OK time to deal with this issue. We know the defense has been a weakness for some time. They have the ability to do well in certain series in games but not consistent at all. NOWHERE. Not this year not last year or the year before. Same problems year over year; corners that don't look back for the ball or our inability to wrap up. The basic ability to fundamentally tackle correctly. My opinion during the season was to give Jones another season because of the youth on the D-line. However because we have changed Head Coach now is the time to make this change. Lets look at Jones's numbers:

2010 (51st) Total D 347.69/gm rush-D (82) 166.92 pass-D (34) 180.77 score-D (53) 23.62
2011(53rd) Total D 353.33/gm rush-D (56) 149.42 pass-D (54) 203.92 score-D (41) 23.85
2012(90th) Total D 413.17/gm rush-D (94) 190.58 pass-D (73) 222.58 score-D (77) 29.33

So if your the new coach and you had problems on D and your D was 90th -- Hello time for new DC .

Honestly, I do not think this is a scheme issue but a personnel one. This issue is nothing that a few good recruiting classes and can't fix. ....and the kids staying in line once they get there. You are going to have injuries but our depth sucked and it showed by the number of underclassmen we had to play!...

Go APPS!

asutrnr81 wrote:Honestly, I do not think this is a scheme issue but a personnel one. This issue is nothing that a few good recruiting classes and can't fix. ....and the kids staying in line once they get there. You are going to have injuries but our depth sucked and it showed by the number of underclassmen we had to play!...

Go APPS!

Without naming names, let me add discipline issues that eliminated at least a couple of difference makers on defense this year. By the way, that has happened at some point each of the last three years.

Whom do we point thou finger at for those off the field problems that effect the outcomes on Saturdays?

Black Saturday wrote:

asutrnr81 wrote:Honestly, I do not think this is a scheme issue but a personnel one. This issue is nothing that a few good recruiting classes and can't fix. ....and the kids staying in line once they get there. You are going to have injuries but our depth sucked and it showed by the number of underclassmen we had to play!...

Go APPS!

Without naming names, let me add discipline issues that eliminated at least a couple of difference makers on defense this year. By the way, that has happened at some point each of the last three years.

Whom do we point thou finger at for those off the field problems that effect the outcomes on Saturdays?

Oo Ooh, I know, I know. How 'bout the kids that got into those off the field problems?

I completely disagree that we need to get rid of Dale Jones. Problem is now fixed, players with discipline issues are now gone.

Our players are no longer freshmen. We'll have a fine D next year.

If its true that Jones has a year remaining on his contract, let's see what he can do in with all of the above issues mentioned. New recruits, Kids coming back from injuries, lots of experienced underclassmen, New HC that looks like will be more on top of the discipline issue, etc.

I think we'll see an improvement in the defense next season.

I'm all for giving him another year but don't forget that last year at this time we thought the defense would be our strong point this year.

AppFan11 wrote:OK time to deal with this issue. We know the defense has been a weakness for some time. They have the ability to do well in certain series in games but not consistent at all. NOWHERE. Not this year not last year or the year before. Same problems year over year; corners that don't look back for the ball or our inability to wrap up. The basic ability to fundamentally tackle correctly. My opinion during the season was to give Jones another season because of the youth on the D-line. However because we have changed Head Coach now is the time to make this change. Lets look at Jones's numbers:

2010 (51st) Total D 347.69/gm rush-D (82) 166.92 pass-D (34) 180.77 score-D (53) 23.62
2011(53rd) Total D 353.33/gm rush-D (56) 149.42 pass-D (54) 203.92 score-D (41) 23.85
2012(90th) Total D 413.17/gm rush-D (94) 190.58 pass-D (73) 222.58 score-D (77) 29.33

So if your the new coach and you had problems on D and your D was 90th -- Hello time for new DC .

Your points are well made. However, if you are watching any football outside of App football then you should see that no one wraps up anymore. Everyone wants the SportsCenter hit. He'll, it is even a penalty for form tackling in some instances. We old guys were taught to put your face ask in the chest and drive through the opponent. Nowadays, you do that and it's a penalty if the crown of your helmet touches your opponents head. That is not a penalty.

Our DB's do not turn around and find the ball and that is a problem. 1000% agree. But we play guys who shouldn't be on the field, rather it be through attrition, injury, or talen. That should benefit us next year.

