Which is Exhibit A for needing high-character people in coaching and administration. Art Briles recruited and covered up for his thugs and rapists, Baylor’s administration looked the other way, and it has all come home to roost now.
On a related note, I drove through Waco this week. McLane Stadium is just off I-35 on the banks of the Brazos River, and from outside it’s a very impressive facility. Looks like a European soccer stadium with a canopy over much of the seating. But its going to be the site of a lot of bad football for a few years.
You do need high character people in charge, but also people who know what they are doing, and get wins, which is their main coaching duty. It takes a lot of coordination with the administration and coaching staff to get things going, but if you don’t have a guy who knows how to fix problems, you won’t ever get there. We haven’t shown an ability to fix the obvious problems.
I think the problem, though, is twofold. Some places, like Baylor & Arkansas, especially now that we’re in the SEC are harder places to win. We all marveled at Baylor’s success of recent years. At least I did. However, we now know why they did so well on the field. Ole Miss did much the same thing with the same disadvantages. Winning the right way takes more time, but winning is still necessary. So at some point the team has to win.
I understand the frustration with CBB 5 seasons in. I felt after the beginning of the terrible 2013 season that showed signs of improvement toward the end, he showed slow but steady progress in 2014 & 2015. We finished both those seasons very strong. Our losses were heartbreakers, not blow-outs. Even last year looked like our record would be the best since 2011 until the last two games & we blew big halftime leads. This year has been disappointing at best. Our first two losses were to good teams, but they were very close. The USC game was the killer. It wasn’t just that we lost, but we played awful & lost badly. The blowout by Bama wasn’t especially disappointing to me. Bama has blown out everybody. The size of the Auburn loss was disappointing.
CBB’s character & the way he has seemed to recruit a higher character of player is a big plus in my book. I know it might not be enough. Certainly the time comes when it isn’t enough. For some, that time was 2 years ago, for others last year, for most everyone by the time of the USC loss. I tend to say give him one more year to see improvement. However, I know a loss tomorrow makes that all but impossible. I’m not sure even 5-7 is enough. Regardless, winning the right way takes more time & if the administration thinks more time will help, I’m all for it. It’s not like CBB is stupid. He is probably as able to fix the problem as a new guy, even if most fans don’t believe that.
I think winning the right way, is honestly an excuse for more time. Other coaches have won here, and done so within 5 years. The fact that the team is on the same level as year 1 is all I need to know, the OL and defense problems have not been fixed and I have no reason to believe they will be.
Brets a good guy, but it’s looking like he had no idea what he was getting into, and also how valuable Barry alvarez was to his success.
We will probably just have to disagree on this.
But after 5 years of mediocrity, and 2 horrible seasons, the fan base will largely give up on Bret, and that’s next to impossible to get back. He knew he had to win, promised success within his 5 year plan he talked about on the day his hire was made official, his 5 year plan hasn’t worked out.
Well, if you believe winning the right way can be done just as quickly as doing it the wrong way, I suppose it’s understandable you only consider that as an excuse. However, I’m not sure we have as much experience with it as you suggest. At least not since we joined the SEC where winning is much harder than in the old SWC. I have no idea if Crowe was doing it the right way or not, but he showed no promise of any sort. (I still think it was a mistake to have fired him following the Citadel game. I wish we’d waited until the end of the season. That was the first time I’m aware of a coach was fired & not allowed to finish the season.) We now know Ford was recruiting pretty good talent. He said not long before he was fired that we’d be good in 1998, he just wasn’t sure he’d be the coach. He was right on both counts.
As far as I can tell HDN did it “right” but he inherited good talent & won immediately. But his best season was his first. (He had the same experience at Ole Miss.) HDN was reasonably successful all but one year, but nowhere nearly successful enough for fans. Enter Bobby Petrino. Now, did he win & build the program the “right way”? He didn’t win his first 2 years, but was very successful in 2010 & 2011. However, his moral failings rightfully cost him the job. I’m not sure whether his personal shortcomings did or would have permeated the way he ran the program, but stories I’ve heard about him since he left tell me he wasn’t someone we wanted. That’s even if we exclude the motorcycle & all that surrounded that.
CBB inherited a mess. HDN did not. Crowe? Don’t know. Ford, yeah, probably–but I’m not sure he was what we needed in 1998.
I’m not really excusing CBB’s record this year, but this year & the end of last year are the only things I think we can really blame him for. Should those be enough to get him fired. Obviously you think so. I’m not as certain. To some extent I’m still waiting for the season to play out. Regardless, I trust JL will have a better handle on what to do than I do. I suspect he has a better handle on it than you do. So, “doing it the right way” is a strong plus in my book. Standing alone, I won’t say it’s enough to keep him, but it sure ought to be a factor in the decision.
There’s certainly something to be said for “doing it the right way.” It’s certainly not mutually exclusive from winning. You can do both. However, I think OP was simply pointing out the woes of those who, like Baylor, take shortcuts and win temporarily. The 30-for-30 on SMU is a reminder that a half-decade of success isn’t worth the possibility of years without it as it seems our friends in Oxford may find out soon.
Baylor has always been a team I HIGHLY dislike. They were known as cheap shot artists in the SWC…the most notorious was the hit on Steve Little on an opening kickoff that put him out of the game. It was deliberate and vicious. Their sudden rise to power was baffling to me these past few years.
After reading about their sordid treatement of women and cover up of rape I was shocked. How could any Universary allow these type of behaviors by players, coaches and administrators? Especially a Baptist school based on Christian principles. I’m a life long Baptist and ashamed of their actions.
There is so much more at stake here than football. Lives changed forever. And not is a good way. This school should set the bar in changing lifes for eternity. Sad, sad, sad.
