottom half of the 2024 B1G

This is what I was referring to

they'll still go 9-3

I'll be watching to see...

I think Nebraska will be pretty good this year --

One thing with Kotelnecki

that really differentiates what he does vs Denbrock

I actually think the time at Cincy was huge for Denbrock

He does some pretty silly shit, too.

Don't know about "better" but the Horns tandem

isn't Flood a glorified OL coach?

Yes, Sark is effectively the OC there

I think HC matters in these discussions. Can't consider

Charlie Jr is the coffee gofer until he proves otherwise

One thing that shows well for Denbrock is Fickell's star

The other thing with Denbrock

Maybe Rossi. But your point stands. There are maybe a dozen

Ash is my biggest concern on team right now

Golden was a bigger risk at the time.

Did Meyer ever hire a bad DC?

Yes.

other funny thing about Golden

Monday's II pod had a Swarbrick segment

I doubt it was that explicit

Agreed