With all due respect, you are cherry picking. ST have been excellent ever since LW took over….and also in the early KF era. Jones, ISM, kickers, net yardage.
If it’s the players that make the coach in LW’s case (your citing Tory and coop), why why doe SW get the credit Higgins, Campbell, jewel. They all won the genetic lottery.
This more than resume. That title was there for LW at other P5s.
There is always an x's and o's and jimmy and joe kind of thing right? And who knows who should really get credit for that stuff?
The way I look at it though is that offense is on the field for like 70-80 plays per game. Defense the same. BF was the offensive coordinator and his job was to coordinate the offense, everything that goes into it in order to have a functional unit. That was play calling, play design, positional coaching details, etc. It could have been a player or coach that screwed up, but ultimately he lost his job, as he should have, because the offense sucked. Conversely, PP gets all the credit for a fantastic defense because it is his job to coordinate it and make sure there is a functional unit, and there has been for quite some time. And both are on display for the majority of the game.
Now special teams, what are they on the field for, maybe 20-25 plays per game. Punting, punt coverage, field goal kicking, kick offs, kick off coverage, field goal kicking defense? The #1 thing when it comes to special teams, outside of the field goal kicker and the punter, is to just not make a mistake. Don't miss an assignment, miss a lane, turn the ball over if you are a returner, don't commit a penalty, etc. Second thing if you are not making a mistake is trying to make plays, like blocking kicks, running kicks back, etc. It is LW's job to coordinate the special teams, just like the OC and the DC. And when you look at the games I mentioned, the special teams made mistakes in the much fewer opportunities than the defense and the offense had. And I am not just talking about letting the Michigan kid run the punt back. What about all of the blocks in the back that were called on us late in the year, or the out of position blockers on punt return team? Like CDJ's return against Minnesota, as great as it was and and all-timer, it shouldn't have gotten called back because of the whole motion thing, it could have gotten called back because of the kid that ran himself out of bounds. Or the kid that ran in front of CDJ against PSU. There are quite a few instances in a small sample size that are a lack of detail that results in mistakes that shift the balance of the game that was already extremely marginal anyway. That is LW's job. I am not saying he is doing a bad job, I am saying that he could do better, and in my opinion before he starts whining about not being an assistant coach I would say focus on your job.
Now SW, look back at the linebackers and count how many times that the competitive balance shifted because a linebacker made a mistake or was out of position. Look at Nick Jackson, an already good linebacker at another school that became great before our eyes, but he didn't start that way. SW has by all accounts done a very solid job.
