According to 247Sports, North Carolina secondary coach Terry Joseph is on his way to South Bend. The New Orleans native is reportedly the new Notre Dame safeties coach, replacing the not-so-dearly-departed Mike Elko’s responsibility. Joseph boasts a track record as both a great coach and an elite recruiter. 247 ND beat guy Tom Loy and national guy Steve Wiltfong were on record earlier this week saying Joseph would be the guy; their work was confirmed by national guys today.
His cousin Vance is the head coach of the Denver Broncos; perhaps there will be some pull to the NFL at some point, but assistants rarely stick around long anyway. What’s certain for the immediate future is that Joseph has demonstrated success at both of the critical elements of his job. He has worked in the SEC, the Big Ten, and the ACC, and has improved his players at every stop. He also has strong recruiting ties to Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, and the Carolinas. I don’t know about you, but I’m sold already…
One thing that caught my eye is that Joseph has been a secondary coach at every previous stop. This is the first time he’ll be responsible for just one half of the defensive backfield. This move isn’t as lateral as it might seem at first.
Checking the Numbers
North Carolina slid back statistically from 2016 to 2017. They also had an injury list that made the 2014 Notre Dame team look completely healthy, so not much to take from that. The season before Joseph arrived at Texas A&M, the Aggies ranked 90th in pass efficiency defense. In his first year, 2014, they ranked 66th. In his second, they ranked 18th. In his third year they slid back a bit to 45th, but they were still respectable.
Not bad, right? But it’s just one stop… The year before he arrived in Nebraska, the Huskers ranked 34th in pass efficiency defense. In his first year, 2012, they ranked 9th. Yes, 9th; opponents completed a paltry 47% of their passes. In his second year they slid again to 46th, but they lost their best two DBs, who were 2-3 in tackles and 1-2 in interceptions in 2012. And their numbers were still solid.
Joseph followed Derek Dooley from Louisiana Tech to Tennessee, and served as secondary coach and recruiting coordinator at both stops.
Recruiting Prowess
247 shows Joseph as securing nine top 250 commits since he started at Tennessee; that includes the addition of five-star Speedy Noil at A&M. That might not sound like a lot, but for two programs that typically sign classes ranked from 15th to 25th it’s pretty damn good. And the key again is where Joseph’s connections are – he has deep roots in Louisiana and should help the Irish make serious inroads there. From his time at Tennessee and North Carolina, he also has ties around the Southeast. Not too shabby.
Great read Brendan. This guy seems good to me. Solid resume with both developing players and recruiting. I’ll take both of those please. I hope he’s a boisterous guy to counter Lea’s low key personality.
247’s Barton Simmons had some interesting comments about Joseph – it was on a premium board post, so I’m not going to copy and paste, but basically he thinks Joseph is a good fit philosophically and personality-wise with Lea and the rest of the staff.
What is your point in saying, “the move isn’t as lateral as it might seem”?
Poorly worded on my part, should’ve fleshed that out. It might seem like a purely lateral move on the surface, but I think it says something that he’s going from a Power 5 secondary coach position to a safeties coach position. So in terms of responsibility it’s not lateral, which would lead one to think that he sees the step up in prestige (and pay, no doubt) as significant enough to outweigh the slight downgrade in responsibility.
Ok, thanks.
Two first names. Don’t trust him.
What did it take for you to trust Brian Kelly?
Now we know why he can’t win here. This should’ve led off the newspaper ads last year.
They probably figured that it was too obvious.
He may have three first names like me, that makes us trustworthy!
Thanks for the write-up. Seems like a pretty solid hire – definitely more than my initial instinct about hiring UNC’s defensive backs coach.
Did UNC run a 4-2-5? This article seems to indicate so – http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2017/07/acc-media-day-defense
They ran a 4-2-5 under Chizik, but last year they were at least nominally a 4-3. I’m not sure there’s really a ton of difference in the approach, though; the guys on the SAM depth chart last year were 6-1/230 (Tranquill-sized) and 6-3/210 (Shayne Simon-sized). They also played a fair amount of nickel, I think.
That was kind of my thought too. Seems like a lot more the “base” package is pretty much moving towards being a nickel type set based on more spread offenses that put them on the field enough that they’re basically the base anyways.
I think the days of 4-3 are basically over. The third LB, even in the pros, is basically safety sized and just better in run support than the typical SS.