Well, I was at the QB club today, so maybe I can help clear up some things (and, perhaps, add some things).
First of all, I have to give Randy a lot of credit for the way he handled himself. He was very open to ALL questions. He clearly wants to win as bad as anyone and is just as clearly very frustrated with what has been transpiring on the field. The thing that he was OBVIOUSLY concerned about was not tearing into players in public; and by way of extension, not being quoted or "spun" into saying things that could hurt their confidence. I know...more on the talent thing in a minute.
He said one thing that shaped all of his comments: This football team lacks confidence and is waiting on bad things to happen. By the way, that is almost verbatim. Instead of laying on it on them, for better or worse, they are trying to take the ultra-positive route.
The question that started the talent issue was posed by a patron, who asked, "How do you think our personnel stacks up against the '98 team [I AM SO SICK AND TIRED OF THAT COMPARISON, by the way]?
The following is my best recollection of Sanders comments: Hmmmmmmmmmmmm
What do you think? Hmmm
I would say
there are probably
4 or 5 players that could start on that team
looking at both sides of the ball. Thats not to say we dont have good players now, cause we do. But you have to realize that the 98 and 99 teams were just super talented, in way that doesnt come along very often. We just happened to recruit a bunch of players in the right places that turned out to be exceptional. There are only 3 or 4 players off of those teams that arent playing in the NFL right now.
There were some other parts to the talent issue, many of which I would agree with. On the running game: We are accustomed to having running backs make people miss and run through some tackles. We just dont have that right now. When we had Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry, Charlie Garner, and some of those guys, we actually changed our schemes a little because we had those guys. We went up to Detroit to see how they were using Barry Sanders. What we started doing against 8 man fronts was to account for everyone except one man. The man that was left free, usually a LB or safety, we left to the RB. We knew that the RB could make one guy miss if we got it blocked everywhere else. Jamal would take people for a couple of yards at least. Sometimes, he would break it. You ought to look at the 4th quarter 98 Ark film. I could show you some tape of their safety, whos a great player in the NFL right now; and, I mean, he just flat out did not want to tackle Travis Henry anymore. What we have now, I mean, were just running two yards and getting tackled
So that is one of the things we have to do in recruiting is go get a top-flight tailback.
You can take some of that for what it is worth. I dont THINK Sanders meant to imply that we suck because our talent is way off, though I could certainly see how some would take it that way. I think he was trying to be as honest as possible.
Of course, some of his logic leads me to ask my standard questions: 1) what did you do with your dream team in 99? How many conference championships did you win during the span of Peyton through 99 (since those were the talent glory years you mentioned)? Why do you have to have first round draft choices at most every position in order to have a DECENT offense, when no one else has that talent either? When the NFLs leading rusher is not carrying the load, does that mean we should expect to be 75th in the NCAA in rushing? You get the drift.
More on this later
there was some other stuff.
Vol-Star
