I see the pushing out of Grantham and hiring of Sirmon as Petrino recognizing our limitations and making a bigger swing for the fences. The fact is that we have no idea if Sirmon is a capable d coordinator or not. The body of work just isn't there. However we do know he is highly regarded and is a proven recruiter. When you look at where Clemson and Florida State are recruiting, it really becomes untenable for us to just hang out in the 25-30 range in recruiting. He potentially gives us the push to get into the top 15-20 range which is where we need to be to compete. We simply don't have the depth otherwise.
I think the mix of Grantham and Petrino was just not sustainable because of their personalities. It is very tough to progress when you have 2 generally unlikable and cantankerous coaches leading the team. I think Petrino realizes he needs a younger, more positive coach to lift guys up. This season is a perfect example of where they could have used someone to rally them when things went sideways.
One last thing, I think Grantham is a very good defensive coordinator, but I do think his defense is too complex. There were simply too many times where we were out of position because the calls came in too late or their was confusion about alignment and assignment. We had way too many seniors out there for that to be the case. Also, he struggled against teams that ran a tempo offense (see Houston). Next year we will have a lot of younger guys playing and I think running a more simple system will be very beneficial. I really feel like Grantham belongs in the NFL with his system.
I think the mix of Grantham and Petrino was just not sustainable because of their personalities. It is very tough to progress when you have 2 generally unlikable and cantankerous coaches leading the team. I think Petrino realizes he needs a younger, more positive coach to lift guys up. This season is a perfect example of where they could have used someone to rally them when things went sideways.
One last thing, I think Grantham is a very good defensive coordinator, but I do think his defense is too complex. There were simply too many times where we were out of position because the calls came in too late or their was confusion about alignment and assignment. We had way too many seniors out there for that to be the case. Also, he struggled against teams that ran a tempo offense (see Houston). Next year we will have a lot of younger guys playing and I think running a more simple system will be very beneficial. I really feel like Grantham belongs in the NFL with his system.