Having thirty RBs, WRs, DBs and special teams personnel on our team who can run the 40 in 5 seconds and chew gum at the same time does not impress me.
Having fifteen RBs, WRs, DBs and special teams personnel on our team who can run the 40 in under 4.4 seconds, are sure-handed and extremely coordinated WOULD impress me - and would bode well for our outlook toward success .
Having thirty OL and DL players on our team weighing an average of 330 pounds, some of whom can EITHER block, tackle, kick block or pass protect reasonably well does not impress me.
Having fifteen quick-footed, coordinated OL and DL players on our team who weigh in the neighborhood 0f 300 to 320 pounds, who are extremely quick and well coordinated, and who excel at blocking AND tackling, kick blocking AND pass protection inclusively WOULD impress me.
I’m very much in hopes that CCM can procure many more of the latter designations rather than the former.
I’d much rather have one new Rolls Royce than twenty vintage Model T’s., - - regardless of how well-preserved and how well-tuned the Model T’s might be.
It’s only logical to wait and see. I want to see what if anything Morris can do with Bielema’s players. Can he put them in a scheme to be successful and win more games. If he can it’s further proof what a pitiful coach Bielema is. If Morris can’t, it won’t be an indictment on him but rather he’ll need more time to bring in his guys.
I’m not carping about what has gone before; that would be pointless. I am merely hoping and praying that a different criteria focus is applied to our recruiting process from this time forward. Without that re-focus and new priorities guideline application we will be unable to compete at the upper level of college football rivalry.
An applied philosophy of “doing the best we we can with what we have” - and/or with the best of the leftovers that the big dogs have left for us - will only take us so far, and will not get us to the competitive level we need to reach. We MUST do better if we are to thrive and prosper in the SEC. I’m extremely hopeful that CCM and staff can make substantial inroads toward this re-focused goal, and that the new philosophy will begin paying lucrative dividends immediately.
I believe that Arkansas has hired a fist class new Head Football Coach. I’m very much in hopes that all of his efforts, aims and goals will be first class in nature.
A “doormat” athletic program may be “clean” and “honorable”; and that designation is all well and good. But even a clean doormat can become filthy and ragged if it is tread on relentlessly by everybody and his brother.
The one thought i had while watching the hogs the past year was why not be aggressive! We watched a very passive defense. Having the heart to fight for every inch on the field. Swarming to the ball become extinct in the pass few years.
There’s one thing for sure if I’m going to get beat you are going to know I showed up. This past season that can’t be said about the Alabama, Auburn, South Carolina or LSU games. It’s competing and winning. Winning each play. When someone is slacking and not doing their job get on their rear end to get the performance or make a change. That change was made by the BOT by replacing the Coach.
After watching SMU play in their bowl game I’m concerned. But knowing Coach Morris was at Clemson and know how to win I’ll wait and see. The missing ingredient we have been missing is Texas recruiting. That will return. Now it’s a matter of being aggressive and winning or being passive and accepting being a doormat!
Next season there’s 4 games I will pay attention too for a true picture of where this change will lead our hogs. Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M and LSU. Those are the games we have to be able to compete with to ever win. I don’t expect to win all 4 of those games next year but I do expect for those enemies to know they were in a fight and were not given a “W” and left our hogs with a participation award for showing up.
I expect A&M knew they were in a fight three of the last four years and were fortunate to escape with wins. Jimbo Fisher or not, we need to beat them this year. We need to prove we belong on the same field against the other three, whether that means a victory or not.
I sincerely hope that the aTm meeting follows the pattern of the old SMU series during the last three seasons of Danny Ford’s tenure. Ford won his first two games vs. SMU, then lost three in a row. When Nutt was hired, he beat SMU in both of his first two years. There was a bit of a sigh of relief among Hog fans.