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Dan Neil on Culture

Bevoball

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Bevoball

Bevoball 184

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This is Dan Neil's piece this morning from 247, why I continue to hold a sub on this site, I have no idea. I respect Dan as the former player that he is, but I can't stand him an editorial writer/TV analyst. More to follow after the spoilered write up.

 

Spoiler

 

Culture.

I feel team culture is a very important topic, and I see it as the single biggest hurdle this team must overcome.

What I saw Saturday was a team hoping to win and not expecting to win. I saw a team that doesn't have a winning culture — yet.

You heard Tom Herman talking about the guys trying too hard.

What he is referring to is when you are trying so hard, you try to do too much and end up not doing anything well.

In football, this is called trying to do more than your job.

You are trying to cover two gaps instead of your gap on defense. A safety out of position because he is tying to help someone else in coverage. An offensive lineman trying to block two guys instead of his one guy. A quarterback forcing a throw. Did you see any of the above Saturday? I did and so did Herman.

How do you get the guys to believe in their teammates and not feel like they need to do more than their job?

When you lack confidence, you lack a culture that creates confidence. One of the hardest things to change is culture. The good thing about this is if you can get it right, it is hard to change!

Creating team culture:

The number one reason acquisitions in business don’t work is because of a mixed or diluted culture.

Has anyone been to Whole Foods lately? Notice any difference? Whole Foods is now owned by Amazon, and I’m not sure if Amazon is as into health food as Whole Foods was. Go to Whole Foods and see if you notice a culture shift.

You will certainly see a shift in Whole Foods' purpose which will slowly result in a shift in culture. In business, it's a question of if the customers will stay despite a culture shift. In football, it's about if a team will win if there is a shift in culture.

There are six phases to creating culture

Purpose. What is the purpose of your organization? Clearly define the mission, goal and strategy of the team.

Behavioral Norms. What is your desired behavior? Is it consistent? Does it align with your purpose? Is it desired?

Core Principals. What will dictate the kind of behavior you desire? These must be deeply held by everyone in the organization. Total buy-in by all.

Recruiting. What kind of people are you bringing in? Is it talent over character? Or character over talent? If you don’t have the right people, it's hard to maintain your culture.

Introduction/orientation. What are you doing to introduce everyone to your culture? Is the right culture being presented consistently?

Reminder/reinforcement. You must constantly remind everyone of your culture and reinforce your culture.

These six principals of culture are all connected, and the outcome of these principals is driven by behavior. That’s why you must create a culture that demonstrates your principles.

Culture is values. Values determine your behavior.

We all have seen football teams over the years that have different values. The Raiders of the 70s had different values then the Patriots of today.

These different values resulted in a different culture. Both were good teams with a different culture.When you develop cultural values, you must stand behind these values or the culture will break down.No exceptions.

Players want discipline and a consistent culture, so they know what's expected.

If you do not create a culture, one will be created for you.

Every group has a culture. The question is if it is a desired culture? Herman inherited a bunch of players he didn't recruit two years ago.

The problem with inheriting players when taking over a new job is they have already been programmed. Reprogramming them is difficult.

I know Herman has been working hard on this, but I believe if you were to ask him if he has his desired culture yet he would answer no.

Before Saturday, he might have answered yes.

You often don’t know what team you have until you play a game. You also don’t have the same team at the end of a year that you have at the beginning. As my old coach at Texas — John Mackovic — used to say: "You are either green and growing or ripe and rotting. You never stay the same, and it is up to you which direction you head."

 

Management/coaches:

Management/coaching is critical and reflective of the culture. Is your culture reinforced by management?

Coaches define the work to be done, and players do the work.

To operate effectively and efficiently, there must be good organization, and that comes from the coach.

If you have good organizational design, people react the way you want because the design will reflect you. Good design trumps good players. A well-designed team with bad coaches will achieve more than a poorly designed team with good coaches.

How many of you have managers? Or maybe you are a manager?

They teach in school that there are two rules to managing:

 

Rule No. 1 — Don't touch the task.

What I love about football is the manager/coach cannot touch the task.

Coaches coach and players play.

If you’re not a good coach, it will be reflected in the performance of your players. That leads us to ...

