COWBOYS CHANGE
Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones promised changes were coming, and he was certainly right.
Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan was fired by Jones late Tuesday night. Dallas finished 19th in pass defense and 22nd in rush defense this season. They were among league leaders in defense early in the season but several injuries piled up and the defense slipped as the year progressed. Dallas finished last in the league in interceptions and was 29th in takeways with 16.
Throughout the year, the Dallas defense lost safety Barry Church, linebackers Sean Lee and Bruce Carter, cornerback Orlando Scandrick, tackle Jay Ratliff, and defensive end Kenyon Coleman to injury. Also, tackle Josh Brent was involved in the death of Jerry Brown and missed the season's final four games. Meanwhile, linebacker DeMarcus Ware played with injuries during the latter part of the year and saw his production decrease.
I was surprised to learn on ESPN's SportsCenter early Wednesday morning that this season, the Dallas defense gave up the most yards in team history. The 2010 season's defense, in which Dallas started 1-7 before the firing of Wade Phillips, looked worse to me and Dallas had some lean years at the beginning of the franchise in the early 1960s and also in the late 1980s before the start of the dynasty.
Despite that strange stat, I didn't think Ryan should have been fired. I thought he held together a defense battered by injuries and fared decently well. Early in the season, the defense was looking like one of the best in the league in terms of yards allowed. The 'D' had very good games, I think, against the Giants in Week 1, Bucs in Week 3, Panthers in Week 7, Eagles in Week 10, Bengals in Week 14, and Steelers in Week 15. In Week 8 against the Giants, Dallas held New York to 29 points, which is pretty good considering the offense turned the ball over six times. The defense also held Atlanta to just 19 points in the Georgia Dome and had a great second half in the 23-20 victory over the Browns. Even in the last game of the season, despite giving up 200 yards rushing to Redskins running back Alfred Morris, Dallas had held Washington to 21 points before Tony Romo threw his final interception of the game, pinning the defense back close to its own goal line.
The defensive players were also very close, as evidenced by their words after the death of Brown. I would imagine that would be true in part because of Ryan.
Of course, the way to know if this is a good move or not is to see who Dallas gets as its next defensive coordinator, so we will have to wait and see what Jones' next move is.
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VIRGINIA FOOTBALL
The Cavaliers will introduce their newest coaches at a news conference Thursday. Jeff Banks is the new special teams coach. I gave my thoughts about him in a Dec. 20 post: http://aaronampedup.blogspot.com/2012/12/virginia-footballs-disappointing-season_20.html
Just elevating the Cavaliers' special teams unit to average would be a vast improvement. It has been a major liability in recent seasons. Banks should get the unit to average, and hopefully then some.
Tom O'Brien will be the associate head coach for offense and tight ends coach. O'Brien has extensive coaching experience in the college ranks and I think that was important in all the hires, as coach Mike London's staff did not have much FBS experience his first three seasons. O'Brien also has experience at UVa. He is a disciple of former Virginia coach George Welsh, who led the Cavaliers from 1982-2000. O'Brien was on Welsh's staff through the 1996 season, the last six as offensive coordinator, before leading his own programs at Boston College and then N.C. State. He had a good amount of success with the Eagles and Wolfpack and actually has the best winning percentage in bowl games (.800, 8-2) of any coach. London worked for O'Brien at Boston College. O'Brien was around for the glory years of UVa football and should bring much-needed experience to the sidelines for the Wahoos. He's been around successful offenses and helped develop Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. It will be interesting to see what kind of relationship he has with offensive coordinator Bill Lazor. The offense could be the key to next season. If it turns a corner and produces more, next year could be a good year, but if not, I doubt there will be much success and then wholesale staff changes could be coming.
