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New head coach Sonny Dykes has begun assembling his new team in what everyone hopes will be the staff to lead the Bears to the Rose Bowl in the near future. A couple of hires have become public, while a few are agreed to in principle, and a few remaining coaching positions are still being decided.
I wanted to share just a few thoughts on each hire, but let me start off by saying this: it's a bit ridiculous that some people are already jumping off the cliff in regards to a few hires. People are way too obsessed with sexy picks and I find it funny that some people are disappointed they Dykes has chosen not to bring on certain candidates, even though most didn't know who they were a few weeks ago. I understand the desire to bring on big name coaches, but I actually believe in Coach Dykes when he maintains that it's all about fit, and who he thinks is going to work best with the players and other coaches. It's that chemistry that's been missing for a while in the latter years of Tedford's tenure, and I for one am ready to believe Dykes when he says he's looking for the coaches who will best instill that chemistry in the team.
And if anything, let's wait until these coaches have actually gone through a full season before we jump to any conclusions, yeah?
Defensive Coordinator - Andy Buh
Defensive Coordinator was by far going to be the biggest hire for Sonny Dykes, with Louisiana Tech handicapped last year by a defense that couldn't seem to keep any team from scoring points (see LT surrendering 55 points to Texas...State.)
If you're measuring this hire strictly by the ability to make a big splash, then the hire is a bit of a head scratcher. Buh coached the linebackers at Wisconsin this past season, after having served as Stanford's co-defensive coordinator from 2007-2010 and Nevada's D-coordinator from 2010-2012.
On paper, the results don't necessarily jump out at you.
@ Nevada
(Before Buh)
Scoring Defense 2009: 28.5 ppg (86th nationally)
Total Defense 2009: 409.3 ypg (96th nationally)
Turnovers 2009: 18 (89th nationally)
(After Buh)
Scoring Defense 2010: 21.4 ppg (31st nationally)
Scoring Defense 2011: 25.2 ppg (58th nationally)
Total Defense 2010: 363.6 (54th nationally)
Total Defense 2011: 369.2 (52nd nationally
Turnovers 2010: 24 (45th nationally)
Turnovers 2011: 25 (39th nationally)
Pretty admirable job. Buh took a pretty atrocious Wolfpack defense and turned it into a respectable one fairly quickly. Nevada's defense wasn't quite elite which is probably why Buh didn't get more props, but it's clear he had a pretty immediate effect as defensive coordinator.
His job at Stanford wasn't quite as respectable, as we all remember Stanford's inability to deal with the speed of the Pac-10 during Harbaugh's early years. It's also difficult to determine who to attribute much of the responsibility to with Buh having acted as co-defensive coordinator. It is highly plausible that he had a large part in bringing in the talent to turn Stanford into the elite defensive squad it is now.
This leads us to at least one reason to be excited about Buh. He's reportedly a solid recruiter and has been described by more than one recruit as a "player's coach" in that he has the ability to connect with players on a personal level. I know that Gabe King should be excited about that.
In short, it's not a sexy pick by any stretch of the imagination. Buh isn't a big-name coordinator who has a long track-record of coaching elite defenses. But he's a young name in the coaching world who has done a pretty good job at Nevada, recruits well, and is at the very least a heck of a linebackers coach. The question will be of course how that will translate at Cal.
I can't honestly say that I'm impressed with the hire, but I'm certainly willing to give it a shot. There's nothing at this point for anyone to determine that this won't end up being a solid pick up. I want to see how the players respond before I go and end up declaring the move a failure. It's a bit preposterous to do otherwise.
2 comments:
Love the blog. I think it's a savy hiring. True, not a big name, but if you look at the staffs he's been on (Nevada, Stanford, Wisconsin) it doesn't get much better. Those are all very solid-great programs in thier own right. He's been around great offensive staffs, which could help him as a DC. It could be that Sonny brought him on the staff based on something along those lines.
I like that Jim Harbaugh, Chris Ault, and Brett Bielema (who was hand-picked by Barry Alvarez) wanted Buh.
I was rooting for Randy Shannon and paying him big time bucks to handle that side of the ball, but I like Buh.
Buh, Stewart, and Sacks all have DC experience at the collegiate level. In fact, all the hires have been longtime college coaches - a real 180 from all the pro coaches we used to get under Tedford.
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