I am happy for the hire. I know some are disappointed that we didn't land a big name like Shannon or Greg Hudson. But Rick Smith is a very solid veteran no nonsense coach that can get the job done. May not be a big splash in the news media, but our defense will improve and he will not be looking to run to the first big job offer he can find. He is in his 60's
He will also not doubt improve our secondary, which was our biggest weakness this past year.
(This post was last modified: 01-17-2013 05:53 PM by Purplehook.)
(01-17-2013 05:52 PM)Purplehook Wrote: I am happy for the hire. I know some are disappointed that we didn't land a big name like Shannon or Greg Hudson. But Rick Smith is a very solid veteran no nonsense coach that can get the job done. May not be a big splash in the news media, but our defense will improve and he will not be looking to run to the first big job offer he can find. He is in his 60's
He will also not doubt improve our secondary, which was our biggest weakness this past year.
I happier with Smith than some of the other names that were out there. I was never that excited about Nix or Kaufman. Would have loved Hudson but he played ECU, we offered enough money that if he really wanted to be at ECU like he claimed he had no reason to turn the job down. The entire Shannon deal was a long shot, not sure if he was truly ever a real option.
I like Coach Smith, he is a good combination of recruiting and coaching. He already knows ECU from his time there with Holtz. Also the players loved playing for him and based on comments from Holtz and Hudson he was very involved in the success of our defenses at ECU, he did a lot of the the scouting and game planning.
(01-17-2013 06:04 PM)SouthernPirate55 Wrote: Check out twitter quotes from players who played for holtz and they'e all excited about Smith being hired as DC....even the offensive guys.
how do you find these twitter quotes you speak of...? Could you paraphrase and post them?
"don't get beat deep".......Rick's philosophy.....keep everything in front of you. guessing we'll go back to a cover 2 zone type of scheme with him coming back here.
Big name like Hudson? I'll give you shannon but hudson was more motivator rather than x & o guy when he was here. Smith had a HOOGE (lil efts reference) impact on gameplanning while here.
(01-17-2013 08:40 PM)SouthernPirate55 Wrote: Big name like Hudson? I'll give you shannon but hudson was more motivator rather than x & o guy when he was here. Smith had a HOOGE (lil efts reference) impact on gameplanning while here.
I agree. I just said that because some pirate fans thought Hudson was a big name due to the defense he had here. I think Smith is as solid, probably better hire.
My cousin is a DB trying out for the team and he just told me "Coach Smith Skyped us for like 5 minutes and the defensive attitude has already changed."
He told me last week that Brian Mitchell didn't have the respect of the defense because he didn't demand it.
nomad, it's gonna be a whole new ballgame. Everyone, myself included, keeps mentioning that smith is an x&o guy, but he's a heckuva motivator as well, and is not afraid of crawling someone's butt if he has to. He'll get their respect or jerk it out of them.
I think Hud would eventually become a distraction. If he had no success then ruff would've probably been to blame and lost his job (as he should, buck stops with HC) If he had a lot of success, then how long before people are calling for Hud to replace ruff. Personally I don't see that with Smith and I think he'll be a great fit with the staff.
(This post was last modified: 01-17-2013 10:43 PM by SouthernPirate55.)
I will never forget Smith and Holtz's first year at ECU, last game of the year playing UAB. We were trying to keep them from a bowl (may have been the Darrell Hackney/Joe Namith game).
First play from scrimmage is a UAB bomb for TD. Our seats are on the 35 yard line about 10 rows up directly behind where the Defense meets when the O is on the field.
After the TD the crowd is silent and Smith just rips the DB's a knew one screaming at them "Every F'N time you go and F it up!!! GD we talked about that play all week!!"
I swear you could hear him in the entire stadium! Every one in the general area just busted out laughing. He corrected the mistake and we went on to win, but it was the only time I have every laughed after an opponent scored.
I am glad he is back!
(This post was last modified: 01-17-2013 11:11 PM by Bacca Buc.)
Smith reminds me of a more vocal version of my dad. My dad made me work construction starting in the 8th grade and rode my ass if I didn't work hard. That's the kind of guy we need at ECU with our blue-collar "the chip" attitude.
I'm not going to judge our DC on one video. I have no idea the context of it or whatever. Brian Mitchell obviously failed as our defensive coordinator and I have no feeling one way or the other what Smith will do. We will all see it soon enough.
The one thing I don't get is why our fans bashed BM endlessly for "throwing the players under the bus" by saying it was execution not the scheme. Then everyone watches this video where he essentially rips every one of his DBs and when asked about someone doing well he more or less says nothing rather than praising too much.
His style is fine and I understand that Brian Mitchell failed here. Why is it seen as one coach throwing players under the bus and the other is holding them accountable? If downtalking your players in the media is holding them accountable then it doesn't mean much to me. If the results on the field are an improvement then great but to me its plenty easy to hold OTHERS accountable especially when holding them accountable means pointing out their weaknesses in an interview and smirking about it.
Like I said, I'm not judging him and I think and hope he will do well here. We saw how terrible our DBs were this year and if BM gave the interview Smith just did we all would have flocked to the message boards to tear him a new one about how it was his fault. If we have a top 25 defense and he gives that interview at ECU I'll just chalk it up to him being an old school/tough love coach. If we continue to look like we have and he gives that interview there is no difference between him and BM.
(01-18-2013 02:05 AM)TheEastisPurple Wrote: I'm not going to judge our DC on one video. I have no idea the context of it or whatever. Brian Mitchell obviously failed as our defensive coordinator and I have no feeling one way or the other what Smith will do. We will all see it soon enough.
The one thing I don't get is why our fans bashed BM endlessly for "throwing the players under the bus" by saying it was execution not the scheme. Then everyone watches this video where he essentially rips every one of his DBs and when asked about someone doing well he more or less says nothing rather than praising too much.
His style is fine and I understand that Brian Mitchell failed here. Why is it seen as one coach throwing players under the bus and the other is holding them accountable? If downtalking your players in the media is holding them accountable then it doesn't mean much to me. If the results on the field are an improvement then great but to me its plenty easy to hold OTHERS accountable especially when holding them accountable means pointing out their weaknesses in an interview and smirking about it.
Like I said, I'm not judging him and I think and hope he will do well here. We saw how terrible our DBs were this year and if BM gave the interview Smith just did we all would have flocked to the message boards to tear him a new one about how it was his fault. If we have a top 25 defense and he gives that interview at ECU I'll just chalk it up to him being an old school/tough love coach. If we continue to look like we have and he gives that interview there is no difference between him and BM.
I think what excites people about this video is that Smith is holding players accountable. From his prior time at ECU we know that he will not keep a player in the game if they keep screwing up....That is where people were frustrated with Mitchell. Under Mitchell we had many guys that repeatedly kept screwing up and doing the same mistakes over and over yet they remained on the field. It appeared that Mitchell would not pull a player or change up the scheme...We just kept doing the same things over and over no matter the outcome. Then he would say it was not a scheme problem but rather an execution problem....Well if a player has proven over and over that they can not execute a certain play then as a coach it is your job to call plays that the players can execute or get them off the field.
There's a big difference between holding players accountable and throwing them under the bus. If they aren't doing their job, why should a coach sugarcoat it? Smith also states in those videos why players had failed-either through missing practice or on-the-field breakdowns.
