Everett Withers: UPDATED with Ohio State hiring

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DeltaHog

DeltaHog

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I am hearing his name thrown around for the Arkansas Defensive Coordinator position that opened up today.
 

He coached one of the worst defenses in college football history here (at least thats the way I remember it), but he has seemed to do better at UNC. I think they would probably be better to ask because your talent on D is closer to UNC's than Minnesota's
 

He did a great job at UNC. It is really difficult to tell how good of a job he would have done here because I don't think i've ever seen a less talented/experienced defense as our defense in 2007. It was an absolute mess. We wouldn't have had much a defense regardless, but then we lost our two best defensive players (Jones and Daniels).

He's a top notch coordinator though, look at what he did at Carolina.
 

In my opinion he is the best defensive mind the gophers have had in 20 years.
Defense sucked here because he didn't realize how to adjust his scheme for lack of talent. Did a lot better at north Carolina.

I liked him better than roof. But his inexperience as a coordinator showed while at Minnesota.
 



Rosemountian said:
In my opinion he is the best defensive mind the gophers have had in 20 years.
Defense sucked here because he didn't realize how to adjust his scheme for lack of talent. Did a lot better at north Carolina.

I liked him better than roof. But his inexperience as a coordinator showed while at Minnesota.
Click to expand...

I want to second that comment. When he came here he was fresh from the NFL. He came to Minnesota with really complex and creative ideas. Problem was he didn't have the caliber of players to do all the things he wanted to do and he overwhelmed them with too much too quick (Jedd Fisch basically did the same thing the year he was here on offense). Withers learned from his mistakes and has done very well since. I think he would be a great fit for Arkansas if you he ends up there.
 

I agree with MNVCGUY and Rosemountian. The NFL is a whole different beast and he probably came in with a bunch of assumptions about working with college-level players that he has since discarded. I think the Fisch comparison is relevant.
 

Rosemountian said:
In my opinion he is the best defensive mind the gophers have had in 20 years.
Defense sucked here because he didn't realize how to adjust his scheme for lack of talent. Did a lot better at north Carolina.

I liked him better than roof. But his inexperience as a coordinator showed while at Minnesota.
Click to expand...
Personally, I'll take Roof or Claeys as the best "defensive Mind in the last 20 years"
When Withers was here, he was trying to do things that were too complicated for a transitional college team, so the team was slow and played slower. It was his first college job after being with the Titans, so I assume he changed a lot after he left here, because he did a good job at UNC.
 

corcoran1 said:
Personally, I'll take Roof or Claeys as the best "defensive Mind in the last 20 years"
When Withers was here, he was trying to do things that were too complicated for a transitional college team, so the team was slow and played slower. It was his first college job after being with the Titans, so I assume he changed a lot after he left here, because he did a good job at UNC.
Click to expand...

Claeys?!?!?!
 



corcoran1 said:
Personally, I'll take Roof or Claeys as the best "defensive Mind in the last 20 years"
When Withers was here, he was trying to do things that were too complicated for a transitional college team, so the team was slow and played slower. It was his first college job after being with the Titans, so I assume he changed a lot after he left here, because he did a good job at UNC.
Click to expand...

I don't know...the 2011 defense returned much more talent than the 2007 defense (I know, it's almost impossible to believe). That 2007 team saw a TON of Curtis Thomas, Ryan Collado (as a true FR, i'm not ripping on Ryan but he wasn't ready to play as a FR), Theret (as a true FR)....we had very little experience at any positions. Even the players we had that turned out to be decent, weren't ready to play at that moment.

I think it's nearly impossible to judge Whithers from his time here.
 

That 2007 team had one legitimate big ten starter (Some guys were legitimate starters later but were not legitimate starters while so young).

I as much as said Withers tried to do too much when he was here. He was learning on the job. I said great defensive mind, not great defensive coordinator. Roof was a better coordinator. Jury is out on current guy. But I will take withers now over all three of them. He was still learning.
 

Rosemountian said:
That 2007 team had one legitimate big ten starter
Click to expand...

Van De Steeg
D. Barber

(at minimum)

I would also make the argument that Sherels, Davis, Hightower, and Harris were "legitimate Big Ten starters". The problem with that defense wasn't the starters, in my opinion; it was that the depth was razor-thin and far too much of the two deep chart was littered with freshman and sophomores. Of course, we could say that about most every Gopher team of the last few decades.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Van De Steeg
D. Barber

(at minimum)

I would also make the argument that Sherels, Davis, Hightower, and Harris were "legitimate Big Ten starters". The problem with that defense wasn't the starters, in my opinion; it was that the depth was razor-thin and far too much of the two deep chart was littered with freshman and sophomores. Of course, we could say that about most every Gopher team of the last few decades.
Click to expand...
Forgot about VanDeSteeg...so 2.

Davis was a man without a position. Would not have played at any other big ten school. This one might be partially on the coaching staffs.
Hightower was slow.
Harris was who? If you are talking about Jamal it will be really funny. If you think he was anything but terrible you don't know much about secondary play.
Are you talking about mike sherels? LOL Yeah he was great. Loved the effort, but seriously.
 



dpodoll68 said:
Van De Steeg
D. Barber

(at minimum)

I would also make the argument that Sherels, Davis, Hightower, and Harris were "legitimate Big Ten starters". The problem with that defense wasn't the starters, in my opinion; it was that the depth was razor-thin and far too much of the two deep chart was littered with freshman and sophomores. Of course, we could say that about most every Gopher team of the last few decades.
Click to expand...

I agree. That 2007 team made our current team look like we had an embarrasment of riches in the depth department. WVD and Barber could obviously play and we had a couple other guys who were decent, but our defensive backfield depth was worse than the Vikings (in comparison to competition).
 

@pat_dooley: Don't be surprised if Urban Meyer adds NC's Everett Withers to his staff in the next few days.

Go Gophers!!
 

Withers joining Meyes

I will confirm, through a private message with a family member, that Everett Withers will be joining Urban Meyers at Ohio st.
 




To tell you the truth, as an opponent, I'm glad tOSU has hired Withers. Mason's teams were always chided for having a poor defense. That was nothing compared to what happened in 2007.

Year.......Points.......Yards......Sacks
2006........24.5.........416.........22
2007........36.7.........518.........12
2008........23.3.........378.........25
2009........24.6.........364.........22

I guess I'm not seeing the great defensive mind in 2007. Excuses aside, we had the worst defense in D-1 in 2007 and the years surrounding that we were....mediocre.

Perhaps he learned on the job here and will apply it elsewhere.
 

Rosemountian said:
In my opinion he is the best defensive mind the gophers have had in 20 years.
Defense sucked here because he didn't realize how to adjust his scheme for lack of talent. Did a lot better at north Carolina.

I liked him better than roof. But his inexperience as a coordinator showed while at Minnesota.
Click to expand...

Same here. He was a bit like Brewster in that he came from the pros and I don't think he realized that he was working with kids who had a lot of other things on their plate besides football. Further, as Bob said, he wasn't working with a defense brimming with talent.

It's obvious that once he got the hang of things, he's done well.
 



I think it has a lot less to with Withers' abilities and a lot more to do with the talent he and Brewster inherited from Mason. Withers began having success as soon as he got to UNC. We all know how much emphasis Mason placed on defense - it was, after all, the reason he was let go.
 

I classify Withers as someone who will never gravitate to a HC position. He put a extremely talanted football team on the field yesterday against Missouri that has several NFL prospects and they stunk up the joint against an average Missouri team. On the sidelines he looked like a fish out of water. I'm surprised Meyer hired hin as DC at Ohio State.To me, he still has the coaching "training wheels" on.
 

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