Kane Ioane elevated to Co-Defensive Coordinator

[catatac]

I love the promotion for Kane.

But I'll be the one to say it - if the Cats defense is as bad next year and/or the year after, do you guys run him out of town like you all wanted Marshall out?

Just in 2012, the Cats had the #1 scoring defense. In 2013, we slipped to 6th, and last year we fell to the 9th.

What is the acceptable level of defensive play? Marshall has had some great defenses, but last year's was the worst I've ever seen from a Cat defense.

Everyone kept saying the talent was there but the scheme was not. So if Ioane calls the shots and implements his scheme but we still finish near the bottom in all of FCS again, I wonder if people will just change their tune to saying the talent isn't there.

The majority on here thought Marshall was the problem and solely the problem, so we'll find out soon enough if that is true I suppose.

Great post. I think the only fair way to do a comparison\evaluation is IF Kane ends up in the role for several years, we'll need to look back and see if his defenses led the Big Sky in total defense and scoring defense roughly half the time. That's not easy to do, so we'll see. If not, one could argue he fell short of what JM was able to do. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[catdaddy7]

I have heard that as of right now, Kane's scheme will be used and he is in charge. Marshall has been given a demotion of sorts and is only on staff (now in a limited role) because a prior deal with another team fell through. Kane was supposed to be the only DC after Marshall took the new job. The source is close to the situation and I have no reason to not believe them. That said, things can change and my source could be wrong but it makes sense. Let's pray that they will be using Kane's scheme and the "attitude" of the defense changes!! Go Cats!!

I hope you are correct. I wonder what changes Kane would do? My guess is nothing drastic ie move to 3-4 style but I am willing to bet a lot more stunts, and blitz packages. At least I hope and a more opportunistic secondary.

That would be my guess as well. I was finishing up college when Kane was there and wasn't into football schematics so much but I would be willing to bet he goes back to what made the D successful when he was playing. What was the difference between that system and the system we are currently using? Is it drastically different? I would like to say that we played a lot more man coverage when Kane was there but I could be wrong.

Kinda funny John K hasn't an answer to this ???? C'mon rainman,,,,, don't you remember ????

[John K]

I have heard that as of right now, Kane's scheme will be used and he is in charge. Marshall has been given a demotion of sorts and is only on staff (now in a limited role) because a prior deal with another team fell through. Kane was supposed to be the only DC after Marshall took the new job. The source is close to the situation and I have no reason to not believe them. That said, things can change and my source could be wrong but it makes sense. Let's pray that they will be using Kane's scheme and the "attitude" of the defense changes!! Go Cats!!

I hope you are correct. I wonder what changes Kane would do? My guess is nothing drastic ie move to 3-4 style but I am willing to bet a lot more stunts, and blitz packages. At least I hope and a more opportunistic secondary.

That would be my guess as well. I was finishing up college when Kane was there and wasn't into football schematics so much but I would be willing to bet he goes back to what made the D successful when he was playing. What was the difference between that system and the system we are currently using? Is it drastically different? I would like to say that we played a lot more man coverage when Kane was there but I could be wrong.

Kinda funny John K hasn't an answer to this ???? C'mon rainman,,,,, don't you remember ????

OK. I'll take the bait...sort of. I believe it's true that we played primarily man coverage during Kane's playing career. In fact , I think we played man coverage most of the time throughout the Kramer era. I don't understand the intricacies of defensive schemes enough to comment in any further detail than that, except I do remember that our secondary played hyper aggressively back in those days. But then again we could afford to do that because Joey Thomas was a shutdown corner who essentially took half the field away from our opponents. Besides Lulay's winning TD pass to Adams, the other thing that I particularly remember about the 2002 Cat-Griz game when we ended "the streak", was the way our DB"S just absolutely abused UM's receivers, and that was probably the biggest factor in the game. Even after Kane and JT were gone though, it seems like Kramer's teams played a lot more man coverage, and played a lot more aggressively on defense in general, than we have under Ash/Marshall.

[codecat]

I love the promotion for Kane.

But I'll be the one to say it - if the Cats defense is as bad next year and/or the year after, do you guys run him out of town like you all wanted Marshall out?

Just in 2012, the Cats had the #1 scoring defense. In 2013, we slipped to 6th, and last year we fell to the 9th.

What is the acceptable level of defensive play? Marshall has had some great defenses, but last year's was the worst I've ever seen from a Cat defense.

Everyone kept saying the talent was there but the scheme was not. So if Ioane calls the shots and implements his scheme but we still finish near the bottom in all of FCS again, I wonder if people will just change their tune to saying the talent isn't there.

