Unfortunately, I agree with this. It seems like no matter who the HC is there always seems to be a coaching deficiency somewhere on the staff. The most frustrating thing is that I want so bad for this program to be elite again that I always seem to ignore or rationalize away the obvious problems staring us right in the face until they can't be ignored any longer. Diaz did the right thing by upgrading the offensive staff the way he did and all off season I have been trying to telling myself that Diaz will become much more involved with the defense now that he has an experienced and accomplished OC in Lashlee. I told myself over and over that Diaz would work closely with Baker in order to get the defense back on track and looking much more like the 2018 edition. I kept telling myself that Diaz won't let the inexperienced and in over his head Baker be the determining factor in his head coaching career/future. I kept telling myself that Diaz/Baker would see the schematic deficiencies in the 2019 defense and have them straightened out for 2020. It would seem as if I was wrong.
Well, It has only been one game at home. A 17 pt win against a G5 opponent that we were favored to beat by 14. Still if I am completely honest with myself I can see that this is not a well coached defense. I can see that Baker is likely going to be a huge liability. It seems clear to me that this defensive coaching staff needs to be seriously upgraded. It also seems to me as though Diaz just isn't HC material. I get the clear impression that this team will never win 10 games consistently with Diaz as HC. We will never fulfill our potential or maximize our talent with Diaz as HC. I truly wish that this was not the case. It would be so much easier if Diaz could get it done or if he had the capacity to grow into being an HC that could get it done. At this point however I just don't see it. I could sit here and try to be Mr Positive Guy but what would that accomplish. I could be dead wrong and I sincerely hope that I am but this doesn't strike me as being a particularly well coached team overall. Has there been improvements made in some areas? Yes absolutely there has. The kicking game and special teams, in general(minus the kick return game) have been dramatically upgraded. The offense despite the disjointed effort last Thursday seems to me to have great potential to markedly improve over the course of the season. We have a very good offensive staff a legit QB, elite RB, elite TE, speed at WR and I think this OL is going to turn out to be very good by the middle to the end of the year. I see this offense getting better every week. As much as I love our DL I get the sense that something is wrong defensively and that has everything to do with our DC being way in over his head and a HC who seems either unwilling or not interested in getting involved. I really hope that I'm wrong but I think Baker is going to cost us and it's a damned shame because we have too much talent to underachieve on that side of the ball. Could this be a scenario where the administration is willing to give Diaz time to tinker with the staff and grow into a good HC? I don't know. Maybe. If that is indeed the case and Diaz fires Baker at the end of the year and he manages to hire a quality DC while Lashlee stays for another 2-3 years then ok we'll see what happens. However until that happens we have some real issues on this defensive staff. Hopefully I turn out to be wrong on that as well because this entire cycle is growing tiresome.
