Honestly, this is the first I am hearing of this. I am sure some Cal fans are excited at the prospect of getting a new defensive coordinator. Personally, I think Gregory does a lot with the talent he has. While the defense was getting hammered early in the season, it has really stepped up as a unit recently.Cal defensive coordinator Bob Gregory, a Washington State graduate, is among a group of logical candidates for the Cougars' head coaching job if Bill Doba is fired, which has been the subject of widespread speculation on the Internet.
Gregory's first job interview - a 20-17 win over the Cougars - was nearly flawless.
Gregory haters, any thoughts?
6 comments:
Enjoy the Pallouse.
Bring back Wilcox or someone with an agressive bone in their coaching resume, 'cause there's none on this staff.
Gregory has put together some stout defenses. That '04 squad was pretty darn good (with the exception of the Holiday Bowl...but that had more to do with being snubbed than anything else).
The bigger problem is in the Pac-10 you have to be scoring more than 20 points a game to have a shot at winning. Tedford is the culprit on that side of the ball.
Yeah, but, do we really want to have a Pac-10 team being coached by someone with such an intimate knowledge of the Bears and Tedford?
Also, this was never supposed to be a great year for Cal, especially on defense. Having lost three all-conference defensive stars, this year was supposed to be one of reloading and gearing up for a VERY STRONG 2008.
(This is why I've recently become a big advocate for not releasing polls until the end of September/early October...I bought into the pre- and early season rankings BIG TIME and have nothing but heartache and disappointment to show for it. Had rankings come out October 1st, Cal would have been high, but nowhere near #2...sorry, tangent!)
Realizing that, and remembering how good we were last year--not to mention pretty good defensive play against Tennessee, Oregon and Washington State this season--makes me think this year's problems aren't necessarily rooted in Bob Gregory or his defensive schemes.
Unless we can bring in someone like Bo Pellini or some other TERRIFIC defensive mind, I'm not so sure we need to pull the plug on Gregory just yet.
Any replacement suggestions??
As of now, BG is not the problem, IMO. The DL, however, needs immediate attention. Therefore, replace Delgado and give BG another year. See if we can get that pass rush figured out. If it doesn't work out in 2008, send BG packing. If BG leaves for WSU at the end of this year, JT's willingness to hand over complete responsibility to the DC should be an attractive opportunity to an aggressive DC (LB Coach Nickerson from Chicago would be a fine choice).
Gregory's scheme works *IF* it has decent DBs because it allows the LBs to be more aggressive. Of course the DL has been hit by injuries too. I'm not in love with the bend don't break defense but given the pass happy Pac-10, it makes sense. I don't hear anyone complaining when it clicks and creates all those turn-overs.
I don't know how one could say the defense has stepped up lately. Watch the game again and look at all the dropped and overthrown WSU passes. If anything the D got incredibly lucky, not better. Not a Gregory basher, just stating the painfully obvious.
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