(10-27-2015 10:51 AM)Dukester Wrote: (10-27-2015 10:08 AM)adogg6jmu Wrote: After what I saw on Saturday, it may be a blessing if he leaves. I think the success of this team since last year is almost all Vad Lee. Withers was a DC for many D-I schools, including Urban Meyer. And what I saw on Saturday was the worst defense I have ever seen. Ever. And to make matters worse, nothing was done to keep the ball in Vad and the offense's hands and out of Richmond's hands(punting both times around midfield in the 2nd half...no onside kick with 4 min remaining). Rocco out-coached the hell out of Withers on Saturday. And Rocco stinks.
I know he is fighting personnel issues on defense, but it should not have been THAT bad.
Oh my....
I've not been anti-Withers, but my accolades have not come as quickly as others.
I like and thought he was a good hire. I was more unimpressed by his start than most. I was impressed with the progress of the team in the 2nd half of last year. The season ended in an unimpressive home playoff loss to Liberty
With that my grade for his first year was C+, much to the chagrin of others.
To me winning is more important than style. I love a good defense, but must admit the offense has been quite fun to watch. It appears Withers runs a clean program. You screwup, and you're suspended. Impressed with that. I like things he's done to the team incorporated with the students and vice versa. 14 regular season in a row is amazing consistency even if against lower than previous competition. He seems to be able to relate to the players. He's done decent with low grade assistants.
My negatives he can be a jerk when losing. His defense has never been real good. It's late in his second year and with below par injuries that defense was brutal last week. He came in talking upgrading the schedule and that is not happening.
Question in my mind - How good a coach is Withers without a top 2 QB in the nation? I think he's going to be good without Vad, but time will tell.
My grade for Withers for 1 & 2/3s season is a B/B-
The offense is an A+
Defense is a D
Results - B
We've beaten the bad teams, but the playoff game and Richmond game were key games I felt we were obviously outcoached.
I'm excited about our future with Withers, but would like and expect to see better results with D and big games.
Good post Dukester. I would add on D+ for Special Teams though (with offense and defense weighted twice what special teams is rated). So an overall B-.
At times SP has been HORRENDOUS.
-MD with multiple personal fouls for hitting the punt returner early or after a fair catch signal was given.
-UD game with multiple offsides on kickoffs (there were 2-3 for the game, 2 on the same kickoff, one of which cost JMU a successfull onside conversion).
-W&M game with 2 blocked punts, 1 of which was so bad that Kendall Anderson literally grabbed the ball off of Kane's foot and waltzed into the endzone with it. Now W&M came into the game leading the nation in blocks (don't remember if it was FG & punts or just punts) and JMU was STILL unprepared.
-Terrible kick coverage at times this year. The 286 kick return yards given up against TU might have been a JMU record.
-How many onsides kicks has JMU given up this year? 3? (SMU (almost cost us the game), (RU (may have cost us the game) and was there a 3rd?). Now something like only 10% or so (ballpark) of onsides kicks are successfull..
-TU game SP literally cost JMU 3 TDs.
*Fake punt when MIND BOGGLING that no one realized the TU QB was back to punt instead of the TU punter and they converted a 4th and 10 fake punt which led to a TU TD.
*TU blocked a JMU punt which led to a TU TD.
*TU had a close to 80 yd punt return which led to a TU TD.
Now there have been some good SP things, but overall not good..