I’m a true fan, have been for 5 decades and had the pleasure of being around some of our greatest teams. We are no where near Bama as a football team and football program. We are a mid level power 5 team and program that is flawed in many ways starting with the AD and staff and if you disagree you may want to look at the results of the last several years. If you look at or 22 starters, who starts for Bama? Clemson? Ohio State? I’ve seen great teams, my Cuginas played QB here, won NCs, those teams were the product of great staffs, great players and great leaders who knew what it took to win at a high level. We need more than chains and rings, we need a FOOTBALL PROGRAM and right now we are not close to the elite squads in the country and that is an opinion of many much more knowledgeable than anyone in CIS. You don’t win college football games with smoke and mirrors. Gotta call them as I see them but I admire your passion. I’ll wait for results.
I agree with you. I’ve said this for a while some of Alabama or Ohio states second stringers would start on this team right away. They recruit guys that everyone Knows will be early picks even before they step foot n campus.
We keep talking about what separates the haves and the have nots and the biggest problem facing this program isn’t the coaching or the recruiting imo.
The biggest problem that this school has faced is the lack of player retention. This goes way back since Tommy Streeter.
Let’s just look at some of the things that have happened since the new staff got here with cmr.
AQM and grace kicked off.
Kayaa leaves early.
Richards injured
Rj and norton leave early
Njoku leaves early
Bandy leaves early
Garvin early
Rousseau early
Haskins transferred
Nigel bethel transferred
Derrick smith transferred
Ezzard Transfered
Hightower transferred
Lingard transferred
Cager transferred
Jackson left early
Not all evaluations can be spot on. Even Bama has the same problem at times.
But Xavier Williams at Bama hasn’t started one game but doesn’t transfer despite seeing everyone around him ball out while pope almost transferred last year “allegedly”. Xavier Thomas got passed up by a freshman and he ain’t transferring anywhere
Look at the elite programs now and you see hardly anyone leaving early even if they project day one.
If most of the dudes I just stated (and that’s just of the top of my head) stayed for their senior year it helps tremendously with depth, practice, and leadership.
How many more wins do have? Idk but a few more wins helps with momentum and then we can start recruiting better players.
Now add on top of that 3 different offensive systems and we have a recipe for disaster.
So yes we are behind the top 5-6 elite programs but retaining our juniors solves that problem quite a bit. We still need to get the elite talent. And improve evaluations especially for leadership and discipline issues.
But retaining the talent will hopefully lead to wins and then the talent will come.