 

Rule No. 2 — Don’t blame the players.

If the players don’t play well, the coach either needs to find a better player or coach the player better.

The coach sets the expectation and then must get the players to reach that expectation. Coaching is getting your players to push themselves harder and further than they can push themselves.

What has everyone upset after Saturday's loss to Maryland is Herman told us his culture was now "firmly ingrained" into the program. So, we probably expected to see a much better product reflecting that new culture. And then we saw what happened at FedEx Field, which looked a lot like last year when Herman was still trying to get his culture ingrained.

Obviously, there is still work to be done for Herman to get the desired culture he wants.

He needs to take a step back, re-evaluate his team principles and see where the culture is breaking down — then reinforce his desired culture and make sure his players are buying in. It takes time, but hopefully the correct culture can become so ingrained that it becomes very hard to change! I've always said winning is a habit and losing is a habit. And both are hard to change.

So, what's off the table for Texas after Saturday's loss? A national championship is off the table for sure. But Big 12 and postseason goals are still in front of this team.

Creating a winning culture isn't easy. But this team has at least 11 more games this year to try and get it right.

I do feel this is a critical time for the team. We know what needs to be done. The question is if management can get it done before things spiral out of control.

I believe in this team and these players. Management needs to make the correct adjustments and get the best 22 players on the field, get the team to buy into the culture and help the players experience a positive result so they keep re-investing with all their heart and soul.

34COMMENTS

We are about to find out a lot about this team the rest of this month.

After Tulsa, the schedule ramps up in a hurry, and this team better be ready.


 

 I asked him a question in the comments and got the following response:

I'd like to hear if you think Herman gives preferential treatment to some players over others? We've seen players get pulled for both small and big on field mistakes, we've also seen them pulled for what seemingly happens off field or in practice. Why then don't players who continue to make mistakes get pulled. Ehlinger continues to make poor decisions, on top of not having progressed in his throwing mechanic, Hager still plays much too aggressively at times leading to big runs, Ominihue makes a boneheaded hit on the QB giving up a first down, yet these players are never punished on the field. I don't expect these players to be criticized publicly in a press conference, but they do need to be pulled aside and have their ass chewed out on the side line and sit for a few plays.

Tre Watson gave up an unfortunate fumble, a questionable one but it was ruled one regardless. Despite him being RB 1, and only making that 1 mistake, the staff answers by putting in Kyle Porter under the guise that he is the best blocker, and immediately he lines up out wide as a WR?

Shane Buchele reportedly has a great camp, has a winning record as a starter, has much better throwing mechanics, but he isn't a vocal leader, so we get the turnover machine instead.

Keontay Ingram, proves himself in the game, proved himself as a competitor at the highest level of pressure in the State Championship games, didn't make a mistake as far as I could see watching the game, displays great cutting ability and vision. He scores a touchdown, but doesn't hug a big ugly after scoring and we never see him again.

Herman is arrogant, that's okay. I like an arrogant head coach. What I don't like is someone pissing on my head and telling me that it's raining. He is not coming off as arrogant from being confidant, he is coming off as being arrogant because is in over his head and being defensive. He was a highly touted OC, he sparked the UH program with wins over much more talented teams and more experienced coaching staffs, yet how come we see none of that confidence, swagger, and innovation here?

There are different kind of mistakes. Mental and physical. Mental are inexcusable and need to be corrected. Physical mistakes happen to everyone and it would be hard to get mad at a player for being too aggressive. Fumbles are never OK. They do happen and no one will fault a team players who buys into the culture for the mistake. You also treat the senior leadership different then the freshman. Hopefully your seniors embody your culture and the freshman are still learning the culture.

I would admit that as long as the players are giving full effort and buying into the culture then the coach needs to play the best players. In the first week you are still figuring out who the best players are.

I'm all for discipline and rules, but feel as long as the player is the right character then we need to let them learn as we go and be hesitant to publicly punish someone for minor infractions. Pull the young man aside and use it as a teaching moment. Give the young man the benefit of the doubt that it was simply a mistake and will be corrected.

Being a dad of three kids makes you learn that mistakes happen and you need to determine the big ones from the minor ones.

