As I have said before, I was firmly in the Monken camp. I think it was the wrong decision not to hire him and to hire CGC instead. I won't go back into the details on that because I've already done so, and it's not the time for it.
But, I want to be fair to GT, to Stansbury, and to Collins in evaluating this new era as a fan. I understand that I am not infallible in my view, so I could be wrong about the decision ... Maybe we can recruit really well (like top 10-15 eventually). Maybe we can have a great defensive scheme with Collins, Thacker, and Burton heading it up. Maybe Patenaude is a very underrated offensive mind who can be a top OC eventually once the recruiting catches up.
I know this: it would not be fair to seriously criticize this Collins era in the first year. He has to have time to develop his "culture" and to recruit players to what he's trying to do. So, even though losing to the Citadel was embarrassing (and VERY ironic), I'm not going to take cheap shots at Collins or the program right now. This Citadel loss provides such a tempting opportunity to claim that my view about Monken/Collins and the Option and the philosophy of football hype vs substance and such is the superior view, I just don't feel it fair or right to do so at this point. It's a "love your neighbor as yourself, do unto others" thing. If the shoe was on the other foot and people were criticizing Monken or my view unfairly, I would think they were wrong for doing so, so I will try to abide by a consistent standard.
I have to confess that I did feel some morbid sense of satisfaction at losing to the Triple Option the way we did, even though I was pulling for GT the whole game. I was sick over losing when we missed that last field goal and they made theirs, and yet something in me cheered the way that option was churning against us with us having the far superior players. There was just something poetic about it.
For me, it's going to be a frustrating 3 years, but I truly don't think it will be fair to make any kind of serious evaluation of Collins until we get to year 3 or 4, with his players being entrenched in his schemes. Another poster (
@jacketup , I think?) astutely pointed out our struggles during G'Ol and Freidgen's first few years with Little Joe. Seems to me those on our side of this view should consciously and publicly take the high road, cheer for Collins and GT for the next 3 years for better or worse, and then either be proven right or wrong. Once that time comes, we're either enjoying the success of our being wrong or we get to proclaim our view to be the one we should all follow from that point forward. And, hopefully, we would have a fanbase that would be as unified as possible and ready to hear it. GT's success moving forward (which an above average, unified, mature fanbase would help with in the long run) should be all of our priority.
