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The linebackers coach is gone this time. Thoughts?

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/12/odus-bob...sive-coach

Look at this guys resume.

Quote:Hetherman, a native of Oxford, Mass. and a 2006 graduate of Fitchburg State, played two seasons of professional football in Germany and Austria after college.

He coached at Springfield College, Northeastern and Western New England before coming to ODU in 2010.

Is this the best we could get? No wonder the LBs were terrible. Wilder needs to step up not only the quality of players, but the quality of coaches as well.

Anyone follow Craig Wilkins on twitter?

He is very much against this and has been increasingly outspoken the past few weeks. I may be taking too much out of it but not great having one of the faces of the program being so negative.

What kind of a coach must he have been to let so many of his players get hurt or kicked off the team?

But on a more serious note, someone has to take the fall.

(12-02-2013 01:49 PM)csims98 Wrote:  Anyone follow Craig Wilkins on twitter?

He is very much against this and has been increasingly outspoken the past few weeks. I may be taking too much out of it but not great having one of the faces of the program being so negative.

Bring Wilkins back as a Coach. We need someone firey like that.

Good luck to him.

People in the comments seem to think we fired another defensive coordinator. It's just the linebackers coach. Looking at his resume compared to the rest of our coaching staffs', I'm sure we can do much better going forward. Just another step in molting our FCS identity.

(12-02-2013 01:48 PM)ODU89 Wrote:  Is this the best we could get? No wonder the LBs were terrible. Wilder needs to step up not only the quality of players, but the quality of coaches as well.

He's a young guy trying to make it and Wilder gave him a shot. Who's the big-name you think ODU would be able to pull in as LB coach?

Not all young coaches will pan out, but you have to have a few on staff to help with the 17-22 year olds you're dealing with.

(12-02-2013 02:08 PM)djnva Wrote:  

(12-02-2013 01:48 PM)ODU89 Wrote:  Is this the best we could get? No wonder the LBs were terrible. Wilder needs to step up not only the quality of players, but the quality of coaches as well.

He's a young guy trying to make it and Wilder gave him a shot. Who's the big-name you think ODU would be able to pull in as LB coach?

How about anyone who has played above the level of Division III football?

(12-02-2013 01:48 PM)ODU89 Wrote:  Look at this guys resume.

Quote:Hetherman, a native of Oxford, Mass. and a 2006 graduate of Fitchburg State, played two seasons of professional football in Germany and Austria after college.

He coached at Springfield College, Northeastern and Western New England before coming to ODU in 2010.

Is this the best we could get? No wonder the LBs were terrible. Wilder needs to step up not only the quality of players, but the quality of coaches as well.

Once again, I think we're overestimating the value of our program. Also, when he joined we were even more of a nobody, having accomplished absolutely nothing at the FCS level.

How would we get a guy who is higher profile to be a LB coach for a program that has played just 11 games?

Nothing more to see here. It's a firing that we really shouldn't be this invested in as fans...

We have been been playing conversions at linebacker almost since day one.
Even Craig Wilkins, one of our very few defensive bright spots, was a true safety.

I don't know enough about the decision making process as far as recruiting, but we just haven't had the personnel at LB. Heck, Ritchie Staton was a Tight end and a returner in HS.

This guy was Wilkens coach so he is probably very loyal to him. Not surprising. I wish Craig well and love his passion.

There are always a lot of position swaps heading into college. Staton was also a defensive end, but size and speed wise is a perfect linebacker.

As for position coach changes, it's really impossible to judge unless you are inside the building. Really hard to tell how well these guys are versus the coordinator. Wilder is very proactive when it comes to coaching changes. THere is just going to be a lot of turnover every year.

edit: I see Staten played linebacker as well.

I'd like to see someone like Timothy Edwards of Louisiana Lafayette, he's the defensive line coach there. He was the linebacker coach and recruiting coordinator at Hampton (five years) and Florida A&M (three years). At LaLa he recruits in Florida, Central Louisiana, Houston, Beaumont, Atlanta, three of which ODU recruit heavily in, the other two are local to Lafayette.

Admittedly, I think going for someone like Edwards is perhaps aiming a bit too high, but I think we can poach someone good from the Sun Belt.

http://www.ragincajuns.com/coaches.aspx?...h=football

Coaching is one thing, but most coaches recruit as well. Some of our FCS coaches may have had established relationships with high schools that are better suited for an FCS program (think smaller schools). While you can still find quality FBS players at smaller schools, generally the level of competition of their opponents is not as good so it makes it a tough call. Connections with the larger schools will be important going forward. Maybe that was a factor as well.

Lord knows I have been critical of the linebackers all year. I have continuously seen them dive into the line only to miss the hole that were supposed to fill. But they also had a tough assignment of "backing" a defensive line that was ineffective for the much of the season.

As I look more and more at the resumes of the coaches I honestly believe we didn't think we would be moving up so quickly. But now that we are time for some heavy resume programs. Coaches from fcs are fine if they are like gaso or programs that make the playoffs yearly.

But I also think bw had to get a d team to know what was needed build that side of the ball. Nagy and cormier may be the ones to finally start the process. Bw has done a Great job on the o side but not so much on the other side. We have good players. And it will get better.

I believe in young coaches and young admin people if they have big schools behind their names. Sports and the experiences of what they mean is just different.

Bad wording on the article but honest. How was jmu linebackers? Or gaso linebackers? Or what about utep or unt? We need some big constistent d coaches from big schools.

The defense continues to lag far behind the offense and the defense's improvement will be one of the (if not the biggest) determinate of ODU's successful transition to FBS.

Until the defense vastly improves the firing of defensive coaches is going to be a yearly event. The results have simply not been anywhere close to acceptable.

Linebacker is certainly an area we should be able to have a great degree of improvement. Seems like a logical thing to do moving to the fbs.

The offense is lacking too..especially against decent FBS teams....PITT, MD, UNC for example. As soon as the big Dbacks put pressure on our receives it was all done but the crying. We need bigger faster players on BOTH sides of the ball.

Receivers are fine. It was more about not presenting any ground threat, thus all our receivers were almost always double teamed.

Hetherman was the lead recruiter for Felix Manus-Schell, Jaylin Jeffries and Lawrence Holley. Hopefully we are still in pretty good shape with those three, haven't seen ANY falllout on twitter.