I've been dying for strong productive offense for ages before it came into fashion here. If you're team lower down the totem pole, if you're elevating your status on the landscape it's more likely on the back of strong productive offense than not. So it's not a guarantee but the avenue with the most potential.
Ironically having said that, my ideal has always been a defensive coach who understands and won't stifle the offense. I often mention defensive coaches who "grew up around" strong offensive coaches. Otherwise you can get KK type results at TT, he'd have been so much better there if his defenses were just mediocre. Strong productive offense with at least a mediocre defense and you have a chance to make noise IMO. Narduzzi's best season was when his offense and qb were at the top of the country. WF same and plenty of others.
Just recently I came across an article on Elko and his description of coaching philosophy and I agree with it a lot. It's still way early in his tenure but I think he'll get Duke to respectable (.500 or better) but we'll see.
Here are some excerpts from the article:
“Just pay attention to who’s winning,” Elko said. “You’ve got Bill Belichick in New England. You’ve got Kirby (Smart) and Nick (Saban) and Luke Fickell. Those are three of the four Playoff teams last year. I know there’s this allure of offense, but really the most successful coaches are the defensive guys who understand offense. They’re not trying to win games 7-3, but they understand how to run a program with a bit of that defensive mentality while still allowing the offense to flourish.”
And he won’t apologize for finding success on defense in a points-happy era of college football. Elko doesn’t believe that traditional statistics show the impact of a great defense in today’s game. Even old-school defensive-minded head coaches like Pat Narduzzi have grown (sort of) comfortable winning shootouts. But that doesn’t mean defense matters any less.
“You have to balance what you’re doing to what you’re playing against, which is what we’ve always done,” Elko said. “A lot of matrixes off of what they do. What are the averages of our opponents? If you’re playing teams that average 51 points a game and you hold them to 31, you’re one of the better defenses. People get lost in archaic boxes of this number of points or less, or this amount of yards or less. …
“Winning games 52-48 in a championship season, it happens across the board. It doesn’t mean, if you have a game like that or a couple of games like that, that you’re unsuccessful on defense. Or that you’re running an offensive program or defensive program. You’re just trying to win. That’s what I’ve always tried to sell.”
Article is paywall
After the head coaching carousel turned in his favor, Elko gets a chance to bring his defense and his program-building perspective to Duke.
theathletic.com