Obviously Illinois Defense is an issue: Former ILLINI Jeff Johnson helps explain why below: GREAT INSIGHT AND READ!! Yep, since 1999 Illini football have gone thru their fair share of defensive coordinators and might be making a change after this year again if Tim Banks unit continues to give up huge chunks of yardage, its what Illinois football does, when in doubt fire the defensive coordinator. And as we look back, that idea hasnt exactly been successful. Lets take a look back at the fired coordinators and how it all ties into what is going on today with the Illinois defense. Tim Kish fired in 2000. Convinced that was a Ron Guenther call after a disappointing 2000 season. Kish was hired on Turners original staff in 1997. Kish ran a 4-3 two gap defense that emphasized stopping the run with big, physical interior linemen, two bigger inside linebackers, zone pass coverage, Illinois recruited accordingly to that scheme. It was a bend dont break scheme that offered little in terms of blitzing, big plays and turnovers. Illini fans happy with Kish being let go because they wanted to blitz, blitz, blitz, change the scheme. Turner hired Mike Cassity off the scrap heap to replace Kish for the 2001 season. Cassity brought a totally different style of defense, a one gap, get up the field attacking, blitzing defense that wanted speed off the edge, smaller linebackers that could run to the ball, man coverage from their cornerbacks. Led by a veteran group of players, 2001 was a championship season, Illini fans loved Cassity and his schemes. Remember the Jet alignment on D Cassity used to stop Randle El in 2001, Illini fans loved that Jet scheme. Illinois started recruiting accordingly to Cassitys scheme, smaller, quicker linemen, linebackers, corners that should be able to play man off coverage etc....2002, D not so good, gave up a lot of plays because of the chances Cassity took blitzing, D recruiting suffered.....2003, Illini D slow,heavy legged and bad, recruits for Kishs system now had to try to fit Cassitys because young players not ready....Cassity goes on the road after the season to recruit after Turner had told him he wouldnt be fired. Cassity lands back at Willard, gets a call to immediately come to the football offices where Turner fired him. 2004 Turner elevates linebacker coach Mike Mallory to defensive coordinator. Mallory brings in his buddy Scott Shafer from NIU and they change the scheme again...this time to Joe Novaks 50 front defense, 50 defense is a two gap scheme with the majority of time zone coverage over the top. Another scheme change where kids recruited to play one gap up the field now had to get bigger, stronger to hold the point of attack, stop the run. Just a mis mash of talent that didnt fit the scheme and low and behold, Turner is fired after the 2004 season. 2005 Ron Zook hired. Mike Mallorys dad Bill gave Zook a chance to walk on at Miami of Ohio. Mallorys brother called on behalf of Zook to Bill Mallory and I still think thats why Zook retained Mike. From a staff chemistry standpoint, not a good fit. Zook felt that loyalty to give Mike a chance. but....Zook came in with a different scheme all together, a 4-3 under defense that was a one gap, play the run while getting up the field rushing the passer. 4th different scheme on defense since 2000. Defensive recruiting changed again, type of player they wanted. 4-3 under D wants your middle, weakside linebackers to make plays, weakside DE to be main pass rusher and have to have two safeties that can be adequate in stopping the run, mix zone and man coverage underneath to fool the offense. 2005 on defense, players just didnt fit the scheme and out goes Mike Mallory. 2006 After Andy McCullum, Joe Cullen, Chris Cosh, Bradley then at Wake Forest turned down the defensive coordinator job, Zook hires Vince Okruch for the position. Gary Barnett at a coaches get together talked Okruch up to Zook, its a perfect fit. Okruch had worked for Barnett at Northwestern, Colorado before Barnett fired him. Okruch was then at Western Illinois, NE Louisiana IIRC, back in the minor leagues of coaching when Zook hired him. Okruch is a good coach but he clashed right away with Zook, rest of defensive staff. At one point Okruch told his grad assistant that, these guys (Illini D staff) are losers in that room and I am a winner. I dont know how I can win with those guys which went over like a lead balloon, bad staff chemistry. Anyway, Zook told Okruch to run the 4-3 under but each week, Okruch would gameplan changes with more blitzing, man coverages, changing things up and repeatedly clashed with Zook over how the D should be run. 2006 D pretty good but the defensive recruiting, player development had improved, leftovers from Turners recruiting took their lumps but improved in 2005-2006 while Zooks staff added young talent. Summer 2007, Okruch clashed again with others on the staff, support people and took a leave, nice way to say he was fired, wasnt coming back. 2007 Zook names LB coach Dan Disch, DB coach Curt Mallory as co coordinators which lasted till 2009. Make no mistake about it, it was Zooks defense, he had a role in calling, game planning that defense each and every game. Veterans and young talent mixed, excellent defense in 2007 that helped earn the Illini a Rose Bowl berth. Defensive recruiting continues to be good. 2008 Disch, Mallory co coordinators, other Illini assistant coaches, players with their own agenda ruined that year. Zook, his defense could never sink up with the offense and its a losing year but Illini D recruiting still gets Spence, Buchanan, Hawthorne, solid players. 