We beat Clemson last year -- in the Atlantic Division standings !!!
Which made him a shaky co-DC hire after Lambert left for Charlotte.
Forgot about Billings- he coached WR, S, DE, ST/Co-DC- that’s quite the tour of duty - 4 different positions in 6 seasons. That tells me he was a good coach but clearly didn’t get along with Lobo and was shipped to defense to plug holes.
What are you talking about with Billings?. He as an outstanding WR coach and taught them all how to block. He got sick of the Lobo shitshow and patronizing and left.
There are a lot of defenses with great talent that aren’t nearly as hard as Clemson’s for us. It’s a combination of great players and great coaching that candidly is too hard for us to overcome. Heck, it’s a lot for most teams to overcome considering how few points they have given up last few years.
I’m not naive enough to believe they will be a cake walk and we’ll put up 45 points but we should have more opportunities to out-scheme them, getting them in a favorable match-up without Venables and that highlighter hat and stealing signals. We’re gonna need to guard our playbook for that game like Mr. Beaks handcuffed to the crop report.
The rest of his resume argues against this point a bit.
Stability in a coaching staff matters a lot. Is it a secret that the winnigest teams in the ACC are led by the longest tenured coaches. Dabo, Doeren, Clawson. And in that order by tenure.
Or maybe the best coaches get to keep their job?
And 77 doesn’t get the point. Grobe took WR coach who taught WRs how to block but had never been a DC before and made him a co-DC instead of going out and getting an experienced DC to replace Lambert.
Billings was the DC at Marshall before he was DC at WF. At one time or another he coached almost every position group. If a coach is smart and experienced, it's not that big of a deal to coach different position groups or go from offense to defense. Clawson was a DB in college. Started as DB coach and then moved over to offense. Better to have a bunch of smart people on your staff that can move to different position groups than only look at a former LB coach to coach LBs.
Billings was the DC at Marshall before he was DC at WF. At one time or another he coached almost every position group. If a coach is smart and experienced, it's not that big of a deal to coach different position groups or go from offense to defense. Clawson was a DB in college. Started as DB coach and then moved over to offense. Better to have a bunch of smart people on your staff that can move to different position groups than only look at a former LB coach to coach LBs.
They have a never-ending amount of graduate assistants (why is there not a limit on how many staff you can have?). I don't expect the sign stealing to stop, even though Venables is a master at it.
We definitely need to mix in some formations and plays they haven't seen before, and I still think some sort of quick huddle would be effective and eliminate the sign stealing. Muddle huddle, rush to the line, snap the ball before Clemson can adjust to the formation/steal the signs. Worked wonders for Day and tOSU in their last playoff matchup.