The Big Change

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RememberMurray

RememberMurray

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After the change was made at defensive coordinator, and Rossi was promoted, it was almost shocking how quickly and dramatically the defense improved — it was night and day.

Recently I've been thinking more and more about that improvement, and about the additions to the staff since the end of the season.

From the outside looking in, it appears that Fleck has totally empowered Rossi to put his own stamp on the defense in a meaningful way. I'm looking forward to seeing just how this defense looks next season. I think it might even be a fundamentally different philosophy and look.

What does everybody else think?
 

I thought this was going to be a forum on women's health.
 



RememberMurray said:
After the change was made at defensive coordinator, and Rossi was promoted, it was almost shocking how quickly and dramatically the defense improved — it was night and day.

Recently I've been thinking more and more about that improvement, and about the additions to the staff since the end of the season.

From the outside looking in, it appears that Fleck has totally empowered Rossi to put his own stamp on the defense in a meaningful way. I'm looking forward to seeing just how this defense looks next season. I think it might even be a fundamentally different philosophy and look.

What does everybody else think?
Click to expand...

I agree it was a very quick transformation and night and day in just one week's time. Rossi knew that what they were doing wasn't working and he simplified it, changing from a zone defense that had many confusing check downs to one that allowed the defenders to swarm to the ball and help each other out. Vey basic defense but it sure made our defenders look a hole lot better overnight!! I am still surprised they did not do this earlier. If something isn't working you have got to be able to adapt and change as soon as possible. Another thing that drove me crazy is how the defense would give up huge gains to the same play 10 times in a row and nothing would be done to take it away. This is not an exaggeration - watch films of the Illini game for continued nightmares or watch the opposing QB's throw an 8 yard pass with Gopher defenders still way back several times in a row and that is just embarrassing. I like this new guy Rossi and have high hopes that our defense can really continue with their drastic improvement.

I was somewhat skeptical of Fleck at the beginning as he sure looked like Brewster 2.0, but I have been getting more and more optimistic here. I am not booking for the National Championship game just yet, but Fleck just might be the real deal. He has a chance to do some really big things here!!
 


Ski U Master said:
I think we'll see what happens this fall.
Click to expand...

Wow! Yes, indeed!

I see what you're saying, and yet... I can't help but wonder:

Will we actually see it when it happens, or must we wait until after it happens, when we've processed what we've witnessed, to truly see it?

And... to take it a step farther, will we see it, literally? Even if we're watching on TV? I mean, in that case we'll be watching a digital representation, rather than the actual event.

Will the entire thing it be more of a ... I don't know, a feeling?

Deeeeeeeep thoughts... :cool:
 

RememberMurray said:
After the change was made at defensive coordinator, and Rossi was promoted, it was almost shocking how quickly and dramatically the defense improved — it was night and day.

Recently I've been thinking more and more about that improvement, and about the additions to the staff since the end of the season.

From the outside looking in, it appears that Fleck has totally empowered Rossi to put his own stamp on the defense in a meaningful way. I'm looking forward to seeing just how this defense looks next season. I think it might even be a fundamentally different philosophy and look.

What does everybody else think?
Click to expand...

Speaking of staff changes look at Alabama. They lost 5 of their 10 on field assistants. Only 2 would be considered up grades while 3 were lateral moves. Their top recruiters moved on. Maybe that opened up some recruits.
 

RememberMurray said:
After the change was made at defensive coordinator, and Rossi was promoted, it was almost shocking how quickly and dramatically the defense improved — it was night and day.

Recently I've been thinking more and more about that improvement, and about the additions to the staff since the end of the season.

From the outside looking in, it appears that Fleck has totally empowered Rossi to put his own stamp on the defense in a meaningful way. I'm looking forward to seeing just how this defense looks next season. I think it might even be a fundamentally different philosophy and look.

What does everybody else think?
Click to expand...

I am sure Rossi will put his stamp on things but I would be surprised to see him make drastic changes. What they were doing over the final 4 games seemed to be working pretty well so not a lot of reason to reinvent the wheel until you have to.

Obviously will need to make adjustments as teams get a line on his tendencies as a defensive playcaller but I certainly wouldn't want to see us go away from keeping it fairly simple and letting the kids play fast because they responded to that in a big way.
 