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Bevoball

Bevoball 184

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This was my reply to which he never replied to:

So even if a player makes multiple mental mistakes, as long as they, are as you and some others have said "bought into the culture", then it is okay to continue to reward them with playing time and not give the opportunity to someone else?

Sounds to me like that is playing favorites, I get that you don't want to criticize your Westlake boys, just like I don't ever want to criticize players from my school either. I'm also not saying that coaches need to be on the sideline cussing a kid out and embarrassing them, but even when leaders make mistakes they need to be punished, whether that is sitting them for a set of downs or series and letting someone else get a shot, or opening up the competition for the job. The same thing happens in the real world based on my experience in the military, the corporate world, and in State Government.

I'm not laying all of this on the players, because I feel the biggest issue on Saturday was with the coaches, there is no reason that the players should have come out and let themselves be punched in the mouth again and again on both sides of the ball. The play-calling looked like something that a Pee Wee coach would do, totally uninspired and had no rhythm.

 

Also, you say fumbles are never okay, how about interceptions? How about busted assignments? How about not having your effing knee pads on and having to be subbed out on the first play, causing a delay of game?

The great coaches in all sports remove empathy from their decisions. I don't care if a player is a fan favorite, a legacy player, came from rough home life, overcame adversity to make it to college. I care about results, recruits care about results, alumni care about results, the NFL cares about results. We are not getting results, instead what we get is an arrogant jackass who is clearly in over his head, who does nothing but preach about "culture" and "accountability". He says he can feel the culture with this years team and that the locker room feels completely different than this time last year.

If this is the case then I don't want anything to do with this so called culture, because if your culture is one that looks like what Saturday was and what his pathetic press conferences were, then that is a losing culture.

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UTDD

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I just try to imagine Herman playing Tua in the second half against Georgia last year, and I just don't see it.  As for Texas, I'd even rather take a chance and maybe even lose an extra game or two now if it means playing the best players overall for the long-term.  You can watch Ingram for all of a few plays to see he should be playing more this season and I can't understand why anyone would play Porter for any reason.  Even in literally only two plays with a first time freshman playing his first ever game, you could see right away Ingram is light years ahead of multiple seasons of watching Porter for his vision and ability to both cut back on his blockers and make people miss.  I just don't understand how they are deciding personnel decisions on offense sometimes...

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SHOOTER12

SHOOTER12 8789

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11 minutes ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

Wait, Ingram was pulled b/c he didn't hug a lineman after his score?  Is my  sarcasm meter broken?  

If true, fire his mensa ass now....JFC

 

8 minutes ago, PilotsError said:

it's not true

I was about to get triggered if he had been pulled for that....who am I kidding, I'm still triggered from Saturdays' tomfoolery.

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Bevoball

Bevoball 184

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29 minutes ago, kopp0e said:

Good post, it appears the response is in effect, if the kid is a favorite, they get "perks" as in not getting pulled...

That is exactly what happens, same thing with Foreman last year. He was the best player on the field during games, reportedly didn't practice well and his Dad is an idiot so Armanti was punished for it.

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Skipper

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Maybe I'm not getting OP's point, but Dan's response to your post made sense to me whether or not you agree with him.   Your follow up was a little all over the place.  I certainly don't think you bench Hager or Omenihu for their mistakes, primarily because they are both the best and most experienced.  None of us know what was said to them on the sidelines.   Sam's shitty decision was on the last play so guess you could bench him for this week but I certainly understand why they aren't.   I don't agree with Porter being in the game after the Watson fumble but I at least see the reasoning. I have more of an issue with how he was used (as Scipio said, if he's the best blocker on the team and they are dropping 8, then use his ass as a lead blocker for a QB run instead of splitting him out).

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David Dennison

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6 minutes ago, Bevoball said:

That is exactly what happens, same thing with Foreman last year. He was the best player on the field during games, reportedly didn't practice well and his Dad is an idiot so Armanti was punished for it.

Um, Armanti Foreman was not the best player on the field during games last year.

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Skipper

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42 minutes ago, UTDD said:

I just try to imagine Herman playing Tua in the second half against Georgia last year, and I just don't see it.  

