I personally hope that he is but were talking Cal football.

Strong hire.
Solid DC experience/results
Don't care about alleged recruiting deficiencies--according to many posters on here, OC/DC don't really have to recruit anyway.

I like the hire with the options we had. Good hire IMO. He did really well in his last two jobs.

Love it

Looks pretty solid. Known quantity!

beeasyed;842268383 said:

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Strong hire.
Solid DC experience/results
Don't care about alleged recruiting deficiencies--according to many posters on here, OC/DC don't really have to recruit anyway.

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I concur. Now, if we can land Akina or someone with similar capabilities, we may just lower the board induced psychopathy going around lately.

I'd say it's a very good hire. He's known as a turn-around guy, so in that sense yes he's the guy for this defense right now. Long term is another question.

Turn-around guys are like management consultants. They might be able to fix things, point the way, get you on the right track but they might not have the desire, skill set or inclination to stick around or build a defense (or recruit).

A little worried since he looks like a journeyman coach. It seems like he has a history of turning defenses around quickly. However, I wouldn't count on him being here longer than 2 years (maybe 3 max). He might be good for the short term but not probably not good for building long term.

Cal_Fan2;842268399 said:

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I concur. Now, if we can land Akina or someone with similar capabilities, we may just lower the board induced psychopathy going around lately.

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i hear ya, my own included.

having just one or two strong recruiters on the offensive side is not nearly enough.

Just renewed season tickets- my prediction- we will win 5 if our defense just improves 30 %- and maybe 6 with a bigger improvement. It all depends on the JUCO reinforcements and the guys coming off surgery and the ability of coaches to "coach them up" I sure want to believe it will happen.

At least he has some decent credentials tho the level of competition has been suspect. It would just be nice to see people actually tackle and look for the balls. Someone like him should have been the hire last year. It may not have changed the final W-L record much but maybe we would have been in every game into the second half instead of heading for the exits at the end of the first quarter.:headbang

bluepod;842268671 said:

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At least he has some decent credentials tho the level of competition has been suspect. It would just be nice to see people actually tackle and look for the balls. Someone like him should have been the hire last year. It may not have changed the final W-L record much but maybe we would have been in every game into the second half instead of heading for the exits at the end of the first quarter.:headbang

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If I saw Cal players tackling on first contact this year, I'd probably blow my wad......

I am telling myself that Sonny is doing his best, and that this hire is a good one--and to let go of the bad feelings I experienced as my son and I left Furd ater Big Game. I can say Go Bears with enthusiasm again.

I'd say that at a minimum he's not not the guy.

there is no one answer......so many things wrong.

If Cal hires Duane Akina as DB coach, and he will be expensive, then I will have a lot of confidence in the coaching staff to turn around the defense. I might even go in on season tickets...

Kaufman is certainly a guy to quickly get the D back on track. Coupled with a guy like Akina it's definitely going to make things better quickly on the D. The issue is how long will he stick around and he doesn't have a great recruiting rep so the other coaches HAVE to be recruiters (granted that's situation on offensive side as well currently)

On paper, he looks to be somewhere in the B/B- range. Compared to Buh, that's pretty good.

But is it good enough to stop the diverse and dynamic offenses of Oregon, stanfurd, WSU, Washington, UCLA, ASU, Arizona? I'm not sure.

But after once again getting his pick of DCs, a third consecutive year of terrible defense will seal Sonny's fate. Kaufman needs to produce a stout defense this year or Sonny will be looking for an offensive coordinator job very soon.

First of all. This is my first time I write here. Im from spain and Im not speak english so well. LOL!

I try to look what kind of scheme used Art Kaufman. I think the best fit for our "D" is 3-4. Not 4-3... and 4-3 not this year. Cause we lost Moala, Coleman... and (((Scarlett is LB))))!!!!! We are doing well in recruiting for DE's... I dont know how to expect from Art... But this is my opinion.

Anybody knows what kind of scheme? What do you think about the future for our D? Greetings from miles and miles away! Go Bears!

If recruiting really isn't that important for the dc, and tuberville brought him with him from Texas tech, then he new exactly what he was bringing with him from Texas tech. The "going in a different direction because of recruiting" reeks of insincerity. Something happened at Cincinnati that we don't know about. I just hope it doesn't affect us and that kaufman's stay is a good one. No way you can the architect of the #9 defense, especially when he has apparently great capacity to build player relationships. You find another way to recruit. Something's up. Maybe it was a personal issue between him and tubie. I hope that's all it is. I'm excited about our defense, but cautiously optimistic about this hire.

