re: Why would you fire the DC?

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rolling the dice again

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So? If your DC sucks who cares if you roll the dice? It would be virtually impossible to get worse on defense, so we'll either hold serve while injecting some new life and hope into the team or get better, either one of those is positive.

Lets take a look at the rest of what we knew before we hired him and digest it.

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Cleveland Browns (2005-2007)[edit]

Todd Grantham's first year as coordinator of the Browns defense under head coach Romeo Crennel was an eclectic mix of good and bad. They once again fielded one of the NFL's top pass defenses, actually stepping up in rank from 5th to 4th in the NFL. When starting cornerback Gary Baxter went down with a knee injury that ended his season, Leigh Bodden emerged as a solid playmaker. Overall, their secondary continued to play at a high level. They also ranked 11th in scoring defense despite possessing one of the leagues worst run defenses. Orpheus Roye would post a career high with 88 tackles and also make 3 sacks.
After Michigan State dismissed head coach John L. Smith in 2006, Grantham was one of the candidates to be his replacement. However, Michigan State would hire Cincinnati head coach Mark Dantonio.[2]
He was fired on January 11, 2008 after the 2007 season with the Brown's defense ranking 25th against the pass, 27th against the run, and 30th in total-yards-against among 32 teams.
Dallas Cowboys (2008-2009)[edit]

Grantham served as the defensive line coach for the Dallas Cowboys until the end of the season when he joined the coaching staff at the University of Georgia as defensive coordinator. During Grantham's 2 seasons with Dallas, the Cowboys improved from 13th (2007) to 2nd (2009) in the league in points allowed.[3]

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The two places I find his metrics didn't work (for whatever reasons) have been at UGA & two seasons with the Browns.

I wonder if any similarities exist between these periods "past and present" and can they be identified?

When one hires a director which is basically what a DC's position is then I would surmise that you would select someone with a vision or full scope of the entire defense.

Anyway this is where I am coming from this data had to be correlated into a favorable scenario or he would not have been hired for the position by UGA.

One can't apply it favorably in hiring then disavow it when it fits a desired criteria.

That's what is called "pawn shop management" not TQM.

If we are doing that at the top then we have much deeper issues to unfold.

I would fire him for most of the reasons stated on this thread, with the exception of one. Another thing is that he has a reputation for not listening to the head coach and causing division in the locker room. That's one of the things that cost him his DC job at Cleveland and the fact that they were one of the worst teams in the league at stopping the run. I'm not saying that's what's going on now, but if the guy has a history of not taking criticism very well and refuses to adjust then there ia no need to keep him around. Especially when he has only fielded one good defense in four years.

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Indianapolis Colts (1999-2001)

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Grantham sucked in Indy as well. In 2001, the Colts had the worst defense in the NFL. (Sounds familiar doesn't it? Lot of sacks but a lousy defense?) Ironically, Jim Mora's refusal to fire the defensive coordinator is what led to his termination and the hiring of Tony Dungy.

So you're saying we have a Tony Dungy in our near future?

Question. If the defense cuts their points allowed by 25%, would you be for keeping him, or for getting rid of him anyway? What kind of improvement would it take to keep him in your opinion?

Now, I addressed this to FooManChoo, but I am curious to hear from anyone and everyone. As I have stated several times...I don't know if Grantham is the answer or not.....but I am wondering what it would take in everyone elses minds.

Grantham was a rental for us.
He was never to be a longterm defensive coordinator.
He was using us to get a better position in the nfl. And we were using him to repair the defense after martinez.

He didn't have a long term approach to rotating guys becausethat coujld affect his stats building his resume'.

Transfers, dismissals, and early entry to the NFL (along with undersigning) have left us in our 2013 mess.

The good news for Dawg fans is that 2014 returns a lot of experience with a lot of highly ranked talent. Consistency in returning starters and scheme should allow us to do good things.

Good things also means that Grantham will be on his way for 2015.

2012 wan't as bad as many make it out to be. But it wasn't the 10ppg that we were all hoping/expecting either.

2014 looks promising as we lose 1 senior on the 2 deep.
And we shouldn't be shuffling positions on the DL, ILB, OLB, CB, or safety (assuming JHC doesn't make a position change).

I honestly would be somewhat happy with a 25% point reduction but I think he needs to do much better to keep his job, from my POV.

What I care about is results, and Grantham hasn't given us good results. If he can turn the defense around, then great. I think he should be fired right now for not producing to the level of expectations on defense the past few years, but my opinion has no weight on the subject, so he's staying another season.

Since he's staying for now, I hope he gets fired sometime next season unless he shows a dramatic turnaround in the defense. I don't mean just a reduction in the number of points allowed, but also better discipline with the players, better fundamentals displayed on the field, and lower numbers all around, except for TOs, which I want to see more of. We had the worst defense in recent memory, so we need to do more than just be a little better. I don't want to us to move from bad to average, but to a good defense. We have the talent and the experience now to achieve this. We just need the DC to do his job.

Fortunately for CTG, things should improve a bit (even if nothing else changes) just because most of the defense is returning next year and will have a lot of experience under their belts. But I don't want to just see them play better; I want to see them play like a UGA defense should play.

I want him gone now, but if he dramatically turns things around, I'll sing a different tune.

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What's most damning to me is how still, 11 games into the season, half the defense is looking around not knowing WTF is going on.

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Certainly in the first 3 or 4 games I saw 11 players that looked lost. I DID some some improvement, though in those first 4 games. The improvement was spotty, but it was there. After the 6th game, I felt we could stop the run pretty well, but the secondary still seemed lost. Then, against Auburn and Georgia tech we actually did pretty fair against the run, considering the youtfullness of the defense...but again, the secondary was confused about responsibilities.

More telling for me....at least from a coaches effectiveness standpoint, was Grantham seemed to make significant adjustments at halftime of games. We seemed to start shutting teams down in the second half. I saw this several times during the year, but particularly at Auburn and Georgia Tech. It's very hard to make wholesale adjustments in the middle of a game. You can make minor adjustments, but you just don't have time to make big ones. After the half of several games the defense was doing pretty well.

Anyway...that is just what I noticed. You might not agree. I think the secondary's biggest problem is they were not sure enough of the system. they didn't fully understand what reads to make and when to make them. This is the first year I saw it as often as I did. We could see it from time to time in years past, but it was several times a game every game this year. Probably a combination of a complicated system combined with inexperienced players.

Like I said...I'm not sure Grantham is the answer....not sure he is not the answer. I'll be interested in seeing what happens next year, if they do indeed simplify the system. With a maturing defense and a simplified system, we have a chance to see huge gains defensively.