Plenty to go around. Players? Coaches? Both?
This board is divided on where most of the blame should be placed. It seems most believe it’s coaching and I tend to agree. However, from my perch, it started long before the season began. It started as soon as Mario walked into Hecht and attempted to force feed a drastic change in philosophy on a team that had been coddled and wasn’t held accountable for their actions or inaction.
Change is difficult. Most are averse to change. I’ve seen it many times in my professional life. Attempting to force feed an entirely new philosophy on an engrained culture is difficult at best. It’s like trying to eat an elephant in one bite. That approach is almost always unsuccessful and creates dissent and resentment. A better approach is analyzing the culture and making small changes at a consistent clip based on the most urgent issues that need to be addressed.
I believe what we’re seeing on the field is a result of players completely overwhelmed by Mario’s change in philosophy coupled with, and compounded by, entirely new offensive and defensive schemes. This roster is not loaded with scrubs. It’s loaded with players that are having an extremely difficult time adapting to this new philosophy of being held accountable for everything they do - on and off the field.
Are the players completely blameless? Of course not. But we also need to keep in mind these players are still mostly 18-22 year olds trying to figure out who they are.
Where do we go from here? I believe Mario needs to take a step back and self evaluate his philosophy and approach. At this point, the seeds he’s planted will be difficult to re-plant but it’s obvious the crop he’s planted is dying a cold death. Hopefully, he’s self aware enough to realize what he’s doing ain’t working.
