SoCon Coach to TTU

[TTUEagles]

Billy Taylor, Def. Coordinator at UT-Chattanooga, is expected to be named to the same position at Tennessee Tech. Can any SoCon fans out there give me any info on this guy/UTC's defense? TTU lost their DC to retirement in only 1 year, but he was DL coach at U of Miami and U of Wisconsin before that...Do we have hope for our defense?
Thanks!

[PaladinFan]

UTC has yet to beat Furman since Bobby Lamb became the head coach. The good news is, where Furman was beating UTC by scoring 50 and 60 a few seasons ago, now we are winning only scoring in the high 20s. They've played us much tougher the past two seasons (I don't know how long that coach has been there).

Good news is, he is unlikey to see as varied or as many good offenses week in and week out at TTU. The SoCon throws just about every offense from the wing-t to the spread at defensive coordinators so he's at least got experience facing solid competition.

[ElonPride]

If my memory serves correct, he was the DC at Elon for a while.....and during those seasons, we were pretty bad. He served under Paul Hamilton at Elon, and any SoCon fan knows what kind of years those were for Elon ;)

[NashMoc]

Billy Taylor was DC at Elon before coming to UTC. Numbers have improved but I would say that sucess was due more to his assistant coaches than Taylor himself. Not many Mocs fans sad to see him go. My biggest issue with Taylor is that he seems slow in making adjustments on the fly. Defense really gets beat up in the second half of games. UTC has already promoted its secondary coach to DC. I am more comfortable with what he have then what we lost.

[walliver]

UTC had a decent gameplan against Jayson Foster and GSU, but didn't slow down many other people. He had a decent plan against Wofford, but, after the Terriers had the quarterback keep the ball on the option instead of pitching (as was generally done 95% of the time last year), he wasn't able to adjust. His plans going into games were often good, but he was unable to adapt once the offense made adjustments.

[TTUEagles]

Great. I feel reeeeeeal upbeat about it now. The new UTC Def. Coordinator used to coach DB's at TTU. I liked some of the numbers his UTC D put up in the best conf. in FCS (my opinion), and also respect SoCon fans' opinions, but I'm not sure about this hire. Time will tell...Offense is set with a great QB returning and a great offensive head coach, if D gets better, we may have a shot next year...

[gophoenix]

Billy Taylor, Def. Coordinator at UT-Chattanooga, is expected to be named to the same position at Tennessee Tech. Can any SoCon fans out there give me any info on this guy/UTC's defense? TTU lost their DC to retirement in only 1 year, but he was DL coach at U of Miami and U of Wisconsin before that...Do we have hope for our defense?
Thanks!

I can say that he and Dale Steele were the only people that held Elon to as good as they were in those two years.

[NashMoc]

UTC had a decent gameplan against Jayson Foster and GSU, but didn't slow down many other people. He had a decent plan against Wofford, but, after the Terriers had the quarterback keep the ball on the option instead of pitching (as was generally done 95% of the time last year), he wasn't able to adjust. His plans going into games were often good, but he was unable to adapt once the offense made adjustments.

I would disagree on the gameplan for Jayson Foster. That little b*****d :p ran all over the Mocs. If it wasn't for a a couple of turnovers the OT win would have been another blowout loss for the Mocs.

[NashMoc]

Great. I feel reeeeeeal upbeat about it now. The new UTC Def. Coordinator used to coach DB's at TTU. I liked some of the numbers his UTC D put up in the best conf. in FCS (my opinion), and also respect SoCon fans' opinions, but I'm not sure about this hire. Time will tell...Offense is set with a great QB returning and a great offensive head coach, if D gets better, we may have a shot next year...

I don't know what defense you guys in Cookeville run now, but Taylor is a 3-4 proponent. I don't think it worked well in Chattanooga because we don't have that one big unmovable DT to take up 2 OL. From all reports in Chattanooga, Billy Taylor is one of the nicest men you can ever meet. I just don't know about him as a DC.

I personally am glad that David Bibee is UTC's DC, he has a ton of coaching experience and I think he is a big reason for our defensive improvements over the past couple of seasons. When healthy our secondary was the strength of our team.

[PaladinFan]

I would disagree on the gameplan for Jayson Foster. That little b*****d :p ran all over the Mocs. If it wasn't for a a couple of turnovers the OT win would have been another blowout loss for the Mocs.

I think Furman was the only team that figured out how to limit him. Too bad it took us four years.

[Eyes of Old Main]

I think Furman was the only team that figured out how to limit him. Too bad it took us four years.

At least you ultimately did. Others of us weren't able to do that.