Jon Tenuta will be the associate head coach for defense and defensive coordinator. Tenuta worked under O'Brien at N.C. State as linebackers coach. He has lots of experience at major college programs as a defensive coordinator, including Notre Dame, Ohio State, Georgia Tech, and North Carolina. His defenses have a reputation for being aggressive and blitzing the quarterback. In 2011, he helped coach N.C State's David Amerson, who led the nation with 13 interceptions. Tenuta is a graduate of UVa and was a graduate assistant for the 'Hoos in 1981 and '82. Former defensive coordinator Jim Reid did an OK job at Virginia, and he was an excellent recruiter by all accounts, but his defenses did not seem to attack offenses and did not create many turnovers, especially this past season. He promised an aggressive defense, but we did not get one. Hopefully, this hire will be kind of like going from Dave Leitao to Tony Bennett in basketball. Leitao said defense was very important, but it did not always show. For Bennett, it has been shown to be the cornerstone of his program. Reid said that his defenses would be aggressive but that wasn't always the case. Maybe Tenuta will make aggressive defenses more of a reality at UVa.
Next week, I will write more about the Cavalier defense as I look back at the 2012 season and ahead to the 2013 season.
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VIRGINIA HOOPS LOOKS TO CONTINUE BUILDING MOMENTUM
Virginia at Wake Forest, 9 p.m. Comcast SportsNet
UVa, fresh off a big home win over North Carolina, hits the road for back-to-back ACC games, at Wake Forest today and then at Clemson on Saturday.
Wake Forest, after several years of competing with Duke and North Carolina for top billing in the ACC, has fallen on hard times in recent seasons under coach Jeff Bzdelik, now in his third year. He is just 28-48 (5-28 ACC) during his time with the Demon Deacons. The Demon Deacons opened up conference play with an 80-62 loss to Duke on Saturday. Before that, Wake Forest had won three straight contests. The Deacons' other losses this year are to UConn (77-71 when the Huskies were ranked No. 23), 94-68 to Iona, 79-63 to Nebraska, 62-60 to Richmond, and 71-67 to Seton Hall. Not exactly top flight competition there, though all those schools have winning records.
With all that said, Virginia could easily lose this game. The Cavs are not the type of team that can take any other team lightly. They need to bring intensity and focus every night. Their system calls for it. Plus, Virginia has not won at Joel Coliseum since 2000. Two years ago, coach Tony Bennett's second leading the Cavs, UVa gave Wake Forest its only ACC victory, 76-71. It was painful. I remember because I was there. That is the only UVa road basketball game I have attended.
Junior forward Travis McKie, of Richmond, is the best player on the Demon Deacons once again, averaging 15.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Senior guard C.J. Harris is second on the team in scoring at 14.6 points per game and is also dishing out a couple assists per game. After that, there is a significant drop off in scoring. Wake Forest's next three best scorers are all freshmen: Codi Miller-McIntyre (8.5 ppg, first on the team in 3-point shooting at 46.2 percent), Tyler Cavanaugh (6.3), and Devin Thomas (6.1). Sophomore Chase Fischer (5.7) also scores over five points per game.
Last year, Virginia put the clamps down on Wake Forest defensively in a 68-44 whipping in Charlottesville. I think a focused UVa squad could once again make it hard for the Deacons to score. I could see Wake scoring in the 50-55 point range, or possibly below 50 points. Virginia could blow out Wake Forest, or lose by a little. It depends on which UVa team shows up. Will it be the one that gave Old Dominion one of its only two wins, or the one that won at Wisconsin and just beat North Carolina? Joel Coliseum has been a house of horrors the past decade for the Wahoos, but maybe today they can break an eight-game losing streak at that venue.
Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones promised changes were coming, and he was certainly right.
Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan was fired by Jones late Tuesday night. Dallas finished 19th in pass defense and 22nd in rush defense this season. They were among league leaders in defense early in the season but several injuries piled up and the defense slipped as the year progressed. Dallas finished last in the league in interceptions and was 29th in takeways with 16.
Throughout the year, the Dallas defense lost safety Barry Church, linebackers Sean Lee and Bruce Carter, cornerback Orlando Scandrick, tackle Jay Ratliff, and defensive end Kenyon Coleman to injury. Also, tackle Josh Brent was involved in the death of Jerry Brown and missed the season's final four games. Meanwhile, linebacker DeMarcus Ware played with injuries during the latter part of the year and saw his production decrease.
