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Crossroad Comin' (Time to Face Facts)

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
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I know it seems "early", like I'm one of those fairweather fans that flips from support to panic in the course of a few games--but way I see it, it's a matter of not fooling ourselves: There's starting to be enough performance and observable results to focus in, at the very least ask the right questions--and act on the answers, not run from them.
I WAS gonna call this thread "Master of the Obvious"--referring to myself, 'cause the key point I'm about to make is obvious to all of us:
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO RECRUITING
...and our Coach and staff gotta get it right, BIGTIME, no-doubt-about-it/top-of-everyone's-list right from here on. Starting NOW, in order to be retained.
I am saying this calmly, without anger. I'm not calling for his head.
I am being as straight forward, unequivically serious about this as I can be.
I am not going to go on one of my rants here, not even gonna go on in lengthy analysis. No, gonna TRY and keep it simple--'cause in the final analysis, it really IS. This is what it takes, in my view--anything less just prolongs the agony of mediocrity and self-delusion.
In truth, I believe there are in fact THREE areas in which an incoming Head Coach can affect change and real success in the kind of time frame required at modern major college programs who have known relatively recent top-rung success from which they have precipatingly fallen.
Coach Mac I think HAS (1) the people and football skills that can build, motivate and run a team of talented young men.
It's the other two that are still open to question: Can he (2) recognize and gather together a group of talented, dedicated group of specialists in all areas of coaching, and engender among them the chemistry that produces that aura of seeming inevitability from which a program annually challenging for Championships seems to emerge?
And even more important (because the rest is for naught nowadays without it), can he and they together (3) consistently bring in TOP-level talent--not the "2nd choice", the almost-as-good, etc. but the very BEST, at least "the best fit" for what they envision doing, everywhere on the field--young high schoolers out there in our supposedly wide and fertile "traditional recruiting territories"?
It does not appear EITHER , #s (2) or (3), have been accomplished so far.
I don't wanna hear anymore excuses, reasons why it hasn't, (mainly having to do with "the short period of time since he arrived", "the down state of our program when he got here", "parrity in every area, from scholarship limits to facilities across the whole college football world")...Yes, all true--but others somehow face the same and pull it off. He's SUPPOSED to be one of THOSE guys!
So ok, excuse-time has elapsed: Show what you got, go out and GET IT DONE NOW--or I truly believe it will be time once again to begin thinking about who CAN, along with once again beginning our plot as to HOW and WHEN we can get them. If Mac's NOT the guy, then we are clearly doing even THIS improperly. Maybe that next AD is a more crucial decision, grab and hire than has been admitted or generally considered so far.
So back to "simple"...But how can we tell if that's what's happening if not to "trust him, wait a few more years and see..."?
Back to the original premise up top:
We MUST have what amount to "inarguably among the 2 or 3 best recruiting classes" on an annual basis, starting NOW. That's how the teams coming back into ATtention and CONtention now have managed it. That's how Urban Meyer got it done at UF, then Ohio State, how Saban has and continues to do so with the Tide on and on and blah blah blah. Yeah, you're damn RIGHT I'm stating the obvious, telling you what we all already know...so take the next step with me in reasoning this through: Either our Coach starts getting it done here and now, next chance he gets and repeatedly thereafter, get "SUCCESS" in the pipeline--or y'all buy the excuses and we get stuck here at "almost good", "week-to-week" and "maybe next year" until the wheel finally turns, enough folks get sick and tired of THIS version of "disappointment and frayed hopes"--and meanwhile we're further away and behind than ever.
While the rest of this season will likely further reveal the problems and weaknesses among his staff that have already begun to show, right along with our needs all over the field, both sides of the ball, and how our Head Coach deals with that will answer most of the rest of these questions, the next recruiting class will truly tell our future, maybe even more than is always the case anyway.
It will make or break his tenure here--and well it should. Either we ARE "about to rise", or it's PAST time to start thinking how, when and where to cut off the slow death--scrap it, tear it down and start again.
The cry has always been, "LETS GET THIS RIGHT!" Either we have, or we still need to. If we're not on track to be the best, lets talk about, more important lets DO, whatever we need to to get there.
Lets NOT go on fooling ourselves, no matter what.
 

Leakfan12

VIP Member
SEC East is winnable especially when Bama beats UT. Granted the Gators need to win out, I wished they delayed the game a day and played yesterday like UGA and S Carolina did. Now Fournette will be available for the game.
 

