Bullough vs Ward

[kcsu]

My money is on Ward. Chuck is a solid coach but not in shafs league and we regressed significantly when Scott was promoted. Ward has had a steady climb and his teams have shown significant improvement under his leadership.
In comparing coaching backgrounds Ward has more experience running the show.
I think that we are going to be pleasantly surprised within a year or two.

 

[upperdeck]

one was attack all the time, and when you dont have the right pieces it turns into big plays

now its attack when you want, and when you dont have the pieces it still makes teams grind out more drives as long as you dont miss too many tackles

less chaos on the offense but hopefully less chaos on our D as well.

the better the offense plays the better this D will look.

 

[kcsu]

Agreed. The 2 is based on obtaining a lead. Better geared for forcing the opponent to sustain drives. Provides our fast paced O with rest

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

All defenses are better with a lead. One reason Shafer's D looked better then Bullough's is because the Marrone/Hackett offense was better the McDoanld/Lester especially the last season. Anytime you have a lead and make an oppenent one dimensional it is a huge advantage. Also to be fair the ACC was a huge leap up, especially playing FSU and Clemson every season. That being said I was never impressed with Bullough.

 

[kcsu]

Very good points. On a related note i expect Doust to do well at ball state and expect him to be a major coordinator within 3 years

 

[upperdeck]

All defenses are better with a lead. One reason Shafer's D looked better then Bullough's is because the Marrone/Hackett offense was better the McDoanld/Lester especially the last season. Anytime you have a lead and make an oppenent one dimensional it is a huge advantage. Also to be fair the ACC was a huge leap up, especially playing FSU and Clemson every season. That being said I was never impressed with Bullough.

there is playing well with the lead and struggling on 3rd and long.

the SS teams if they didnt get to the QB put so many on an island they gave up too many drive killing long conversions.. last year that was the real killer for a team that needed to get off the field..

the tampa 2 might not get off the field on a big play by the D, but should do a better job of stopping key 3rd downs.

lets hope so.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

The big difference is that philosophically the previous staff made decisions intended to put the defense in better position. This staff will make decisions that favor the offense. Ward gets that, and is comfortable having a defense operating from that base understanding.

 

[sufandu]

there is playing well with the lead and struggling on 3rd and long.

the SS teams if they didnt get to the QB put so many on an island they gave up too many drive killing long conversions.. last year that was the real killer for a team that needed to get off the field..

the tampa 2 might not get off the field on a big play by the D, but should do a better job of stopping key 3rd downs.

lets hope so.

SS as DC or SS as HC? I think the difference is significant.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

You are over valuing Shafer. We were better on D under Bullough. The Shafer myth around here grows every day. People forget how bad that 2011 D was despite having some talent. And 2012 the D held the team back. His best year was likely 2009 given the talent. 2010 started great but the 2nd half we couldn't stop anyone, including the Bowl game. Shafer was a decent DC who was best when his okie package matched up well with an O (see WV), but there were plenty of stinkers mixed in there. People need to stop pretending we had a Top 10 DC.

Shafer S&P
66th
81st
56th
57th
Avg 65.0


Bullough
70th
33rd
67th
Avg 56.6

 

[SoBristol]

Funny how we regress in seasons when we have had to replace a lot of seniors. And we got better (as we will this season) when we have had a more mature team, with a ton of returning starters. Not saying coaching wasn't a factor -- but it sure isn't the only one.

 

[TheCusian]

You are over valuing Shafer. We were better on D under Bullough. The Shafer myth around here grows every day. People forget how bad that 2011 D was despite having some talent. And 2012 the D held the team back. His best year was likely 2009 given the talent. 2010 started great but the 2nd half we couldn't stop anyone, including the Bowl game. Shafer was a decent DC who was best when his okie package matched up well with an O (see WV), but there were plenty of stinkers mixed in there. People need to stop pretending we had a Top 10 DC. Shafer S&P 66th 81st 56th 57th Avg 65.0 Bullough 70th 33rd 67th Avg 56.6

I'm not sure that's much of a difference, honestly.

There was one year in the Marrone/Shafer era where the offense was better than the D. One. We over value Shafer because that was just about all we had to cheer about.

 

[SoBristol]

Funny how we regress in seasons when we have had to replace a lot of seniors. And we got better (as we will this season) when we have had a more mature team, with a ton of returning starters. Not saying coaching wasn't a factor -- but it sure isn't the only one.

 

[upperdeck]

the stats could be worse now and the D actually be better if the offense takes off.

 

[Chip]

the stats could be worse now and the D actually be better if the offense takes off.

I think they definitely will. Gameplans are going to be built based on the fact that they will need to keep up with this offense.

