66, that problem of "absolutely nothing" was valid in year 1 & 2 maybe year 3. No one has a problem with his early tenure, we understood what it would be like. The problem is its year 4 and we weren't much better and year 5 has the potential of being worse.
You say his first class, maybe 2 were busts; well that's on CDS and the staff. He missed evaluated talent or failed to develop it, take your pick. If a kid's a poor athlete that stinks it up on the college level, I'm not going to blame him for being bad. It's not his fault he doesn't have the skills to be here but someone still offered to pay his schooling.
I really think this is the #1 issue. It gets to the heart of the matter. We have both seen our fair share of coaches coming and going.
With a lot of these guys, say Dooley for instance...There was a guy who was in over his head. From the Charlie Baggett/DaRick deal, to all of his coaches leaving and on and on...a guy who thought he knew everything and too stubborn to admit he doesn't. He isn't the only one, he won't be the last...Raleigh was another...there's those kind of guys.
Then there's guys like Serrano. He admits, probably more than he should, that mistakes have been made, that we under achieved.
Now, when I reference those misses I also do it with the knowledge that he didn't just keep keeping on. He and Mo parted ways, some of it might have been differences of opinion on offensive philosophy, but it was also about recruiting and Mo was the recruiting coordinator. Some of it was personalities...The point is there was an issue, those guys were friends, it must have been a hard but he made the decision.
He brings in Aric Thomas and if you recall the type guys we brought in initially, the recruiting profile definitely changed, I think for the better, but to a certain degree the jury is still out.
So, no question, there wasn't much talent to begin with, then they missed, then tried to rectify the problem...one of two things can happen from a fan stand point.
I can look at the situation and say, well too bad, too little too late.
Or, I can look at the situation and say, well he's not standing pat, he's been willing to make changes, he's trying everything he knows to do and based on his resume and qualifications, I'm willing to give him more time than a guy like Dooley or Raleigh. He wants to be here, he wants to be successful and he knows what it looks like.
Now, if their are underlying issues that we don't know about, maybe I feel differently...no, not maybe, I would feel differently. Had the team quit after the TAMU series and mailed it in, I would feel differently.
Ultimately, if he doesn't take a step up next year it will be over and it will take the best coaching job of his career to pull it off.
I also look around at the other "new" head coaches, like Holbrook, and Strickland at UGA and Galloway at Auburn and from just an in state talent situation, those are all better jobs, I know Holbrook took over a good program, I'm not really familiar with the others. I do recall people here saying Strickland would have that program turned around in two years and they did sweep us, not sure that's what I'd call a turn around. It's a lot like football, it's hard to catch up.
