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Make sure to vote in the new poll to the right on your opinion of this new hire.
Paul Johnson has hired Southern Miss LB Dave Wommack as our new DC. For the blindingly obvious fact of the day, that means our friend Jon Tenuta is moving on, and it means Giff Smith did not get the job even though he did interview for it. Now the question remains - will Giff remain on staff? Conventional wisdom is still a strong yes, but stay tuned.
From Wommack's biography:
"A veteran of 27 years of collegiate coaching, Dave Wommack returns to Southern Miss as the outside linebackers coach after serving the past two years at South Carolina, as the secondary coach in 2005 and last year as the outside linebackers coach. The Gamecocks finished with an 8-5 mark last season and defeated Houston, 44-36, in the Liberty Bowl and posted a 7-5 record his first year.
Wommack spent seven years at Southern Miss from 1994-2000, one of the most successful periods in Golden Eagle history. He was the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach in 1999 and 2000. He coached the outside linebackers in 2000, the middle and strong-side linebackers in 1999 and defensive backs from 1994-98.
"I'm looking forward to the opportunity of returning to Southern Miss and working for an outstanding head football coach, Jeff Bower, again," Wommack said. "It's an honor for me to be back in the Southern Miss and Hattiesburg community. My family and I enjoyed it very much when we were here earlier in my career. I am familiar with the defensive staff and the scheme that they run so, it should make the transition a smooth one. I look forward to getting started."
Southern Miss was a founding member of Conference USA in 1996 and won three of the first four championships (1996, 1997 and 1999). The Golden Eagle made four-straight bowl appearances from 1997-00, winning the 1997 and 1999 Liberty Bowls and the 2000 GMAC Bowl. All-Americans Cedric Scott and Leo Barnes were the defensive leaders.
As defensive coordinator, the 2000 defense finished second in the nation in total defense, eighth in scoring defense, fifth in pass defense and fourth in pass efficiency defense. The Golden Eagles collected an 8-4 record that season and won the GMAC Bowl, 28-21, over No. 13 TCU.
His 1999 defense was No. 7 in the nation in turnover margin and No. 8 in rushing defense, scoring defense and total defense. All-American Adalius Thomas and T.J. Slaughter were the defensive leaders. Southern Miss posted a 9-3 record that season and won its second Conference USA championship and won the Liberty Bowl, 23-17, over Colorado State.
The 1998 squad was No. 18 nationally in scoring defense and finished with a 7-5 record and made an appearance in the Humanitarian Bowl.
The 1997 Golden Eagle squad posted a 9-3 record and won the second Conference USA championship. Southern Miss defeated Pitt, 41-7, in the Liberty Bowl, the first bowl game for the Golden Eagles since 1990. All-American cornerback and Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain was No. 10 in the nation in interceptions and was drafted No. 44 in the NFL Draft. Defensive back Jamaal Alexander was a sixth-round pick.
The 1996 defense was No. 3 in turnover margin and No. 8 in rushing defense. Southern Miss ranked No. 7 in interceptions with 18, led by Surtain. The Golden Eagles posted an 8-3 record and shared the conference title with Houston.
During his first season at Southern Miss in 1994, the Golden Eagle secondary ranked second in the nation with 25 interceptions. Those interceptions contributed to the Golden Eagles' national-best 41 takeaways.
Prior to South Carolina, he spent a four-year stint at Arkansas from 2001-04, including the last three years as the defensive coordinator. He also coached the secondary, free safeties, cornerbacks and inside linebackers. The Razorbacks made appearances in the Music City Bowl (2002) and the Cotton Bowl (2001).
He also coached at UNLV as defensive coordinator from 1992-93, Southwest Missouri State as defensive coordinator from 1986-91, Bemidji State as defensive coordinator in 1985, two years as defensive line coach at Missouri, 1983-84, and four years at Arkansas (1979-82) as a graduate assistant, assistant strength and conditioning coach and the last two years as the wide receivers coach.
While at Missouri, the Tigers made appearances in the Holiday Bowl (1983). The Razorbacks made four-straight bowl games while Wommack was on staff, the 1980 Sugar Bowl, 1980 Hall of Fame Bowl, 1981 Gator Bowl and the 1982 Bluebonnet Bowl.
