takethepoints
Helluva Engineer
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I'l;l buy most of this, but I don't buy the "best athletes on one side" idea. If you look at Paul's tenure at Tech the athletes with the highest recruiting rating were usually on D. This was especially the case after Roof became DC; the guy's schemes seemed to be sporadic, but, Laws, could he recruit. I think the reason Paul's teams scored so much was that he had a set of pretty specific characteristics in mind for his O players and he went out and recruited for them. Often this meant players with lower recruiting ratings - Zenon, Searcy, Laskey, Lynch, Mills (yes, Mills), Stewart, Mason, and the list goes on - excelled in the spread option despite low "stars". Of course, his teams were better when he had a few top recruits at the main positions. The marquee players were mostly on D, however. I think his teams excelled mainly due to the spread option and having Paul to run it.I have heard that but am skeptical. George and Paul had explosive O's. Gailey's teams were the exact opposite. I have heard others put forth the theory that these coaches funneled (sp?) the best athletes to one side of the ball over the other and that is the reason for the imbalance. I however am of the impression, thanks to CBR, that if you get the right assistants in place you CAN field balanced teams. Ross's staff had an eye for finding and developing talent and were not out recruiting Bama or OSU which has and always will be next to impossible for us.
Everyone since has not had the ability/luck/budget to attract the right coaching staff. I do think GOL, CCG, and CPJ had excellent football IQ's. So I think budget and commitment from above (maybe the same thing?) have kept these coaches handcuffed and therefore us in the football doldrums for the last 2 or 3 decades except for the occasional one off year here and there when the stars aligned just right. Again, just my opinon here.
I do agree that having good assistants helps a lot. Paul's assistants on O were pretty good, but we never got that kind of leadership on D. Maybe this time.