After we won the title in 2018, Brent Venables knew the defense was going to have issues the next season replacing all of the defensive line talent that departed for the NFL. Considered one of the top one or two defensive coordinators in the country, Venables took a trip to Iowa State University to learn about the inverted Tampa 2 defense.
Turns out that trip to Aimes, Iowa helped get our Tigers back to the national championship game the next season before we lost to a great LSU team.
The point of my post is to simply point out that as good as Venables was as our D-coordinator, he continued to look at other ways to make the defense better. He completely went against his natural 4-3 defensive tendencies to get our best available players on the field to compensate for the lack of experience along the D-line.
This is exactly what needs to happen for our offense. We need to revolutionize our offense the way Chad Morris did when he arrived at Clemson. We just watched our Tigers struggle to score points against a team with what was a very average defense all season.
While I do think the offense can take a step forward with the young guys getting a full offseason of workouts, not sure we can take the step forward we need to compete with the top teams in the country.
And if you think coaching and scheme are only as good as the number of 4* and 5* players you have, take a look at the last 6 years of TCU recruiting. They are playing for a national title with a bunch of 3* players that are well coached. TCU was 29th in recruiting in 2019, 24th in 2020, and 60th in 2021. They take transfers most of which have come from schools like Navy, New Mexico, and Temple.
In High School, Chad Morris sought out Gus Mahlzahn
Jan 2, 2023, 12:43 PM
After a dreadful year in Texas high school football, with his head on the chopping block, Morris pestered top Arkansas h.s. coach Mahlzahn to learn his system, save his job and win championships. It worked. Morris won championships. You are right CladInOrange. This type of proactivity, fearlessness and gumption wins the day.