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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1531137, member: 289"] A friend asked me about the defensive backback field. Why are they so bad? Is ti the players or is the coaches? I looked it up and not only were 27th in the country in total defense last year, we were 29th in pass defense. That's with the same coaches. It's the players and it's the youth of the players. We bottomed out at the end of the Schwartzwalder Era. Then we spent a dozen seaosns alternately building up the defense, then the offense, then the defesne, then the offense. We finally got them both going strong in 1987 and went from 5-6, (and no 7 win seasons in 20 years) to 11-0. We again bottomed out and have been building the defense, then the offense, then the defense and now the offense. But both units are so young, playing many recent recruits, that I have to think we are on the verge of another breakthrough, perhaps next year but likely the year after that. I don't think ti will be 12-0. In this conference it might be 10-2 but still a breakthough. I have no desire to pull the program up by the roots and plant something else. A coaching change isn't a reset button. it's a heart transplant. That said, you've got to win to keep your job. Shafer is already being described as being "on the hot seat. Our board is full of speculation about who our next coach is. Recruits read this and wonder why they should come here is they don't know who the coach will be. if the recruiting dies, the program dies You ahev little choice but to make a change in that circumstance. It's been pointed out that this would be a lousy year to make a change. There are so many good jobs open we might get the 9th or 10th best available guy. In any case, we are unlikely to get a guy with a resume any better than Shafer's. We've had one coach in our history who had been a head coach in a major conference before he came here: Ossie Solem, back int he 1930's. the rest have all been old alums, small college coaches or career assistants. It's always on-the-job learning for our head coach and also for most of his assistants, who tend to be guys doing jobs they've never done before. There is no assurance that somebody else would prove to be better than Scott Shafer. [/QUOTE]

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