That was a quote from the article. So far no one can offer anything but blind almost religious hope in defense. Its rather sad
Here's my defense for him. I do think he can succeed here. I love his vision for this place and I think we are getting recruits on campus in numbers we've never sniffed before. The Jimmy's and Joe's matter and I think he's done a hell of a job from that front. Those Jimmy's and Joe's are very young and still in high school though so for me it was always year 4 but especially after losing an entire spring to Covid and going through that nonsense. I understand many people (especially the Paul Johnson guys that want Collins to fail) will just say it's another excuse.
I think our defense played well Saturday except for the final drive. I would have liked to have seen us attack more on that drive instead of the soft prevent style crap that let them get to the redzone. Even if they hit us for a big play and score, they likely don't go for 2 if there's still plenty of time on the clock for us to get a FG. They would just kick and hope we are conservative and play for overtime. If they take the lead, they know we are going to try to score because you have to score. And our offense had momentum with Yates so we would have been fine.
I like that we use a lot of guys on defense too and don't expect to have 11 iron men out there. But all the subbing between plays can bite you especially if someone is playing fast because they will catch you running guys on and off the field. That's on both Thacker and Collins to me.
I like what I hear from DP in his press conferences on offense but haven't been impressed the first two years. I do think Sims missed two big plays early on Saturday and if he hits them it's a whole different ball game. But guys aren't perfect and will miss plays and you have to overcome that stuff too so not using it as an excuse. More saying it's a sign DP called the game well and we didn't execute.
I've always thought getting to a certain win total many throw around this year was a long shot because we are young and the schedule is ridiculous. Obviously, we shouldn't go 0-12 either. We should have won Saturday 100% no excuses.
I do think we need an analytics guy on the headset giving advice on when to go for 4th downs, when to go 2-point conversions, etc..... And that's not a knock on Collins in terms of saying every head coach should be able to handle that themselves. Bill Belichick has an analytics guys in his ear every single game.
Bottom line - I like Collins and his vision and want to see him succeed. I think it's way too early to jump off that bandwagon and he deserves some time and patience because it was a huge transition despite his rhetoric of "biggest transformation in college football history". I don't mind his press conferences. I mean he is who he is I would prefer more honest answers but you can't change the personality. I didn't like Paul Johnson throwing kids under the bus all the time either but he is who he is too and I accepted that and supported him too.
That's my defense. I don't think I'm blind and it's certainly not a religious defense.
