What I think the DC hire tells me about Heupel

#1
VOLociraptorr

VOLociraptorr

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#1
1. Heupel is evolving. His willingness to fire someone means that he has high expectations and will not be complacent

2. It was a common thought that No elite DCs would want to coach alongside Heupel. Myth busted

3. Finally, related to the second point, I wouldn't be surprised if our offense slowed down a little bit. We were around two seconds slower per play last year and had a better record.

All good things
 
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#4
#4
Rocky Top T said:
It tells me he didn't like being near the bottom of the SEC in defense. Also, the offense has slowed down some, which it should.
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Although the sample size is small (on TV), his facial expressions after defensive problems told the story. I assume he felt too much pressure was being put on the offense to win games.
 
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#6
#6
VOLociraptorr said:
1. Heupel is evolving. His willingness to fire someone means that he has high and will not be complacent

2. It was a common thought that No elite DCs would want to coach alongside Heupel. Myth busted

3. Finally, related to the second point, I wouldn't be surprised if our offense slowed down a little bit. We were around two seconds slower per play last year and had a better record.

All good things
Click to expand...
I saw the offense “slow down “ this year and on multiple occasions, it never was able to get back up to speed. Weser’s to score a lot of points when we are in the “hurry up “ mode. We will need to outscore a few of the teams we play in 2026 and I am not sure we can if we slow d the offense. We have won a lot of game when we go fast and lost some games when we slow down the offense. The job of the defense is to stop the for and get the ball back for the offense. The defense does its job; the offense has Ty spots job The offense does its job the defense has to do its job.
 
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#7
#7
I get the distinct feeling that the novelty of the hurry-up/fast pace offense may be waning a bit, especially due to rule changes. We still have the go faster mantra, but it was not on display quite as much this year it seemed. Maybe I'm used to it, but moving fast became predictable as I could almost always guess the play correctly. If a 9-5 guy can guess right watching TV, then forget about surprising SEC defenses.
 
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#8
#8
livefaith said:
I get the distinct feeling that the novelty of the hurry-up/fast pace offense may be waning a bit, especially due to rule changes. We still have the go faster mantra, but it was not on display quite as much this year it seemed. Maybe I'm used to it, but moving fast became predictable as I could almost always guess the play correctly. If a 9-5 guy can guess right watching TV, then forget about surprising SEC defenses.
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Like duh, we had to give Coach Banks time to rest.
 
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#9
#9
Tells me he knows the defense needed new direction and this staff needed a hard arse and some discipline for a change. Frankly, I hope, in vain I'm sure, that Heupel will bring in some more just like that. We need toughening up....and a helluva lot of it.
 
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#10
#10
livefaith said:
I get the distinct feeling that the novelty of the hurry-up/fast pace offense may be waning a bit, especially due to rule changes. We still have the go faster mantra, but it was not on display quite as much this year it seemed. Maybe I'm used to it, but moving fast became predictable as I could almost always guess the play correctly. If a 9-5 guy can guess right watching TV, then forget about surprising SEC defenses.
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Maybe the ability to hurry up depends upon the QB. Milton, Nico, and Joey were not as good as Hooker.
 
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#12
#12
VOLociraptorr said:
1. Heupel is evolving. His willingness to fire someone means that he has high expectations and will not be complacent

2. It was a common thought that No elite DCs would want to coach alongside Heupel. Myth busted

3. Finally, related to the second point, I wouldn't be surprised if our offense slowed down a little bit. We were around two seconds slower per play last year and had a better record.

All good things
Click to expand...
I keep hearing this (#3). My belief is we only slowed it down for Nico last year. I believe we will continue to recruit like heck and become deeper on D. We had a ridiculously deep room at WR last year and will again this year. Our record last year, along with that #7 total defense ranking, was a direct result of how weak our schedule was IMO, and that was during a down year for the SEC. We lost to Arkansas last year, lost by two TDs to an atypical Georgia team, and got blown away by OSU.
 
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#13
#13
vegasvolfan said:
I keep hearing this (#3). My belief is we only slowed it down for Nico last year. I believe we will continue to recruit like heck and become deeper on D. We had a ridiculously deep room at WR last year and will again this year. Our record last year, along with that #7 total defense ranking, was a direct result of how weak our schedule was IMO, and that was during a down year for the SEC. We lost to Arkansas last year, lost by two TDs to an atypical Georgia team, and got blown away by OSU.
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Do you think other teams near the top in defensive rankings played harder schedules and we were an anomaly?
 
