Post by The Great Aztec Joe on Jul 14, 2010 12:14:21 GMT -8
In the past third of a century San Diego State has managed to take an excellent football program and turn it into sheet by constantly firing head coaches. For every coach that has been fired, there are people who will assure you that it was absolutely necessary to save the program.
I am retired. I retired at the age of 51 and have re-entered the workforce on several occasions for short periods of time, doing a multitude of things, from manual labor to mid level management where I have spent most of my working life. I'm going on 63 now, and have no end of management experience with the best companies. I have been full time retired for a long time now.
One thing you learn in management with the more successful companies is that they groom managers. That is done with the understanding that everybody makes mistakes. Everybody screws up at one time or another. At the good companies they train managers to profit from their mistakes. Learn and Grow and become an even stronger manager.
The same attitude should be applied to Head Football Coaches at Mid Major Schools. We know for a fact that our school will almost always be one that is used as a stepping stone to greater financial success. Instead we treat novice head coaches as if they have to know it all to coach here.
We fired Gilbert after he had two 10 and 1 seasons.
We fired Scovil because he did not win right out of the shoot.
We fired Stolz because he was a fuggup from hell and needed to go.
We fired Luginbill because he lacked depth in his lines and it showed at the end of every season.
We fired Tollner because he appeared to retire in place and stopped recruiting.
We fired Craft because he did not win fast enough with his redshirt Sophomores and Freshmen when the outgoing coach left no talent in his last three recruiting classes.
We fired Long because he was a fuggup from hell and needed to go.
and now we have Brady Hoke who seems a little bit soft on the recruiting.
So what was Gilbert's fault? Simple, he had to convert from recruiting JC talent to recruiting high school talent as mandated from on high (the school administration and NCAA mandates). With three Freshman classes in place and few JC transfers still on the team, Gilbert was fired because his Redshirt Sophomore and Redshirt Freshman dominated team could not win with consistency when playing against Junior and Senior dominated teams, especially teams with fully grown men in the lines (where all games are won and lost.)
So what was Scovil's fault? It took him a while to get recruiting down and to build a team. When he finally had that team together with a promising QB to lead them, Scovil was fired and a total dufus buffoon was brought in to coach Scovil's team. Scovil was an offensive genius. He was hired because of that and he was fired because people forgot what he was capable of once he had talent in place. When he finally had the talent in place, he did not have the job.
The buffoon who followed him did not even try to recruit any depth of capable talent and the program collapsed in very short order.
An experienced former star defensive coordinator at ASU was brought in (shuffled from an admin job to a coaching job) as an emergency replacement, and he brought in some good young men to get the program going. All of his coaches wanted star skilled position players and Luginbill went into each season with lots of skilled talent but thin offensive and defensive lines. We looked good at the beginning of the season and usually fell apart towards the end as the walking wounded linemen failed to deliver because of gimpy knees and ankles and deep bruises. We did not have a good two deep in the line roster and we paid the price because of it.
I could go on, but the issue is before us. If we had an AD who would work with the Head Fooball coach, we could have ironed out the problems that each capable coach had. Instead we fired them all and now we are suffering the consequences of our folly.
Luginbill needed to be ordered to recruit more linemen. Period!
Somebody should have worked with Gilbert to help him set up an effective high school recruiting program. He already showed us what he could do with good talent. Ask Bobby Bowdin at Florida State who refused to ever play us again. Gilbert had a lot of talent on his team when he was fired. The only problem was that most of that talent was underclassmen from those high school recruiting classes.
Scovil needed a year or more to show what he could do with his kids. We knew what he could do with talent at BYU. It just takes a while to get the recruiting system going but nobody had the patience for that.
We need to work with new coaches when they come to this school. I have said that over and over again for the past three decades, but everybody wants to fire a head coach who does not know it all from the get go.
If Hoke makes a mistake, I hope we are willing to work with him. That is what quarterly reviews are for in business. Isn't coaching a business?
I am retired. I retired at the age of 51 and have re-entered the workforce on several occasions for short periods of time, doing a multitude of things, from manual labor to mid level management where I have spent most of my working life. I'm going on 63 now, and have no end of management experience with the best companies. I have been full time retired for a long time now.
One thing you learn in management with the more successful companies is that they groom managers. That is done with the understanding that everybody makes mistakes. Everybody screws up at one time or another. At the good companies they train managers to profit from their mistakes. Learn and Grow and become an even stronger manager.
The same attitude should be applied to Head Football Coaches at Mid Major Schools. We know for a fact that our school will almost always be one that is used as a stepping stone to greater financial success. Instead we treat novice head coaches as if they have to know it all to coach here.
We fired Gilbert after he had two 10 and 1 seasons.
We fired Scovil because he did not win right out of the shoot.
We fired Stolz because he was a fuggup from hell and needed to go.
We fired Luginbill because he lacked depth in his lines and it showed at the end of every season.
We fired Tollner because he appeared to retire in place and stopped recruiting.
We fired Craft because he did not win fast enough with his redshirt Sophomores and Freshmen when the outgoing coach left no talent in his last three recruiting classes.
We fired Long because he was a fuggup from hell and needed to go.
and now we have Brady Hoke who seems a little bit soft on the recruiting.
So what was Gilbert's fault? Simple, he had to convert from recruiting JC talent to recruiting high school talent as mandated from on high (the school administration and NCAA mandates). With three Freshman classes in place and few JC transfers still on the team, Gilbert was fired because his Redshirt Sophomore and Redshirt Freshman dominated team could not win with consistency when playing against Junior and Senior dominated teams, especially teams with fully grown men in the lines (where all games are won and lost.)
So what was Scovil's fault? It took him a while to get recruiting down and to build a team. When he finally had that team together with a promising QB to lead them, Scovil was fired and a total dufus buffoon was brought in to coach Scovil's team. Scovil was an offensive genius. He was hired because of that and he was fired because people forgot what he was capable of once he had talent in place. When he finally had the talent in place, he did not have the job.
The buffoon who followed him did not even try to recruit any depth of capable talent and the program collapsed in very short order.
An experienced former star defensive coordinator at ASU was brought in (shuffled from an admin job to a coaching job) as an emergency replacement, and he brought in some good young men to get the program going. All of his coaches wanted star skilled position players and Luginbill went into each season with lots of skilled talent but thin offensive and defensive lines. We looked good at the beginning of the season and usually fell apart towards the end as the walking wounded linemen failed to deliver because of gimpy knees and ankles and deep bruises. We did not have a good two deep in the line roster and we paid the price because of it.
I could go on, but the issue is before us. If we had an AD who would work with the Head Fooball coach, we could have ironed out the problems that each capable coach had. Instead we fired them all and now we are suffering the consequences of our folly.
Luginbill needed to be ordered to recruit more linemen. Period!
Somebody should have worked with Gilbert to help him set up an effective high school recruiting program. He already showed us what he could do with good talent. Ask Bobby Bowdin at Florida State who refused to ever play us again. Gilbert had a lot of talent on his team when he was fired. The only problem was that most of that talent was underclassmen from those high school recruiting classes.
Scovil needed a year or more to show what he could do with his kids. We knew what he could do with talent at BYU. It just takes a while to get the recruiting system going but nobody had the patience for that.
We need to work with new coaches when they come to this school. I have said that over and over again for the past three decades, but everybody wants to fire a head coach who does not know it all from the get go.
If Hoke makes a mistake, I hope we are willing to work with him. That is what quarterly reviews are for in business. Isn't coaching a business?