I hope the additional changes that are made are enough to beat Northwestern this year!
 



MNVCGUY said:
I am sure Rossi will put his stamp on things but I would be surprised to see him make drastic changes. What they were doing over the final 4 games seemed to be working pretty well so not a lot of reason to reinvent the wheel until you have to.

Obviously will need to make adjustments as teams get a line on his tendencies as a defensive playcaller but I certainly wouldn't want to see us go away from keeping it fairly simple and letting the kids play fast because they responded to that in a big way.
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree.

That being said, the younger players like T. Smith, Mafe and Howden have gained some real game experience in 2018. We'll almost certainly benefit from the potential return of Winfield (would be a HUGE factor), and the incoming talent on the d-line looks pretty impressive... maybe the staff and players will feel confident enough to dial up a few surprises, schematically.

That said, you are 100% right in pointing out that the defense looked really, REALLY good at the end of last season. Don't mess (too much) with success.
 


During the Smith era I kept thinking it was a personnel issue and I’m happy to learn i was very wrong.
I thought Huff was overmatched at safety for example. Now I hope there are young players that will step in to this better Rossi system and fill the Huff, Smith, and Cashman holes.
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
During the Smith era I kept thinking it was a personnel issue and I’m happy to learn i was very wrong.
I thought Huff was overmatched at safety for example. Now I hope there are young players that will step in to this better Rossi system and fill the Huff, Smith, and Cashman holes.
Click to expand...

I think the thing that makes me most hopeful about rossi is the fact that it seemed like he actually took into account the players on the defense when figuring out what would work best. He put the players in the best position for them to make plays/have a solid D. Also, the stories we heard about how he prepped the D for the bowl game sounded good too. Overall, I think the players will be better prepared and they'll be put into positions for them to play their best game. What remains to be seen is if his hires are good fits for his staff and if his success was just a flash in the pan or just a taste of what's to come. Hopefully we get some idea during spring ball.
 



swelna said:
I think the thing that makes me most hopeful about rossi is the fact that it seemed like he actually took into account the players on the defense when figuring out what would work best. He put the players in the best position for them to make plays/have a solid D. Also, the stories we heard about how he prepped the D for the bowl game sounded good too. Overall, I think the players will be better prepared and they'll be put into positions for them to play their best game. What remains to be seen is if his hires are good fits for his staff and if his success was just a flash in the pan or just a taste of what's to come. Hopefully we get some idea during spring ball.
Click to expand...

Well said.
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
During the Smith era I kept thinking it was a personnel issue and I’m happy to learn i was very wrong.
I thought Huff was overmatched at safety for example. Now I hope there are young players that will step in to this better Rossi system and fill the Huff, Smith, and Cashman holes.
Click to expand...

Also Gary Moore, Royal Silver, Julian Huff roles.
 


When I saw the OP, the first thing that came to mind was:

When the change was made uptown and the Big Man joined the band
From the coastline to the city, all the little pretties raise their hands
I'm gonna sit back right easy and laugh
When Scooter and the Big Man bust this city in half
 

short ornery norwegian said:
When I saw the OP, the first thing that came to mind was:

When the change was made uptown and the Big Man joined the band
From the coastline to the city, all the little pretties raise their hands
I'm gonna sit back right easy and laugh
When Scooter and the Big Man bust this city in half
Click to expand...

------------

And I was stranded in the jungle
Trying to take in all the heat they was giving
The night is dark but the sidewalk's bright
And lined with the light of the living
 

And "The Big Man" is obviously The Boss making a very prescient reference to Daniel Faalele.

:cool:
 

I half laughed and half shook my head when I kept hearing it wasn’t Smith’s fault or there wasn’t enough talent because there’s were worse teams (talent wise) holding the Illini and others in check. Lack of talent or not there was no schematic adjustment to make up for a weak player. That’s coaching and knew it was coaching because you could see it. All my buddies that go to games with me all agreed that the coaching stunk. Plus if you looked at the guys track record it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t coaching well. Glad to see the move paid off.
 

RememberMurray said:
Wow! Yes, indeed!

I see what you're saying, and yet... I can't help but wonder:

Will we actually see it when it happens, or must we wait until after it happens, when we've processed what we've witnessed, to truly see it?

