After reading some of these threads over the weekend, it's pretty apparent that many here don't listen to our coach even though he has repeated the same lines over and over again ad nausem. If you are one of the ones calling this loss to Mississippi St. "inexcusable" or say we "should never lose to a team like Miss St."; this is for you.
Understand this. Building a winning college football program is completely different from the NFL. If you don't have a competent QB, you can't go out and sign Drew Brees in free agency. If you need a tackle, you can't just pick up Steve Hutchinson. You can't trade a future scholarship for Randy Moss and suddenly have the most potent offense in football.
In college football, you must recognize what type of player fits the systems that you want to implement. You then have to scout hundreds of players in sometimes rural places with little video and no actual live game scouting. You then have to decide which players are worth taking a chance on and offer them a scholarship and spend countless hours contacting them and trying to convince them that your school is the right one to attend and you have to make sure they attitude towards football and education.
When they get on campus, for many of them you must start teaching them the proper fundamentals of the position they will be playing. You have to develop them and teach them to work well with 100 other kids that they've never met before. A coach must teach them to trust each other and work together toward a common goal. He must make them compete against one another while also keep them from resenting each other because of it.
A HC's job in his first year is especially difficult. He really doesn't know what to expect from his players and the players don't know what to expect from their coach. He must feel out his team's overall attitude. He doesn't know which players need to be yelled at and which ones need a pat on the back. Essentially, he just needs time to get to know them and know what motivates them to put forth their maximum effort. Many times the players resent the new coach because the players didn't want to the old coach to leave. The player's have done things on a day to day basis a certain way and they have to adjust to doing things a completely different way. They have to learn brand new offensive and defensive philosophies and new terminologies.
IMO, we can break down our team in 3 different classifications:
A)The players who we know will play consistently well on a weekly basis
B)The players who are inconsistent. They will play well one week and poorly the next.
C)The players who play consistently poorly each week.
If you've watched all of our games then it should be obvious which players fall into which category. There's no need to call names. This also isn't an indictment of the players in category B & C because there is alot of different reasons why they don't play well. Some do not fit the system we want to run. Others haven't yet learned the system completely and they are easily confused about what they need to do on certain plays or against unfamiliar looks. Others just don't have the talent to compete on the level they are asked to perform. Most players in group C are out on the field only because of they are giving 100% effort every day in practice and have shown the most commitment to the team and achieving the team goals. Think about that the next time you come on here bash them relentlessly. Recruiting will rid yourself of group C. Good coaching will rid yourself of group B but it takes time to do both.
If you think this loss is inexcusable for Coach Saban, take a hard look at what some of the other top head coaches in football have endured their first season.
Pete Carroll in his first year he started off the season 2-5 and finished the year 6-6. He lost to Kansas St.,Stanford, and Utah.
Bob Stoops finished 7-5 his first season after taking asswhippings from Texas,Notre Dame,and Texas Tech. He topped it off with a loss to Ole Miss in the prestigous Independence Bowl.
Pat Hill has made Fresno St. a consistent winner, yet he started his first year 6-6.
Mark Richt finished his first season 8-4.
Steve Spurrier's debut at South Carolina didn't go exactly as planned after he started 2-3 and was beaten by Alabama and Auburn a combined 85-21.
Jeff Tedford finished his first season 7-5.
Butch Davis started his tenure at Miami 1-3 with a 31-8 loss to UCLA and a 41-17 loss to Florida St.
Rich Rodriguez was 3-8 his first season at West Virginia.
Greg Schiano was 2-9 his first season at Rutgers.
Mark Mangino is undefeated right now and a near shoe-in for Coach of the Year. He was 2-9 in his first season at Kansas.
All excellent coaches who struggled in their first season as head coach. Some like Butch Davis and Mark Richt inherited far more talent than we have on our current roster.
If you listen to anything Coach Saban says, it should be to be patient and stay positive. He knew things would get worse before they got better. He didn't inherit a wealth of talent who were already accustomed to winning, but the process is in place and I guarantee that the change is coming.
