The comment from Patke came from a journalist outside the program. And what do you want? Pretty much every program sugarcoats the situation -- it's just good PR. Willis destroyed every OL he played against. I honestly can't think of an exception. And he will be sorely missed, as I've been saying for months.
All I can say about DC is if we do a "national search" then stick with Banda four hours later... I'm gonna strangle someone. But keeping Banda at S and Patke at LB and hiring a DC could be very interesting. I have conviction Ed Reed should coach safeties. I'm not one to want to just hire alums. I think that's a great hire. But I'd rather no Reed than Banda as DC.
I think there's a huge difference between "loyalty" and having guys who you've developed a relationship with that are on the same page as you. We all doubted Banda and the safeties have been great. Patke did well in his first year with strikers. I mean... Diaz just fired five guys that he's worked with for two plus years.
For sure. I don't fault the staff it just leaves me less inclined to believe their stories. Also, the journalist must have got that tidbit of info from an interview with one of the coaches. Only Many, Richt, or another coach could have known if Patke really was the secret to Mannys defense.
Couldn't agree more about Willis. The kid was an animal and I think Jess/Kool did a great job of coaching him up. I was just pointing out that Searles had to have seen the massive issue with his OL with Willis using the line as a doormat every single play.
Same here. I will be furious if that ends up happening. I too would like to see Ed Reed as coach. We could even have him work on the special teams. He was a beast Special teams guy. He also is a recent enough NFL legend to really help with recruiting.
I agree completely. I was just saying I HOPE this is not blind loyalty and that he will can them if he notices them not cutting it. I am fine with him leaving them as S and LB for the next year and if they get shredded by every QB that can pass or the LBs get ran over by every RB that can run then he gets rid of them.
I will give Patke credit for developing Finley and Co, but his recruiting has not been impressive and coaching 3 guys is a lot easier than coaching the entire LB corp.
Safeties I am not all that impressed with banda. Jaquan was a HS all american and So Fla Baller. If he was an inch or 2 taller he would have been a 5 star out of high school. One would expect him to be killing it his junior and senior year.
However, at the end of the day. Assuming Manny puts them back to their normal positions and actually treats them like every other coach and is not blindly loyal to them. Then I think Manny actually has the ability to bring the U back.