coach34 - question

[dawgday166]

It's not but we're still going to be replacing a ton of minutes. And while we aren't losing a ton of stars, in some ways that's more concerning. We have all these seniors that are solid but not real playmakers, and we don't have any stud underclassmen pushing for more minutes? We could potentially lose 4 starting OL. What guys do you see coming in and at least being equivalent to the guys not doing a great job now? On defense, what underclassmen do you see that you're thinking maybe should take over starter's minutes by the end of the year? Hell, which underclassmen are even getting significant minutes?

Defense could be a nightmare next year. We may need to pull half a dozen starters from the transfer portal.

Won't argue with this. Hard to tell right now. Mullen was good at developing over a 4 year cycle. In 2010 he inherited players from Croom, Croom's recruiting class, and supplemented with Juco players too. He inherited KJ Wright and 2009 recruiting haul landed Cox, Banks. 3 studs right there. Then he juco'd Chris White, another stud.

2018 team - offense had been mostly intact for 3 years and Hev was good at coaching Olinemen (he gets credit for that IMO). In 2016 that offense looked like a discombobulated mess quite often and we lost 1st game of the year to USA (which had only had a football program for 9 years). Mullen also had a core of D studs he had recruited that included Jeff Simmons, Willie Gay, Kobe Jones, Marquis Spencer, Errol Thompson, and supplemented his D with a big juco haul to add Montez Sweat, and to add depth and improve back end of D. Only Jeff Simmons was a 5 star on that D.

Leach has recruited some Olineman, some 4 star Dlinemen and a 4 star LB too. Can he develop those to be studs? Can he supplement via NIL or Juco for the missing pieces? Can Sawyer Robertson take over, pass as accurate as Will does most games and provide more mobility? All questions that are yet to be answered. And on paper it does look somewhat concerning for sure. Ultimately, Leach is the guy, he's turned programs around before, and he's done more with less moreso than even Mullen has. There may be a Preston Smith or BMac hiding somewhere in his recruiting classes right now that we just ain't seeing. Don't know yet, but he needs more time IMO to show us. Takes time to develop those types of players.

Also IMO, seems like all schools these days, regardless of past history, think a coach should come in and win at a minimum in 3 years. Unless it's a school like Bama, Clemson, Ohio State, FL, LSU, GA I just don't understand that myself unless someone inherits a team like the one JoMo inherited in 2018, and that is not the case in most coaching changes. It certainly wasn't in Leach's case. A 3 year turnaround is unrealistic in most all other cases.

I will admit we had chances to win 9 last year. I still think we have a chance at 8 this year. We can play a lot better than we did the other night. We have a lot of pretty good players but we don't have any stud horses and the schedule isn't doing us any favors either.

And then there's the fact that in our new politically correct world Leach may just say f*** it and take it to the house. To constantly be overly worried about something you might tweet that is not bad but misunderstood and hammered on or to be constantly worried about what you say at a presser might "hurt" some feelings ... well that ain't really Mike Leach.

[Catfish]

Good post. That's certainly true about hurting people's feelings now days. Coaches especially have to be careful what they say and do. Everybody's got a cell phone.

[coachnorm]

Are you going to the Texas A&M game. If so, I will have some digital content for you.

[Coach34]

I am not but I appreciate it. Working Friday nights (and some Saturdays) plus Sundays wont allow it now that I'm 5 hours away again.

[PMDawg]

Pretty sure C34 was paving the way to calling for leach's head. No way 9-3 was gonna happen

^this^