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| Former Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan |
Despite that strange stat, I didn't think Ryan should have been fired. I thought he held together a defense battered by injuries and fared decently well. Early in the season, the defense was looking like one of the best in the league in terms of yards allowed. The 'D' had very good games, I think, against the Giants in Week 1, Bucs in Week 3, Panthers in Week 7, Eagles in Week 10, Bengals in Week 14, and Steelers in Week 15. In Week 8 against the Giants, Dallas held New York to 29 points, which is pretty good considering the offense turned the ball over six times. The defense also held Atlanta to just 19 points in the Georgia Dome and had a great second half in the 23-20 victory over the Browns. Even in the last game of the season, despite giving up 200 yards rushing to Redskins running back Alfred Morris, Dallas had held Washington to 21 points before Tony Romo threw his final interception of the game, pinning the defense back close to its own goal line.
The defensive players were also very close, as evidenced by their words after the death of Brown. I would imagine that would be true in part because of Ryan.
Of course, the way to know if this is a good move or not is to see who Dallas gets as its next defensive coordinator, so we will have to wait and see what Jones' next move is.
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VIRGINIA FOOTBALL
The Cavaliers will introduce their newest coaches at a news conference Thursday. Jeff Banks is the new special teams coach. I gave my thoughts about him in a Dec. 20 post: http://aaronampedup.blogspot.com/2012/12/virginia-footballs-disappointing-season_20.html
Just elevating the Cavaliers' special teams unit to average would be a vast improvement. It has been a major liability in recent seasons. Banks should get the unit to average, and hopefully then some.
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| Tom O'Brien |
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| Jon Tenuta |
Next week, I will write more about the Cavalier defense as I look back at the 2012 season and ahead to the 2013 season.
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VIRGINIA HOOPS LOOKS TO CONTINUE BUILDING MOMENTUM
Virginia at Wake Forest, 9 p.m. Comcast SportsNet
UVa, fresh off a big home win over North Carolina, hits the road for back-to-back ACC games, at Wake Forest today and then at Clemson on Saturday.
Wake Forest, after several years of competing with Duke and North Carolina for top billing in the ACC, has fallen on hard times in recent seasons under coach Jeff Bzdelik, now in his third year. He is just 28-48 (5-28 ACC) during his time with the Demon Deacons. The Demon Deacons opened up conference play with an 80-62 loss to Duke on Saturday. Before that, Wake Forest had won three straight contests. The Deacons' other losses this year are to UConn (77-71 when the Huskies were ranked No. 23), 94-68 to Iona, 79-63 to Nebraska, 62-60 to Richmond, and 71-67 to Seton Hall. Not exactly top flight competition there, though all those schools have winning records.
With all that said, Virginia could easily lose this game. The Cavs are not the type of team that can take any other team lightly. They need to bring intensity and focus every night. Their system calls for it. Plus, Virginia has not won at Joel Coliseum since 2000. Two years ago, coach Tony Bennett's second leading the Cavs, UVa gave Wake Forest its only ACC victory, 76-71. It was painful. I remember because I was there. That is the only UVa road basketball game I have attended.
Junior forward Travis McKie, of Richmond, is the best player on the Demon Deacons once again, averaging 15.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Senior guard C.J. Harris is second on the team in scoring at 14.6 points per game and is also dishing out a couple assists per game. After that, there is a significant drop off in scoring. Wake Forest's next three best scorers are all freshmen: Codi Miller-McIntyre (8.5 ppg, first on the team in 3-point shooting at 46.2 percent), Tyler Cavanaugh (6.3), and Devin Thomas (6.1). Sophomore Chase Fischer (5.7) also scores over five points per game.
Last year, Virginia put the clamps down on Wake Forest defensively in a 68-44 whipping in Charlottesville. I think a focused UVa squad could once again make it hard for the Deacons to score. I could see Wake scoring in the 50-55 point range, or possibly below 50 points. Virginia could blow out Wake Forest, or lose by a little. It depends on which UVa team shows up. Will it be the one that gave Old Dominion one of its only two wins, or the one that won at Wisconsin and just beat North Carolina? Joel Coliseum has been a house of horrors the past decade for the Wahoos, but maybe today they can break an eight-game losing streak at that venue.
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