SB5Horns

Apologies for the weird font. Not sure what happened.

Of course the players get credit. But, by your logic, Destinee should have won 2 NCs - and she almost did had it not been for back-to-back 0-2 collapses. It’s not easy to win at the national level consistently. Along with talent, training, and development, it does takes some luck - seeding, who comes out of other parts of the bracket, team health, etc. But it also takes a winning mindset to push through plateaus and adversity. Salima brought that experience and mindset. Just not sure that it took hold. A buddy from the B1G asked me last night, “so what’s Texas’ excuse this year?” We’re running out of excuses. This program could use some fresh blood so that it rivals the success of programs from John Cook and Russ Rose, and less like Mary Wise (and Bill Self).

Season-long lurker here. I attend some of the pre-game match discussions. A few people ask detailed questions about the game or team deficiencies. Service issues were discussed early in the season, for example. However, a majority of the people in the room don't understand the game that well and/or don't want to confront Elliott in that forum. Regarding comments about Elliott as an elite coach, I don't think he has that reputation among the volleyball community (based on comments from those associated with volleyball, not just message boards). He is a fantastic recruiter, but is not known for player development or teaching strategy. He relies heavily on his staff for the detailed coaching: Johnson (offense) and Sullivan (defense). Someone said this on this thread earlier in the season -- paraphrasing here: Elliott doesn't have to be the hands-on coach that teaches the players to get them to the next level. He can continue to be an excellent recruiting coach; however, that means he needs an outstanding staff to back him up. Right now, he doesn't have that so his weaknesses with defense/serve-receive and player development are very exposed now. For example, I give a tremendous amount of credit to Salima Rockwell for the 2012 championship. We needed someone like that to help push the program past the ghosts of the major tournament collapses of 2008 and 2009. We need more assistant coaches like Salima on staff again (more likely), or we need to a new direction for head coach (unlikely).