VanGorder Retires

 BG announced today that Brian VanGorder has retired from college football.  Those are the exact words.

It's a big surprise. He's 61. We're in the middle of spring practice.  There was plenty of time to retire before now.  Or in a month.  

The timing is odd and leads you to think about what might be behind the story, because it just doesn't seem to be what it appears to be.

A couple things are out in the open.  First, if he isn't the most openly mocked coach on the internet, then it's Loeffler.  Second, our defense has been horrible.  Yes, they have been undermanned, especially on the line and in the backfield.  On the other hand, we now know we had one player who could play at Arizona and one at Boise.  So maybe there was more talent than we thought or were told.  The team was still predominantly young, any way you slice it.

So, VanGorder didn't make the defense awful.  There's also no reason to think he had them overachieving either.

We can be ready for a change, I totally get that.  Here's the problem.  You can think BVG was a bad choice.  BVG was picked by the head coach, who, when he talked about BVG put on his "if you knew anything about football" voice and said he was the best schematic defensive coach he had ever known.

That guy is going to pick the next one.

Maybe he has learned.

It's strange.  Our last 3 coaches have hired DCs who failed.  In the case of McCloud and Eliano, they were the coach's best friend.  Not sure about that here, but for all the talk about Dave Clawson, the only coach who hired an outstanding DC was Clawson.

I have been in the "trust the process" camp.  I'm moving a notch or two in the other direction.  I continue to think we will not be very good next year and it's going to get rough.

And to the fans who are outraged...thank you...for not walking away completely.  At least you still care enough to be pissed.