If the Sam shitty decision/int happened at the end of the first half I think a chance they would have set him a couple of series.  Lord knows we will probably get the chance to see how they will handle it.

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Bevoball

Bevoball 184

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11 minutes ago, Skipper said:

Maybe I'm not getting OP's point, but Dan's response to your post made sense to me whether or not you agree with him.   Your follow up was a little all over the place.  I certainly don't think you bench Hager or Omenihu for their mistakes, primarily because they are both the best and most experienced.  None of us know what was said to them on the sidelines.   Sam's shitty decision was on the last play so guess you could bench him for this week but I certainly understand why they aren't.   I don't agree with Porter being in the game after the Watson fumble but I at least see the reasoning. I have more of an issue with how he was used (as Scipio said, if he's the best blocker on the team and they are dropping 8, then use his ass as a lead blocker for a QB run instead of splitting him out).

The issue with Sam is that it isn't just that second interception, it is as a whole he does not look like a quarterback, this throws are shaky, under-powered, and dreadfully inaccurate. I'm not saying you bench Hager or Ominihu, but we constantly hear Herman preach accountability, yet we see players make egregiously stupid mistakes, such as a late hit on a QB in the 4th quarter, or having to be subbed out on the very first play of the game because they didn't put on their fucking knee pads, and there is no consequence. 

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David Dennison

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16 minutes ago, Bevoball said:

Sorry I meant Wide Receiver, though it was probably a toss up between him and LJH.

That I can see. 

Any talk of WR makes me sad because Collin Johnson has all of the physical gifts and continues to be the biggest disappointment on this football team. It kills me that he is so mediocre.

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MonkeyDoughnut

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9 minutes ago, Bevoball said:

The issue with Sam is that it isn't just that second interception, it is as a whole he does not look like a quarterback, this throws are shaky, under-powered, and dreadfully inaccurate.  

Agree, the issue with Sam is that he is just not good enough of a passer to make defenses care. We have no balance on offense because defenses don't have to account for the passing game other than a few hail mary passes that are more than offset by the number of poorly thrown interceptions they will get.

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Bevoball

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I would rather use Shane, yes I know he isn't that much better than Sam. But I feel like you can more reliably scheme around his deficiencies by using the inside zone (though I would prefer a power run scheme over the zone scheme that Herman insists on), mixing in some play action, and a more open route tree. Honestly I can only identify three routes that the WR run, the curl, vertical, and bubble routes, and a lot of that has to do with it seeming like they are getting jammed up by the DB, or just running down the sideline.

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Skipper

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25 minutes ago, Bevoball said:

The issue with Sam is that it isn't just that second interception, it is as a whole he does not look like a quarterback, this throws are shaky, under-powered, and dreadfully inaccurate. I'm not saying you bench Hager or Ominihu, but we constantly hear Herman preach accountability, yet we see players make egregiously stupid mistakes, such as a late hit on a QB in the 4th quarter, or having to be subbed out on the very first play of the game because they didn't put on their fucking knee pads, and there is no consequence. 

I mean the Sam issue is an entirely different can of worms and the subject of many threads.   At the end of the day they chose him as the starter.  It isn't like Shane's limitations aren't obvious and the other option are true freshman, so yeah, for 8th year in a row we don't have a clear cut QB.  That will clearly play out over the year with the new RS providing additional intrigue as FR may get a shot they wouldn't otherwise, but I think it would have been a 'panic' move to name Sam your starter and bench him game 2.    On your other points, you think we should have benched Collin for the entire game for a rules violation?  There may very well have been a consequence for CJ, we don't know, but I can only fathom the backlash (and rightfully so) if we would have benched our most talented WR because of that.

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Bevoball

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16 minutes ago, Skipper said:

I mean the Sam issue is an entirely different can of worms and the subject of many threads.   At the end of the day they chose him as the starter.  It isn't like Shane's limitations aren't obvious and the other option are true freshman, so yeah, for 8th year in a row we don't have a clear cut QB.  That will clearly play out over the year with the new RS providing additional intrigue as FR may get a shot they wouldn't otherwise, but I think it would have been a 'panic' move to name Sam your starter and bench him game 2.    On your other points, you think we should have benched Collin for the entire game for a rules violation?  There may very well have been a consequence for CJ, we don't know, but I can only fathom the backlash (and rightfully so) if we would have benched our most talented WR because of that.

