The issue is this is who Billy is as a coach. He will play it close to the vest and conservative with a lead. I don’t see that part of him changing even if we give him another year. And it is that part of his coaching philosophy that has cost him games in the past and will cost him games in the future. The big problem I have with coaching like that is it will always give the opposing team a chance to get back into the game if anything goes wrong.
Yeah, they are still a playoff team at this point and have a chance to play their way out of this bullshit
Just to end the dialogue, here it is. Sam Kinison (RIP) was an 80s comedian who was famous for speaking in a calm tone and then suddenly coming unhinged and screaming at the audience, much like that clip from Back to School I posted. Bo Pelini, like Muschamp, would also suddenly come unhinged and start screaming in frustration. Unlike Muschamp, Pelini bore a resemblance to Kinison when he would start coming unhinged. That’s it. Nothing deeper than that.
I think Billy started out in over his head. I also think he can learn on the job and ultimately be a good head coach. The question is, are we better off giving him more time to make that happen, or do we flush our 4th coach in 10 years and hope we strike gold with the 5th? If he can just show signs of improving I’d vote to keep him around a little longer. We know that the 2 teams we’ve lost to are proving to be damn good teams
I consider myself lucky to have seen Sam Kinison live in Pensacola at the old Bayfront Auditorium. He was hilarious and it was a night I’ll never forget. Back in the eighties I saw three of my four favorite comedians, Sam, Eddie Murphy and George Carlin but I never got to see the one I consider the king, Richard Pryor.
It is not just the head coach, but also the quality of his assistants. It seems a lot of coaches can’t grasp that.
I tend to agree with you, but with the remaining schedule it's going to be really hard to salvage more than 2 wins, if that. Circumstances just don't seem to be in his favor, but I sure understand the issue of once again trying to find another coach who MAY be the answer.
I don't know. I imagine it is hard not to play to shorten the game with a big lead until you develop a sense of trust in the defense to not blow coverages or miss tackles/assignments. I am not saying that's the way it should be, but I can at least understand why coach would approach the game like that. We all feel that under the surface there is that terrible D just waiting to show its face again. In the end, the only real metric that counts is the W. We made UCF spend 8 minutes of the 3rd qtr to get 3 points. That was a big win for the Defense, though I think we all agree we would have preferred a 3 and out. Offensively, we didn't really have many opportunities in the second half and, as much as I like Mertz, the O production ceiling simply is lower to what can be done with Lagway in the game. Mertz's deep ball accuracy is very suspect. DJ had what, one possession in the second half?
It's weird. This time yesterday, a bunch of fans said UCF was going to run it down our throats. Today the same folks are saying "Yeh, but..." We beat expectations. Our defense in particular, which has been our Achille's heel. Take some joy in it.
If your defense is porous, isn’t the best thing to do is try to outscore the opposing team? We seem to go into a conservative shell at times and go away from what is working. I agree with you about DJ over Mertz. DJ gives the offense a dimension that Mertz doesn’t, which forces the defense to loosen up and stop stacking the box. The issue I have with the QB rotation is there is no feel for how each QB is doing at the time. There are times Mertz is struggling, and DJ gets his scheduled possession and leads the offense down the field and scores, then Mertz is back out the next possession. Then Mertz has the offense humming and is pulled out for DJ to get his scheduled possession. It’s the lack of flexibility in decision making that gets me.
