It's time to talk about Coach Segrest

Flowers and Philon improved greatly under Segrest. If the line can play effectively from game one this year instead of coming on stronger towards the end of the season, I think that would be an indication of how underrated Segrest has been.

Then we should hear more about Segrest specifically from CBB and Smith instead of just how Herbert has them physically ready to play, comments which you would expect during the off season when only support staff can work with the players.

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I left the quotes unsourced because this is a reminder of the reaction to his hire, not to call anyone out.

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the sentiment is nice, but the chicken little doom and gloom asshats need called out by a bump

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We all rave about Pittman, but what about this guy? Our defensive line is a real bright spot for this team. How much credit does Segrest get?

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he's just another damn good assistant coach bert has hired

I used to think like that under Nutt (who was a decent recruiter when he wanted to be) and Petrino (whose recruiting was mostly butt), and even when Bert was filling out his staff, but we've seen just how good of an evaluator and developer of talent Bert truly is over the last two years.

When you're making your bones on the football coaching ladder at places like Iowa, Kansas State and Wisconsin, you learn to evaluate and develop what you have.

Give me guys like Herb, Pittman and Segrest who can coach and develop young players' potential over empty salary recruiters like Trooper Taylor and Curtis Luper.

Yes, I hope we all learned something from the R. Shannon hire.

Fit is as important as name.

CBB probably had his short term reasons to hire Shannon in the first place for "wow" factor etc.

I'm sure Shannon is a good recruiter and coach but not for a place he didn't want to be. All the recruits he was responsible for and that wanted to play for him would have been confused as to which school to commit to.

and it showed.

My quotes from the bump thread:

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Maybe he'll turn out to be a good one, but this one is a little underwhelming at first glance. I was hoping that Bielema's SEC rookie year gut punch would have shown him that this conference is a much different animal than the Big Ten. Hopefully this guy is a diamond in the rough, and Bielema has my trust until/unless it comes up snake eyes.

Recruiting is a concern, though. He followed up a dynamite recruiter in Partidge with a guy from an FCS school, but hopefully he can attract guys with his NFL experience.

However, I do remember Samford's undersized D-line absolutely blowing our guys off the ball. Who knows.

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Agreed, and it's why I have faith in Segrest until/unless we just crap the bed. Plus, Bielema made two fantastic hires in Pittman and Shannon, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm just hoping that we don't suffer in recruiting, since Partidge was a stalwart and gave us inroads into South Florida.

A few things that give me optimism:
- coached in the pros at a high level
- was a ST coordinator for the Eagles (we badly need help in this area)
- played in the SEC (at Bama, no less) and understands what a meatgrinder it is
- his Samford D-line was blowing our O-line off the ball all game long, and we had difficulty establishing the run against an undersized and outmatched FCS team.

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I'd like my cookie now

Lately, I actually have been thinking about what a great job Segrest has done. Seems like we got another good one.

When it comes to assistants, I think many of the big names are overrated. For example, imagine being a Minnesota fan and hearing that your school is looking at Tim Horton of Auburn for it's next RB coach. Auburn's had some pretty decent RB's lately, and since Horton's been there, he's been called one of the best recruiters in the nation. A Minnesota fan might be really excited with that news. In contrast, I'm sure he was a decent coach while at Arkansas, but we know him well enough to not be all that impressed.