Fire Baker - NOW

[dawg1984]

Spangler seemed like a decent coach, as can be exhibited by our exceptional defense in 2011, but it is hard to have a great defense when your offense is receiving the most attention and is off the field so quickly. The up-tempo style hurt him in 2012, along with the loss of some of our 2011 playmakers.

Agree completely. When your offense can score as fast as ours, you need a lot of depth on defense so your best players aren't worn out by the end of the game. I love the big plays our offense makes. Watching Henderson smoke the DBs and Taylor cockroach his way through defenders for long gains/TDs is thrilling. But the defense needs some time to catch its breath and that requires a lot of depth so there isn't a big drop-off when key defenders aren't on the field.

[PawDawg]

Agree completely. When your offense can score as fast as ours, you need a lot of depth on defense so your best players aren't worn out by the end of the game. I love the big plays our offense makes. Watching Henderson smoke the DBs and Taylor cockroach his way through defenders for long gains/TDs is thrilling. But the defense needs some time to catch its breath and that requires a lot of depth so there isn't a big drop-off when key defenders aren't on the field.

Very few people are willing to acknowledge what you and Bearpaw are pointing out. It happens to almost every team that runs that type offense. Tried to explain that back in the Crowton days (all horrible defenses), in 2012 when our COY from 2011 was getting blasted, and now. It's easier to just say fire the DC!

[dawg80]

On one of the WKU fan forum's one guy posted:

Tech should fire their DC


Well, there ya go, an unbiased opinion based on observation.

[stodgdog]

The answer: We should have held WKU to fewer points than Rice and Houston Baptist. That said, I realize WKU scored more points on us because they had to, but still.... This defense looks exactly like 2012. Are you guys sure that Baker isn't Spangler in disguise?

There were a couple years every one thought Spangler was great. Maybe we just didn't have many good athletes on defense in 2012 and the last couple years. Maybe Bill Arnsparger could figure out how to get better results out of players with limited ability. This is just a thought - I am not claiming to be correct. It is a possibility, however.

[Bearpaw]

There were a couple years every one thought Spangler was great. Maybe we just didn't have many good athletes on defense in 2012 and the last couple years. Maybe Bill Arnsparger could figure out how to get better results out of players with limited ability. This is just a thought - I am not claiming to be correct. It is a possibility, however.

In 2010, 2011, & 2012, I'm betting Sonny placed much more emphasis on recruiting offense (his mantra) than defense. Those results showed in 2012 and 2013.

[stodgdog]

Special teams (21pts) are horrible. Nobody noticed?

Yeah, I noticed. Coupled with the field position enjoyed by WKU may indicate our defense didn't play as poorly as many think. We are currently in the hunt and have an appearance in the CCG in our court. Many wouldn't have expected that. I'm not one to typically remind anyone, but earlier in the week I posted that we would win the game. I am glad we did. I think our team is improving each game and should that trend continue we will be in good shape. Someone posted the offensive stats of our remaining games and it indicates that it could bode well for our defense. If so, the showdown will come in Hattiesburg, which we all hoped for.

[SicemDawgz]

So if the up-tempo offense being the issue is to be blamed, you could reasonably assume our defense should start out doing great and begin to falter as the game goes on. Is that what y'all are seeing? I can't tell any difference from the first play of the game on defense to any other play on defense. Maybe my TV's not high def enough

[Dogsince65]

On one of the WKU fan forum's one guy posted:

Tech should fire their DC


Well, there ya go, an unbiased opinion based on observation.

in context it was about firing their DC and saying we should also... remember-- their defense gave up 10 points more and we got 2 turnovers. We also put d in hole several times--- our d outplayed WK and like most fans we went int that damn prevent and gave up 14 pts plus the 7 on blocked punt in 4th -- up til prevent I was ok with the d

[stodgdog]

I have to believe part of our interior Dline's problems is due to Wallace being out

How long will he be out?

[Dogsince65]

Very few people are willing to acknowledge what you and Bearpaw are pointing out. It happens to almost every team that runs that type offense. Tried to explain that back in the Crowton days (all horrible defenses), in 2012 when our COY from 2011 was getting blasted, and now. It's easier to just say fire the DC!

actually this will common debate back in Dykes days-- we were scoring so fast D would run out of steam. again, most analyst agree with that but some folks do not.... does make for some crazy games when big leads are wiped out ( ie-Texas A.M )

[techman05]

Obviously, our defense needs to get in a few extra reps flipping tires down the field. If extra energy is what they need, then Hester should make it happen.

[Dogsince65]

I keep having flashbacks to 2012 when winning and losing was matter of the offense scoring more than the defense gave up. A lot of people saying to fire the DC. But who is going to replace him mid-season? What assurances do we have that someone already on our staff can do a better job for at least the remainder of this season? The argument can be made that we have nothing to lose. But do we really? We aren't a P5 program with enough loose changes in the athletic dept's sofa to lure a good, up and coming coach from another program mid-season. Suppose we fire the DC now and the interim or - God forbid - new DC is worse. Our remaining opponents are a combined 9-20. Take out USM's 4-1 record and our remaining opponents are 5-19. It's likely our 'Dogs will be bowl eligible with 3 games remaining on the schedule. ESPN's game predictor has Tech with at 79% to 91% chance of winning all remaining games except USM. And the USM game ESPN has us with a 45% chance of winning. We're reasonably looking at an 8-4 or 9-3 regular season and a third straight bowl appearance. At this point, stay the course BUT start looking in earnest NOW for a replacement.

I posted similar opinion on another thread-- we have 5 games against underperformers --we play our game, key players stay healthy and we play SM with 8-3 record and a bowl game--- don't anticipate it but 10 wins is still out there---

[latech]

So if the up-tempo offense being the issue is to be blamed, you could reasonably assume our defense should start out doing great and begin to falter as the game goes on. Is that what y'all are seeing? I can't tell any difference from the first play of the game on defense to any other play on defense. Maybe my TV's not high def enough

best post so far - mic dropped!

[Houston Techsan]

If the up tempo offense was the problem then the slow down in the late 3rd and 4th quarters should have given the defense a little breather. Of course it wouldn't with three and outs. However some of those three and outs were as long as some of our offensive drives for TD's.

[zharkins]

So if the up-tempo offense being the issue is to be blamed, you could reasonably assume our defense should start out doing great and begin to falter as the game goes on. Is that what y'all are seeing? I can't tell any difference from the first play of the game on defense to any other play on defense. Maybe my TV's not high def enough

La Tech points allowed by quarter

1st - 49
2nd - 41
3rd - 24
4th - 87

1st is high and 3rd is low because we kicked off to start every game we have played this year and got the ball to start every 2nd half.