He is much less of a question mark than Buh was so that a small victory right there.

Kaufman is a 4-3 guy. And scarlett is big now. DE big and cleared to play. We only have 4 maybe 5 LB on roster now (Gibson safety v LB?). We have a lot more DL especially after this class. 3-4 does NOT make sense for us

Tubbs is noted to be a difficult guy to work with

Boot;842268382 said:

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I personally hope that he is but were talking Cal football.

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...no sooner unless the dynamic evolves earlier.
:beer:

I don't know if he's the guy to get us to the Rose Bowl with a Michigan St. like defense, but I'm positive he's better than what we had.

At this point, the gap between us and the top tier in the Pac-12 is so huge we just need to take incremental steps. We need to be respectable before good. For me, its a matter of perspective. I didn't think we'd be able to make a change so soon, but I'm thrilled we did, so I'll take it.

JavierG34;842268829 said:

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First of all. This is my first time I write here. Im from spain and Im not speak english so well. LOL!

I try to look what kind of scheme used Art Kaufman. I think the best fit for our "D" is 3-4. Not 4-3... and 4-3 not this year. Cause we lost Moala, Coleman... and (((Scarlett is LB))))!!!!! We are doing well in recruiting for DE's... I dont know how to expect from Art... But this is my opinion.

Anybody knows what kind of scheme? What do you think about the future for our D? Greetings from miles and miles away! Go Bears!

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Good grief, Javier. You do quite well. Hmm-m-m...would you be interested in being the Bears' American football recruiting coordinator in Espana?

I imagine that most of the board would agree with you, and that's the problem. I would argue that judging him Oct. 2015 would be more accurate. You can hope for a quick fix, but I question whether that is realistic. An awful lot of player improvement and development has to take place to make 2014 defensively noteworthy...

Maybe... His resume is "Marshall-like" (4 schools in 4 years) but 6371 likes him so I'll reluctantly join the bandwagon.

oskihasahearton;842268858 said:

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Good grief, Javier. You do quite well. Hmm-m-m...would you be interested in being the Bears' American football recruiting coordinator in Espana?

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xD I would like... Recruiting Kickers from Soccer... LOL

71Bear;842268883 said:

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Maybe... His resume is "Marshall-like" (4 schools in 4 years) but 6371 likes him so I'll reluctantly join the bandwagon.

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I'm not sure this is a fair comparison. He was at NC for multiple years, stayed through the worst of the Butch Davis scandal, including the 2011 season where they effectively had an interim HC then left when NC named its new HC following the 2011 season. He was at TT multiple years and left to stay with the HC. The most recent firing from Cinci smells...but that's the only part of his resume that seems suspect and Marshall like.

The recruiting thing is just a red herring. Apparently him and Tubberville had some sort of falling out.

... when the majority of defensive starters are unable to play due to injury. If he turns it around under those circumstances, then we'll know if he's an upgrade from Buh.

mbBear;842268874 said:

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I imagine that most of the board would agree with you, and that's the problem. I would argue that judging him Oct. 2015 would be more accurate. You can hope for a quick fix, but I question whether that is realistic. An awful lot of player improvement and development has to take place to make 2014 defensively noteworthy...

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What? waiting for the facts before passing judgment? What are you some kind of trouble maker? Stuff like that can get you banned on BI. :p

hanky1;842268895 said:

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The recruiting thing is just a red herring. Apparently him and Tubberville had some sort of falling out.

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Tubberville seems like quite the character. If he is not leaving a recruit in the middle of a dinner to accept another job or smacking a GA on the head during a game, he is throwing his staff under the bus.

yeah, that's me, living on the edge,ha. In general, people look at the coaching thing as very linear, very black and white. Coaching is so much situation, circumstances, and in the case of the board, familiarity. The biggest thing going against Buh was where he had coached; obviously the season itself did him in, but such a negative vibe before it even started.
Marv Levy is still my favorite story along these lines-sucked at Cal, and would go on to coach in 4 Super Bowls...

Walk the dog often with another dog owner who is big time Auburn fan. Doesn't think much of Tubberville, for whatever that is worth.