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Former DC Kerry Coombs (Cincy Bearcats Interim Head Coach)

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buckeyes_rock said:
What was Clemson's longest play from scrimmage? Seemed like I only remember twice where Trevor tried to go deep. One early where the TE got behind Proctor but the throw was too long, and another where he tested Wade down the sideline but it was incomplete as well. D did the job of keeping everything in front of them for the most part.
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Just finished re-watching the first half. 2 early TDs, but the rest of the half was 4 three-and-outs and a single play in the last 11 seconds. That’s a formula for success in a game that was basically a shootout.
 
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Buckeye86 said:
I feel like the single high safety defense was built for the playoffs.

Bend but don’t break, keep everything in front of you, no big plays, play opportunistic and get stops when you can, especially when you can dial up pressure, sometimes with opportunistic blitzes if necessary.

However, that type of defense is most successful when—first of all you actually don’t give up big plays, which was missing in a big way earlier in the year, most likely due to a lack of reps for a young secondary—and second of all your offense needs to be clicking to make it work. You absolutely cannot be going three and out and giving the ball right back with this style of defense.

In the regular season when the offense isn’t clicking, or the dline isn’t getting as much pressure, of the high safety is unfocused and letting things get behind them, it can obviously look pretty poor.

I’m very happy everyone came through when it counted from the trenches on back. Good pressure up front, the linebackers played great, and the secondary at the very least didn’t give up any big plays and made Clemson sustain drives.

You can really see why this is the preferred defense once we get some elite level lock down corners again.

I feel bad for Wade, who didn’t get the reps this year to really put things together.

I hope he can improve.
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Well... the Clemson game was obviously a bit of a high and now it’s time for the crash.

Clemson’s OL was just bad while Alabama’s was elite and that made all the difference.

A lot of people are complaining about the 4-4 but I get it... through injuries and attrition we just didn’t have the depth to throw many DBs out there and playing 4-4 put our best players on the field.

My questions are around the decisions to play man versus zone. Pre-snap motion lit us up all night and it was just too easy—it felt like we had no answers for something as basic as that and it felt like something that was specifically targeted at playing man defense.

Since we were in 4-4 anyway and you don’t really want your LBs trying to run with their receivers it felt like we should be in zone a LOT more because of this, although I’m not one to go through and tell you exactly what defense they were running on every play.

Alabama’s play calling was really good and Coombs had no answers. We were at a huge disadvantage from the start with so much attrition in the secondary and a shortened season with less practice and less snaps to get better, and it has been an up and down ride, clearly.

Clemson was a high point, which probably can be mostly attributed to Ohio State dominating the LOS.

There were a LOT of low points, which can probably be attributed to youth, attrition, and a lack of reps, but Coombs was out-coached massively against Bama and I am concerned with him continuing to be the primary guy orchestrating the D.

Another factor is probably telling him what defense to run, something he is largely unfamiliar with (as it was Hafley’s specialty), rather than let him run something he’s familiar with which would potentially lead to better adjustments and more creative/aggressive play calls.

At the end of the day, it needs addressed. I hope Coombs and Day can get together and figure something out.
 
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Buckeye86 said:
Well... the Clemson game was obviously a bit of a high and now it’s time for the crash.

Clemson’s OL was just bad while Alabama’s was elite and that made all the difference.

A lot of people are complaining about the 4-4 but I get it... through injuries and attrition we just didn’t have the depth to throw many DBs out there and playing 4-4 put our best players on the field.

My questions are around the decisions to play man versus zone. Pre-snap motion lit us up all night and it was just too easy—it felt like we had no answers for something as basic as that and it felt like something that was specifically targeted at playing man defense.

Since we were in 4-4 anyway and you don’t really want your LBs trying to run with their receivers it felt like we should be in zone a LOT more because of this, although I’m not one to go through and tell you exactly what defense they were running on every play.

Alabama’s play calling was really good and Coombs had no answers. We were at a huge disadvantage from the start with so much attrition in the secondary and a shortened season with less practice and less snaps to get better, and it has been an up and down ride, clearly.

Clemson was a high point, which probably can be mostly attributed to Ohio State dominating the LOS.

There were a LOT of low points, which can probably be attributed to youth, attrition, and a lack of reps, but Coombs was out-coached massively against Bama and I am concerned with him continuing to be the primary guy orchestrating the D.

