True. We were a few plays from being a 7 win team this year. Sneak out a bowl win and the entire feel changes, and what would have been the difference? A couple of plays. A couple of plays could just be having one more solid linebacker, o-lineman or safety.
Getting decimated by Kentucky two years in the row have done massive damages to the program. Can’t pass UK, almost a sure bet for bottom 1/4 of SEC.
Seems like a guy who had no problem coaching some of the players he coached on our championship teams….and you know who I’m talking about…would find his groove just fine with our current players.
I too want BN to succeed. But recognize that we also were a whisker from losing to the Gamecocks. We lost to a ridiculously bad Arkansas at home and an FSU team at home with their 3rd string QB. This game gets played both ways. The problem in my mind is when I ask the questions: - Do we beat the teams we should and steal a few from teams that are more talented? Not this year. - do I see us getting better thru the season? No last year and not this year. - Does it feel like the program is getting better coaching and talent? Only hope is this class and new hires. Somehow the well prepared get lucky and win. Personal fouls at critical times, special teams horror, and poorly timed play calls (trick plays on offense and giving up explosives on defense) do not scream well prepared. No hypothetical wins can change what we saw, and I hope BN does not think ‘we are a couple of plays away from success.’
So said fans of every team with a losing record. There are reasons why teams consistently just miss the mark. We have done that for two years now. It's a pattern at this point.
Seems that way, I’m afraid the GC can’t read the plans, and doesn’t know the codes to get the foundation even laid out right.
Most coaches believe that, imho, just a play here and play there and everything would be much better. When their stuff is not working they always think it’s just on the verge, of rolling. They live & work in a bubble, until it bursts.
If you watch much youth. and high school ball, you would clearly see that tackling is becoming a lost art. As bad as our open field tackling was this past season, it was probably the best we’ve had since 2017 or 18.
Coulda shoulda woulda been if he hadn’t decided he needed to retire to focus on his health and spend more time with his family, and then 11 months later decided he was all healthy and caught up with the wife and kids and ready to be the head coach at Tosu.
I don’t know if you know anyone who knows him, but he really was messed up when he left here. It sucks that he went back to work so quickly and we never fully recovered from him leaving us, but he needed the time off.
ETN was a freshman all SEC. Sure it's nice to have, but lets not pretend like being a team that probably started at least 2x true freshman over any other SEC program we had better have several make the list. What actually matters is those freshman all SEC become just plain old all SEC and are still at UF when they do it.
All positions addressed before the season with transfers. 2 OL, 2 LB, 1 S. The contributions of which could at best be described as inadequate.
I believe he had real issues to address, but him ending up at Tosu so quickly made his exit seem a lot more like he was fleeing the scene than seeking help.
Had he stuck with it he might have rivaled Saban for natties. Indeed, he was 2-1 vs Nick in games that mattered.
I know a couple guys that still talk to him regularly and my dad occasionally has interactions with him through work. He was a different guy after just a few months off. If we would have let him take 6 months or so when he first tried to quit, we might have been able to retain him. Pressuring him to stay through the next year really made things worse. He needed time away, not just a reduced load. Dude was broken.
Winning cures everything. Meyer is a winner and he would win big here again. If anything, the game has passed by slow building relationships and recruiting coaches like Billy.
Meyer had 4 jobs in college and was elite in all 4 of them. He didn't walk into anything. Also remember that the 08 national title team was mostly all Meyer recruits, not zook recruits.