Alot of this just has to do with being frustrated. I get tired of the rhetoric that we hear from this staff about so and so player has progressed so much, and so and so has become such a great leader.

This staff and team is so inept, that they can't follow the uniform rules, they can't think of any other play to run on 3rd and other than a WR screen that hasn't worked all day, and they can't even come out and play like a team that wants to be there?

For fucks sake they are lucky to not have been blown out by a team that has two QBs who are coming off of major knee surgery, had a player get killed in a team workout, whose program has been in headlines all summer, had their head coach suspended and will likely be fired, with an interim head coach who got fired at LSU because the offense was worse than usual, not to mention that this team fucking embarrassed you last year at home!

Am I over reacting? Yes, and I know I am, but at least I act like I give a damn about the program, instead of Coach Mensa, who wants to tell me that the team was trying too hard and that's why they lost. 

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jinx

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Let me preface this post by saying that I was just as pissed as anybody, and I have zero faith that this team will turn it around and win more than they lose this year.  But I also went on record with an 8-4 season and I won't  believe that this team is trending in the right direction until right after the scoreboard clicks zero on their 9th regular season win of the year.  Doesn't look like that will be this year.

But I like Dan's answer and, as a fan, I like and respect Dan.  After listening to Herman yesterday, I somewhat understand what he is dealing with, and that it isn't an easy fix.  This team has no idea how to win.  Had they been matched up against a team like Northwestern State, they could have made all of the same errors they made against Maryland and still won easily.  Maryland has enough talent to make them pay for mistakes, so they tried to eliminate all of the mistakes, which made them play tight.

I'm about to lose all of the non-golfers here, but to take it away from football and to something that I understand, think about how trying to play perfect on a golf course affects your game.  It is never good.  Pressing leads to bad shots, which leads to poor decisions, which leads to more bad shots and more bad decisions.  It is a vicious cycle and leads to a score card that gets thrown in the trash.  The best golf is played when you truly learn to focus on the one shot you can take at a time.  The last shot is over, and you don't know what the next shot will be until this one has landed.  Most of the time when I ignore the score card and enjoy the game, I end up with a score I am proud of at the end of the day.

This is longer than I usually post, and may be just as useless to you as Dan's analogy.  But I look at the Maryland game as one that the players (just like the fans) know that they should win, and every mistake gets them further from that goal and makes them press harder, leading to more mistakes like my shot analogy above.

I think this thing will take time to fix and switching players / coaches / philosophies creates more variables rather than building a solid baseline.  Somehow we have to get to a solid baseline of winning more than we lose.

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Bevoball

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2 minutes ago, jinx said:

Let me preface this post by saying that I was just as pissed as anybody, and I have zero faith that this team will turn it around and win more than they lose this year.  But I also went on record with an 8-4 season and I won't  believe that this team is trending in the right direction until right after the scoreboard clicks zero on their 9th regular season win of the year.  Doesn't look like that will be this year.

But I like Dan's answer and, as a fan, I like and respect Dan.  After listening to Herman yesterday, I somewhat understand what he is dealing with, and that it isn't an easy fix.  This team has no idea how to win.  Had they been matched up against a team like Northwestern State, they could have made all of the same errors they made against Maryland and still won easily.  Maryland has enough talent to make them pay for mistakes, so they tried to eliminate all of the mistakes, which made them play tight.

I'm about to lose all of the non-golfers here, but to take it away from football and to something that I understand, think about how trying to play perfect on a golf course affects your game.  It is never good.  Pressing leads to bad shots, which leads to poor decisions, which leads to more bad shots and more bad decisions.  It is a vicious cycle and leads to a score card that gets thrown in the trash.  The best golf is played when you truly learn to focus on the one shot you can take at a time.  The last shot is over, and you don't know what the next shot will be until this one has landed.  Most of the time when I ignore the score card and enjoy the game, I end up with a score I am proud of at the end of the day.

This is longer than I usually post, and may be just as useless to you as Dan's analogy.  But I look at the Maryland game as one that the players (just like the fans) know that they should win, and every mistake gets them further from that goal and makes them press harder, leading to more mistakes like my shot analogy above.

