Defensive coordinator Hardy Nickerson has resigned from the Illini staff

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Go Gophers!!
 

Oh boy. This will either result in their team rallying and playing their best game of the season on Saturday, or completely imploding and mailing it in.
 

Gopher07 said:
Oh boy. This will either result in their team rallying and playing their best game of the season on Saturday, or completely imploding and mailing it in.
Click to expand...

I'm willing to roll the dice.

 
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Press Release from Illinois cites health-related circumstances for Nickerson's departure.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 



Things appear screwed up at Illinois to the point that they have probably run out of things to rally around. If I am correct, they simply are who we thought they were. We just can't let them off the hook.
 

It will make it more difficult for Coach C and offensive staff to combat tendencies. A new person will be callng fronts/stunts/blitzes and coverages which means all the film breakdown of tendencies becomes less reliable.
 

OddStack said:
It will make it more difficult for Coach C and offensive staff to combat tendencies. A new person will be callng fronts/stunts/blitzes and coverages which means all the film breakdown of tendencies becomes less reliable.
Click to expand...

I really doubt they drastically change their defense in a week, regardless of who calls plays. And even if they do, its still the same bad players running the fronts/stunts/blitzes so does it really matter?
 

OddStack said:
It will make it more difficult for Coach C and offensive staff to combat tendencies. A new person will be callng fronts/stunts/blitzes and coverages which means all the film breakdown of tendencies becomes less reliable.
Click to expand...

Maybe, although if this is health related it might have been going on for a while now for all we know and he finally just decided it was time to hang it up. I don't think there is much negative to worry about on our side of things, if this is going to have any impact on the game it is most likely a negative one for Illinois because people are forced to do work they are not accustomed to doing in order to cover for a coach being gone.

Hopefully whatever he is dealing with is not something life threatening.
 



MNVCGUY said:
Maybe, although if this is health related it might have been going on for a while now for all we know and he finally just decided it was time to hang it up. I don't think there is much negative to worry about on our side of things, if this is going to have any impact on the game it is most likely a negative one for Illinois because people are forced to do work they are not accustomed to doing in order to cover for a coach being gone.

Hopefully whatever he is dealing with is not something life threatening.
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Maybe he will bounce back and be the OC at Rutgers next year.
 

Minnesota's offense is that intimidating, huh?
 

Gopher07 said:
Oh boy. This will either result in their team rallying and playing their best game of the season on Saturday, or completely imploding and mailing it in.
Click to expand...

Weird....this was my first thought too.

'oh great they'll end up shutting us down..'
 




per Randy:

Illinois DC resigns

The Gophers will face an Illinois team without its defensive coordinator. Hardy Nickerson resigned that post Monday, two days after the Illini gave up 712 yards in a 63-33 loss at Maryland.

Illinois is giving up an average of 569 yards and 47.6 points in Big Ten play, figures that rank last in the league.

“Hardy informed me yesterday that he felt it was in the program’s best interest to leave our staff,” Illinois coach Lovie Smith said in a statement. “I’ve known and coached with Hardy for many years and know what an outstanding person he is. We are all disappointed in the performance of our defense this season, and we all bear responsibility for that.”

Fleck doesn’t expect drastic changes from the Illini defense Saturday. Smith said he will handle the defensive play calls.

“I don’t know if you’ll see a ton of changes schematically,” he said. “Lovie’s been one of the best defensive coaches in the National Football League and just football in general in the last 20-some years. … He’ll be doing it his way. There’s going to be some wrinkles, some new things we have not seen.”

http://www.startribune.com/tanner-m...phers-against-saturday-at-illinois/498929991/

Go Gophers!!
 

Sounds like he is qualified to be our next DC.
 

OddStack said:
It will make it more difficult for Coach C and offensive staff to combat tendencies. A new person will be callng fronts/stunts/blitzes and coverages which means all the film breakdown of tendencies becomes less reliable.
Click to expand...

I get what you're saying but if your defense sucks... being unpredictable will likely just mean you unpredictably ... suck.

Otherwise "just go crazy" would be the solution to really bad defenses all the time.
 

If I worked under an incompetent buffoon like Smith, I would probably find some health reasons to step down as well. Best to get out while the getting is good. I remember Nickerson back in the day, he was a pretty damn good LB, liked watching him play. I hope this is the right move for him, seems like a first rate dude. Best of luck, Hardy!
 

They should keep Lovie Smith for at least two years. If he is gone now and they get a Jeff Brohm/PJ Fleck type coach, it will be tough for Minnesota to bust out of the bottom tier.
 

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