Fox Hovering over Panthers' defense with Meeks in Place

[prowler2k8]

Some of us may find this a little disappointing, but here goes (from PFW):

http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/NFL/NFC/NFC+South/Carolina/WWHI/2008/wwhi013009.htm

Feel free to discuss among yourselves

[megadeth078]

From PFW? Yes, I am disappointed.

[carpanfan96]

A little disappointing, nah. I find that heart breaking worthy. He should just be a HC and stay out of the way of his Coordinators

[VA Panther Fan]

Pretty much confirms what I'm sure most expected.

[megadeth078]

So we hired a safety net?

[mantal]

Meh, they just read the forums and composed an article...

[prowler2k8]

Pretty much confirms what I'm sure most expected.

Agreed. Doesn't appear that things will change much on that side of the ball. Fox won't have anyone to blame but himself if the D doesn't improve next season.

[neverlosethefeeling]

Seems to me that if a head coach wasn't involved with both the offense and the defense, he'd be sitting around twiddling his thumbs all day.

I don't know the extent to which Fox is "involved," but if your head coach isn't involved at all, as some people would like, what is the use of a head coach at all?

[prowler2k8]

Seems to me that if a head coach wasn't involved with both the offense and the defense, he'd be sitting around twiddling his thumbs all day.

I don't know the extent to which Fox is "involved," but if your head coach isn't involved at all, as some people would like, what is the use of a head coach at all?

Good point and I agree to an extent. However, if the HC's "involvement" transforms into "meddling" to the point where he's "stubborn and difficult to work with" , that's not a good thing either. Considering our playcalling on both sides of the ball the last two seasons, I don't think PFW is too far off base.

[panthers55]

No depth or substantiation. Whoever wrote it just read some articles and composed the story.

No mention that Fox wasn't involved when Trgo had a good defense, he becaome involved when we started to struggle. No mention that we started off great and self destructed toward the end.

No mention that the D line coach left because we weren't very effective in his scheme. Or that the secondary coach left because in the last 2 jobs his DBs seriously underperformed. Or that Trgo didn't have the confidence of the coach or management for the past 2 years which is why he wasn't automatically extended.

It was made to look like Fox is the problem and is hard to work with. It may be true but surely not close to the whole picture. If he is so bad as a coach then why would Meeks come here. He has a good enough reputation that he would be picked up by someone else.

[ladypanther]

Fox sat in on defensive meetings over the past few seasons. He can be stubborn and difficult to work with.

??

[PowerlessDan]

I got little to nothing out of that article.

[megadeth078]

??

Well, Defensive coordinators don't just want to become defensive line coaches for another team for no reason, unless they hate to have more money.

[prowler2k8]

No depth or substantiation. Whoever wrote it just read some articles and composed the story.

No mention that Fox wasn't involved when Trgo had a good defense, he becaome involved when we started to struggle. No mention that we started off great and self destructed toward the end.

No mention that the D line coach left because we weren't very effective in his scheme. Or that the secondary coach left because in the last 2 jobs his DBs seriously underperformed. Or that Trgo didn't have the confidence of the coach or management for the past 2 years which is why he wasn't automatically extended.

It was made to look like Fox is the problem and is hard to work with. It may be true but surely not close to the whole picture. If he is so bad as a coach then why would Meeks come here. He has a good enough reputation that he would be picked up by someone else.

I agree somewhat with your last statement, but I question the points you made in the second paragraph:

1) No mention that the D line coach left because we weren't very effective in his scheme.

Question: Are you referring to Trgo's scheme or are you specifically referring to Sunseri? Because if it's the later, the DL coach is just a position coach and would follow the scheme laid out by the DC, if that's what you meant.

2) Or that the secondary coach left because in the last 2 jobs his DBs seriously underperformed.

Until the Giants' game, our secondary hadn't been flagged for PI. Could it have been the bend-don't-break scheme with it's overuse of soft zone coverage that was the problem? Again, as a DB coach, Lewis' influence over the entire defensive scheme would've been limited. I'm not sure his past two jobs played a role in how things turned out in Carolina, and it's beem reported that he took a similar role in Seattel to be closer to family (his brother is a personnel guy with the Seahawks).

3) Or that Trgo didn't have the confidence of the coach or management for the past 2 years which is why he wasn't automatically extended.

Again, I'm not sure I totally agree with this statement, as it was reported that the Panthers were prepared to offer him a two-year extension that Trgo planned to sign until his "change of heart". All indications (at least publicly) were that the organization wanted him back, but Trgo made the call to move on. It could be argued that Fox's increased involvement in the defensive meetings was evidence of the HC lacking confidence in the playcalling, though.

I do agree that while it may be true that Fox is stubborn (as most of us have suspected), that the article doesn't give us the full picture, but I'm sure there's a measure of truth to why our defense collapsed toward the end of season and why most of our defensive staff and our best defensive player are no longer in our future plans. JMO