Minnesota fired their defensive coordinator today. They promoted his longtime buddy, their defensive line coach, to be the interim DC. While reading his bio, I was pretty sure that some of it was fabricated, so I decided to research it:
Claim: Rossi was at Maine from 2007-11 and took over as defensive coordinator after the 2008 season. Maine annually had one of the top defensive units in the Football Championship Subdivision under Rossi.
Reality: In 2009, the first season he was DC, Maine's defense finished 60th out of 118 teams. In 2010, they finished 60th out of 117 teams. In 2011, they finished 51st out of 120. This is in total defense, which is the commonly used statistic in ranking defenses. Even if you look at scoring defense, their national ranking is just as average. By no reasonable or logical measure can you claim any of his defenses in any of those years was "one of the top defensive units in FCS."
Claim: Rossi was the defensive coordinator from 2003-06 at Thiel College. In 2006, Thiel led the President's Athletic Conference in scoring defense, total defense, rush defense and pass defense.
Reality: Thiel finished behind Washington & Jefferson, a conference mate, in scoring defense both in conference games only and overall. Thiel finished behind Thomas More College, another conference mate, in both total defense and rushing defense (and they played the same amount of games, so it isn't a situation of cumulative vs. average). Out of the four claims, only one of them is true.
I know how these things work. Coaching bios are made originally by the coach or a school. Those bios tend to get copied, verbatim, with some additions by a new school. However, there is no verification of any of it. Many times, coaches will exaggerate and/or lie about their accomplishments. If the original SID, who is usually at a small school, doesn't check it, these claims go on for the coach's career. However, Minnesota has enough of a staff that they should be able to take fifteen minutes to verify this bullshit when a new coach is hired.
Any guesses on how long it will take Minnesota to change these lies now that I have called them out on it?
Claim: Rossi was at Maine from 2007-11 and took over as defensive coordinator after the 2008 season. Maine annually had one of the top defensive units in the Football Championship Subdivision under Rossi.
Reality: In 2009, the first season he was DC, Maine's defense finished 60th out of 118 teams. In 2010, they finished 60th out of 117 teams. In 2011, they finished 51st out of 120. This is in total defense, which is the commonly used statistic in ranking defenses. Even if you look at scoring defense, their national ranking is just as average. By no reasonable or logical measure can you claim any of his defenses in any of those years was "one of the top defensive units in FCS."
Claim: Rossi was the defensive coordinator from 2003-06 at Thiel College. In 2006, Thiel led the President's Athletic Conference in scoring defense, total defense, rush defense and pass defense.
Reality: Thiel finished behind Washington & Jefferson, a conference mate, in scoring defense both in conference games only and overall. Thiel finished behind Thomas More College, another conference mate, in both total defense and rushing defense (and they played the same amount of games, so it isn't a situation of cumulative vs. average). Out of the four claims, only one of them is true.
I know how these things work. Coaching bios are made originally by the coach or a school. Those bios tend to get copied, verbatim, with some additions by a new school. However, there is no verification of any of it. Many times, coaches will exaggerate and/or lie about their accomplishments. If the original SID, who is usually at a small school, doesn't check it, these claims go on for the coach's career. However, Minnesota has enough of a staff that they should be able to take fifteen minutes to verify this bullshit when a new coach is hired.
Any guesses on how long it will take Minnesota to change these lies now that I have called them out on it?