2009 disaster, both coordinators demoted, Mallory leaves for Akron, Disch is kept on to coach linebackers. Vic Koenning, Ron West hired to install a new defensive scheme replacing the 4-3 under. 2010 recruiting class was poor no doubt about it and most of those front seven types were leftovers, types that were recruited to be backups and now Illinois has to depend on those types to be solid Big Ten starters which hasnt happened. Moving on. 2010 Koenning brings in a 4-2-5 defense which is a one gap, attacking, speed defense that emphasizes man pass coverage, blitzing, speed all over. 4-2-5 designed to stop the passing games of the spread offenses. By that time, on D Illini had Buchanan, Spence, Liuget, Foster, Mercilus, Nate Palmer, Martez Wilson, JBrown, Nate Bussey, Hawthorne, Justin Green, Tavon Wilson, all guys that were either drafted, will be drafted or are in the NFL now. Derek Piper, myself and Detlef could have taken the 4-2-5 defensive class and done well with that group as tri defensive coordinators. Keen grasp of the obvious, Koenning, West came into a good talent situation. Koenning became beloved by many Illini fans for getting something out of that group. Great gameplan Koenning borrowed from then A&M defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter to stop RG3 in that Illinis bowl win over Baylor. 2011 recruiting class was on D were prospects that the staff would have to develop for the 4-2-5, recruiting on defense had fallen off quite a bit since the 2009 class. 2011, 2nd half collapse. Koenning, 4-2-5 leave and Tim Beckman is hired. 2012 Beckman hires Tim Banks as coordinator. Banks puts in a two gap defense that emphasizes size, strength, gap control with zone coverage over the top. Its totally opposite Koennings blitz happy, one gap get up the field d-line, man coverage scheme and personnel doesnt fit the scheme, still doesnt fit the scheme. Beckman last year had one year of defensive talent recruited off the 2008-2009 classes and after that, this year, he had little left and it shows. But that doesnt excuse the poor execution, performance many times on the field by this Illinois defense. The our guys on defense are trying to do too much line is a poor excuse. Thats coaching, game prep, discipline, making sure your guys know their assignments, trust their technique and do their job. Coaches try to make everything into a math problem when they dont know how to fix things. Beckman making that statement is a way to cover up the fact that his D too many times this year has looked un prepared, confused and gassed this fall. So I count, 7 different defensive coordinators (count Mallory M twice because he had two different schemes to teach) six different defensive schemes they were teaching, recruiting for and....since 1999, Iowa and Wisconsin have basically been running the same defensive scheme, recruiting the same defensive types of players to that scheme and of course they have made mistakes, had hiccups but that continuity has been the key for those two programs. They know how to teach the scheme, type of players needed to be successful in their scheme. Same with Michigan State, one scheme since 2007, no exactly what types of players they need to win in that scheme. Illinois during that same time? Change, change and more change. Until Illinois gets a consistent scheme on defense, with a solid coordinator who knows how to teach it, teach his assistants how to perfect it, constantly recruit to it, history will continue to repeat itself over and over on defense. Good teachers make a scheme work and you can win at Illinois with all kinds of different schemes, all in how its taught and recruited to, understanding how to win with your talent. Do I think Tim Banks is a competent d coordinator? Nope, think he is over matched at the Big Ten level schematically. He isnt the answer but I also dont think that any new coordinator is going to come in and sprinkle magic dust, get instant results with the talent on hand at Illinois. This defense has some young parts to work with but they have to be developed and that is going to take two years at best to make that unit into one you can win with. Firing defensive coordinators always makes Illini fans feel good because, someone got fired but until this program figures out a consistent plan for the way they run their defense, recruit to it, its going to be the same crap over and over. Is Tim Beckman the guy to figure out how to win on defense? Saying the jury is still out is a nice way to put it and really up to the hard core fans out there still paying attention to decide. Consistency always the key to any successful operation.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 21:44:31 +0000
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