quote:
They won’t be remotely close to what they were under Elko, and if their offense doesn’t make major strides they’re losing 5+ games. Feel free to bookmark this, I’ve ignored the Aggot off-season hype train for about 10 years now and told everyone what was actually going to happen with Chavis, etc. and I’ve had responses like yours every time.

The stats aren’t there with Durkin. In 6 years of being a HC and DC, he’s had 3 defenses ranked outside of the top 100, he’s never ranked in the top 50 in scoring defense, and he’s averaged somewhere in the 80’s in both scoring defense and YPP over those 6 years.

What makes you believe DJ Durkin can build an elite defense when he’s been below average his entire career?

That's a really, really bad take.

In 2013, his defense was #15 nationally.
In 2014, his defense was #19.
In 2015, his defense was #6 nationally.

In 2016, he took the head coaching job at Maryland. Maryland finished with a defense ranked #74 (They had been 103 the year previous)
In 2017, Maryland's defense finished #120.

In his two years at Ole Miss, he took the defense from 118 in year one to 51 in year two. It's really borderline miraculous what he did at Ole Miss last year despite coaching opposite a Kiffin offense, where the defense has to defend and extras 3 or 4 possessions per game.