Defensively we are worse, but not by much. I mean last year we had Carl and we had a down year defensively. We had some major shifts defensively this offseason, JP moved to DC, We brought Kaz in from Iowa to take over the defensive line, and Raymond for the secondary.
I mean, you never know, you can draw a correlation between defensive coaching changes in the past 3 - 4 seasons and how the defensive productivity has slipped. Maybe its just as easy as new coaching staff is taking a while to develop trust among the players coming into the program.
This^. I think you throw in a new DB coach, new DC and new DL coach your are setting yourself up. IMO, it would be very hard to teach the kids when you are learning the job yourself. IIRC, Els is in year 2. Again, for all intensive purposes, no real experience.
I compare it to the offense last year and this. New, no experience OC, with a new WR coach sets us up to do less than spectacular. I think that against UCLA, a more experienced OC keeps pounding the ball in the second half and doesn't abandon the run for our last couple of series.
I think what has hurt us, is hiring guys with little to no experience and very little track record regarding a body of work that can be seen. No doubt, our young staff has the potential to become elite. Potential simply meaning they have done nothing yet. The downside is the young inexperienced staff will continue to lose the games when they become a chess match. Not because they are "bad" coaches, it is because they lack the experience. I would guess that in many of your personal lives you see examples of this all the time. Experience counts for something. That is why folks expect more from Martinez. It is his 3rd year. An experienced coach, IMO, can get younger kids up to speed a whole lot faster. All this talk of the "system" and the "process" is probably true. Sadly, Paps has been in charge of the "process" and the "system" less than some of the kids on the team. Same with the rest of the staff.
Bottom line, our staff continues to learn and grow together and get 9 wins a year. Several years from now, if they are all together, we can expect a lot more. We often blame the lack of talent on the kids, but the same could be said for the staff. A lot of folks have talked about so and so being a rising star in the coaching world, no different than a HS 4* coming here and not panning out.
Lastly, IMO, our biggest loss was the loss of Sanders. His body of work, again IMO, speaks for itself. As does the number of guys he coached that are now in the league.
