He's put all of his eggs in the "O" basket.
In 2013 he took over a team very thin on depth and talent on the defensive side.
How did he address those glaring problems? By signing a total of only 25 defensive players in his first three classes.
In 2013, he signed 22 players...only 9 on defense. In 2014, he signed a full class of 25...but only 10 on defense. In 2015, he signed a class of 20...only 6 on defense. Even if you toss out 2013, when he only had a handful of weeks to save/sign a class, he still signed just shy of twice as many offensive players as he did defensive players...29 v. 16.
So he inherited a very thin defense 3 recruiting classes ago and has only compounded the problem by signing twice as many offensive recruits since he's got here.
Now let's consider his offensive style...a quick-strike, big play offense. Even if that style of offense scores on every possession, it still puts a tremendous amount of pressure on it's own defense...even one with decent depth. And it's even worse when that style of offense goes 3 and out several drives a game.
So Kliff inherited a thin defense, proceeded to make it even more thin with each of his recruiting classes, and runs the absolute WORST style of offense he possibly could given a defense thin on depth and talent.
Basically, he's gone 'ALL IN' with the Offense and it's not working for him.
Another poster said it in a different thread, and I agree...I don't think Gibbs is back next year by his own choosing.
In 2013 he took over a team very thin on depth and talent on the defensive side.
How did he address those glaring problems? By signing a total of only 25 defensive players in his first three classes.
In 2013, he signed 22 players...only 9 on defense. In 2014, he signed a full class of 25...but only 10 on defense. In 2015, he signed a class of 20...only 6 on defense. Even if you toss out 2013, when he only had a handful of weeks to save/sign a class, he still signed just shy of twice as many offensive players as he did defensive players...29 v. 16.
So he inherited a very thin defense 3 recruiting classes ago and has only compounded the problem by signing twice as many offensive recruits since he's got here.
Now let's consider his offensive style...a quick-strike, big play offense. Even if that style of offense scores on every possession, it still puts a tremendous amount of pressure on it's own defense...even one with decent depth. And it's even worse when that style of offense goes 3 and out several drives a game.
So Kliff inherited a thin defense, proceeded to make it even more thin with each of his recruiting classes, and runs the absolute WORST style of offense he possibly could given a defense thin on depth and talent.
Basically, he's gone 'ALL IN' with the Offense and it's not working for him.
Another poster said it in a different thread, and I agree...I don't think Gibbs is back next year by his own choosing.
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