4 first year guys in top 10 as of today 11/7 S. Dykes at TCU Lanning at OR Kelly at LSU Riley at SCw Given the success of these first year coaches - what are they doing "right" at their respective schools? are these guys doing things CBN should be doing right now? The teams at USCw and LSU were wrecks. USC had its worst record since 1991. The TCU story seems to me as the most impressive, but at OR there is a guy who was never a head coach and he is killing it. I do see that guys like Lincoln Riley have an OC with D1 significant experience. Interestingly, the OC at TCU is Riley's brother (Garrett Riley). Kelly has an OC. Napier has Rob Sale. Is he the guy going forward
Kelly and Lanning followed coaches that were known for their recruiting, so they inherited talent. CBN, not so much.
All of those schools, except of course LSU, would be .500 in the SEC. We've lost to 3 top 10 teams, and a tough L against a solid UK. We can discuss the ups and downs til we're blue in the face, but UT and LSU are better than we thought pre-season. If they were top 10 pre-season, we'd be thrilled right now with 4 losses. I'll take CBN over anyone on your list any day of the week. Regarding LSU - they have an elite QB right now. Without that QB, they lose to Auburn and likely to us, which would make them a 4 loss team vs our 3 losses.
Kelly inherited perhaps the single most challenging situation in all of college football, perhaps ever. He had 39 scholly players when he took over. He needed a solid HS class (that included the 2 stud starting O-tackles!) and 15 transfers to get a decent roster. LSU is still WAY under the 85 limit. I don't like the guy, but he deserves credit right now. Like I already mentioned, the key is having an elite QB....he has that.
Mac & Mullen also had successful first years. But neither one of them understood the long game required to build a successful foundation. We finally seem to have one that understands it and has a plan. I don’t know what the culture is like at any of the programs mentioned but outside of maybe LSU, our schedule was more challenging… and it’s not close.
He is. Until he plays a SEC school. There is a reason he ran to the minor leagues, and it had more to do than just $.
I agree. And Even Dykes took over a program that was pretty damn good not too long ago. Gary Patterson had a couple bad years at TCU, but by no means did he leave that team in shambles.
Today is just a snapshot. After week 1 Lanning and Kelly both sucked and Napier was king and AR was a Heisman candidate. Now Bo Nix and Jaden Daniels are all of a sudden “elite!” I don’t like giving out these mid-season awards because they mean nothing. Snapshots are snapshots. I like to pull the camera back and look at the big picture. Oregon and USC hasn’t played anybody and lost when they did play decent teams and on top of that, there are rumors of Lanning being interested in the Auburn job. LSU is set up nicely to get to the SEC Championship Game and get run outta building by UGA. TCU is intriguing, but how good is the Big XII when perennial doormats KSU and KU are tied for second and third place in their conference, respectively. Yes, I give these coaches credit for what they are doing currently, but I like our guy.
Kelly has always been an elite head coach. He's doing now what he simply couldn't while at Notre Dame because of Notre Dame's academic standards and traditions. I also agree about his quarterback being extremely gifted at his position. I'm OK with how we are doing with Coach Napier. Our recruiting has done a complete one-eighty from where it was. And...we saw what happened when he made the change on defense last week. Very encouraging! Excited to see what the rest of the season holds for us....
I agree with everything said here. It's easy to hate Kelly, but he wins. He won at Cincinnati, he won at Notre Dame, and he's going to win at LSU. I would be much more surprised to see Kelly flop than to see him take LSU back to the upper echelon. In no way is this a knock on Napier. But LSU paid for (and got) the surer thing. With Napier, perhaps the ceiling is higher, but we don't know yet.
What do all 4 of these teams have in common, besides new head coaches? Experience at QB. Bo Nix was a 3 year starter at Auburn before transferring to Oregon. Max Dugan started 29 games at TCU prior to this season. Jayden Daniels started 29 games at Arizona State before transferring to LSU. Caleb Williams started 7 games at Oklahoma (and played in all 13 games) before transferring to USCw, where he had the same head coach and the exact same offensive system, so no learning curve. Plus he was gifted the best wide receiver in the nation through NIL and the transfer portal. Napier, in contrast, inherited Anthony Richardson, who has enormous potential but had started all of ONE GAME prior to this season, and that game was against a historically great defense. AR also had to learn a new offensive system, and has no All-American (or even All-SEC) candidates at WR. You can look awfully good as a head coach with an experienced, talented QB. That, plus difference in schedules, makes the comparison of Napier’s situation to Riley, Kelly, Dykes and Lanning not exactly apples-to-apples.
Would not trade Coach Napier for anyone right now. Recruiting is rocking in the right direction. The one subtle thing (character) that I really like about Coach Napier, is the fact that he has been totally consistent when speaking about his plan. Right?...... I think he is gonna bring a Championsip (s) here with the Gators..... GO GATORS!!!!
