Did Glasper make an impact defensively?

Regardless of whose story you believe, I would say the majority of fans think forcing Ryan Glasper back was the right football move for the 2006 defense. The team was coming off a bad loss and had narrowly won its other three games. In Glasper’s absence the team gave up an average of 433.75 yards a game and allowed an average of 24.5 points per game. After his return those averages dropped to 283 and 11.89 respectively. Case closed for TOB, right? Not exactly.

If you look a little deeper you'll see that the numbers were skewed by the quality of the opponents we faced with and without Glasper. Take a look:

Opponent	Off Rank National	Off Rank Conference	Total Offense against BC	Points Scored against BC
Central Michigan	24th	1st	354	24
Clemson*	9th	1st	499	33
BYU*	6th	1st	573	23
NC State	101st	10th	309	17

*Overtime game

No wonder the defense struggled. They had just faced the No. 1 offense in the ACC, the No. 1 offense in the Mountain West and the No. 1 offense in the MAC. Even with 11 Ryan Glaspers these games still would have been struggles for a defense. Now look at who we faced after Glasper returned:

Opponent	Off Rank National	Off Rank Conference	Total Offense against BC	Points Scored against BC
Maine**	80th*^	11th	199	0
Virginia Tech	47th	3rd	243	3
Florida State	54th	4th	375	19
Buffalo	99th	10th	116	0
Wake Forest	75th	6th	296	21
Duke	113th	12th	337	7
Maryland	79th	7th	331	16
Miami	89th	8th	247	17
Navy	33rd	NA	403	24

** DIAA opponent
*^ DIAA ranking

So did our defense get better in the second half? Yes. Did we also face less explosive offenses? Yes. Leadership and toughness are hard to measure. Glasper certainly brought those attributes back to our team, but you’ll have a hard time convincing me he was the reason our defensive numbers improved. I think Dunbar, Tribble, Herzy and Albright stepping up were probably bigger factors.

In my opinion the Navy game may be the most telling. According to Glasper, he finally felt 100% by the bowl. How did our D look against the Middies? Terrible. But Navy is a good offense. So once again the minute BC played a top 40 offense we went back to giving up over 400 yards and barely escaping with a win.

The ultimate stat in all of this is that we were 3-1 without Glasper and 7-2 with him. Yet we still ended up in a deadend bowl. Was it worth it? I don’t think so. We could have just as easily used him against this year's tougher schedule.

I also want to echo what many are saying about this whole incident and how it reflected on TOB. If our former coach had constantly played to win and preached a now is the time attitude something like rushing Glasper back would have been easier to swallow. Instead he seemingly exploited a loyal kid for nothing. We still had the same stubborn, frustrating and emotionless gameplans. We still lost to lameduck programs when everything was on the line. We still ended up in a 3rd tier bowl. If Glasper coming back felt like part of a bigger plan or a push to break through no one would begrudge TOB. Instead it comes off as a shortsighted, exploitative move by a coach who had mentally checked out.