Take the Maryland game example a couple years ago. Came out gunning, built a nice lead, sat on it.

Teams will still build a lead against us, but it's going to be much later in the game before they're comfortable pumping the brakes.

D stats will look rough. Some of it is designed that way, and this year will have some personnel holes. Dino wasn't exaggerating yesterday, all he wants to do is score one more point.

 

[money3189]

I think a lot 0f people are underestimating Ward. His Western Illinois defenses were very good. IMO Bowling Green didn't have much talent and he did a adequate job with them in 1 year. He will do the same thing at SU in year 1. I didn't see a lot of quality players on that BG defense. I said this before and I will continue to. There is not one player on BG's defense that would start over any of the players at SU. They were so bad Ward had to find walk on's to play and they ended up being his best players. His two best defenders were walk ons. Valdez was a converted QB, first team all MAC and Trenton Green is a 5'9 215 pound LB that had 127 tackles. Another one, CB Alfonso Mack, led the team with 6 ints. lol, we will be fine

 

[upperdeck]

I agree. I think the SU D has way more athletes on D than BG had. The offense BG had didnt have the complete depth but the top 2-3 skill guys were pretty good.

 

[rrlbees]

Ward may one day be better, but Bullough's background and experiences give him the edge.

 

[Ish88888]

I am torn. I am 100% in on dino ball and love the assistants. Have always been skeptical of the T2 in college as you need geeat corners and a strong front 4 getting pressure on their own to be successful, minus bringing extra guys as we were accustomed to with shaf, bc more defenders are needed in coverage. Its bend, dont break. When playing with a lead, its a beautiful thing. I like ward alot. One thing that bums me out is dino not allowing the assistants to talk. I enjoyed getting to know our assistants over the years via interviews and i bet guys like ward and Lynch would be fun to get to know.

 

[RICuse44]

I'm sorry with bullough I will never be able to get over the terrible 3-4 he busted out g tech. We had a very good run defense that year too.

 

[money3189]

I'm sorry with bullough I will never be able to get over the terrible 3-4 he busted out g tech. We had a very good run defense that year too.

I will never get over that either. You dont change your whole scheme for 1 team. I remember Shafer saying he prepare for GT long before the game. Yup, they out coached themselves on that one.

 

[sufandu]

You are over valuing Shafer. We were better on D under Bullough. The Shafer myth around here grows every day. People forget how bad that 2011 D was despite having some talent. And 2012 the D held the team back. His best year was likely 2009 given the talent. 2010 started great but the 2nd half we couldn't stop anyone, including the Bowl game. Shafer was a decent DC who was best when his okie package matched up well with an O (see WV), but there were plenty of stinkers mixed in there. People need to stop pretending we had a Top 10 DC.

Shafer S&P
66th
81st
56th
57th
Avg 65.0


Bullough
70th
33rd
67th
Avg 56.6

You remember that the 81 in Marrone/SS second year was after we graduated a bunch of good seniors that GRob had failed to recruit replacements for. We played young undersized guys on the d line that year and our horrible depth let us get worn down. The next two years we clearly improved. That 81 seemed to be the outlier in the first set, whereas the 33 seemed to be the outlier in the second.

 

[baggerbob]

I will never get over that either. You dont change your whole scheme for 1 team. I remember Shafer saying he prepare for GT long before the game. Yup, they out coached themselves on that one.

Yes ,and that defense cost us John Raymon for 2 years, because of the chop block.

 

[SoBristol]

I will never get over that either. You dont change your whole scheme for 1 team. I remember Shafer saying he prepare for GT long before the game. Yup, they out coached themselves on that one.

You can't prove that our base scheme would have held GT in check. Maybe, maybe not. GT was a big favorite in that game.

So what did Brian Ward try against the option attack of Georgia Southern? The BGSU base defense, or a new scheme? Not to knock Ward, but sometimes (same as in our game against GT) the defense just gets out-manned. And BGSU was a pick-em in that game, and still got run out of the stadium.

 

[orange79]

I will never get over that either. You dont change your whole scheme for 1 team. I remember Shafer saying he prepare for GT long before the game. Yup, they out coached themselves on that one.

You can't prove that our base scheme would have held GT in check. Maybe, maybe not. GT was a big favorite in that game.

So what did Brian Ward try against the option attack of Georgia Southern? The BGSU base defense, or a new scheme? Not to knock Ward, but sometimes (same as in our game against GT) the defense just gets out-manned. And BGSU was a pick-em in that game, and still got run out of the stadium.

Money never said the base scheme would have held GT in check. His point is the bolded statement.

 

[kcsu]

I dont blame CB for that game. He's a good coach i just think that Ward is going to prove to not necessarily be a better coach but achieve better results