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Kevin Kane, played linebacker for Kansas from 2002-2005, after coached linebackers for the Jayhawks, he was the defensive coordinator at NIU for 2016 and 2017. in 2017, his defense ranked #22 in total defense. Finished #2 in sacks, #23 in passes intercepted, #11 in 3rd down defense, #32 in scoring defense. definitely a step up from Malone, the only downside about him is that I wouldn't imagine he would know Texas very well considering he's been coaching up north since the 2000's. So getting some Texas assistants is very crucial if he wants to bring good recruits in here. Not as sexy of a hire as Gary Anderson for DC or chad Glasgow, but this is a good hire, not great, but good and a lot better than Malone. Kudos to Sonny to finding realistically the best possible staff we could get. lets hope this translates to the field.

Great hire. SMU bringing in a coach that was a successful sitting DC at a FBS program, not a position coach.

How far north do you think Kansas is? Big 12 country and they draw a lot from Texas. Recruiting will be fine.

PonyPlayer4 wrote:Great hire. SMU bringing in a coach that was a successful sitting DC at a FBS program, not a position coach.

How far north do you think Kansas is? Big 12 country and they draw a lot from Texas. Recruiting will be fine.

Illinois is pretty far up there

When at SMU I would occasionally drive to Chicago and back on the weekends to visit my folks. Not that far.

Maybe he knows where we can find some big midwestern OLineman

mrydel wrote:When at SMU I would occasionally drive to Chicago and back on the weekends to visit my folks. Not that far.

14 hours isn't far?

That was back in the stamina days

Hey guys, long time since I’ve been on, but I’m a NIU alum who lives in Dallas. Had SMU season tickets my first two falls here, been here for four.

SMU is getting an up and comer who is really good. NIU defense was very young this year outside of the secondary and was pretty much lights out. They had a couple bad games, most notably Duke, but with Cutcliffe and three weeks to prepare that’s going to happen.

He was a heavy recruiter in the St Louis and KC areas for NIU. They get a couple guys a year from those areas, and also did a good job with Florida. Sounds like you’re also getting Diersen who was DL and recruiting coordinator. DL was made up of all Freshman and Sophomore starters before an injury happens and they were very solid. He and Kane led the transition of a former running back to the FBS sack and TFL leader.

These were two huge pieces of NIUs success. SMU should feel much better about their defense because they found very good undersized but fast defensive players.

I guess I'm going to be negative nancy but I didn't think his resume looks all that impressive. Kansas has never been good, right? With NIU, just so I'm not giving the appearance of saying it:

2016 NIU Season: Avg Points given up (30 pts per game) - less competitive than SMU

@ Wyoming - L 34-40
@ USF - L 17-48
vs SDSU - L 28-42
vs Western Ill - L 23-28
@ Ball St. - W 31-24
@ WMU - L 30-45
vs CMU - L - 28 - 34
vs Buffalo - W 44 - 7
vs Bowling - W 45-20
vs Toledo - L 24-31
@EMU - W 31-24
@Kent - W 31-21

2017 NIU Season (around 21 pts) - a lot less competitive than SMU

vs BC - L 20-23
vs EIU - W 38-10 (FCS)
@ Neb - W 21-17
@ SDSU - L 28-34
vs Kent - W 24-3
vs Buff - W 14-13
@Bowling - W 48-17
vs EMU - W 30-27
@ Toledo - L 17-27
vs Ball St - W 63-17
vs WMU - W 35-31
@ CMU - L 24 - 31

What do you suggest we do?

Bergermeister wrote:What do you suggest we do?

Nothing, I'm just not going to say, "wow, great hire". I rather people say why it's a great hire and why the scores against mediocre teams are not eye-popping. That is all.

I think the first post on this thread did say why, didn't it?

ponyboy101 wrote:in 2017, his defense ranked #22 in total defense. Finished #2 in sacks, #23 in passes intercepted, #11 in 3rd down defense, #32 in scoring defense.

RI Stang wrote:I think the first post on this thread did say why, didn't it?

ponyboy101 wrote:in 2017, his defense ranked #22 in total defense. Finished #2 in sacks, #23 in passes intercepted, #11 in 3rd down defense, #32 in scoring defense.

Right and saying it's a step above Malone seems a bit off. Malone had far tougher competition consistently. First off, unless someone wants to correct me, AAC is stronger than the MAC.

According to Sagarin, AAC - West is #10 best conference/division at an average rating score of 67.87 and AAC - East is #13 with a score of 64.64. With MAC - West at #16 score of 61.89 and MAC - East at #18 with score of 57.77. When you look at their schedule, while they played a P5 (Nebraska) they went 4-8 and obviously got rid of their coach.

So while the metrics are better, I would have expected our defense to have much better metrics with that same schedule. That's why I'm struggling to see why it's obvious great hire. If it's relative like, we got the best we could that's out in the market and that would be interested in us, okay I can understand that.

#1 in the nation in TFL
#2 in the nation in sacks
#11 in the nation on third down
#16 in the nation against the run

But yeah....not at all an upgrade over Malone.

Key to comparing is to say while competition is lower, so is his recruiting base & players. What he is controlling is the play on the field based on similar quality players. This is a good hire based on what he got out of the players he had, against competition that had similar quality players. He also brings in a recruiting base in an area that has plenty of SMU alums (KC & St. L) i.e. kids will know something about the school, a solid amount of D1 players but that we haven't recruited much in the past.