What's the approach now?

[Auhud08 596]

On recruiting- it makes me feel better seeing those recruit rankings, knowing how few of them contributed, and how poorly Gus developed and yet what we were able to do. Harsin, I think, can have similar results (‘13, ‘17, ‘19) with only a top 15 class

[bigbird 60,529]

2 hours ago, Auhud08 said:

Its not the same. You cant compare it. 

[Mikey 16,603]

2 hours ago, Auhud08 said:

Except we lost Schwartz, Stove, and Williams. All of whom significantly controbuted to Gus’ 6 big wins. Think ab it this way- if Gus didnt have Seth last year what would the record have been? We lost key contributors and key recruits between November and Harsin being hired. Its not the same. You cant compare it. 

Overall, the personnel losses weren't as high as in a normal year. Many other teams would kill to have as many key players returning as AU had on both sides of the ball. Other teams with 1st year coaches improved on their previous years' record. I expected AU to improve too, and we have not.

No team lost more recruits/players than Tennessee, yet they have improved their record over last season. AU should have been able to do the same.

[I_M4_AU 7,839]

9 hours ago, cbo said:

Love you Bird, but there is zero evidence to support this. Maybe you are being hyperbolic. 

Not Bird, but do you believe Bo has progressed in his development this year?  That is probably the only *evidence* he needed to come to his conclusion that could never be proven.  Has the OL been better this year?  Questionable for sure, but would have they improved or regressed?  There is no staying the same.

How about the defense?  The DL could have been better due to the players that might not have transferred out, BUT with all the unrest over Steele and how the year ended prior to Gus being let go do you think the defense in total would have been better if Steele were to be let go?  How about if Gus kept Steele?

I can see his point.

[steeleagle 2,945]

1 hour ago, Mikey said:

Overall, the personnel losses weren't as high as in a normal year. Many other teams would kill to have as many key players returning as AU had on both sides of the ball. Other teams with 1st year coaches improved on their previous years' record. I expected AU to improve too, and we have not.

No team lost more recruits/players than Tennessee, yet they have improved their record over last season. AU should have been able to do the same.

Tenn has improved? ON offense yes, but overall. about the same or a little better. 

Their schedule according to experts is much softer this year than last.

 

They lost to Ole Miss at home. We beat Ole Miss at home.

They have lost to Ga as bad as we did.

They have lost to Pitt at home, we lost to Penn St on the road.

You can't just go by last year's record to this year to satisfy whether a coach is better than another. You have to look at it over a 4-5 year period bc of recruiting, and improvements on the field too.

We WERE on a higher trajectory than IT until the 2nd half of the Miss St game. Who is our sec team than we can beat every year like UT can with Vandy?

 

[Auhud08 596]

56 minutes ago, Mikey said:

Overall, the personnel losses weren't as high as in a normal year. Many other teams would kill to have as many key players returning as AU had on both sides of the ball. Other teams with 1st year coaches improved on their previous years' record. I expected AU to improve too, and we have not.

No team lost more recruits/players than Tennessee, yet they have improved their record over last season. AU should have been able to do the same.

Maybe im missing something but tennessee has 3 “big” wins this year which is the same as last year thus far.   Returning players do not equate to automatic improvement particularly when youre switching the entire scheme. You also cant compare yoy because other programs have more continuity compared to our team. Texas am, bama, uga, miss st, ole miss, arkansas, penn state all have had relatively little staff turnover. 

[The Freak 2,528]

47 minutes ago, steeleagle said:

Who is our sec team than we can beat every year like UT can with Vandy?

 

Apparently ours is Arkansas.

[tinman 305]

5 hours ago, Mikey said:

Overall, the personnel losses weren't as high as in a normal year. Many other teams would kill to have as many key players returning as AU had on both sides of the ball. Other teams with 1st year coaches improved on their previous years' record. I expected AU to improve too, and we have not.

No team lost more recruits/players than Tennessee, yet they have improved their record over last season. AU should have been able to do the same.

You keep talking about key players returning, another year's experience, etc.  But what if these key players have become as good as they are going to get?  It's like a baseball player who hits  for a 250 average.  Just because he comes back the next year doesn't mean he's going to hit 275.

[AUwent 3,751]

6 hours ago, steeleagle said:

Tenn has improved? ON offense yes, but overall. about the same or a little better. 

Their schedule according to experts is much softer this year than last.

 

They lost to Ole Miss at home. We beat Ole Miss at home.

They have lost to Ga as bad as we did.

They have lost to Pitt at home, we lost to Penn St on the road.