A 1974 graduate of Reeds Springs (Mo.) High School, Wommack was a three-year letterwinner (center) at Missouri Southern. He graduated with his bachelor's degree from Missouri Southern in 1978 and his master's degree from Arkansas in 1979.
The Kimberling City, Mo., native and his wife, the former Leslie Ann Wilkins, have two children, Kane and Hayley. "
21 comments:
Well, he's not Tenuta, but I'll support him until he proves to me that I shouldn't. Let's just hope that he can have the same style defense that JT did and blitz the HELL out of some outside linebackers!
I like what he did in the year 2000. Just imagine what he could do with GT style defensive players. However, do you think defensive recruits might be changing their minds too, now that Tenuta's out? My guess is yes.
I agree with chiclet. I loved JT's blitzing package. HOWEVER... JT didn't make adjustments very well and it was starting to become obvious to our opponents that the key to beating our D was quick, short passes. I think a tough, old-fashioned defense is in order, as long as it's built around the smaller and quicker defensive players that we tend to have. Tenuta's scheme really allowed our players to flourish. Let's hope wommak's scheme does that too.
Hold on a minute....The NYT has Wommack going to Arkansas as their new D-Line coach...I know the AJC is reporting Wommack is headed to Tech, but the NYT will print tomorrow that Wommack is headed to Ark.
boo i want tenuta, he is the man.
I will miss John and his exciting defensive schemes, but three things come to mind:
1) Paul Johnson must work with the defensive coordinator that he wants.
2) Matt Flynn and BC devoured Tenuta's defense like it was a free lunch.
3) Tenuta never beat Georgia. (Such painful words to write!)
Hopefully he will be a great addition, welcome aboard!!!!
I think it’s very frustrating, on another note, that we cannot seem to keep the best of the best. I suppose it’s part and parcel of being a mid-tier team, clearly we are not a top-tier team. I used to argue that we ARE or WERE top tier, but I suppose in reality we are not. It’s not the alumni’s fault, because I read that of the top 50 public university/institutes, GT alumni donated more money than any other….that’s pretty amazing considering we pump out about 1/3 the alumni of say UGA, FL, etc. Congrats to every one of our Alumni for contributing far more than any other school does…amazing, we should be proud!!!!
Yet, the number crunch game is perpetually the problem, I think. Imagine…the enrollment at UGA (just for example) is about 39k…ours is what about 14k? 25000 more students every year…let’s say then that half of all students graduate (to keep it simple). That means UGA pumps out 12500 more graduates every year than GT. Over the course of ten years, that’s 125000 more graduates… Now let’s estimate that half of all graduates are interested in football and support it by buying season tickets…that means UGA has about 62500 more people wanting season tickets JUST IN ALUMNI after ten years than GT…isn’t their stadium about 50000 bigger than ours?...coincidence?...I think not. Add to this number crunch supply and demand…they can now charge a hell of a lot more per seat than we do…because thousands of folks are waiting in line for them. Compound the number crunch with two last factors: It’s the state school, so every hayseed and most casual citizens have grown up saying “woof woof” since they were three…blind loyalty with the casual citizen…….if the casual citizen is a big time football fan, what’s more exciting than nearly 100,000 screaming fans? (hint: not 55000 sometimes screaming fans and the traffic of ATL).
What does all this mean? It means that the UGA’s of the world have TONS more resources with which to steal coaches and buy the best equipment and twice (or more) the fans to lure Athletes…all of which means…they are on a completely different tier than the Techs of the world. Have you ever looked at recruiting? UGA’s of the world average top 5 (or top 10 at the worst) ranked classes. Sure, we had one blip good recruiting year last year, but that was an aberration because of Calvin (in my opinion). Now we have lost Tenunua, likely to LSU…another top tier school.
How do the rest of you deal with this? Are you not all-or-nothing-it-kills-you-to-loose type folks? Are you hey-its-just-a-game-don’t-get-too-worked-up-about-it fans? I suggest that it’s not possible to be an all or nothing football fan and be a Tech grad at the same time……unless you like getting kicked in the face by richer schools on a regular basis. We have a flash in the pan when the stars align, and I AM very pleased with Paul Johnson coming on board……..but…….why do we have to loose great coaches to bigger schools?...how can we ever be ‘the best over the long haul’ as long as we loose the best of the best? I think we cannot….how do the rest of you guys make peace with this reality?
