But no matter how you look at it, our players were making tons of game-killing mistakes on both sides of the ball (missed tackles, dropped passes, poor blocking, missed assigments, bad reads, critical penalties). The coaches can't play the game for the players.
There comes a point, though, that the game-killing mistakes are so frequent, so wide-spread across the roster, and so repetitive - that it becomes a systemic problem, rather than a problem with individuals.
If one or two players is still struggling with the concepts of positioning, tackling, play calls, etc, that's one thing - when the majority of the defense is struggling with the concepts, it's another. The staff is on the hook for a) getting the right players into the program through recruiting, b) getting those players to buy-in to a unified vision, and c) improving the performance of those players through their career. Right now, we have breakdowns in all three of those responsibilities, imo - especially on defense.
The running list of things that have added straws to the camel's back for me:
- Inability to recruit the top kids in NJ
- Inability (unwillingness?) to recruit 2nd/3rd tier kids in FL
- Hiring assistants that have had little if any prior/recent success in the positions they were hired for
- High assistant turnover in first 3 years
- Inconsistent vision of what type of offense we'd run (leading to inconsistent recruiting that didn't reinforce a single vision)
- Lack of any development/improvement on defense in 3 years
- Getting rid of traditions from past successful years (e.g., awards)
Whether or not he gets another year after this one, I don't see him here in 2020, and we'll be starting over.... again. The next hire has to be someone with recent successful HC experience at the FBS level - no more promising coordinators.