-------- and their potential for success compared to each other:
Many like to bring up our coach’s lack of head coaching experience as a huge problem. There is that “people rise to their level of incompetence and then fall back” factor that can come into play sometime. (Just because a man is a good Seargant does not mean he will be a good Lieutenant and you won’t know for sure until he tries and fails.)
One thing that encourages me about Sam is the staff he has assembled. A great leader gets great people to come to work with him. (Remember Broyles?) Leach is a proven offensive coach, but so is Briles, so I don’t see an advantage there. I am wondering how Odom compares to Kiffin’s and Leach’s defensive coordinators.
As far as being a powerful recruiter, I think Sam comes with a proven track record on that count that matches or exceeds the other two new coaches in the SEC West.
The most encouraging thing, to me, is in the loyalty that Sam’s previous players (Ragnow, Skipper, Kirkland, etc.) and recruits have shown him. You can see that they believe in him as a coach and man and that is an endorsement that is very missing from the other two new coaches.
Only time will tell for sure but I am cautously optimistic. JMVVVVHO
Hiring a HC is like rolling the dice. Even so called “proven” winners. Holtz and Visor Boy at Carolina come to mind. Both did okay but not up to previous stops.
One thing I like about Sam relative Morris is that he has been around the SEC, its head coaches and their assistants enough to know how important really good staff is to success. I’m also sure as an Oline assistant he’s seen every ego based mistake head coaches have made. You can just tell that Sam has a very good people and ego compass. Consequently, I’ll make a bet that this experience has guided him in picking really good coaches and his ego calibration will let them do their jobs with fairly wide style boundaries.
An example was picking Briles considering that many would assume Sam liked more smash mouth downhill ball control style offenses - like Kirby to a degree. But, he picked Briles who is a nice marriage of what he has seen that works, running the football, and on the end of the spectrum hurry up pace and lots of deep throws. Briles was controversial from a people perspective but I’ll bet Sam evaluated that personally and I’ll bet Kendall will learn more from Sam about people and recruiting, before he becomes a head coach.
I’m anxiously optimistic, but I don’t expect to be able to judge the full package based on the upcoming season.
Somebody mentioned Peter Principle. Morris-they should have his picture in the dictionary under Peter Principle. In fact, in basketball, since Nolan, it seems like we led the nation in Peter Principles.