To lead the nation in total defense while competing in the cat-quick SEC is remarkable.
Really not a thing in there you can argue about, especially the above comment. It sounds, according to the LSU players, he's running very similiar defense when he was here.
He also has great athletes down there, something NU obviously didn't have.
So in conclusion, ATHLETES WIN GAMES NOT THE COACHES
Does anyone here ever stop to wonder if a good coach can make decent atheletes appear to be much better while a poor coach can make them appear to be incompetent? Can you empirically demonstrate the level of atheleticism other than the performances that they put on under the direction of a coach? Did we have horrible athletes the year before Pelini showed up and then lose them all after he was gone?
I'm not saying that I think that what you're saying is wrong, but it sure seems narrow to say that it's one or the other. If you can't tell me that a great coach can't make a huge difference between major Div I programs, then I ask you, why are they there? If you averaged out the "athleticism" (and how do we measure that?) across the top 15 or even 25 schools' defenses, then I would bet that they'll be pretty close. It's the schemes, strategies, and abilities to adjust to and predict the other teams' strategies and tactics and making sure that the players are in the right positions to stop those plays. You think that Missouri had guys wide open in the endzone (with no one even close) because our guys are less athletic? Sure, grixby fell down but he was at least THERE. When our dbacks are there and just doing poorly, yeah, that's on them. But when there is no one there, when our linebackers are out of position and have been neutralized, that's on the coach for picking the wrong scheme. We we keep doing the same things and failing, that's on the coach.
It's like mind & body. Sure, players have to be smart to make those quick decisions, read the QB's eyes, and all of that, but it's the coach who has to make sure that they're in a place that they can actually do that...
Oh well... I'm sure that this is something that we all agree on, but saying that it's the players not the coaches is silly. It's a strong interplay of the two and I think that our D has enough talent to really benefit from a great coach.