what's your take on him? bad head coach, good DC? or just bad coach all-around? How is he as a recruiter?
So, he's interesting. The South Carolina tenure had some interesting outliers. I don't think he's a bad choice as DC, but it just depends what version of him arrives.
I don't think he's a good head coach, but it's been because he could get existing talent to play somewhat well, but thing tailed, off, which is odd. He'd been a good DC and more often than not a good defensive HC, though his last South Carolina defense was surprisingly atrocious. He's only been a DC once since 2010, and that was a group at Auburn that had some talent but was surprisingly meh.
If he arrives fiery and can get that jolt into a defense, he can get them pretty good, I think. When they're not super talented, he goes bend-don't-break with the best of them. A lot of Cover-3 with a safety in the box and more cover-1 man free with better talent. They emphasize turnovers and bowing up in the red zone. His teams often play hard, so that's a plus.
He's traditionally considered a strong recruiter, both as assistant and as HC. He's the most SEC man alive, so he's not above the slime to a degree, not deep in it. He'll promise a kid he'll be around when he has not plans to be. He was traditionally seen as a guy who could both lang blue chips and ID sleepers. That took a hit as he managed to build a SC roster that rates much better by starz than by actual pieces. He used to be considered a game-changer on the trail, but I'd downgrade him to just a solid plus at this point.
