We often look at football in a vacuum, which you simply cannot do. [I just re-read thru this post and realized I'm getting on a soapbox, so get ready]
I am quoting your post,
@Heisman's Ghost, to make a point, not to call you out. A few posts down after yours,
@takethepoints lists a graph that shows average star rankings from GT, VT, Rice, Duke, etc.
What we need to consider is that Duke adding all that support staff GOT them to our level. If you look at
@takethepoints 's graph, their average star ranking until 2014 was 2.4. The last few years it's been right on par with ours around 3.0. That is serious improvement. Duke used to be the doormat in the ACC; now, they're nobody's easy out. They aren't the Duke of 2006 (0-12).
The other thing we need to consider is recruiting doesn't offer instant success, particularly for teams like us, and that results, whether good or bad, are typically seen 3-4 years down the road. What it really translates into is Bobinski's Reign of Terror from 2013-2016 hurt us the most the last few years, from 2016-2019. Think about it like this: Bobinski basically put us on probation for 3 years, ergo, the senior classes from the last few years are the hardest hit. Recruiting misses are bad enough, but when you couple it with injuries the last 2 years it's a disaster. Remember: you can't look at football in a vacuum. So when people are screaming, "WE HAVE NO TALENT!!1!! WE SUCK!11!!" just pause for a moment, google Mike Bobinski's picture and take a dump on it. For those who still want to believe that CPJ just sucked at recruiting and only cared about rushing stats ... please go talk to any long-time AD employees and ask them what it was like from 2013-2016.
I am not solely blaming Bobinski for our woes, but he is a major factor to consider. Injuries, poor coaching, and a bit of bad luck all combined for some recent bad trends. But it is extremely hard to do your job well when the top guy is sucking the life out of your program.
On the upside: all this new recruiting staff, Catapult, analytics, sports science, etc. can only help us get better. But we won't see immediate results until the next few years: last year's class had a solid 3.0 star rating ... and next year's class may be even better. And 2021 could be even better, so we are already seeing the results of TStan's efforts, but we may not see on-field results until 2021-2023 when those guys are redshirt seniors and juniors. Does that mean that we're bound for 1-11 seasons until 2021? Man, I sure hope not.
Which brings me to my last topic: our current coaching staff. I'll just sum up: they are young. Look, I love Tashard Choice. I'd run through a brick wall (and probably hurt myself real bad) for him. I really would. But please consider: before GT, his coaching experience as a position coach was ONE YEAR. At North Texas. Thacker was a D-Coordinator ... for ONE YEAR. Marco Coleman ... I interviewed him when I worked for the Technique ... I love that guy ... but ZERO years experience as a position coach. Nate Burton: ONE YEAR as a DB coach. If you really want to get down to it, the two most experienced guys at the FBS level are Key and Collins. Patenoob, for all his 24 years of coaching, has only 2 years at the FBS level. So while Loki might argue that "I consider experience, experience", I'm pretty sure that the defenses he (Patenoob, not Loki) faced at Holy Cross were probably less sophisticated than the ones Brent Venables or Bud Foster could dial up.
"We're not paying this staff millions to learn on the job."
Yeah, we kind of actually are. And that was TStan's gamble.
That's what happens when you hire a G5 coach with all of 2 years of experience. "But Urban Meyer/Nick Saban/Lincoln Riley* couldn't fix this." I actually believe they could, if they could hire their own staffs. Cale Gundy, who coaches slot receivers at OU, has 16 years of experience as a position coach. He just might know a few drills or teaching points that Kerry Dixon, who has 4 years of experience, might not. It doesn't solve the talent/depth issue, but really good coaches can scheme around issues. No, it doesn't mean Urban Mayer would coach us to a 41-10 upset over Clemson in the opener ... but most likely it means we wouldn't lose to Citadel or get blown out by Temple and Puke.
The reality is we have what we have (a cousin to iiwii): we have a fairly inexperienced coaching staff that's dealing with the aftermath of Bobinski's "leadership", converting to new schemes, and dealing with some really bad injuries at key positions. Remember the whole "vacuum" thing? There isn't one specific thing that's the problem.
I hope the attention and $$$ that TStan is throwing at football will help with recruiting and development.
I hope that the young staff gets better. No more not taking a timeout to prevent a 10-second runoff, please.
I hope that we can avoid any more catastrophic injuries.
I was hopeful that we would actually be better than we are, but again, the non-vacuum-y nature of football has conspired against us and we are where we are (a cousin of we have what we have).
We can continue to gripe and moan about every individual problem - and that's fun to do (well, for some). But when you do ... please keep in mind that there isn't always one specific cause for the current malaise ... and that our boys on the field are doing their best ... and for better or worse, it's going to be a rough few years. Let's see.
Someone get me a gauntlet so I can snap my fingers on this season.
* I still want all of Lincoln Riley's babies.