I think this thing will take time to fix and switching players / coaches / philosophies creates more variables rather than building a solid baseline.  Somehow we have to get to a solid baseline of winning more than we lose.

I definitely see what you are saying there. A lot of what I am feeling is that Herman is a victim of playing favorites, and saying one thing but doing another, I feel like these are most evident with Sam and Porter, hell even with Andrew Beck not that he's been particularly bad but more so just meh. If what you are preaching is that you are bring a winning or championship culture, then he needs to cut out the sentimentality and favoritism. I get it, Sam has a likable story to him with him being a local kid and with his dad passing, but what has he done to prove that he is the leader of this team? I'm okay with him as the starter, if the game-plan is to run the ball alot allowing receivers to get open opening up the passing game, but based on saturday that isn't what this team is doing. Even if you look at the offense before they fell behind midway in the second, there was not a concerted effort to run the ball. 

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Bevo

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1 hour ago, Skipper said:

 Sam's shitty decision was on the last play so guess you could bench him for this week but I certainly understand why they aren't.   I don't agree with Porter being in the game after the Watson fumble but I at least see the reasoning. I have more of an issue with how he was used (as Scipio said, if he's the best blocker on the team and they are dropping 8, then use his ass as a lead blocker for a QB run instead of splitting him out).

Sam played shitty the whole game. If you were referring simply to bone headed mistakes, he also threw the ball away on a two point conversion. He had a few options like run for it or throw it to where only his teammate could catch it.

As for playing Porter, that was a mistake. Play Watson or the next guy on the depth chart who knows the playbook. Can Johnson not catch the ball? Does Ingram not know the plays or does he make too many mistakes? Personally, I would have stuck with Watson. He did fumble but that call was BS. He was called down on the field so I thought the rule was that there had to be incontrovertible evidence to overturn it. I don't see that that was the case. Anyway, the error to play Porter was on either Beck, Drayton or Herman depending on who makes the personnel choices on offense. 

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C-Man

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8 minutes ago, Bevo said:

Sam played shitty the whole game. If you were referring simply to bone headed mistakes, he also threw the ball away on a two point conversion. He had a few options like run for it or throw it to where only his teammate could catch it.

As for playing Porter, that was a mistake. Play Watson or the next guy on the depth chart who knows the playbook. Can Johnson not catch the ball? Does Ingram not know the plays or does he make too many mistakes? Personally, I would have stuck with Watson. He did fumble but that call was BS. He was called down on the field so I thought the rule was that there had to be incontrovertible evidence to overturn it. I don't see that that was the case. Anyway, the error to play Porter was on either Beck, Drayton or Herman depending on who makes the personnel choices on offense. 

The TD pass to Duvernay was pretty choice, though. But otherwise, I agree with you.

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BurdineBandit

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49 minutes ago, Skipper said:

I mean the Sam issue is an entirely different can of worms and the subject of many threads.   At the end of the day they chose him as the starter.  It isn't like Shane's limitations aren't obvious and the other option are true freshman, so yeah, for 8th year in a row we don't have a clear cut QB.  That will clearly play out over the year with the new RS providing additional intrigue as FR may get a shot they wouldn't otherwise, but I think it would have been a 'panic' move to name Sam your starter and bench him game 2.    On your other points, you think we should have benched Collin for the entire game for a rules violation?  There may very well have been a consequence for CJ, we don't know, but I can only fathom the backlash (and rightfully so) if we would have benched our most talented WR because of that.

Is Lil'Jordan a WR? Because if so he is our most talented WR by a mile. Collin is our most physically gifted, and uses his height pretty well, but he is not more talented than LJ.

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Skipper

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3 minutes ago, BurdineBandit said:

Is Lil'Jordan a WR? Because if so he is our most talented WR by a mile. Collin is our most physically gifted, and uses his height pretty well, but he is not more talented than LJ.

Probably meant the same thing.  I agree LJH is a better WR.   CJ is a better NFL prospect (that for whatever reason isn't sniffing his potential at this point).

