...back up the Brinks truck Billy. With Fickle heading to Wisconsin, that leaves one of the best DC's in the nation unemployed.
I like it but I’d like to see Toney get another shot. Sucks for a guy to get blamed for Grantham mess. Making upgrades is what great CEO’s do though. Sorry buddy .
If he is as good as you say, why wouldn't Fickle hire him? But I am of the camp that thinks BN is not the type of guy that will remove Toney after one year.
Not sure why you guys think BN is going to get rid of Toney after one year. Hasn't he been with BN for the last 4 years?
Cruel to who? If we justify keeping a coach based solely on the amount of years the coach has been with the HC, that’s silly. I’m making a parallel with Mullen and Grantham here, where just hanging onto what you have for “loyalty” is not in the best interest of your employer, who are the ones paying the salary. If we want to keep Toney as DC, there should be better reasons then, “He’s been with Billy a long time.” We’ve been down that road before.
Grantham vs Toney is different. Grantham consistently showed an immediate improvement followed by major regressions after year 2 or 3. Toney showed improvement each year with his defense at ULL. That history warrants a second year, especially considering the overall talent on our d. JL is tempting though, but making that move could look ugly down the line to potential assistants considering jumping on board here.
I think there is a way to do this that is right by Toney. Co-DC, with Leonhard calling plays. This way Toney gets SEC experience and can be ready if Leonhard gets a HC offer.
Endless excuses for our DC’s … Grantham got a pass cause 2020 was the covid year. Toney will get a pass cause cause he’s coaching Grantham’s guys.
While I don’t completely agree with your assessment (I think gradually getting talent above his competition had a lot to do with ULL getting better), I agree that this would at least be a legit argument to keep him. Not “because he was with Napier for 4 years”, which was what I was addressing in the first place. Loyalty to certain individuals at the cost of success to the school is not what we hire a coach for.
One year is enough to see if a coach can at least make in game adjustments. In some games it looked like Toney did just that. Take the UGA game. The 3rd quarter our defense played very motivated football, but then seem to run out of gas in the 4rth quarter. That could be due to lack of talented/experienced back ups on the defense. And then there was the A&M game where we all thought Toney had it all figured out and we seemed to have it going in the right direction. The next game we played our best overall game on the defense when we pounded USCe to a pulp... too bad the offense left at least two scores on the field. Everything seemed to be going right for Toney and the defense... and then came the Vandy game, and the FSU game, where we suddenly forgot how to stop the run. We were progressing then we started regressing at the wrong time (like there's ever a good time to regress) of the year. Did he hit a lucky spot with the A&M and USCe games? Or is he just going to be inconsistent as a coach, because he's now only a (after this year is over) 3 full year DC... that's all the experience he has. Two of those years were in the Sunbelt Conference. Are we a football program for on the job training... coordinators now? Or do we go out and get the best DC money can buy? I am in no way saying we need to let Toney go, but he might need to be re-assigned to another position and let a veteran DC come in and show him how it's done for a few years. You all know where I stand on this matter. Now... lets find an OC too while we're at it. Lol.
Billy needs to decide if he’s willing to go down on the Toney ship. Mullen was loyal to Grantham and it cost everybody their job. If he wants to risk his career sticking with a sun-belt DC just cause they’re friends, then whatever.
I think there is something to what you have said. Is it possible that BN's team including D improved due to the fact that BN was recruiting better than the other teams in that league? So, better players would seem to make the D by itself better. The big question is, was improvement more due to better players or due to developing those players and having a good scheme and play calling? Was it the players that made the DC look better or did the DC do all the right things and thus improvement showed. If Toney is kept and the D remains remotely similar to what it was this year, then I think we have an answer.
Toney will get a second year, as he should. We can circle back to this subject after the Utah game if you’d like
