Are we weary of the mea culpas? Ok, so now we really mean it. It ain’t mid September anymore. Guess it’s time to bayonet the wounded.
I repeat what I wrote the day after the VT loss. Coach Taggart treated the loss against VT as a series of correctable mistakes that would disappear over time and I suggested that something might be systemically wrong with this team. I wasnt’t sure. At that time, I did not know (as many others suggested) if it was a culture issue with the team having a hangover from 2017, or if this coaching staff was ill equipped to either work together or to put in the necessary steps to violently change that inherited culture. After yesterday, I concluded we have both. Yes there is a culture problem on this team that Taggart inherited. But I ask - Is he either unable to change it, or have the assistants to change it, or doesn’t have the will to change it? He is now going to find the quitters. Interesting. Posters on this board - many of whom were trashed as being too negative - must find it amusing as they were giving names for some time.
I believe that it was Ira a few weeks ago that focused on the lack of discipline. Look at this team. If you didn’t go to FSU, what do you see? What are the optics? Yes - Fans hate to lose. And fans really hate to see a team lose in a way that shows an extreme lack of attention to detail. And then fans really really hate to see the players of the undisciplined losing team seem to merely go through the motions. Yes there is a hangover. Yes we saw this against GT in 2015, UNC in 2016 and UL in 2017.
The music. The dancing. The backpack. It’s so .........feminine. Like watching a group of sorority girls that giggle loudly in public. How can you man up when you are wearing some pink bag on your back? That is on Willie. That has been his game plan to change the culture. He is asking the team to buy into the new system. A real man would force it. Someone once commented about the difference between Vince Lombardi and another coach. The player answered that he would give his right arm for the other coach, but Lombardi would just rip it off.
Everyone praises the success of Alabama but few have the guts to execute Saban’s whole plan. They think it’s just recruiting. Ex players would tell you the toughest day of the week was not Saturday, but Tuesday practice. They play on Saturday in the same uniforms they always wore. They go out and get it done.
When a new leader tries to change the culture of an organization and begins the process softly, it is almost impossible to “tighten the screws”. The only way - as others have suggested - is to take some very visible action. Both Wake Forest and OU fired their DC’s mid season. Clemson fired its head coach mid season and gave a battlefield promotion to that unknown guy Dabo Sweeney. If there are truly some players who quit - you can’t just put them on the bench - you have to get them out of the locker room. Sweeney had a revolving door of assistants. Some wonder if some of Willie’s hires could have gotten a similar job at another program.
I agree that recruiting is critically important. The star system has put a tangible evaluation tool on something that is really much more complex. And we fans have gotten drunk on the ratings. But other teams are getting players with better character. Other teams are getting tough guys. We should have recruited that group of real men that parachuted onto the field. You think any of our players would want to mess with them?
Sorry for venting.
I repeat what I wrote the day after the VT loss. Coach Taggart treated the loss against VT as a series of correctable mistakes that would disappear over time and I suggested that something might be systemically wrong with this team. I wasnt’t sure. At that time, I did not know (as many others suggested) if it was a culture issue with the team having a hangover from 2017, or if this coaching staff was ill equipped to either work together or to put in the necessary steps to violently change that inherited culture. After yesterday, I concluded we have both. Yes there is a culture problem on this team that Taggart inherited. But I ask - Is he either unable to change it, or have the assistants to change it, or doesn’t have the will to change it? He is now going to find the quitters. Interesting. Posters on this board - many of whom were trashed as being too negative - must find it amusing as they were giving names for some time.
I believe that it was Ira a few weeks ago that focused on the lack of discipline. Look at this team. If you didn’t go to FSU, what do you see? What are the optics? Yes - Fans hate to lose. And fans really hate to see a team lose in a way that shows an extreme lack of attention to detail. And then fans really really hate to see the players of the undisciplined losing team seem to merely go through the motions. Yes there is a hangover. Yes we saw this against GT in 2015, UNC in 2016 and UL in 2017.
The music. The dancing. The backpack. It’s so .........feminine. Like watching a group of sorority girls that giggle loudly in public. How can you man up when you are wearing some pink bag on your back? That is on Willie. That has been his game plan to change the culture. He is asking the team to buy into the new system. A real man would force it. Someone once commented about the difference between Vince Lombardi and another coach. The player answered that he would give his right arm for the other coach, but Lombardi would just rip it off.
Everyone praises the success of Alabama but few have the guts to execute Saban’s whole plan. They think it’s just recruiting. Ex players would tell you the toughest day of the week was not Saturday, but Tuesday practice. They play on Saturday in the same uniforms they always wore. They go out and get it done.
When a new leader tries to change the culture of an organization and begins the process softly, it is almost impossible to “tighten the screws”. The only way - as others have suggested - is to take some very visible action. Both Wake Forest and OU fired their DC’s mid season. Clemson fired its head coach mid season and gave a battlefield promotion to that unknown guy Dabo Sweeney. If there are truly some players who quit - you can’t just put them on the bench - you have to get them out of the locker room. Sweeney had a revolving door of assistants. Some wonder if some of Willie’s hires could have gotten a similar job at another program.
I agree that recruiting is critically important. The star system has put a tangible evaluation tool on something that is really much more complex. And we fans have gotten drunk on the ratings. But other teams are getting players with better character. Other teams are getting tough guys. We should have recruited that group of real men that parachuted onto the field. You think any of our players would want to mess with them?
Sorry for venting.
