Someone should ask what really happened between him and FIU. You clowns that like to celebrate what Luigi "accomplished" there would have been amazed when good ol' Butch had them comsistently relevant.
some people have to be too young to remember what kind of program butch took over. this thing was dead in the water.
You're kidding right? Maybe you need a memory check. Butch took over a team that had just competed for the National Title and had a lot of players on the roster the next couple of years. He didn't have a QB till he got Dorsey and he didn't have the depth because he lost 10 sholly's a year, but he had a lot of talent to work with. Golden can win or get fired for all I care, but having an investigation go on for 2 years is worse than knowing exactly what you're facing because 1. you're trying to get out in front of it by self limiting things like visits, bowl games, scholly's and 2. schools can recruit against you very easily. All that happened, but don't sit there and act like Butch had nothing to work with when he arrived. That is why people wanted him gone after year 4 because he had players, great players who were drafted and first round draft picks all before 2000.
Dude that roster that Butch got was not sa stacked as you would like to believe. I put a write up sometime last year on the guys who ended up in the NFL from the team he took over. Yes there was a little star power, but there was no depth at all which only got worse as Butch lost 30 scholarships over the next few years. Even while facing that, Butch Davis's records **** on Al Golden's record. wins of 8, 9, 5, 9, 9, 11. The 5 win season game when the full scholarship penalty was in effect.
Al on the other hand with no real penalty other than a lengthy investigation has wins of 6, 7, 9, 6 and this is in the worst division of the worst conference in all of the power 5 conferences. He also managed solid ranked recruiting classes in that time period with the worst being ranked 37. He also had a team that in year 4 of his regime had 7 drafted players and only manged to win 6. Butch without 30 scholarships got 5 and without 20 still got 9. Please keep telling us about how Great Al is.
You can't read. I never said Golden was great, but keep trying. I am comparing the two situations. We had NO star power when AG got here, NO DEPTH, and maybe 1 playmaker in Sean Spence. Oh yea half the team was suspended for the majority of the year too. Who did the current regime had their first 2 years? Come on buddy give me the playmakers they had? I'll wait for you to list them, but i'll tell you that the fact they had none kind of coincides with the record.
Butch's teams his first couple years he had WERE ALOT MORE TALENTED. Who would you take.....Senior Ray Lewis or freshman/sophomore DP? Kenard Lang or Chick? Yatil Green or PD? Duane Starks or Tracy Howard? About the only place where things were equal was Lamar Miller and Danyell Ferguson, but Edge and Dyril McMillian were both coming in by then. Butch had stacked teams compared to when the current regime took over and neither situation had any depth. Same situation were in now. Once he got the depth and started winning a couple of games he got the croots.
You want to talk about a bad conference.....the Big East wasn't full of world beaters friend. Also the fact that you think scholarship reductions for 3 years, albeit 10/year, is worse than a 2 year investigation on a program and then the penalty handed is worse than knowing exactly what you're getting into is laughable. You could still recruit and back then it was much more easy to recruit your backyard. Teams from Ohio couldn't hit send on a keyboard and "show love" like they can now. Much easier game to recruit back in the mid 90's. Take away Golden as the coach and insert anyone in America there. They still wouldn't have been able to recruit well. In todays game with todays kids, who believe anything a snake is selling them, no one would've done well. Not Butch, not Saban, Not Urban.
It's funny that you think anyone who doesn't blindly want Butch back is in AG's court. He can win or GTFOH for all I care. However Butch has been begging anyone who will listen for a job, had the president of the college right a letter saying he didn't think he was at fault for what went down and he still can't sniff any type of job. Why's that?
By all means please tell me who was suspended half a season under golden other than Vernon.
The fact that you think a team with reduced scholarships of 1/3 of what your opponents are allowed is somehow a better situation than a 2 year investigation where al still recruited top 20 and even top 10 classes is laughable. If I have 5 future hof players, which we did not, and the rest of the team is mostly walk ons and jags, then the team is not good and the lack of depth will catch up with me.
as far as ray lewis, Starks, and Lang, I already said yes, we had a few studs, but in football a few studs does not make up for the depth issues we had. And yes I'll take pd over green and I love edge, but he wasn't a factor until later, like around the time we started winning big again.
Let's also not down play what Golden came in here with. Yes he also had some depth issues, but he had a lot of good players as well who are still on nfl rosters. Lamar Miller, Washington, Spence, linder, hurns, and Vernon are all starters and were not freshman. PD was already making big plays as a freshman, seantrel is a starter now and should have been then. Those are the ones who are still impact players in the nfl. we still have a bunch currently on rosters, Mike James, Benjamin, ford, Morris, Walford, chick, armbrister, Perryman, Streeter, ray ray. Then you count all the guys who could have been good, but got in trouble like aldarius Johnson, Eddie Johnson, paul. We might not have had the stars that Butch had, but we had good players and more depth.
One thing I notice here is Butch players get drafted high and meet expectations. Golden players get drafted low and exceed expectations showing golden probably could have used them better.
I never said the big East was elite, but the only good teams we are playing in the acc, are the same teams we played in the Big East. VT and fsu. We don't play Clemson often. We did play fsu and vt. we also played bigger games nationally.
If I wasnt on my phone right now, I'd have so much more.
Butch ***** all over golden. One time was he under 8 wins and it was after the full 30 scholarship reduction was in effect. I've never seen a coach underachieving like golden with so much talent. As far as your support, I could care less if you don't like Butch, but to back Golden's sorry *** after the results he's given us shows you are an al supporter. The fact that you think an investigation in which no real penalties came out of it and we still recruited well is worse than actual penalties in which we had a significant number of scholarship reductions is laughable and tells me all I need to know about you. People talked about both situations being similar to smu. The difference is Butch's team penalties were a lot more like smu while al's were all talk.