You can't just go by last year's record to this year to satisfy whether a coach is better than another. You have to look at it over a 4-5 year period bc of recruiting, and improvements on the field too.

We WERE on a higher trajectory than IT until the 2nd half of the Miss St game. Who is our sec team than we can beat every year like UT can with Vandy?

 

Everyone had a tougher schedule last year. But I’m terrified of us becoming them—an endless number of coaching searches where we somehow can’t land a good candidate.

Edited November 18, 2021 by AUwent

[augolf1716 21,162]

5 minutes ago, AUwent said:

Everyone had a tougher schedule last year. But I’m terrified of us becoming them—an endless number of coaching searches where we somehow can’t land a good candidate.

 

[Hank2020 3,201]

4 hours ago, AUwent said:

Everyone had a tougher schedule last year. But I’m terrified of us becoming them—an endless number of coaching searches where we somehow can’t land a good candidate.

Perception is everything and they are perceived to be improved.

[AUwent 3,751]

26 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

Perception is everything and they are perceived to be improved.

Yeah, it is possible that they are finally seeing some light--though they're also having recruiting struggles.

Edited November 19, 2021 by AUwent

[Mikey 16,603]

12 hours ago, steeleagle said:

Tenn has improved? ON offense yes, but overall. about the same or a little better. 

Their schedule according to experts is much softer this year than last.

 

They lost to Ole Miss at home. We beat Ole Miss at home.

They have lost to Ga as bad as we did.

They have lost to Pitt at home, we lost to Penn St on the road.

You can't just go by last year's record to this year to satisfy whether a coach is better than another. You have to look at it over a 4-5 year period bc of recruiting, and improvements on the field too.

We WERE on a higher trajectory than IT until the 2nd half of the Miss St game. Who is our sec team than we can beat every year like UT can with Vandy?

 

Tennessee has already won more games than they did all of last year in a short season. They have improved.  Even if AU wins out we cannot match last year's record of winning 60% of our significant games. We have not improved.

Is this significant yet? No, it takes three to five years to learn whether the hire was a good one or not.

 

[cbo 7,853]

13 hours ago, I_M4_AU said:

Not Bird, but do you believe Bo has progressed in his development this year?  That is probably the only *evidence* he needed to come to his conclusion that could never be proven.  Has the OL been better this year?  Questionable for sure, but would have they improved or regressed?  There is no staying the same.

How about the defense?  The DL could have been better due to the players that might not have transferred out, BUT with all the unrest over Steele and how the year ended prior to Gus being let go do you think the defense in total would have been better if Steele were to be let go?  How about if Gus kept Steele?

I can see his point.

Maybe so. My choice of the word "evidence" was poor because this is all opinion and conjecture. 

We can get into the weeds about minor improvements and regressions here and there. Bo has improved some. The OL a little bit, as it should with another year under any staff. I think the D would be better overall without the coaching change, though I am not giving up on Mason. Takes some time. 

But the best predictor of the future is the past. Gus likely would win 8 games this season, like he pretty much always did. 

I'm glad Gus is gone. Better for the program overall. But his record would be about the same this season as what we have. What matters is the next couple seasons. 

[gr82b4au 5,568]

9 hours ago, cbo said:

Maybe so. My choice of the word "evidence" was poor because this is all opinion and conjecture. 

We can get into the weeds about minor improvements and regressions here and there. Bo has improved some. The OL a little bit, as it should with another year under any staff. I think the D would be better overall without the coaching change, though I am not giving up on Mason. Takes some time. 

But the best predictor of the future is the past. Gus likely would win 8 games this season, like he pretty much always did. 

I'm glad Gus is gone. Better for the program overall. But his record would be about the same this season as what we have. What matters is the next couple seasons. 

I agree with everything you said except for Gus winning eight games this season…however it is all speculation anyway. I think that the roster he left on this team is not conducive to winning many SEC games. He got lucky last year. Very lucky. Look at the Kentucky game, the Arkansas game, and the Ole Miss game from last year. We were gifted those games. The program as a whole has been on a downward slide the last few years, and recruiting has been going downhill as well.  We are nowhere near TAM, LSU, and of course Uat and Uga. But I digress…

I was ready for this season to be underwhelming considering we were changing the entire offensive scheme that we have had for more than a decade. We also lack talent in areas, like OL, that make it more difficult to run a pro style offense as opposed to a simple offense. I knew this would be a rougher year. However, I was banking on the fact that we would bring in a top recruiting class to help buffer the issues.
Recruiting is my only concern about this program at this point. If we do not bring in a top 15 class this year we are in trouble. Last year does not count because the staff had only been there a month. But this recruiting class needs to pick up in a big way. We only have a few weeks before early signing period. 