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#15
#15
livefaith said:
I get the distinct feeling that the novelty of the hurry-up/fast pace offense may be waning a bit, especially due to rule changes. We still have the go faster mantra, but it was not on display quite as much this year it seemed. Maybe I'm used to it, but moving fast became predictable as I could almost always guess the play correctly. If a 9-5 guy can guess right watching TV, then forget about surprising SEC defenses.
Click to expand...
People have been saying this for 30 years and it still works
 
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#16
#16
utvols74 said:
Although the sample size is small (on TV), his facial expressions after defensive problems told the story. I assume he felt too much pressure was being put on the offense to win games.
Click to expand...
Facial expressions and post game non-verbal cues told me he potentially put too much pressure or emphasis on offense because he had little faith in defense.

May have impacted his play calling and some of the bad play calling he had (3 runs after a TO or bad end of half clock management) to try to keep defensive series low by shortening the game and it backfired.

Idk. Maybe maybe not, but if you do not have confidence on one side of the ball, you try to minimize the number of plays that side of the ball is on the field.
 
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#17
#17
livefaith said:
I get the distinct feeling that the novelty of the hurry-up/fast pace offense may be waning a bit, especially due to rule changes. We still have the go faster mantra, but it was not on display quite as much this year it seemed. Maybe I'm used to it, but moving fast became predictable as I could almost always guess the play correctly. If a 9-5 guy can guess right watching TV, then forget about surprising SEC defenses.
Click to expand...
Maybe or we didn’t have the QB in place long enough to run it efficiently. Last year we leaned on the defense to cover for Nico’s weaknesses. This year Joey was better but still came in late and would make some crucial turnovers. Heupel kind of was screwed if he had to depend on the defense. Dline was usually much better as well and was a strength. We went in undermanned and injuries made us even worse.
 
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#18
#18
Vol865 said:
People have been saying this for 30 years and it still works
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It's worked for over 50 years. I was in grad school at Murray St. when Mike Gottfried was HC and Frank Beamer his assistant. Mike scripted the first 9 offensive plays of every game and the team scored on every 1st possession that season.
 
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#20
#20
VOLociraptorr said:
1. Heupel is evolving. His willingness to fire someone means that he has high expectations and will not be complacent

2. It was a common thought that No elite DCs would want to coach alongside Heupel. Myth busted

3. Finally, related to the second point, I wouldn't be surprised if our offense slowed down a little bit. We were around two seconds slower per play last year and had a better record.

All good things
Click to expand...
The QB last year couldn’t process as quickly
 
#21
#21
Vol865 said:
People have been saying this for 30 years and it still works
Click to expand...

Yep. It may not have a game breaking impact on every play to go warp speed, it does mean the defense doesn't have time to sub in fresh players though. When run properly at high-speed with good execution, it tends to catch the defense with its pants down once or twice a game with a blown coverage resulting in a long pass or TD...or out of position and a long run by our RB sometimes for a TD.

Going fast by itself doesnt beat defenses or teams, and there are drawbacks especially if we go 3 and out. When executed properly it DOES give our offense a distinct advantage over the course of the game. Thats why CJH can consistently have top10 offenses nationally. With the parity now in the SEC and almost every game being decided by 1 score...a couple busts on defense resulting in big gains or a TD for us are more important than ever.
 
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#22
#22
marcusluvsvols said:
Yep. It may not have a game breaking impact on every play to go warp speed, it does mean the defense doesn't have time to sub in fresh players though. When run properly at high-speed with good execution, it tends to catch the defense with its pants down once or twice a game with a blown coverage resulting in a long pass or TD...or out of position and a long run by our RB sometimes for a TD.

Going fast by itself doesnt beat defenses or teams, and there are drawbacks especially if we go 3 and out. When executed properly it DOES give our offense a distinct advantage over the course of the game. Thats why CJH can consistently have top10 offenses nationally. With the parity now in the SEC and almost every game being decided by 1 score...a couple busts on defense resulting in big gains or a TD for us are more important than ever.
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Plus more plays=more opportunities to score. If you're going to play ball control you have to be extremely efficient.
 
#24
#24
Coach hired the best DC available, one of the best in the country. That told me that he knows what he is up against and wants our team to be the best by beating the rest.
 
#25
#25
hUTch2002 said:
Do you think other teams near the top in defensive rankings played harder schedules and we were an anomaly?
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Absolutely. You don’t even have to look at other teams to understand our performance was an anomaly. If you look at what we did before that and this year, we never touched the top 7. Then look to how OSU imposed their will on us. Other teams are consistently in the top 10 and play the top 10 teams more closely during and after the season. I do think our defense was good, but we definitely were exposed.
 
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