Another factor is probably telling him what defense to run, something he is largely unfamiliar with (as it was Hafley’s specialty), rather than let him run something he’s familiar with which would potentially lead to better adjustments and more creative/aggressive play calls.

At the end of the day, it needs addressed. I hope Coombs and Day can get together and figure something out.
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Not sure if Watts or Lejond were hurt but I’m not sure how they could have done worse... same with bad angle Hooker... I just looked back at the 18/19/20 db recruiting ... criminal.... absolutely criminal
 
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AuTX Buckeye said:
Not sure if Watts or Lejond were hurt but I’m not sure how they could have done worse... same with bad angle Hooker... I just looked back at the 18/19/20 db recruiting ... criminal.... absolutely criminal
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Whatever happened to Johnson? Wasn’t he a 5* that Coombs recruited in his first go around here?

Whatever the plan was, to not adjust during the game was criminal. This is probably my number 1 concern with Coombs. He either doesn’t know how to or refuses to adjust to what the offense is doing.
 
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BuckeyeSoldier said:
i suspect the 4-4 had more to do with stopping the run once togai and cage went down and hoping the DBs could survive on their own.
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buckeyebri said:
Whatever happened to Johnson? Wasn’t he a 5* that Coombs recruited in his first go around here?

Whatever the plan was, to not adjust during the game was criminal. This is probably my number 1 concern with Coombs. He either doesn’t know how to or refuses to adjust to what the offense is doing.
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IMO he's just slow to adjust..

Yeah i think the 4 4 was tried because we didnt have Tommy so we knew it'd be more difficult to stop the run. Like it was pointed out though why we played so much man is beyond me. Even with playing man though we could've doubled Smith with Proctor and we didn't even attempt to press him.

We had the talent to not place 122 out of 127 so I'm concerned about the defense going forward. I agree though that we should let him run whatever he wants to be successful. Today you have to be multiple or it's just an easy read and right now that's what our defense is.
 
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AuTX Buckeye said:
Not sure if Watts or Lejond were hurt but I’m not sure how they could have done worse... same with bad angle Hooker... I just looked back at the 18/19/20 db recruiting ... criminal.... absolutely criminal
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With basically no spring practice, an abbreviated fall practice, and limited games to get reps, it is somewhat understandable that young guys had trouble taking the next step into roles as contributors.
 
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Buckeye86 said:
With basically no spring practice, an abbreviated fall practice, and limited games to get reps, it is somewhat understandable that young guys had trouble taking the next step into roles as contributors.
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Ransom was out there....

I am agreeing but doing the same crap over and over and saying “well this is as good as its gonna get with the way the secondary played all season just pisses me off...

also as brought out Tyreke Johnson... where was he... Kid had talent but I guess couldn’t put it together ...
 
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I might be reading too much into this, but this feels like some pretty direct criticism of Coombs.

It feels problematic to me for Day to meddle so much on D. Either let Coombs run what he wants or bring in a guy who actually knows what they are doing with the scheme you are going to make them run.

Figuring out what to do here and how to navigate this situation with Coombs is probably Day’s most important offseason decision.
 
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The hiring of Coombs made sense at the time. Bringing in a young, first time HC you want veteran coaches around him. The hope was that by bringing in a guy like Coombs that has plenty of experience it would allow Day to focus on the offense and admin stuff.

Having trustworthy coaches you don’t have to check up on is the difference between Urban Meyer and Nick Saban. If Day doesn’t feel Coombs is someone he can blindly trust, he needs to find someone who he can trust before we get too far into 2021.
 
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I said last night that if Jeff Hafley would have given us two years, we'd be in such a great position...

1. That shitshow last night doesn't happen
2. Hafley would be taking the HC job at Auburn or Arizona or some place and Marcus Freeman would be stepping in as DC today.

I love Coombs. But he's way in over his head as DC. Reminds me of when Urban gave Ed the OC job because of how well he developed the OLine.
 
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FOR THE LOVE OF WOODY MARCUS FREEMAN DOES NOT COACH DBS AND OR SAFETIES... HE COACHES LINEBACKERS>...

so if you hire Freeman you still need to hire a DBs coach .... again of LJ Sr, Matthison, Washington, Coombs, Barnes ... who are you firing .... right now you got 3 guys coaching the front 7 LJ/Matthison/Washington.... Hiring Marcus means you’d have 4 guys....so again who are you firing
 
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