His downfall is not a mystery. Louisville has given up 50+ points 5 times this year.
BVD is the WIllingham of coordinators. He almost destroyed Kelly, and completely sank Petrino.
Off Topic: When Trump introduced Alan Page at the medal-of-freedom ceremony today, the Prez said he played for the "Chicago Bags." Reading is tough.
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In 2001, he was hired as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for the University of Georgia Bulldogs. During his first year as defensive coordinator in 2001, the Bulldogs allowed just 18.9 points per game, ended up fifth in rushing defense and ranked 17th in scoring defense.[4] The 2002 season saw VanGorder's defense not only lead the SEC in scoring defense, but finished fourth nationally.[5] The Bulldogs allowed less than 15 points per game during the season on their way to eventually winning the Sugar Bowl and finishing third in the final national poll. For his performance, VanGorder named as the seventh recipient of the Valvoline Southern Sports Tonight Assistant Coach of the Year.[6]
In 2003, VanGorder's defense ranked third nationally in scoring defense, fourth in total defense and sixth in passing defense.[7] In turn, VanGorder received the Frank Boyles "Assistant Coach of the Year" award, which honors the nation's top assistant coach.[8] During his final season at Georgia in 2004, the 10–2 Bulldogs were ranked seventh in the final national poll as VanGorder's defense finished the season ranked eighth and ninth in scoring defense.[9]
Of course, since then he's been... er... less successful.
On paper, Kelly's hire of him looked good at the time. But it's clear now the game has passed him by.
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In the time frame you are referencing, Kansas State, Maryland, Clemson, Bowling Green, and West Virginia were running this quirky offense that spread out 3-5 receivers and ran almost exclusively out of the shotgun with a blend of option and a passing game that relied a lot on play-action off of a shotgun-option look and even an occasional "sophisticated" play that involved a Q.B. option to run or pass.
Oklahoma and Purdue were running a pass-happy offense that was basically the run-and-shoot out of the shotgun.
Virtually everyone else who wasn't an academy was running out of 21 or 11 formations and taking most of their snaps from under center. A one-gap, four-D.L., blitz-heavy Cover 2 scheme can work well against those types of offenses. For the offenses listed above, such a defensive scheme is a terrible idea.
Every other program that matters has learned this and adapted accordingly now that the heavy majority of college teams run some variation of the spread.
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You simply cannot understate the impact of a coach like Brian Van Gorder on the entire team. His willful stupidity is a direct cause of defensive players just giving up and not putting forth any effort. The front 7 stops making any effort on a pass rush, because they know that the inevitable blitz that he has called will leave a hole with a 7-yard diameter that the Q.B. will find a wide-open receiver in well before they can get pressure. And the defensive backs don't bother to make much effort in coverage, because they know that his asinine coverage schemes will leave at least one receiver wide-open on a go route somewhere else on the field. This cascades into piss-poor tackling effort, as well. The snowball then rolls into special teams and overall team effort: Why fight each play when you have a defense that cannot make a stop and will give up an average of 7 touchdowns each game?
From a P.P.G./P.A.P.G. standpoint, they were +9, +5, +19, +10 in the last 4 years. After adding Van Gorder, they are -20.
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