Just to help put things into perspective, I'm gonna list first year records of some of the greatest college coaches. It's very rare for a coach to take over a team and dominate in their very first year. It's outlandish to expect that, no matter how much talent we have. Bob Stoops -1st year......7-5 Bear Bryant -1st year.....5-4-1 Pete Carroll -1st year.....6-6 Bobby Bowden -1st year.....5-6 Joe Paterno 1st year......5-5 Jim Tressel 1st year......7-5 Even our own NicK Saban 1st year......8-4
Everyone of those coaches inherited 1/2 the talent Less Smiles has. Almost all of them came to rebuild a program after a coach had been fired. Our coach left us for the riches on the NFL. Show me a coach who inherited a team with as much talent as Less Smiles and then we can talke. Wait - Larry Coker - thats a good one. Didnt he win the NC I didnt expect LSU to win the NC, but I did expect a better coached team.
This argument is baseless. I haven't checked each of the programs that you listed but generally coaching changes are a result of poor coaching records from the prior year(s). Does Dinardo ring a bell???? USC was struggling when Pete Carroll took over, OU was struggling when Stoops, took over.....and so on and on. We were beating UT 21-0 at half. Tennessee made the proper adjustments at half. We played not to lose instead of trying to win. I am hopeful Leslie will learn from the mistakes and move forward. This can still be a special season. All that I care about is that we win the SEC Championship. Because the polls are ridiculous and the National Championship game is a joke.
Awesome response. This is baseless and for those who go heavy on the Kool aid. We should be undefeated right now but instead could have quite possibly winless.
Oklahoma 1998: 5-6-0 Coach: John Blake Oklahoma 1999: 7-5-0 Coach: Bob Stoops Alabama 1957: 2-7-1 Coach: Jennings B. "Ears" Whitworth Alabama 1958: 5-4-1 Coach: Paul W. "Bear" Bryant USC 2000: 5-7-0 Coach: Paul Hackett USC 2001: 6-6-0 Coach: Pete Carroll Florida St. 1975: 3-8-0 Coach: Darrell Mudra Florida St. 1976: 5-6-0 Coach: Bobby Bowden Penn St. 1965: 5-5-0 Coach: Charles A. "Rip" Engle Penn St. 1966: 5-5-0 Coach: Joe Paterno LSU 1999: 3-8-0 Coach: Gerry DiNardo LSU 2000: 8-4-0 Coach: Nick L. Saban Now... If you want to make any comparison, the *ONLY* one out of your list that would be even close is the transition from John Cooper to Jim Tressel at Ohio State. John Cooper had four consecutive seasons of 10 or more wins in the late nineties. Then he finished .500 in 99 and rebounded to 8-4 in 2000 at Ohio State. It was a rebuilding/reloading phase. Tressel stepped right in and took over the existing talent and won a NC in his second year. Since then things have not gone as well for Ohio State. Les Miles is now taking over for a successful coach as well in Nick Saban. I am really having to reach here to give your thread any validity though.......... Lets just hope Les Miles is able to win a few NC's for us. :thumb:
i dont think this is a good arguement because of the high level of talent, the overall experience, and the retention of jimbo. but i do think its reasonable to expect some growing pains with a coaching change. especially with a new D scheme. maybe pelini and/or his scheme sucks, but maybe -it takes a while to learn it -our green CBs suck -our opponents have performed well i think the screwed up schedule is the major factor in the weakness of the D. if we played the planned schedule, we'd be 4-0 and #3.
Every one of the coaches mentioned above were hired after a coach was fired or resigned not of his own free will. Miles was hired under different circumstances. He was not hired to lift a fallen program... plus... you had to go back 40 years to find examples? wow.:hihi:
And every one of those coaches played against less talent than Miles is playing against too. But that's not the point, we're still 2-1 - let's see how it plays out. I wish Vandy would have won to help our SOS.
