Official Search for a New Defensive Coordinator Thread - Bush Hired!

[Joshua]

Originally Posted by barrett

Amazing how we are all aware of what other candidates were considered. Also amazing how we all know the inner-workings of a football staff. We pretend to know WAY more on stuff like this than we do. The truth is we don't have nearly enough info to evaluate a coordinator let alone a position coach, because we have no idea how a particular team is run. Nobody knows the percent of the blame that lies where, or the percent of the credit for the positives we saw towards the end of the year. Or at least nobody knows who's talking.

What we do know is that Gary Kubiak has worked with Bush for years and wants him as his DC. The players have worked with him for years and have come out in support of the hire. Anything else is specualtion. A year from now we will either see this as a smart move or the reason Kubiak was fired, but right now any judgement of this hire is blind conjecture.

All good points and I don't disagree that much here is speculation. Only time will tell. But isn't speculation pretty much what these types of boards are? Also, I don't think you need complete knowledge to gather a few nuggets here and there. None of us knows exactly how much the improved offensive line is the result of Alex Gibbs but I don't think it's unreasonable to assign some of the credit to him. I'm just looking for similar nuggets on Bush. I haven't seen many yet and the D line, the one thing I know he was in charge of (at least in part), was below average despite the resources given it (I realize there is an argument here over why that is (bad personnel decisions, etc.)). The players coming out in support is a decent sign but that seems pretty standard (they also came out against the firing of Franklin).

As for Kubiak's first choice, I give this little thought. As great as Kubiak has been with the offense, he's been equally disasterous with the defense. I simply don't afford him the same benefit of the doubt on the defensive side of the ball.

Finally, I think I've also been clear that my primary complaint has been the process. Like everyone else here, I just want the Texans to succeed and hopefully this will be a step in that direction. I've been vocal that I'm concerned it is not. With any luck, you all will get to throw this back in my face this time next year.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by Joshua

All good points and I don't disagree that much here is speculation. Only time will tell. But isn't speculation pretty much what these types of boards are? Also, I don't think you need complete knowledge to gather a few nuggets here and there. None of us knows exactly how much the improved offensive line is the result of Alex Gibbs but I don't think it's unreasonable to assign some of the credit to him. I'm just looking for similar nuggets on Bush. I haven't seen many yet and the D line, the one thing I know he was in charge of (at least in part), was below average despite the resources given it (I realize there is an argument here over why that is (bad personnel decisions, etc.)). The players coming out in support is a decent sign but that seems pretty standard (they also came out against the firing of Franklin).

As for Kubiak's first choice, I give this little thought. As great as Kubiak has been with the offense, he's been equally disasterous with the defense. I simply don't afford him the same benefit of the doubt on the defensive side of the ball.

Finally, I think I've also been clear that my primary complaint has been the process. Like everyone else here, I just want the Texans to succeed and hopefully this will be a step in that direction. I've been vocal that I'm concerned it is not. With any luck, you all will get to throw this back in my face this time next year.

My reply was not against you in particular Joshua. Your post was very reasonable. My post was just stating that we honestly don't know certain things about a football team and never will. How the coaching staff works is number one on this list. We sometimes get a "legend" of a position coach like Joe Gibbs who has articles written and praise heaped on him. But most of the time we don't hear anything.

I never heard a single good word about Kyle Shanahan as a position coach, and then he was hired as OC. many of the threads on the old HPF ripped the hiring, and yet this past year, our offense was at its best ever. And the truth is we still don't know how much was him. We never see these guys on the field, we just see a product that they were in some indefinable way responsible for. I've been on football staffs and it is not like any other coaching staff. There are so many coaches that a bum can be hidden and a star can be snuffed out.

So regarding this hire, we honestly know almost nothing directly about Bush other than his Boss and his players are big fans. And as for the hiring process we know just as little. The number of public interviews shows a handful were considered. The talk shows they considered additional 3-4 guys, and the number of people on the original list that were considered is something we'll never know.

With all this in play I will take a wait and see approach. If anyone claims to know more, they are welcome to do so, but they have nothing to back up that claim.