My prediction thread on this incarnation of our beloved Maroons

[CadaverDawg]

A lack of relentless effort at any point this year = Mullen's seat is SCALDING HOT. Trust me. What happened last year is unacceptable on ANY level. We're ALL on the same page with that. Given context and what we know in hindsight, I can also understand how it happened LAST YEAR. Could you imagine how f'n frustrating it must have been to be Banks and Slay -- two guys trying to go out with a bang at a school they love and be EARLY round NFL talents -- that never got to go press man on anybody? How do you think they felt when Nickoe didn't show up for OTT help -- and made it look like they had just straight up gotten torched(Moncrief just scored again!!1!1)? How was it fair for Nickoe -- who was being asked to do more than was physically(and mentally) possible for him? Did you see his draft stock plummet because we weren't putting him in position to have success? What about the 2nd string guys at DT that no matter how they dominated in their snaps, they still spent the majority of the time sitting behind Cherrington? What about a tremendous rush LB(Wells) only getting unleashed a handful of times all year while having a guy that playing out of position in front of you that NEVER rushed and couldn't cover guys in the slot like he was being asked to do?

I can tell you this speaking from experience -- it's HARD to play with relentless effort when you think your coach is an idiot and is basically sabotaging your success... which I think we all feel about Wilson now given the time to look back on it...

It's just shortsighted and narrowminded to forget ALL of the tremendous effort we gave before all that. Remember 2009? 2010? 2011? Remember Trent Richardson talking about how hard and consistently we hit him in 2011?

I agree with everything you said EXCEPT for that it is "short sighted and narrow minded". If you know sports as well as I think you do, then you know that it is hard to break a mentality. ANd we lost the relentless effort mentality last year. Sometimes it is not just as easy as flipping a switch to get it back. Trust me, I THINK we can. And I THINK Collins will bring a whole new life to our D. And I THINK everything will turn out great. But until I KNOW that we have trashed that shitty mentality we had last year, I cannot sit here and predict 7-8 wins or more. I just can't.

Does that mean I won't be supporting them? Hell no that's not at all what Im saying....Hell, I think this is our most talented team since Sherrill's best. BUT, I guess I am just cautious until I see that last year was not contagious. If we have gotten back to the 2009 and 2010 mentality then we will be a VERY good team this year that can win 7, 8, or even 9 games.

There is no doubting the talent. It's whether or not the coaches can get that talent to reach it's potential and play for 4 quarters. We know it's possible because it was happening until last year. But will we do it? That's the big question.