By Mark Schmetzer
Enquirer contributor

OXFORD - Miami defensive line coach Brian George, the press-box booth half of the RedHawks' co-defensive coordinator system, was chuckling Friday at the question.

"I had a friend of the family ask if I was ever going to get promoted to being on the field," he said. "That wouldn't really be a promotion, but those are the guys you see on the TV cameras."

That George is content working from his perch with his on-field co-coordinator, defensive backs coach Joe Palcic, says a lot about how well the system is working in its first year.

The numbers say it better. Miami (6-3, 5-1 Mid-American Conference) was second among MAC teams in rushing, passing and total defense going into its game against Toledo Tuesday. The Rockets were first in the league in passing and total offense, but Miami held them to 203 yards passing, 120.4 below the average they brought into the game, and 380 yards of offense, 100.4 below their average.

"I thought, as coaches, that was our best game of the year," said Palcic, 30, a 1988 Miami graduate who's in his fifth season on the staff. "We made some good adjustments. (George) had some good insights in what they were trying to do running the football, and I thought I made some good adjustments in what they were trying to do with the pass. It's a good mix."

Said coach Terry Hoeppner: "It was a great job by our coaching staff in preparing the defense."

Hoeppner, hoping for continuity from a defense that ranked first in the MAC in stopping the pass and third overall in its only season under coordinator Pat Narduzzi last year, decided to keep the job in-house after Narduzzi left for Cincinnati. Hoeppner turned over the job to the most experienced members of his defensive staff.

The job is not as complicated as it might seem, Palcic said. Most of the defensive calls are down-and-distance decisions that are culled from choices hammered out earlier in the week. George, a 1984 Ohio graduate who's in his fourth season on the staff, is thinking ahead to the next play while Palcic is signaling in the current play's defense.

"We discuss it real fast and say, 'Hey, let's do it,' " said Palcic, who always has been on the field while George has been in the booth. "We've never had an argument on the field.

"One thing we'll never do is second-guess each other," he added. "Before we make a call, we have a chance to veto it, so if something doesn't work, we can't say we didn't have a chance to say no."

That's not to say there are no differences of opinions. The preparation meetings can get intense, but it was the same under one coordinator.

"Both ways have their advantages and disadvantages, but I think it's worked out pretty well," George said.