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Gut Wagon

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13 minutes ago, C-Man said:

The TD pass to Duvernay was pretty choice, though. But otherwise, I agree with you.

Thanks to a borderline Herculean effort to catch up to it, grab it and maintain possession all the way through the play. Easily the best catch he's ever made. Had he not managed to corral it, we'd have been talking about how Sam missed him, too. 

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jinx

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I don't think that Sam has a very high football IQ, but he can be an above average QB in time.  I have no idea why they didn't run the ball more from the QB position.

Not trusting Ingram because he is a freshman and having Brett Robin Kyle Porter on the field at any point in the game blows my mind.  Both are very Mack like.

Collin Johnson not having his knee pads in is something that I hope he did half a mile of bear crawls for, but he has never been truly bought into the culture from what I have read.  So you are damned either way on that one, and you have to have him on the field.

Time is a flat circle and momentum is (apparently) an illusion, but we sure could use some illusions right now.

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Tex Pete

Tex Pete 20179

Posted
Posted
43 minutes ago, Bevo said:

Personally, I would have stuck with Watson. He did fumble but that call was BS. He was called down on the field so I thought the rule was that there had to be incontrovertible evidence to overturn it. I don't see that that was the case.

You are correct. It is supposed to require indisputable evidence to overturn a call, and there absolutely was not indisputable evidence. I'd love to hear that explanation. 

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deech

deech 2251

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2 hours ago, JBJ said:

The fumble had nothing to do with it.  Porter was in for both 2-minute offenses.

Why is our #4 RB on the depth chart in for 2-minute offenses?  Why are the coaches incapable of coaching up the first three players on the depth chart to run the 2-minute offense?  

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Nicole44

Nicole44 22027

Posted
Posted
32 minutes ago, deech said:

Why is our #4 RB on the depth chart in for 2-minute offenses?  Why are the coaches incapable of coaching up the first three players on the depth chart to run the 2-minute offense?  

Good questions? Ask our big money donors? Maybe their asses should have to answer questions at press conferences.

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ATLLonghorn

ATLLonghorn 841

Posted
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5 hours ago, Bevoball said:

tl;dr

Tom Herman has been head coach for 647 days. The idea that he can change the culture in the next 81 while having to game plan each week and get ready for a game is comical. He had a year to start building things and then an offseason to re-enforce it and we saw the same poor preparation, poor in game coaching and mental mistakes we saw last year and under Charlie. If Tom Herman hasn't figured things out yet he likely isn't going to. He'll be here through next year so fretting about it won't matter. If he goes 6-6 again this year or worse the big money donors will blame it all on Charlie Strong. You can mark my words on that.

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torre

torre 1284

Posted
Posted (edited)
59 minutes ago, deech said:

Why is our #4 RB on the depth chart in for 2-minute offenses?  Why are the coaches incapable of coaching up the first three players on the depth chart to run the 2-minute offense?  

fwiw,  Scipio stated Porter was in on the 2 minute offense for his blocking ability/recognize blitz to protect Sam.  (Scipio interview yesterday,  104.9, Chad and Kevin).

Should be noted that Maryland only rushed 3 with a spy linebacker.

Edited by torre
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Blotto

Blotto 23434

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, jinx said:

But I like Dan's answer and, as a fan, I like and respect Dan.  After listening to Herman yesterday, I somewhat understand what he is dealing with, and that it isn't an easy fix.  This team has no idea how to win.  Had they been matched up against a team like Northwestern State, they could have made all of the same errors they made against Maryland and still won easily.  Maryland has enough talent to make them pay for mistakes, so they tried to eliminate all of the mistakes, which made them play tight.

Thats the fucking reason he gets paid $5 million a year. You think the kids at UCF knew how to win when Scott Frost showed up after an 0-12 season? Two years later they were 12-0. Check out  Urban Meyer's stints at BGU and Utah. That's what good coaches do. Shitty coaches bitch about their players trying to hard in season 2. 

Did Herman expect to walk into a top paying job, with top resources, more talent than 90% of FBS schools, with a team of trained assassins already laser focused on winning. Why the fuck did he think the job was open in the first place? The more I think about that press conference and his pussy ass excuses, the more it pisses me off. Fuck that clown.

Edited by Blotto
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