James Willis ... UL Defensive Coordinator

[Gueydanmayor]

Alright, I'll fess up and tell the truth. Willis stayed because he and his wife are Charter Members of the Greater Metropolitan Gueydan Monthly Zydeco Dance Club and just couldn't cut that sacred cord. You also ought to see him play the washboard with rhythmic style, movement and grace!

[axg8750]

Get real people, he is staying bc hud is leaving sooner than later and hud will take his assistants with him.

This was my first thought also.

[Boomer]

just looking back to the Offense---it looked like coach Johnson was gone last year --and I forgot the school---but Hud got him bumped up to $174-$200K i think!!!! Remember T Don Phillips was gone and at USM and returned---got a little extra something intangible in this town!!!

[CrappDaddy]

First off, Willis doesn't owe us or the university anything. He likely changed his mind bc he either decided this is where he wants to be or he got a nice pay raise. No other reason. The man has a living to make.

[Just1More]

Get real people, he is staying bc hud is leaving sooner than later and hud will take his assistants with him.

Did that revelation occur between his resignation and today? Something more happened between resignation day and today. I guess it would be nice to find that out, but if Hud is pleased with having Willis return, then I don't care if we find out the actual reasons Willis reversed engines or not.

I stand by my belief that he doesn't want to leave UL with that prevent defense we used as his legacy. And if that is the case, I'm very pleased by his decision to come back and rewrite that legacy.

[CAJUNTODD44]

I am very glad for the players on defense, they will not have to learn a new defensive scheme that could have slowed our progress

[chauncey]

HUD must have sold the program to him like he does to everyone else.
2014 will be Sweet for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns!!!! Cotton Bowl?
We will have the best team in the history of the program this year.

And then we are all hauling ___!

[Boomer]

Heck, that's 90% of the game right there.

---I haven't followed him closely but Whom did he recruit in his area and what impact did he have in swaying defensive kids especially LBs? Certainly not being derogatory but just wondering! I can tell you that this guy JULUKE from Tech seems to have recruited half of there guys the last 2 years!!! And he didn't have half the stuff going for them that we had except for the conference---But on the rivals or 24/7 it shows the recruiter and he is in all the areas of the state!!!

[Just1More]

I am very glad for the players on defense, they will not have to learn a new defensive scheme that could have slowed our progress

It may be a good thing that we're keeping Willis. But, I could care less if the defensive players have to learn new things to be better. Did our progress slow when we went from Bustle to Hud? Or Stewart to Willis?

Willis has much to prove at UL. I'm excited to see him do it. But to believe some serious cerebral work was done last year with our defense... is laughable.

[Just1More]

Who the hell knows how or why he got the job? I just know that FSU doesn't have a habit of hiring dummies for coaches. Evidently he wasn't the chump most of us wrote him off as.

You wrote him off as a chump? That's pretty harsh. I simply didn't like the defensive scheme we used last year. And I believe it had 5 times as much to do with Hud as it did Willis. I don't think either one are "chumps". I think they collaborated on a bad alternative defensive scheme. I don't expect to see it much this coming year. And hope to never see it again... unless it's by an opponent. But in fact, I don't ever see it used as the predominant defense by a single team in the FBS. And they all can't be wrong... can they? No worries... you won't see it next year.