Brian Ward Fired | Page 9 | Syracusefan.com

Brian Ward Fired

I would be a lot more hopeful about this firing if I was convinced it was Babers' decision and not Wildhack's. I am not entirely confident in Dino's ability to hire and oversee a staff and to make difficult staff decisions when necessary. Coaches are often fatally insecure, valuing familiarity and allegiance over challenge and performance, and Dino might not have escaped this flaw.

Nonsense. A D full of kids who won 10 games last year were humiliated by a mediocre opponent for the second time this season. Someone had to fall on the sword Dino knows this.

They get a wake up call and a bye week to adjust to the new coordinator.

He probably feels for Ward on a personal level but professionally this was a no brainer.

Wildhack has no experience as an AD I trust Dino to hire staff over him.
 
Plus he’s a highly sought after player and he has no idea who his DC will be next year. Unless...

yeah I would assume the team already knows who the new DC is

whether it will be stanard or some else that question will be answered in the next few weeks
 
it's not that i just want that, i just accept all the tradeoffs. babers is never going to have a good defense
Then the conclusion is the offense needs to carry the team in and out every year. This year it's not even close. Changes have to be made on that side of the ball. There is without a doubt scheme issues up and down the offense ...offensive line, play calling, unwillingness to open plays for the TE or slot receivers, (which, btw, we used a TON last year to good success!)

My thought about the defense is this: I was at the game. Everyone in the stands knew the play call after BC ran its first 4 offensive plays. It couldn't be stopped. And it was only stopped when BC turned it over twice

I watched the linebackers and defensive line. The defensive line was getting covered up and could only stick out an arm to make a stop. Never worked. Dillon was consistently untouched until he was at least 3 yards past the line of scrimmage. Problem #1

Problem #2: linebackers and secondary wanted nothing to do with tackling the running back. Wanted no part of it. This was the same scenario last week against Florida State. They are tired of tackling running backs ...especially large, gifted ones...which leads me to problem #3 ...

Problem #3: The talent of the running backs this defense has faced in the last 2 weeks. The defense looked just too weak to bring them down. Just absolutely too weak. I don't recall a time when a BC back was tackled by only one Cuse defender

I don't know how much this is scheme (but I'm sure a lot has to do with scheme) and how much this is a lack of toughness on the part of the defense ...or just being too tired ...or just being too hurt to make tough tackles ...I think it was just as much this as any horrible scheme Ward was running

Now it's time to take a hard look at this offense ...
 
I would be a lot more hopeful about this firing if I was convinced it was Babers' decision and not Wildhack's. I am not entirely confident in Dino's ability to hire and oversee a staff and to make difficult staff decisions when necessary. Coaches are often fatally insecure, valuing familiarity and allegiance over challenge and performance, and Dino might not have escaped this flaw.
There is zero chance that Wildhack made this decision.
 
Someone posted a graph about how size relates to success in college, and last year we were criminally undersized at LB and WR/TE

I'd imagine this year is worse

So if we are smaller than our counterparts, we aren't stopping them this part of the season when we are fatigued and sore.

 
ACC.jpeg


Last year's weights

Definitely lighter this year across the board
 
I would be shocked if Lynch is fired. Just don’t see it.
Ward had to go. A few good games against bad offenses last year doesn’t make up for 35 horrible ones.
Dinos whole identity is his offense, hate it or love it. He needs an operator who knows his way, not someone who has their own ideas. This is the problem.
 
But does that mean he’s the DC next year, that’s what I’m getting at.

it does not but I do believe he’s auditioning for the job. Good or bad he has 20 years of DC experience. I’m less interested in those past team stats as I am in his style. What’s interesting to me is that McCloud was his DC once before but Babers did not give him the interim tag.

besides a DC we’ll need someone to also coach the LB position now. Stanard checks that box to.
 
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Maybe if he was up in the box rather than field level he could see these things? Just sayin
I miss the days of tv cameras panning up to see deleone in the box, hand on his forehead, deep in thought. Kidding mostly, but I do wonder how the F these coordinators can see anything develop at field level. Are they just relying on player feedback?
 
I think either there was an acrimonious confrontation after the BC game or Dino wanted to make a change to get the best available DC from another program.

Meanwhile I guess we've seen the last of "Hawk tackling" .


“Coach I was impressed with your offense but more impressed with your defense, particularly the tackling. I read an article and saw a video about how you and Coach Ward are employing the concepts used by Pete Carroll in Seattle, which he calls “hawk tacking”. It’s based on rugby and emphasizes use of the shoulder rather than the head and gaining control of the ball carrier over knocking him off his feet. Could this be at least a partial answer to the problems American football is having with concussions?”

Regarding my question, the coach didn’t want to get into the concussion issue, (if he doesn’t want to talk about something, he doesn’t). “We teach proper tackling. We do use the rugby-style tackle you read about but we also use what we call a “head across the bow” tackle. When it’s 4th and 1, you can’t let them fall forward. In that instance, you can’t tackle with the head behind the body. So we teach both kinds of tackling.”



(I felt there was a disconnect between Babers and Ward even at this point.)
 
Maybe they look to keep stanard as the DE coach as well. Maybe look to bring a New LB coach in who is also a good recruiter interesting that maybe the best Recruiter on the FL State staff and one of the best in the ACC is the linebackers coach and may be looking for a job who knows


"Woodie boasts an impressive resume on the recruiting trail and impacted Florida State immediately as he was ranked as the No. 2 recruiter in the ACC by 247Sports in 2018, despite having less than two months to recruit for the Seminoles after he was hired. Woodie earned AAC top recruiter recognition by Rivals in 2014 and was named the Sun Belt’s Recruiter of the Year by Scout/FoxSports.com in 2012. He was also ranked as the No. 1 recruiter in the Pac-12 and No. 13 nationally by 247Sports during the 2017 season. He helped Coach Taggart sign the AAC’s top classes in 2014 and 2015, directly recruiting nine of USF’s 10 all-conference selections in 2016, and the highest-ranked classes in the Sun Belt in 2010 and 2011. ?
 
Dino is holding people accountable. Great to see as I wasn’t sure he could/would make the hard decision needed.
5 TDS Rushing, 511 YDS Rushing, 691 YDS T Offense against us. BYE Brian. Good luck to you to you and your family and wish you well.
But for HCDB this was the right decision taking into account the other losses IMO.
 
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5 TDS Rushing, 511 YDS Rushing, 691 YDS T Offense against us. BYE Brian. Good luck to you to you and your family and wish you well.
But for HCDB this was an easy decision taking into account the other losses IMO.
For those with ethical , moral values it can never be an easy decision. The right decision , yes , easy , No.
 
For those with ethical , moral values it can never be an easy decision. The right decision , yes , easy , No.
His players quit on him. Thats why he was let go.
 
he needs to do a SELF ASSESMENT first, coach a scheme suited to your personnel second. third REALIZE that the d kept you in games to date--- dino-- look closer!!!!
The defense is chock full of seniors, some of which will play for NFL teams next season. They were expected to carry this team. It is absolutely inexcusable that they have been so bad.
 
he needs to do a SELF ASSESMENT first, coach a scheme suited to your personnel second. third REALIZE that the d kept you in games to date--- dino-- look closer!!!!
You might want to look closer. Our D has not been good. It got torched by MD, WMU, FSU and BC.
 

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