I opened this because I thought it was about “player development,” but see it was a thread started in-game, complete with some Sark Still Sucks takes and other shit, but regarding player development…
At the end of last year, Tope Imade made the rounds and was on a podcast/YouTube thing (maybe with Fat Ketch) in which he bemoaned it being his last year (even though he had what, 20?) because he had learned more under Flood/this staff in the last few months than in the previous five years. He had made a great leap, and it was one of the first times I’d heard of a concrete example of development.
In the IT Postgame show after the OU game, Rod Babers told Burton Texas was always considered the place NFL teams would come to do “discount shopping” for players in free agency (maybe it was “bargain basement,” I don’t remember the specific term) because the League knew we had some talent, the previous staffs just weren’t developing the players, and the pro teams would be able to get them on the cheap rather than drafting them. We now have several players with early round potential.
It’s good to have coaches who know how to scheme AND develop.