AppSt94 wrote: Your points are well made. However, if you are watching any football outside of App football then you should see that no one wraps up anymore. Everyone wants the SportsCenter hit. He'll, it is even a penalty for form tackling in some instances. We old guys were taught to put your face ask in the chest and drive through the opponent. Nowadays, you do that and it's a penalty if the crown of your helmet touches your opponents head. That is not a penalty.

Our DB's do not turn around and find the ball and that is a problem. 1000% agree. But we play guys who shouldn't be on the field, rather it be through attrition, injury, or talen. That should benefit us next year.

I completely agree that college players (and others as well) don't seem to wrap up these days. They all go for the big highlight hit. However, there are a few exceptions. I was impressed with the way the NDSU defense was tackling last week against Wofford and the result was shutting down the Wofford Offense. It can still be taught and we need to do a better job.

Whether Jones is the DC next year or not, I think that we need someone new coaching the DB's. There's a good chance we can accomplish our goals by reallocating assignments and getting people in the right roles.

But, but, we can't call for Dale Jones to be fired, because he has a family, and has been loyal to ASU for years!! (sarcasm)

Going to be a fine line Coach Satterfield has to walk between friendship and potential improvement. Not an easy job. Hard to always make the right decisions. Hasn't always been done that way in the past.

appfanz wrote:I'm all for giving him another year but don't forget that last year at this time we thought the defense would be our strong point this year.

You may have...I didn't. We lost some big bodies off the front line...and replaced them with a lot of youth and smaller players. I knew they'd take a step back from last year.

I think more experience on the line, plus our depth at DB, will help us greatly next year.

And - again - I am not going to put too much into national rankings. We are usually very poor at Time of Posession, for reasons good and bad, on offense...and that makes it very hard for your D to just shut people down all day.

DL/LB Lanston Tanyi
DL/LB John Rizor
LB Justin Wray
DB Doug Middleton
DB Dante Blackmon

All five were projected starters and all five were gone by the end of the ECU game. We had high hopes for the defense after last season, but was it realisitic to think we could be as good given those losses?

You guys in the "let's fire a coach every time one part of the team doesn't perform to expectations" crowd puzzle me. A few years ago it was John Wiley. Now a lot of folks would like him back. Two years ago it was Scot Sloan. Now he has our recruiting headed in the right direction and criticism of him has dialed back. Yeah, Chris Moore and Bob McLain needed to go. But Dale Jones has a long history of solid work for the Black & Gold. Let's let Scott Satterfield sort out the coaching staff without help from us armchair quarterbacks.

AppGrad78 wrote:DL/LB Lanston Tanyi
DL/LB John Rizor
LB Justin Wray
DB Doug Middleton
DB Dante Blackmon

All five were projected starters and all five were gone by the end of the ECU game. We had high hopes for the defense after last season, but was it realisitic to think we could be as good given those losses?

You guys in the "let's fire a coach every time one part of the team doesn't perform to expectations" crowd puzzle me. A few years ago it was John Wiley. Now a lot of folks would like him back. Two years ago it was Scot Sloan. Now he has our recruiting headed in the right direction and criticism of him has dialed back. Yeah, Chris Moore and Bob McLain needed to go. But Dale Jones has a long history of solid work for the Black & Gold. Let's let Scott Satterfield sort out the coaching staff without help from us armchair quarterbacks.

I for one do not want Wiley back. He makes Dale Jones look like a riverboat gambler.

AppGrad78 wrote:DL/LB Lanston Tanyi
DL/LB John Rizor
LB Justin Wray
DB Doug Middleton
DB Dante Blackmon

All five were projected starters and all five were gone by the end of the ECU game. We had high hopes for the defense after last season, but was it realisitic to think we could be as good given those losses?

You guys in the "let's fire a coach every time one part of the team doesn't perform to expectations" crowd puzzle me. A few years ago it was John Wiley. Now a lot of folks would like him back. Two years ago it was Scot Sloan. Now he has our recruiting headed in the right direction and criticism of him has dialed back. Yeah, Chris Moore and Bob McLain needed to go. But Dale Jones has a long history of solid work for the Black & Gold. Let's let Scott Satterfield sort out the coaching staff without help from us armchair quarterbacks.

Those losses are why I'm not opposed to giving him another season.

AppGrad78 wrote: A few years ago it was John Wiley. Now a lot of folks would like him back. Two years ago it was Scot Sloan. Now he has our recruiting headed in the right direction and criticism of him has dialed back. Yeah, Chris Moore and Bob McLain needed to go. But Dale Jones has a long history of solid work for the Black & Gold. Let's let Scott Satterfield sort out the coaching staff without help from us armchair quarterbacks.

