1) Need to? Maybe. Will he? Doubtful. He and Golden are tight, so there's a lil added job security. Also, is there a DC on the market that we would like to have? Or is there a guy amongst the defensive coaches that Golden feels like can take the DC controls? OR--does Golden take over the D himself? Lots of questions that are tough to answer that will likely keep D'Onofrio in a job, at least thru this season.
See also that Golden has commented himself on wanting to keep continuity on his staff, as a function of how much staff turnover we had under Coker/Shannon...we need some stability in the staff to allow the kids to grow in the systems in place.
2) It raises concerns, for me, about the shape our roster is still in. I felt that Golden had 2 good recruiting classes in the 11/12 classes, and that some of those guys would be ready to contribute earlier. They apparently haven't been ready so far, and the reality is (IMO) that we'll have to struggle with the younger guys and let them learn on the job...and a side effect of that is losing badly to a pretty good team full of veterans in K-State. When you don't have the strength nor experience advantage, it's a tough go in D1 football these days.
Lots of folks tend to point to Freshmen X/Y/Z at other schools and say things like, "they're balling out, why can't our guys?"...easy answer. Most of those Freshmen are at least supported by a lot more solid Seniors/Juniors than we have on our roster right now. There honestly aren't a lot of teams as young as we are, and really, that includes the upperclassmen who we'd like to lean on, but we can't because they're inexperienced themselves (i.e.--Shayon Green, Malcolm Bunche, Curtis Porter, etc).
I thought we would be ready to compete as early as next year for the ACC and be back in the rankings...but after this weekend and seeing the reality of our roster and how young it's going to continue to be on the field...I'm thinking more like 2-3 years from NOW...which is a tough pill to swallow. It's time to go out of the mode of hoping we can compete in the ACC for the next couple of years, and refocusing ourselves as fans to look more at how well the younger guys are developing. We're going to look pretty bad for the rest of this year and next year as well...but seeing improvement and effort are the keys.
