Why the bad defense?

It’s very simple if you watched every game. Too many missed tackles, blown coverages, and zero pressure from the front 7.

Nah it’s not all coaching.


Players didn’t execute.

You don’t come to college not knowing how to tackle or beat the man in front of you in pursuit of the football.

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I get it. That’s coaching, right? So how did we end up with bad coaching? These folks weren't sucking when we hired them.

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I think it’s a mix of both coaching and our defensive players weren’t good enough. Speights went from all PAC 12 linebacker to not being able to tackle or cover to save his life. To have a historically bad defense to you need ineptitude in both coaching and players not good enough for the league they’re playing in and that’s what we had.

House didn't just all of a sudden suck at coaching in one year. The one flaw Kelly missed is that House sucks at developing players and managing inexperienced players to fit his scheme. The defense will do well against smaller schools bc of the talent level. In conclusion, Matt House is way in over his head in what it takes to be a DC at a SEC school.

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These folks weren't sucking when we hired them.

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Not sure about that. It seemed nobody thought Cooks was a good coach when he was hired. Steeples had never been a college coach, mostly HS and 1 year assisting special teams with the Vikings. So your DB coaches have question marks right off.

And then there's the DL saga, which is its own deal.

So keep House and hire whole new D staff?

No, I want an entirely new defensive staff.

The staff as more than fine last year when we had the players to do what they wanted to do.

thisnyear we didn’t and it showed a lack of creativity on House’s part, we had a problem and he couldn’t fix it so it compounded the problem.

Well we can go through it all if you'd like.

1) Kerry Cooks is the safety coach and he has been average everywhere he has been. He was hired most likely because he has worked with Kelly in the past and Kelly wanted someone with familiarity around. He has been ok recruiting and awful at developing.

2) Robert Steeples is the CB coach and he was a gamble. Kelly crossed paths with him at some point and saw potential. He just hasnt worked out. Its tough cuz LSU isn't a place where you can learn on the job, he has missed on recruits and the guys he does have don't seem to be developing.

3) House is the DC and LBs coach. He had a decent resume and came from the NFL. Kelly said that he found his defense difficult to prepare for when they played in the past. He has been pretty disappointing as both the DC and LBs coach. His shceme is maybe to complicated for young guys to grasp and he failed to turn Perkins into a MLB despite working on it all offseason. That basically wasted an offseason of development and made the first half of the season a learning experience for Perkins while he figure out the Nickle Sam role.

4) DL coach - In 2022 it was Jamar Cain who was an awesome recruiter but had either personality or philosophy differences that cause us to part ways. He was our best recruiter on D but he wasn't known as a great position coach. He was replaced by Coach Linsey who was diagnosed with cancer during fall camp. The interim was Jan Jancek who has never coached DL before. This is the root of our issues if you ask me. The guys we have are not being developed because they don't have a coach and we aren't recruiting well because...well... we don't have a coach.

If I was Kelly I'd completely clean house and start over on defense.

IF he decides to keep House, I won't like it but I'm not gonna jump off a cliff so long as he fires ALL of the position coaches and replaces them with proven guys.

Coaching left a lot to be desired but many of the players on the defensive side of the ball would be bench warmers in years past. Some probably shouldn't be playing in the power 5