Nansen

[Aspann85]

25 minutes ago, Here for the Wins said:

Akina was an odd choice.  I was not here so no idea if there was discussion regarding the whys of bringing him back.  I thought he and Nansen were familiar with each other and was likely a positive in bringing Akina back.

For much of 2024, the schedule had offensive incompetence on the opposite sideline.  There’s a reason Clemson, ASU and OSU had some success.  We also were relatively healthy in 2024.  Good health, simplistic offenses, limited offenses generally make for easier defense.

UTSA, Colo State, ULM were all in the 100s in OFEI.  Michigan was 61.  OU was 80.  Florida was 49, but that was built on Lagway.  The Ivy League transfer likely has them worse.  Kentucky was 73.  Mississippi State was 31, but they did have a backup QB making his first start.  Georgia was 13 so that was for a decent offense. Vandy was 27, Arkansas 48. A&M 29th. So those first 5 P5 teams were either unsettled at QB or had injured QBs when we played.

in 2025, the non-P5s were in the 100s.  Vandy 1st.  Ohio State 8th.  Georgia 9th.  a&M 15th.  Arkansas 16th.  MSU 42nd.  OU 54th.  UF 61st.  Kentucky 84th.  So the P4 teams that got worse in OFEI were home games in 2024 and road games in 2025.  Two of those were also the 3rd and 4th games in a row away from home.  Also two of the 3 started backup QBs in 2024.

Akina wasn’t an odd choice. Akina is man coverage aggressive style secondary and that didn’t mesh with PK’s defense. I bet Akina’s secondary does well this year if he is given the opportunity to run the style of secondary he likes.

[GoHorns1]

7 minutes ago, Aspann85 said:

I’m not so sure about that since he said Muschamp is the head coach of the defense when he got here. I think Sark wants to be as hands off on the defense as possible so he can get the offense to the levels he had at Bama.

Sark is the HC not Muschamp when it comes to coaching staff and support staff. Muschamp will run the defense game plan and play calling.

[Aspann85]

1 minute ago, GoHorns1 said:

Sark is the HC not Muschamp when it comes to coaching staff and support staff. Muschamp will run the defense game plan and play calling.

Might want to go back and read posts on here and watch interviews about when Muschamp was hired.

[jkates]

17 minutes ago, Aspann85 said:

Might want to go back and read posts on here and watch interviews about when Muschamp was hired.

Yes, Sark said he wants Muschamp to be the HC of the defense, but that does not mean that Muschamp operates outside of Sark's plan. Sark sets the plan, style, strategy, pick a word, and gives Muschamp room to execute on it. Believing that Muschamp can do whatever he wants without any Sark input is...something.

[Here for the Wins]

21 minutes ago, Aspann85 said:

Akina wasn’t an odd choice. Akina is man coverage aggressive style secondary and that didn’t mesh with PK’s defense. I bet Akina’s secondary does well this year if he is given the opportunity to run the style of secondary he likes.

No one runs man all the time.  He’s 70 years old so at best he was a short term solution.   His heyday was in a different era that was not predominantly 3-3-5 or 4-2-5.  What 15-20 years ago?  Defenses have evolved a great deal.   From what I see, Arizona was 103 in DFEI in 2024.  14th in 2025.  Without looking it up, Stanford wasn’t worth much during his tenure.  A dude doesn’t get run after a year of there weren’t signs leading into it.  Texas and money.  Odd choice.