First if this is too long…don’t read it……second slow down on declaring the program DOA for 2019.
Reality is this was a 7-5 team that deserved to be 7-5 and overachieved the year before. Year 3 is always critical when you had a program as far down as this one was and in need of a culture change.
Designating gloom based on guys who have never played in a CFB game is over zealous at the very least. Recruiting is important but there are lots of misses and the OLine is notoriously hard to project. So the difference between 2 star and 4 star linemen is compressed because of the high degree of “misses”…..see Jahir Jones ( a mauler), Bar Milo (too athletic to miss on) ….. or Ryan Clady (too skinny), Josh Sitton (not athletic) or Alex Mack (frame is too small) on the other side.
Guys like Tarquin who was a flip waiting to happen and last year’s haul was good….so you can afford to take some high upside kids especially on the OLine. Anyone who thought 2020 class was going to stick as it was is just not up to date with todays kids. Brownlee was borderline and I doubt people are losing sleep over that. Brooks stings but there some kids want to look openly…and who knows if he recommits or where he signs in the end. In the end Brooks is the only one that might hurt some.
The nature of getting high end kids in today’s world is that most of them are undecided to the end and you have to have big boy pants to play at the level in todays world. Seldom do 5 star high end kids go wire to wire to signing day with a committment. This place will be hugely different if we close with Stevenson, Bogle, Haselwood, Brooks, ElGammal, Asa Martin, Summerall, Zipperer, Tommy Kennedy, and the Temple QB commit…….but no one knows until the end……
IMHO a lot of what is happening now was going to happen and much needed to happen. That does not mean more things do not need to happen….they do. Manny Diaz was going to get his shot at being a HC and was never going to be Bud Foster of Miami. Likely some others will go with him….it is turnover…it happens.
The cancer that is Jeff Thomas needed to go for the greater good….likely some others need to go also…it is called accountability and it is a cultural change.
The culture is changing and sometimes that hurts. The level of facilities is no where near what it was and continues to get better. The commitment is greater than ever. The results will come…does not mean there are not hard issues to deal with.
The issues here are QB play which is poor and O Line play, ineffective results from the Offense, and poor recruiting from some spots.
The decisions are easy to see and tough to make…we will see if we have a CEO of the University or a guy too loyal/stubborn/nieve/nice, ….to be elite.
I have no doubt that we will get a really good DC….I have much doubt about the other obvious needs being taken care of………..we need to take a QB every cycle and target upside in 2019 class IMHO……….Searles is not effective and needs to be replaced, we need an OC and Jon Richt is not good at what he does. We will see what happens…but those things NEED to happen.
Those are obvious…the other “stuff”, decommits”, “2020 decommits”, Jeff Thomas, guys leaving for the NFL, Perry’s immaturity (he will grow up, you can see it happening)…are all just stuff…and likely things happening for the better…..but Searles and Jon Richt need to be replaced or reassigned, and we need not just a DC but an OC to fill two spots..OC and CEO.
Reality is this was a 7-5 team that deserved to be 7-5 and overachieved the year before. Year 3 is always critical when you had a program as far down as this one was and in need of a culture change.
Designating gloom based on guys who have never played in a CFB game is over zealous at the very least. Recruiting is important but there are lots of misses and the OLine is notoriously hard to project. So the difference between 2 star and 4 star linemen is compressed because of the high degree of “misses”…..see Jahir Jones ( a mauler), Bar Milo (too athletic to miss on) ….. or Ryan Clady (too skinny), Josh Sitton (not athletic) or Alex Mack (frame is too small) on the other side.
Guys like Tarquin who was a flip waiting to happen and last year’s haul was good….so you can afford to take some high upside kids especially on the OLine. Anyone who thought 2020 class was going to stick as it was is just not up to date with todays kids. Brownlee was borderline and I doubt people are losing sleep over that. Brooks stings but there some kids want to look openly…and who knows if he recommits or where he signs in the end. In the end Brooks is the only one that might hurt some.
The nature of getting high end kids in today’s world is that most of them are undecided to the end and you have to have big boy pants to play at the level in todays world. Seldom do 5 star high end kids go wire to wire to signing day with a committment. This place will be hugely different if we close with Stevenson, Bogle, Haselwood, Brooks, ElGammal, Asa Martin, Summerall, Zipperer, Tommy Kennedy, and the Temple QB commit…….but no one knows until the end……
IMHO a lot of what is happening now was going to happen and much needed to happen. That does not mean more things do not need to happen….they do. Manny Diaz was going to get his shot at being a HC and was never going to be Bud Foster of Miami. Likely some others will go with him….it is turnover…it happens.
The cancer that is Jeff Thomas needed to go for the greater good….likely some others need to go also…it is called accountability and it is a cultural change.
The culture is changing and sometimes that hurts. The level of facilities is no where near what it was and continues to get better. The commitment is greater than ever. The results will come…does not mean there are not hard issues to deal with.
The issues here are QB play which is poor and O Line play, ineffective results from the Offense, and poor recruiting from some spots.
The decisions are easy to see and tough to make…we will see if we have a CEO of the University or a guy too loyal/stubborn/nieve/nice, ….to be elite.
I have no doubt that we will get a really good DC….I have much doubt about the other obvious needs being taken care of………..we need to take a QB every cycle and target upside in 2019 class IMHO……….Searles is not effective and needs to be replaced, we need an OC and Jon Richt is not good at what he does. We will see what happens…but those things NEED to happen.
Those are obvious…the other “stuff”, decommits”, “2020 decommits”, Jeff Thomas, guys leaving for the NFL, Perry’s immaturity (he will grow up, you can see it happening)…are all just stuff…and likely things happening for the better…..but Searles and Jon Richt need to be replaced or reassigned, and we need not just a DC but an OC to fill two spots..OC and CEO.
