You can't shift Toney. To make room, someone needs to be let go. So keep Toney at Safety, JL to DC, who on the assistant staff gets let go? Bateman, Peterson?
One concern I have about Leonard is why Fickell isn’t insisting Wisconsin pony up whatever’s necessary to bring him along. If he’s that good, and I were in Fickell’s shoes, no way would I let him get away for another DC job.Did I miss something here? BTW, I still think Toney deserves more time. But a short leash is in order.
I'm not sure he's not trying to keep him, but I could see it being awkward having the guy who a lot of the guys on the team probably wanted as the permanent coach and got passed over going back to his lower role. I think Leonhard is a wisconsin guy to the bone and probably wouldn't make it a thing but it could very well lead to a division in the locker room. Plus speaking from personal experience it's no fun to go get passed over for a job you filled in pretty well for and have to go back to your original position in the same organization.
Last year we gave up half a hundred to Samford and lost key players from that defense. Nobody can make shit from shinola. It may take another year or two to show sig improvement if we don’t get a handful of good defenders from the portal. 18 year old kids aren’t going to perform like gangbusters. We could start these defensive recruits next year and have a lot of growing pains that pay off tge next year. Urbs in 07 had a terrible defense that was great the next year in a similar situation. 07, Tebow won the Heisman but we lost a lot of games with a bad defense.
Who is calling you names? Funny from the guy who called me Einstein I said you were being obtuse because it’s absurd to think UF would avoid hiring someone simply because he is successful. I honestly don’t think you even believe that
A one year rental is not wanted either. A staff needs as much continuity as can be afforded. Losing good coaches to promotions is expected but a good hire wouldn’t have one foot out the door day one. If Napier were to hire any coach, he would have to feel there was just a little stability. Leonard for instance, is he happy as a dc or is he is the head coaching pool right now. Of course it’s all speculation as we have not one shred of what he wants for his future.
I can absolutely see this. Fickell would probably not want all that background noise, since Leonhard has been a fixture at Wisconsin.
Our dee will be much better next year. Upgrade in talent and more experience. Give the coach a chance. They all walked into a less talented team since the 0-10-1 team!
Agree with the sentiment that Toney and Leonard can co exist on the same staff. Just tell Toney you are bringing in the best DC in the country to help him out and that it is most likely only for a year or two until Leonard leaves for a HC gig. Tell him to take this time to learn everything he can from the man. This can be a good thing if attitudes are correct. Toney is 32 years old and who knows, he may already think he is unprepared to DC at this level.
Reading some of the comments from the press conference yesterday I don't see how Leonhard stays there Wisconsin balances bold hire of Luke Fickell, appreciation for Jim Leonhard
You’re not going to run into too many lifers at a coordinator position (like Mickey Andrews was). If they are talented, others schools will try to steal them. We had a couple of one year rentals: Dan Quinn and Geoff Collins. Both got stolen because both were damn good at their jobs. The best way to assure your coach is not stolen...be mediocre. We couldn't have traded Randy Shannon for a used Buick.
I didn't read the link, but I'd be very surprised Fickell would keep a legacy coordinator from the prior staff, particularly a popular one. Position coaches, sure, but a new HC will always bring in their coordinators unless there's already an established relationship. Too much potential for conflicts otherwise.
Please. Our D has a serious lack of talent, due to Mullen's failed recruiting. I don't know if Toney is the answer or not, but I know he does not have a talented roster.
I stand corrected. Collins was here for 2 years. But he was worth it. And who's to say Leonhard would be gone after one year. He was at Wisconsin for 5 (6 if you include the interim HC year)
Different dynamics. Urban had already won a national title at UF, a powerhouse. There was no doubt who the head coach should be.
I understand, however last years team gave up realizing DM gave up on them. The D played well enough in the beginning, almost beating bama, but I think the team can sense when their coach has checked out. This years D still had more talent (at least on paper) than most of the teams we lost to. Our D was consistently bad, bad tackling that was never improved, blown coverages, not able to get off the field most games, I mean when was the last time a Gator D ranked near the very bottom in allowing teams to convert 3rd downs? Teams averaged well over 400 yards against us. The D was about as consistent as AR's completion percentage. BN needs to know if there isn't real improvement in the D with such a disastrous first year D, faith in him as a long term coach will diminish a whole lot more than it is now. Our D should set off fire alarms.
Hopefully our defense will be better next year and they were better towards the end of the year than they were at the beginning. But last year was even worse