I hope youre joking. John Wiley was a hell of a DB coach, but he wasnt even close to the full package as a DC. Ask any ECU fan.

Dale Jones deserves 1 more year. I think he'll pull it together this year.

IMO, the whole coaching staff needed to get out from under the shadow of Jerry Moore. My money is on the breath of fresh air on the staff having a big impact on the team's performance. No more JM throttling back the offense and trying to win with the 90th ranked defense. Dumbest strategy I've seen in years.

GlassOnion wrote:

AppGrad78 wrote: A few years ago it was John Wiley. Now a lot of folks would like him back. Two years ago it was Scot Sloan. Now he has our recruiting headed in the right direction and criticism of him has dialed back. Yeah, Chris Moore and Bob McLain needed to go. But Dale Jones has a long history of solid work for the Black & Gold. Let's let Scott Satterfield sort out the coaching staff without help from us armchair quarterbacks.

I hope youre joking. John Wiley was a hell of a DB coach, but he wasnt even close to the full package as a DC. Ask any ECU fan.

Dale Jones deserves 1 more year. I think he'll pull it together this year.

IMO, the whole coaching staff needed to get out from under the shadow of Jerry Moore. My money is on the breath of fresh air on the staff having a big impact on the team's performance. No more JM throttling back the offense and trying to win with the 90th ranked defense. Dumbest strategy I've seen in years.

Jones and Sloan have two years remaining. Wiley isn't the DC at ECU - Assoc HC & Inside LB coach.

I think Jones was hamstrung somewhat this season because of all the injuries and dismissals, but this year was another in a downward trend. If the next season's results continue the trend it will be interesting to see if Scott can make the tough decision to replace his good friend and former business partner.

I don't doubt that Scott will give DJ another year at all. With all the kids we lost this year and all the youth we threw into the mix we were bound to have good games and bad games, which is exactly what we did. And I also don't put as much stock in the overall numbers as many do (pass D is addressed a little below) since our run D and overall D numbers are always going to be skewed somewhat as long as we are in the SoCon playing against three of the best rushing teams in all FCS. No matter if you win the game or not they are going to put up rushing yards on you. That won't change as long as we are here.

The past three or so years our biggest problem on D was in the backfield (until this year where we had both line and DB problems due to losses). But it looks like we've got 3 or 4 potential AA's in the backfield now or coming in and that could be a strength for us for the next several years, barring injury or bonehead kids. We got some kids on the line some valuable time and that can only help us going forward. Picking up one or two tractor-trailers for the middle can't hurt either. Our biggest problem for next year will be replacing AA LB's. We've been loaded there for a while and now I want to see if some of these "promising" kids can step their games up another level. Losing Anderson (and Scott on the line) when he had another year also hurts. We'll just see how things shake out in recruiting, spring ball, and camp.

Finally, we got kids on both sides of the ball that have been injuried (some of them BIG kids). If we can get them back and pray that the injury bug doesn't bite us as bad next year then I look forward to seeing what DJ can do. That will be the big tell. What alignment he settles on and can he make in game adjustments when he has personal to make those adjustments. Time will tell.

Given the injuries and youth on this year's team I think Coach Jones did a pretty good job. If we recruit some depth at DB I think we will be OK IMO. I see no reason to look for a new DC at this time.

Can anyone give me a good FCS recruitint web site,,nothing I can find is current.. Thanks for the help

AppGrad78 wrote:DL/LB Lanston Tanyi
DL/LB John Rizor
LB Justin Wray
DB Doug Middleton
DB Dante Blackmon

All five were projected starters and all five were gone by the end of the ECU game. We had high hopes for the defense after last season, but was it realisitic to think we could be as good given those losses?

You guys in the "let's fire a coach every time one part of the team doesn't perform to expectations" crowd puzzle me. A few years ago it was John Wiley. Now a lot of folks would like him back. Two years ago it was Scot Sloan. Now he has our recruiting headed in the right direction and criticism of him has dialed back. Yeah, Chris Moore and Bob McLain needed to go. But Dale Jones has a long history of solid work for the Black & Gold. Let's let Scott Satterfield sort out the coaching staff without help from us armchair quarterbacks.

Amen Charlie. Plus the fact we had what 5 or 6 Freshman and Soph starting this year, including a walk on? We were very young. We should only get better....We have a HS senior who will start next year at DB....