The majority on here thought Marshall was the problem and solely the problem, so we'll find out soon enough if that is true I suppose.

Great post. I think the only fair way to do a comparison\evaluation is IF Kane ends up in the role for several years, we'll need to look back and see if his defenses led the Big Sky in total defense and scoring defense roughly half the time. That's not easy to do, so we'll see. If not, one could argue he fell short of what JM was able to do. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Like both of these posts! One of the things Kane brings to the DC position is some fire/spirit that we seem to be lacking and a different perspective than Jamie Marshall to breath some new life into the defense (although we will have to wait and see just how the two differ in philosophy). I'd like to think that Ioane was able to speak up and have a strong influence in our past defenses, at least with regards to how the abilities of his LB's matched up with the schemes. If he didn't or was unable to, I would have to question that. On the other hand, visible fire in a coach isn't all that some build it up to be - the most recent case in point would be Chris Klieman who served as DC for NDSU in 2012 & 2013, and as HC in 2014 who is even more expressionless on the sidelines as coach Ash is.

[91catAlum]

I love the promotion for Kane.

But I'll be the one to say it - if the Cats defense is as bad next year and/or the year after, do you guys run him out of town like you all wanted Marshall out?

Just in 2012, the Cats had the #1 scoring defense. In 2013, we slipped to 6th, and last year we fell to the 9th.

What is the acceptable level of defensive play? Marshall has had some great defenses, but last year's was the worst I've ever seen from a Cat defense.

Everyone kept saying the talent was there but the scheme was not. So if Ioane calls the shots and implements his scheme but we still finish near the bottom in all of FCS again, I wonder if people will just change their tune to saying the talent isn't there.

The majority on here thought Marshall was the problem and solely the problem, so we'll find out soon enough if that is true I suppose.

Great post. I think the only fair way to do a comparison\evaluation is IF Kane ends up in the role for several years, we'll need to look back and see if his defenses led the Big Sky in total defense and scoring defense roughly half the time. That's not easy to do, so we'll see. If not, one could argue he fell short of what JM was able to do. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I don't think we necessarily need to lead the league half the time to consider it an improvement. What if we're in the top 3 80% of the time and we're never again last in the nation? To me, that would be improvement as well.

[LongTimeCatFan]

One thought popped into my head:

The coordinators basically didn't actively recruit.

Kane, Beck, and McEndoo are the three best recruiters we have. My hope is Kane continues to hit the recruiting trail with the added duties of coordinator

[VimSince03]

One thought popped into my head:

The coordinators basically didn't actively recruit.

Kane, Beck, and McEndoo are the three best recruiters we have. My hope is Kane continues to hit the recruiting trail with the added duties of coordinator

That is not necessarily true. Cramsey has been hitting the recruiting trail hard this offseason and Marshall has done the same in years past. Each coach has a territory and they all recruit that territory. Kane just isn't going to stop recruiting California. And Cramsey isn't going to stop recruiting his territory either. The only guy who basically doesn't hit the road hard (until in-home visits) is Coach Ash.

[LongTimeCatFan]

One thought popped into my head:

The coordinators basically didn't actively recruit.

Kane, Beck, and McEndoo are the three best recruiters we have. My hope is Kane continues to hit the recruiting trail with the added duties of coordinator

That is not necessarily true. Cramsey has been hitting the recruiting trail hard this offseason and Marshall has done the same in years past. Each coach has a territory and they all recruit that territory. Kane just isn't going to stop recruiting California. And Cramsey isn't going to stop recruiting his territory either. The only guy who basically doesn't hit the road hard (until in-home visits) is Coach Ash.

I could look it up, but that's not what was stated in one of last year's recruiting articles

[VimSince03]

One thought popped into my head:

The coordinators basically didn't actively recruit.

Kane, Beck, and McEndoo are the three best recruiters we have. My hope is Kane continues to hit the recruiting trail with the added duties of coordinator

That is not necessarily true. Cramsey has been hitting the recruiting trail hard this offseason and Marshall has done the same in years past. Each coach has a territory and they all recruit that territory. Kane just isn't going to stop recruiting California. And Cramsey isn't going to stop recruiting his territory either. The only guy who basically doesn't hit the road hard (until in-home visits) is Coach Ash.

I could look it up, but that's not what was stated in one of last year's recruiting articles

I also remember in the articles that each coach has a territory and they recruit that territory.

[catsfan_769273]

Mabey that will be enough to make the defence more aggressive. You can never call to many blitzes. With any luck he migh convince them to mix up the formations and plays.