DRU2012

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Staff member
Super Moderator
Totally agree, and as I railed about a week ago when we could see this coming (and further highlighted in my most recent thread here, "We Are Shocked...!!!"--stirred to return to this topic when the same media f*cks who pressed for the "suspension" in solemn self-righteousness in the FIRST place, and of course now lead the hysterical charges concerning the inevitable complications that have resulted), now we either screw ourselves--or don't play the game at all.
There are various conspiracy theories thrown about--the worst are the ones coming from the moronic fools who comprise the LSU "fanbase" (ignorance AND arrogance in the same package are ALWAYS a worst-case scenario; how and why do they so often walk hand-in-hand?), they all tend to leave me torn between anger and laughter--but the one that I like best is where a supposedly "take one last big one for the team and program" J Foley had it planned this way all along: Forced to postpone and KNOWING he was gone soon anyway, in taking personal responsibility and manipulating forces, personalities and events, he walks away after having essentially delivering the Gators on the brink of having their fate delovered back into their own hands..
All that has to happen now is for Tennessee to lose to Alabama, then if we win out, Voila! With the better "winning percentage" than anyone else in the East WE are then SEC East Champs, heading for Atlanta (and maybe even a Final Four slot within grasp). OK, lotta "ifs" I'm not at ALL convimced we are capable of. And I won't even get INTO "deserve" at this point. "Justice" hasn't been an important component in college football for some time, lets face it.
 

Leakfan12

VIP Member
Florida made a very big mistake postponing the LSU game. 1. Gainesville wasn't that affected by the Hurricane as was East Coast of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas and 2. they lost a home game. LSU was tough enough at home and now they're going to death valley and with Fournette on the field. Guessing Foley is on the Screw it, I'm retiring mindset. I'm worried for this game.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Florida made a very big mistake postponing the LSU game. 1. Gainesville wasn't that affected by the Hurricane as was East Coast of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas and 2. they lost a home game. LSU was tough enough at home and now they're going to death valley and with Fournette on the field. Guessing Foley is on the Screw it, I'm retiring mindset. I'm worried for this game.
My theory is that Foley TRIED to "take one for the team", set things up to give us our best chance to put our destiny for this season back in our own hands while taking the rap for it with the media--and part of his "plan" included the idea that he could then just walk away, LSU, the media and all the rest screaming "Foul!!!" and him smiling the smile of "Fuck it. Fuck YOU."--but the rest of the UF administrative "decision-makers" booted it away outta pure "policiticians' paranoia".
Think about it: way things stood BEFORE this cave-in on the latters' part, our up-til-then refusal to hand 'em that home game meant from a practical POV that THEY wouldn't budge, the game wouldn't be played at all--and then with a Vols loss to Alabama our winning OUT would result in US having the best WINNING PERCENTAGE in the East and hence (by Conference rule) WE'D get the spot rep-ing the East in Atlanta in December. As I've often noted, that's a whole lotta "Ifs" that I've still little confidence we'll manage to negotiate, but at this point it would have been our one and ONLY chance at controlling our own fate.
But all moot now--the latest dumbass move in a dumbass season that has begun to reveal that we've just too MANY "Dumbasses" ON this ship--and damnit, they're IN CHARGE!!!
Of course, you're completely right in all the ways you note and MORE in the fact of our cancelling that game in the first place, not to mention the hows and whys that and subsequent decisions were made (for eg. Why not Sat. evening? Or if you insist on "playing it safe", Sunday??? And they go on and on from there...)
But all this just further develops an overall condition that has become more and more clear this season, our bumbling lack of attention-to-detail. To win at the highest levels of college football, indeed to succeed at the highest levels of ANY endeavor, you need EVERYONE of the highest caliber operating at maximum effort and efficiency in every interrelated area, with the highest attention-to-detail all the time, every step of the way. And NO ONE EVER LETS UP, right to the end. I don't like Nick Saban, but you KNOW, we all SEE he does things that way, all the time. And the guy we last won that way with, Urban Meyer, when he was focused and fully committed, that was how HE did it too (and now that he's in that groove again with the Poison Nuts, they're the OTHER team that even comes close).
Yeah, argue bout the PLAYERS they have, but just as was true from the moment Urban got HERE, he and his then-tight, talented and united-in-their-hyper-dedication staff were BUILDING that team from the ground up out on the recruiting trail.
I'm starting to fear that much as I LIKE Coach Mac, much as I trust his people-skills and football acumen, he doesn't have the strong staff of ambitious hard-chargers he can trust and deligate his overall plan to be relentlessly executed. He may well be another of these Good Coaches who think that that alone is enough, that he will "impose his WILL TO WIN", complete with a near-inflexible plan to achieve that, on whatever "pretty talented team" he ends up with after each NSD, etc...and that just isn't the way.
Oh you can end up with a "pretty good team" and "with a little luck" get close one season--but you don't build powerful programs that challenge for Championships on an annual basis that way.
So I'm watching these games, how we fare here AND on the recruiting trail (and these are not unrelated, of course), in order to judge if he's "THE Guy" after all.
And if he isn't, well, we might as well just grit our teeth, settle back and watch in frustration as the whole POLITICAL process plays out, slow death for ALL of us, another good-but-not-great-coach goes thru HIS hell while team and fans go through theirs and ours--and no guarantee it'll turn out any better next time.
So yeah--I sure HOPE it turns out Mac's got "it" and we see the important signs in play AND the subsequent gathering of further talent that the right people are in charge NOW. 'Cause otherwise, best case scenario is we are in for 2 or 3 YEARS of "worse before it gets better".
But even that is better than fooling ourselves even a moment longer.
 

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