Hired by Mike Haywood as DC for Miami (OH). They were on the same staff here and at LSU. As much as we needed an upgrade during the later Reese years I'll give him credit for turning around our D post Mackovic. Good luck to him and Haywood...
I don't get the contempt Reese inspires with our fans. He had some duds (OU games), as did Robinson (only guy that couldn't seem to stop a Big 10 offense) and Chizak (KState was painful and set the tone for the next season for the D). His "mugging" of the linebackers was a running Hornfans joke, but really wasn't that different than what other D coordinators were doing. At his best, Reese had a best rated D since Fuller, and had some absolute gems (we didn't win in Lincoln the first time because of Ricky). He also coached under a "softer" Mack and MadDog. Sure, maybe some of that is his fault, but I'd love to see what he could do with a team with the work ethic Texas has taken on in the last several years. I wish him nothing but the best at Miami.
Count me in as a Bull fan. Agree it was time for him to go when he "resigned", but we matched up pretty well against then super-powerhouse Nebraska 2 out of 3...and in that Big XII Championship game that we lost to NU, I think it was more of our O's fault for that loss than the D's.
Remember when OSU racked up 35+ in ONE HALF, in AUSTIN, on Robinson? Fans completely forget duds like that when the O saves the day; Reese never had the benefit of that type of offense. His 2001 D had the best avg. per play (3.8 yds) and allowed 162 first downs (vs. 239 last year), his 2003 has 22 pics (last year we had 6). I'm not saying the change wasn't a good idea, sometimes it's just time. But the reconstruction of his performance as mediocre is just off the mark.
Reese understood how to stop a predominantly running team. He failed to understand the coming trend in the Big 12 of passing-first teams, (mostly the Tech games in his era.) He had to go. His failure to innovate against the pass doomed him. He was a great DC against UNL and Rice, as option teams. Today, his defensive schemes would be blown up. Times change- he did not. "Mugging" was not pretty. Good luck to him in the new age. That conference will be a good test for him.
Reese was perfect for the job until about 2002. If you remember, we led the country in total defense in 2001. And our 1999 defense was perhaps his most under-rated defense. That defense kept us in games we had no business in including 1999 Big 12 title game against Nebraska. After 2002, in over his head. Worst was the Tech game in 2002. We just couldn't get Tech off the field in that game. We had exactly 2 snaps in the 4Q of that pivotal game. 2 snaps in the 4th quarter. That's crazy.
Good luck to Bull. He did weave together a defense here where before there had been practically none.
I recall the phrase "mugging the linebackers," but I can't for the life of me remember what that is. Can someone elaborate?
I will take Coach Boom over Bull anyday of the week but the emphasis on speed that Bull brought was one of the most important changes in the program in a long time.
agree with majorwhiteapples on the speed. also, it seemed to me that what really hurt reese was that his time here coincided with major offensive overhauls at places like ou and then around the country. he didn't know how to scheme for the newer systems, it seemed.
In response to: "Reese understood how to stop a predominantly running team......" ______________________________________________ Harrumph! How about the OU game when Quentin Whatshisname ran for over 200 yards on THE SAME ******* DRAW PLAY RUN OVER AND OVER AND OVER? This was just as much a MB problem, as Mack didn't force an adjustment or overrule Reese.
I remember listening to Jeff Ward after the OU game where the reverses worked. Some guy with a great W. Texas accent called in: "Jeff, I was walkin' to my car and saw OU's offense in the parking lot. They ran the reverse and got another 25 yards!" Something about that killed me. Might have been the same guy who called in after OSU beat us in Makovic's last season (the season we all should have bought stock in goal post manufacturing). He said the problem was the Texas players were too pampered and shouldn't be put on plane to fly back to Austin, they should all be forced to ride in a "Yella Dawg bus" all the home. These recollections likely don't work as well in print as they do told out loud. I believe Reese was responsible for moving DD Lewis to defense. We actually had somebody on the TV screen when a play busted up the middle and sometimes he could make a tackle from behind. Big improvement over the year before where the middle would crack open and, on TV, it appeared there were no Texas players even on the field. Nightmare.
This thread/conversation sits well with me. I would just like to say, Reese was probably one of our better DC's under Mack, but thank goodness we had Greg Davis through them all.
1. Muschamp 2. Robinson (we let opponents run out to the 50 the last third of the season) 3. Chizik (good until he decided to start looking for a head job in 2006, also stubbornly stuck to a base 4-3) 4. Reese -- terrible against the spread. Not only would he mug, but he would have defenders line up against spread receivers at the line of scrimmage and just chase them -- not bump them to disrupt the timing, but chase them. Did well against option teams and fairly well against pro style 5. Akina (just awful as a DC)
