Recently I had a conversation with a very close friend whose son was a starting ILB for UVA for the past 4 years, Nick Jackson. Nick received his degree and transferred to Iowa where he is a starting ILB.
I asked his dad about the biggest difference between Nick playing for Iowa as opposed to UVA. His answer was that every player on the Iowa roster does nothing else, and cares about nothing else other than playing football, watching film, and talking about football. School is a distant second, and social activities (I know it’s Iowa but its still college) are not even on the radar. At UVA there were a handful of kids on the offense and defense who were like that, including Nick. So even though Iowa can’t score an offensive TD (head coach’s son is the OC) the players are immersed in football all the time.
I think the biggest thing Mario wanted to change is he wanted players who live, breathe, eat and sleep football. Culture so to speak. And frankly I think we have many, especially in this freshman class. But I think we are 2-3 years away from having a full roster of players who are football first, second and last. I also think that in the past we recruited good players who were not dedicated to the game. I hate to pick on Mark Pope but he always struck me in that way. Our best players were often transfers who cared about nothing other than football which helped them succeed individually, though not improving the overall trajectory of the program; Roche, Phillips, Osborne as examples.
IMO, Mario was correct that the culture of football as the most important thing did not exist at UM when he arrived. We were like UVA. Some cared, some did not. Hopefully he can change that. Coach L certainly has done that in basketball. All of the guys he has now are basketball junkies. Only time will tell.
