Re: Steele at LSU will play out

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That's one way to look at it

Jan 14, 2015, 11:13 AM

Another way to look at it is that when Steele got here, Clemson had a bunch of good DL and DB talent that was experienced, so he was able to do something with it. When those guys graduated, the 2008 and 2009 recruiting classes weren't able to reload at those positions. Let's not forget that there were only 12 guys in the 20009 class, and only 7 defensive players. Of those 7 defensive players, only 4 turned out to be solid contributors. The other three (Shatley, Darrell Smith, C. Hawkins) either turned out to play on the other side of the ball or they weren't very good. And of the 4 that did contribute, Goodman and Shuey took a while to mature, and Meeks was prone to giving up the big play.

The 2008 class had some good DL in it, but didn't really have any DBs that turned out to be any good. The LBs in the class, aside from Willard, never amounted to much.

The first, and only, year when you could really say that Steele was "getting his players" was 2010. Here's who we brought in on defense that year:
DL- T. Barnes, V. Beasley, C. Crawford, T. Thomas, and J. Watson
LB- R. Chaney, J. Nicolopoulos, J. Parker
DB- B. Breeland, D. Brown, M. Jenkins, E. McKelvey, G. Peters, D. Robinson

The LBs obviously didn't work out (again, for various reasons), but that's a pretty solid first class on defense. A lot of those guys turned into stars 2-3 years later.

Steele's last class that he had any effect on was in 2011, although he was fired a few weeks before we signed these guys. Here's who we brought in on defense:

DL- R. Byers, C. Crawford, K. Dodd, J. Gore, G. Jarrett, J. Maybank, D. Williams
LB- S. Anthony, BJ Goodson, T. Steward, L. Townsend, and C. Walls
DB- C. Davis, R. Smith

That's another pretty darn good class. There are a couple of misses and a few guys who switched positions, but there are a bunch of guys who turned out to be key pieces of the #1 defense this year.

So, basically, if you can say that Steele benefitted from the players already on the team, then you can say the same thing about Venables. But you've got to look at who was actually on the team. We didn't recover from the loss of all the LBs to attrition or the lack of DB recruiting until the 2010 and 2011 classes, which were both classes that Steele recruited.

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I think he's just an ok coordinator, all things considered. The talent is 2011 was down a bit, and it was young. However, his schemes didn't help at all, and the Orange Bowl was a disaster.

His 2009 and 2010 defenses had a lot of talent and fared well according to the stats, but they were mostly a product of the poor ACC offenses at that time. His defense (or lack of it) in the 2009 ACC CG was a joke, and South Carolina had no trouble moving the ball on it.

It also seemed like his defenses could never hold a tight lead as I recall a lot of close losses in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. The games were either a blowout or we lost a close one. Some of it is on the offense, no doubt, but the defense never came up big (like they often have recently). TCU, GTx2, Maryland, Auburn, UNC, BC, and Florida State were the games we lost by a TD or less with Steele.

He could be fine at LSU, as they seem to just reload talent, but he is a clear step down from Chavis. However, the defense being "just fine" at LSU often leads to 8 win seasons as they've rarely had solid offense there.

Steele at LSU will play out

Their LBs will

The LBs we had on the team were always going to be crappy***

Maybe Steele should have recruited better ones

That's one way to look at it

Re: That's one way to look at it

Big difference - Steele path was steadily downhill

You've got a heck of an accurate memory