After giving up 38 points to an Oregon State team that had been averaging 17, I am officially done with Nick Holt being the defensive coordinator for UW football. This is Holt’s third year — normally a good threshold of time to give someone in sports to determine whether or not they are worth keeping around — and there has been little to no improvement in the UW defense. You are about to read all you need to know about why Nick Holt should be fired. I expect him to take it a little like this.
I realize that when Steve Sarkisian and his staff took over for Tyrone Willingham heading into the 2009 season, the cupboard was the definition of bare. Like, the bares can smell the menstruation bare. Willingham, who has a great cat (no link but Willingham was once asked how he copes with stress at home and he replied with, “we have a great cat”), struggled in recruiting big time defensive players. So Nick Holt’s first two seasons are basically with all Ty’s players, which would in theory be an excuse for sub-par play. But how sub-par can you be before you have to take a closer look at things? Holt got very close last season, when UW gave up 56 points and over 300 rushing yards at home against Nebraska, or giving up 44 at Arizona, or 41 at home against Stanford. But Holt won a lot of his critics over with the four game winning streak UW had to make and win a bowl game last season, in which UW gave up less than 13 points in all but one of those four games. Things looked great heading into this season, with Holt’s D hitting a stride and the guys he had recruited starting to develop in his system…
Enter this season, where all of that went down the crapper. UW’s defense has been atrocious this year. UW ranks 105th (out of 119) in points allowed this season, having had several terrible defensive performances. 504 yards allowed against Eastern Washington, 51 points (464 yards) allowed against Nebraska, 457 yards allowed against Cal, 65 points (615 yards) allowed against Stanford, 424 yards allowed against Arizona, 40 points (426 yards) allowed against USC, and Holt’s latest gem 38 points (484 yards) against Oregon State. That ticks out to a 430 yards per game allowed average. But how has Holt improved since he got here? Well, let’s see.
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