And... to take it a step farther, will we see it, literally? Even if we're watching on TV? I mean, in that case we'll be watching a digital representation, rather than the actual event.

Will the entire thing it be more of a ... I don't know, a feeling?

Deeeeeeeep thoughts... :cool:
Click to expand...

Let's see. You start a thread that is redundant and shallow, and then you don't like the responses. What did you expect? "Opinion threads" with topics that have been hashed about ad nauseam degrade pretty quickly.

I think the Defense will be better than last year.
 

highwayman said:
Let's see. You start a thread that is redundant and shallow, and then you don't like the responses. What did you expect? "Opinion threads" with topics that have been hashed about ad nauseam degrade pretty quickly.

I think the Defense will be better than last year.
Click to expand...


I appreciate your opinion. And no offense intended, but if you find the thread's topic redundant and shallow you could always skip it. Just a thought.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
When I saw the OP, the first thing that came to mind was:

When the change was made uptown and the Big Man joined the band
From the coastline to the city, all the little pretties raise their hands
I'm gonna sit back right easy and laugh
When Scooter and the Big Man bust this city in half
Click to expand...

Tell ya, I am so terrible at understanding lyrics, when they kept singing "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" thought they were singing "This Devil's in a Beehive". Not really too close.
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
During the Smith era I kept thinking it was a personnel issue and I’m happy to learn i was very wrong.
I thought Huff was overmatched at safety for example. Now I hope there are young players that will step in to this better Rossi system and fill the Huff, Smith, and Cashman holes.
Click to expand...

Yes, the coaching change was big. But you have to believe that when a coach is fired because of poor play, it wakes up the players also. Not 100% on the coaching change IMO, player effort and focus improved dramatically also, so of which had to be personal reflection and commitment.
 

Herd said:
Yes, the coaching change was big. But you have to believe that when a coach is fired because of poor play, it wakes up the players also. Not 100% on the coaching change IMO, player effort and focus improved dramatically also, so of which had to be personal reflection and commitment.
Click to expand...

The players were executing the scheme he put in place. The scheme sucked and severely slowed them down. At some point they completely lost confidence in him. So it wasn't a wake up, it was a relief when he was relieved of his coaching duties. Can't imagine how frustrating it was to know that you have the talent and skill to play at a much higher level but are prevented from doing so.
 

Herd said:
Yes, the coaching change was big. But you have to believe that when a coach is fired because of poor play, it wakes up the players also. Not 100% on the coaching change IMO, player effort and focus improved dramatically also, so of which had to be personal reflection and commitment.
Click to expand...

I think you could argue that for one game maybe but effort and focus doesn't last a couple months with kids because a guy got fired imo The difference was coaching. We had guys who could play all along...Smith just gave them ineffective, incompatible assignments to execute.
 

RememberMurray said:
I appreciate your opinion. And no offense intended, but if you find the thread's topic redundant and shallow you could always skip it. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

Self-realization helps on the road to recovery. Try it.
 



NotAFanOfBecky said:
I half laughed and half shook my head when I kept hearing it wasn’t Smith’s fault or there wasn’t enough talent because there’s were worse teams (talent wise) holding the Illini and others in check. Lack of talent or not there was no schematic adjustment to make up for a weak player. That’s coaching and knew it was coaching because you could see it. All my buddies that go to games with me all agreed that the coaching stunk. Plus if you looked at the guys track record it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t coaching well. Glad to see the move paid off.
Click to expand...

I'll admit, I was thinking it was more player than scheme, but I also realized the scheme was flawed (perhaps due to the lack of players). I said this elsewhere, it was like Smith's defense was predicated on having someone as awesome as Winfield to hide everyone else's flaws. Once he was out, the whole scheme fell apart.

But to the player portion of it, if you can stomach it, watch the Illinois game again and specifically watch Jacob Huff. He looked lost all game. I was really frustrated at his play that game. At the time, while I thought the scheme was obviously flawed, I just couldn't believe Huff's play was due to the scheme. Then comes Rossi, and Huff looks like he's All B1G!. I don't know what Smith or Rossi did that was wrong or right respectively, but it was pretty amazing.

I really wonder if Smith's defense ever could have reliably worked. Like, year four we have all these people recruited to the defense and they've had four years to learn it, would it have worked then? To your point, based on past history probably not, but it's an interesting question...
 

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