[I_M4_AU 7,839]

10 hours ago, cbo said:

Maybe so. My choice of the word "evidence" was poor because this is all opinion and conjecture. 

*Evidence* in an overused word in today’s world.

I really don’t think Gus would have had 8 wins based on the team chemistry at the end of the season especially considering the speculation of undermining within the ranks.  JMO

[AuburnNTexas 7,148]

45 minutes ago, gr82b4au said:

I agree with everything you said except for Gus winning eight games this season…however it is all speculation anyway. I think that the roster he left on this team is not conducive to winning many SEC games. He got lucky last year. Very lucky. Look at the Kentucky game, the Arkansas game, and the Ole Miss game from last year. We were gifted those games. The program as a whole has been on a downward slide the last few years, and recruiting has been going downhill as well.  We are nowhere near TAM, LSU, and of course Uat and Uga. But I digress…

I was ready for this season to be underwhelming considering we were changing the entire offensive scheme that we have had for more than a decade. We also lack talent in areas, like OL, that make it more difficult to run a pro style offense as opposed to a simple offense. I knew this would be a rougher year. However, I was banking on the fact that we would bring in a top recruiting class to help buffer the issues.
Recruiting is my only concern about this program at this point. If we do not bring in a top 15 class this year we are in trouble. Last year does not count because the staff had only been there a month. But this recruiting class needs to pick up in a big way. We only have a few weeks before early signing period. 

Anybody who had analyzed this roster realized that we were middle of the pack at best.  Yes we kept a lot of players who were starters but our losses were at key positions. The WR losses were crippling, we kept the whole O-Line but that was a weak point so keeping them as opposed to replacing them was a best a wash even though I think they were a little better this year.  We needed a dynamic Edge rush last year and we still need that dynamic Edge rusher.  

You say if we don't get a top 15 class that we blew it this year. In the past I would have agreed with you but equally important today is the transfer Portal.  I will have to look at this years HS class and the transfer portal before I say this staff dropped the ball this year.  We have gotten two solid O-Line so far I believe we will get a slimmed down and improved Anez Cooper  and I hope we get one more solid O-Line in HS class even if it is a player that will take 2 or 3 years to help us. If we can then pickup some O-Line in the Portal especially at least 1 starting OT type and one staring IOL type we will have gone a long way to improving O-Line. 

We need an Edge Rusher so again need to look at the Portal and we will need  a couple of LB;s and DB's and maybe a WR.  We also need to make sure that some key players don't go transfer Portal route as in the day and age of the new Transfer Portal Roster retention of certain players is as important as who you bring in.  

It might be summer before we can really say what type on incoming class we have as the Portal has changed everything. The right portal players negates a weak HS class especially if those players have 2-3 years of eligibility.

 

[gr82b4au 5,568]

What's the approach now?
 

Hope. 

[Never2Yield 1,005]

11 minutes ago, gr82b4au said:

What's the approach now?
 

Hope. 

Need some action too!

But hope is a start.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

Well after reading the other message boards, the insiders seem to think we are losing ground on several of the people that we thought we would get. Basically we are getting it handed to us right now on the recruiting trail.

So unless things change drastically, the approach will probably have to change from recruiting HS players to filling this class with a ton of guys from the portal. 

[tinman 305]

2 hours ago, gr82b4au said:

What's the approach now?
 

Hope. 

And PRAY!

[AUCE05 369]

1 hour ago, gr82b4au said:

Well after reading the other message boards, the insiders seem to think we are losing ground on several of the people that we thought we would get. Basically we are getting it handed to us right now on the recruiting trail.

So unless things change drastically, the approach will probably have to change from recruiting HS players to filling this class with a ton of guys from the portal. 

Recruiting FCS level guys and expect to beat SEC teams is a solid strategy 

[gr82b4au 5,568]

11 minutes ago, AUCE05 said:

Recruiting FCS level guys and expect to beat SEC teams is a solid strategy 

We may not have another choice. 

[1716AU 728]

8 hours ago, gr82b4au said:

What's the approach now?
 

Hope. 

Kiss them goodbye

It ain't getting better any time soon

Thanks Harsin

[Mikey 16,603]

10 hours ago, gr82b4au said:

Well after reading the other message boards, the insiders seem to think we are losing ground on several of the people that we thought we would get.

Nobody should be surprised. I think recruits understand it if you lose to a more talented team. When you have better players but lose to a team with inferior talent (MSU, USCe) it causes them to wonder if AU is going anywhere but down.