HJS {l Wrote}:Hated Applebaum when he was here. I have zero doubt I’ll hate him the second time around. That said, a player’s coach like Hafley must’ve known how Mahogany and Kendall felt about Guges and Baum before making the switch. I think Chud could be excellent if he is all-in on the job.
That said, these are wildly uninspiring hires (which has been par for the course on the offensive side of the ball under Hafley). Assistants show a coach’s network. Hafley has none besides D. However, i am happy that this has been and will continue to be Hafley’s hand-built ship to go down with. If he (likely) fails, it won’t be because a meddling AD saddled him with coaches he didn’t want.
Hafley wasn't going to get any superstar hires being on the hot seat this year, as he wasn't going to get the $$$ to overcome that issue.
I can't imagine Hafley could do better than Applebaum. But just because the O-Line was disastrous last season doesn't mean it performed to expectations before that.
Presumably Chudzinski will tutor Shimko in his offense, so that Shimko can take over and expand on it in a year or two. I can understand you don't want to change the offense again if you survive this year. But is Shimko such a star that he's the one you choose to groom? Was he so much better than Gunnell, for example? I know Gunnell won't be asked to come back, but he surely picked up some tricks working under Chesney and his creative OC this year. This is where the Rutgers thing makes me wonder, why was Shimko kept around and Gunnell shunted off to RBs? We can say oh Shimko understands the X's and O's and that's not Gunnell's thing, but the coaching staff's Rutgers affinity would make me wonder if there are some shaded perspectives going on.