GO JACKETS…(I have to look at it as rooting for the perpetual underdog…which helps me feel a little better about things…but…I hate the realization that we are less than top tier and I cannot see how we ever can be for a long period of time.)
Anyone have any info on those "Tenuta to LSU" rumors? I've been dying to know about that, and with this announcement, it seems like much more of a possibility than it did just days ago.
We he certainly has the requisite experience and reasonably successful at that. Change is good - and I think over the long term everything will be fine on the flats - but I do suggest tempered expectations going into next season. I could be a long season of learning and adapting to new schemes and coaching on both sides of the ball.
Even if we recruit 3 star guys, it's going to be OK if they are the right guys. Johnson is a high class guy...will recruit high class hard working guys...redshirt them...keep them four years...graduate them...our 5th year 3 star guys will be able to man up UGA's 2nd year 4 star guys with hard work and maturity.
Also, our scheme is going to be a royal pain in the butt to prepare for. Hopefully our D will be tough as nails too.
let's GO JACKETS
First Reaction: WHO??!??!!!???
Reaction after reading about his credentials: Hey, this guy had two years with top 10 defenses AT SOUTHERN MISS of all places. Also has a ton of DC experience including Arkansas and Missouri. Has coached both secondary and linebackers, so has a good command of two critical components. Will be a good compliment and teacher for DL coach Giff, and we can keep Coach Jean-Mary as LB coach if Wommack takes the secondary.
Like PJ, this guy just appears to have been around for a long time winning football games.
One can't say anything definitively until you see the product on the field, but imo, this guy has impressive credentials.
I don't understand the disappointment with him. It's a very good hire. At worst he is solidly competent and there is a pretty good chance he is not a real downgrade from Tenuta.
First of all his D's at Southern Miss were clearly spectacular. And they played three major powers on the road each year plus two tough bowl opponents.
His numbers at Arkansas look worse than they really were are because of two games that combined for 13 OT's in 02 and 03 at Arkansas. The games were only 17-17 and 24-24 in regulation, but they were decided 38-41 and 71-63 (!!!!).
Take those OT's out and his first two D's there were top-25 caliber overall and roughly comparable to Tenuta's. Arkansas also certainly does not have elite talent.
Here's a url for an article when Wommack was fired at AR:
http://media.www.thetraveleronline.com/media/storage/paper688/news/2004/12/02/News/Wommack.Fired.From.Defense-818303.shtml
It appears he did a great job but in '04 he couldn't run the D he wanted to run because his young Arkansas players couldn't grasp half of what he wanted to run. The article insinuates he runs a complex, blitzing defense.
He will not have a problem with GT players figuring out how to run his defense, I guarantee that!
Whoops, what I meant to say was he seems to have done an excellent job PRIOR to the '04 season at Arkansas.
It looks like Nutt canned him in response to fan pressure and pressure from the AD so he could save his job. In other words, I think it's possible this move was more political than what Nutt really wanted to do.
It was definitely a political move. This guy's defenses are a lot "like" CJT's. He likes the blitz and he's a hit 'em in the mouth type of coach. He expects his players to be tough as nails and prove it on the field. I think GT will be ok. We just need to give him (and CPJ) time to get the players acclimated to the new schemes etc.
What I had figured would take place finally has. I wish Mr. Tenuta well in his future ambitions (especially Dec 31). I thought from the beginning that when Tenuta got passed over, his days at Tech were numbered. That got only stronger when considering the interest in him from LSU and others.
The best thing we can do for the football team is be patient. New coaches, new schemes, personnel changes...it's all going to take time...let's try to give them a couple years before we start having expectations.
Cool article on Rivals recently posted...
http://georgiatech.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=753069
Looks like PJ knows exactly what the fans want out of him here.
Next year is bound for excitement... the option hasnt been run since Joe Hamilton (which won the heisman)and i believe with nesbitt and dwyer it just might have a chance of working...and yes i loved JT and his blitz schemes but as someone said earlier, a good OC can pick us apart with short routes and draws...once we tighten up then teams would burn us deep on several plays...so the 90% blitz defense is really only affective on a team that runs the ball more than 75% of the time..but im excited to see what happens and im wondering is steven threet going to stay with the new offense? since sean renfree already backed out of his commitment..
Just nit-picking here but Little Joe didn't WIN the Heisman. He came in second to Ron Dayne.
Welcome to the Flats Mr Womack....TEAR 'EM UP!!!!!
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