DfromCT wrote:Yeah, but a lot of that talent in CJ's first class failed to come close to living up to the hype. And you cannot blame CJ for all that. D. Monroe was a shadow of the player he was hyped to be, and he had good coaching on the D side of the ball. 4 Star player? I'd be hard pressed to give him more than two.
CJ's mark on NCAA football was ALWAYS as a great recruiter. The one decent WR he recruited will best be known for scoring the first rushing TD at Yulman Stadium. IMHO, CJ's best recruit was one that had no other D1 offers: Nico Marley. And he had a great inside track, having recruited his father to "the U". CJ was over matched as a head coach. Had he been smart enough to hire a good OC (and let him do his job) to go along with the D coaches he had on staff, he would probably still be here. Instead he tried to run the Saints offense with offensive coaches that were truly offensive.
I mean out of the 2012 class 3/16 are playing on Sundays. Unfortunately Batiste and Van Hooser transferred, especially Batiste a little more depth last year and the defense would've been filthy! Maybe if Breaux didn't take 6 months off to learn a new scheme last year Fritz could've designed some plays to utilize his speed. And Monroe maybe didn't become a college superstar but he still managed to start 48 games in 4 years on some pretty good defensive units.
Overall I still think CJ's defenses were pretty good, they just didn't get any help from the Offense. And on top of that Special Teams always made some dumbass mistake and the lack of depth in the defense just couldn't keep up herculean efforts for 4 quarters every game. CJ needed desperately to change up the O and ST. Had he focused on recruiting and defense I think he could've ended up an alright coach.