Tim Banks
I’m beginning to think Banks may work out pretty well as our DC. I only have data from the last year he was at CMU as the DC but he had the #1 scoring defense in the MAC conference that year. I saw an interview from his time at Cincinnati (I looked at interviews from all of his stops) and while we was co-dc there, he said (when asked) he was the play-caller. Jancek was the other co-dc. They were young when he first got there and were weak upfront but that improved in his second and final year there. They went from allowing 28 ppg in year one to allowing 20.3 ppg in that second year.
The data from his 4-year stint as the DC at Illinois is less impressive but in his last year there he had the scoring defense down to 23.3 ppg. The first three years were not pretty. However, to offer a bit of perspective, his last year there, 2015, before heading to Penn State, 247 ranked the Illinois roster talent below Vanderbilt. Vandy was at #44, Illinois was at #60. That was the first year 247 started ranking roster talent. I don’t think there’s any reason to think Illinois had any better talent in the first 3 years Banks was on the job. So basically what you have to work with at Illinois in that time frame was a roster whose talent was either last or next to last in the Big 10 conference every year and that’s the way it’s been for I guess the last couple of decades at least.
My previous concern was that while he had the title of co-defensive coordinator at Penn State I think he was given that title and the accompanying money largely to acquire his acumen coaching safeties but probably more importantly, recruiting. I’ve seen him described as Penn State’s best recruiter. So my issue was that he wasn’t the play-caller. BUT, when he was the play-caller, at CMU, he had the #1 defense in the conference in scoring, #2 rushing defense, #9 out of 13 pass defenses, #4 total defense, and #2 redzone defense and at his other stints where he was the play-caller the defenses improved.
Rankings don’t always tell the whole story for example this past year Alabama had the 17th best run defense in the nation but their pass defense was at #70, yet they didn’t appear to have any problem winning the conference and national championships. Their scoring defense was 13th best and their total defense was 32nd best. What the opponents on your schedule from year to year favor most, whether run or pass, has a lot to do with your run/pass defensive rankings so I always figure scoring defense is the bottom line.
My real point in this post is to clear up an impression I had about Banks from early on, that he didn’t have play calling experience. That’s not the case at all and in fact he has actually had some, relatively speaking, decent success when he did have play-calling responsibilities. I think like with anyone else we might have hired as our DC it’s probably going to come down to what talent the guy has to work with. There shouldn’t be a lot of doubt that the guy is surrounded by a pretty hefty staff on that side of the ball. I think the talent on the line should be the strength of the defense. The secondary, maybe a bit thin on depth, should be decent, and so it may just come down to figuring out our linebacking situation and Jean-Mary may just be the guy to get that done for Banks. jmo.
Final point. Banks in an interview on the Nation expressed enthusiasm for the opportunity to work with Heupel because, get this, he said he knew with Heupel the offense was going to score a lot of points. I actually believe he is dead serious about that because while he eventually developed a fairly respectable defense at Illinois the team didn’t have an offense to speak of so naturally they didn’t win many games. The defense was holding teams to an average of 23.3 ppg but the offense could only muster 22.7 ppg. That’s not a winning formula. To have a winning team we need a 10-20 point scoring margin between the units, the bigger the margin, the likelier the more wins. I think between Heupel and Banks we’re starting off with the potential to get that formula right for a change. jmo.
