Can we admit that maybe Charlie was a better talent evaluator that Herman? Think of the other guys that would be in the league he managed to get through three years at UT who were total stoners -- Holton Hill and that other dude -- and flamed out of the NFL for that reason. Given time, we were headed toward being DBU again, but that was not going to happen because of Charlie's other shortcomings and the roster he'd been left behind.
It also bears repeating that the OL Charlie was left by Mack, after Espinosa went down in the first game of the season, makes this bunch of chucklefucks look like a Vincent Lombardi road grader unit.
And the difference between Tyrone Swoopes and Casey Thompson is not small. I've had respected posters on this site tell me that having David Ash at QB would not have helped Charlie win 8 in his first year and maybe nine in his second. The recruiting would have been better than it was under Herman. I highly doubt there would have been a USF style implosion because of sheer talent. He probably would have been fired in year five or six for not winning conference or losing some games he should have won, but the program would not be in as bad a shape as it is right now, because he would have left a more talented roster behind for Sark to rebuild from. His track record at Louisville proves that.
Y'all -- you still don't seem to get we are still digging out from the fucking smoking crater of a program Mack left behind. Look at who is in the NFL now. Look at who went to the NFL from Mack's last half dozen or so classes. Who on this roster seems destined for a long NFL career aside from Bijan?
Nobody.
We've been having to throw out raw and green DBs and OL for a decade now, and you can't win at an elite level with one of those against you, much less both.
It's about talent evaluation first and foremost, scheming around that talent second, talent development third. And yes it's about stability of coaching so that the elite talent wants to sign with you, so you can scheme around it and develop and then win some fucking football games.
Sark does not excite me too much, but I don't believe he is a fraud, either, and I do think he is capable of taking us back to a Mack-like level and if he finds another elite QB of VY-like stature, he is as capable of winning an NC as, um, Gene Chizik was, so long as he gets out of his way. His doctrinaire "I don't like running QBs" stance seems stubborn, though, especially at the college level.