I don't think we'll ever know the answer to the question of how much, if any, control or influence Chizik has over the defense. Does he let his coordinators do their thing and just make decisions on the big picture? Or is he involved and hands on?
The HC is responsible for every aspect of play on a football team...ultimately. Except in the case of Gene Chizik. He's only responsible for the bad. Malzahn runs the offense. He's autonomous.
Actually, Chizik is
ultimately responsible for it all. Bad punts? Chizik's responsibility. WR's can't catch? Chizik. Gatorade mixed too weak? Chiz. Seriously. But, he hires people to head up different aspects. Is he a defensive guy? Yep. I honestly believe he lets Malzahn run the offense, but you can bet on this...in weekly game plannking meetings, the CEO, Chizik, will tell give Malzahn guidance and even orders that he must follow depending on the situation and plan. Same on defense. But he
runs neither. According to the AU website...he doesn't even coach a position. Roof Coaches LBs, Pelton DL, Lolley and Thigpen coach DBs. Chiz, like many Def. minded HCs takes the true CEO approach, and doesn't micromanage. He lets his coaches coach. He schedules practice segments, he monitors the flow of practice, he has the authority to deviate from any plan. There's NOTHING in Chizik's defensive history to indicate he's the architect of this defense. Honestly, I've never looked at Roof's, but most say he was good at previous stops, but he's never had a stop in the SEC. Other conferences play a different style of defense. Maybe he's in over his head. Maybe, as I heard suggested yesterday on the radio, the offense gets preferential treatment in pulling athletes, or in practice time.
Whatever the case, it's time for Chiz to step in. It's time for him to micromanage the defense. He needs to jump in and figure out where the disconnect is. Young and inexperienced isn't an excuse for getting completely run over time and time again. Is this defense loaded with 5 star studs? No, but they are 3 and 4 star players that were recruited by other SEC schools. We have enough talent to play passable defense. Maybe there's a talent situation or weakness we fans aren't aware of. Maybe it's a situation that's new to the coaches. Coaches call each other and bat ideas around all the time. Make a call, get some unbiased advice...something. Chizik needs to get more involved in fixing it. And it can be fixed, or at least shored up. Most of the defects are fundamentals. That's coaching. I don't know if Lolley and Thigpen are coaching this new method of playing man and not turning for the ball. Seems like when I saw Lolley speak at a coaching clinic he showed video of them doing drills coaching them to turn and break on the ball, but I may be wrong, or they may have changed it.
At any rate, whatever it is we're doing, it's not working. Dye, on Finebaum yesterday, wrote it off to youth and inexperience. I normally defer to a coaches opinion, and I'm certain that factors in, but youth and inexperience usually creates mistakes that result in big plays, not continuously being out of position, taking bad angles, and missing tackles.
It has to be corrected, and it is ultimately up to Chizik to get it done, whether that's doing it himself by coaching the coaches he has, or finding a defensive staff that can get it right. Obviously, at this time, his only choice is to make the necessary corrections himself.
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