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PaladinFan
January 13th, 2015, 02:41 PM
Furman just announced the hiring of Kyle Gillenwater for the open defensive coordinator position. (http://furmanpaladins.com/sports/m-footbl/2014-15/releases/201501136p1sus)

Notes suggest he had a long tenure at James Madison. What can you tell me about him?
JMU2004
January 13th, 2015, 03:38 PM
Interesting. Matthews was always heavily involved in our D, so it's tough to tell what Kyle was responsible for.

Our D's got progressively worse toward the end of his tenure. Very risk averse. Get ready for CB's 10 yds off and a safety 17 yds off. No press coverage.

We got pretty frustrated at the end. Again, tough to tell who was at fault. He became DC in 2009. which was when our D's and team started to head down hill.
citdog
January 13th, 2015, 03:39 PM
furman sucks
PaladinFan
January 13th, 2015, 04:22 PM
Interesting. Matthews was always heavily involved in our D, so it's tough to tell what Kyle was responsible for.

Our D's got progressively worse toward the end of his tenure. Very risk averse. Get ready for CB's 10 yds off and a safety 17 yds off. No press coverage.

We got pretty frustrated at the end. Again, tough to tell who was at fault. He became DC in 2009. which was when our D's and team started to head down hill.

Sounds similar to Furman teams in the past. Lot of softer coverage between the 20s with the intent on buckling down in the redzone.

He might be in a similar situation at Furman. Bruce Fowler was a former defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt, and there was some thought he may just call the defense himself. I imagine Fowler will stay involved in the defense much like Matthews was.
jmufan999
January 13th, 2015, 05:09 PM
some of what the JMU poster had to say could also have to do with our personnel.... we just didn't have 6'2" corners who could play press man. you could argue it's Gillenwater's job to recruit them, but who knows what the reason was. overall, the defense was very good most years.

i know that Mickey trusted Gillenwater greatly, he spoke about it often. and love or hate Mickey, he was an extremely skilled defensive coach. if he trusted Gillenwater, then so do i. i'd say you got a great hire.