Elliott lucked into Chandler Morris because of a relationship with his dad
This year is a mix of scheduling luck and buying a roster which wonāt be sustainable
James Frankling will steal all of our recruits
Tony gets no credit for identifying and landing talent, no credit for his in-game coaching which is markedly improved, no credit for the culture heās built to allow a roster of dozens of transfers to gel from day 1.
Iām trepidatious too because there has been some luck involved in this season, but Elliott deserves a lot of credit for the results. Heās also had to overcome a ton of injuries. This doesnāt feel like a London fluke year at all, where we won in spite of coaching. To me this feels like a coach who has found his sea legs and finally has a roster with enough talent/depth to compete every game.
I just never liked the hire from the jump, and I find some of the revisionist history around the decision to be a little insane.
I would much rather win than be right and I am thoroughly enjoying this season though! I hope to be writing apologies on this board for my bad early Elliott-era takes for decades to come. But I donāt think weāre anywhere close to there yet.
@Jerome he definitely gets credit! This has been a great season! Iām not suggesting that he doesnāt. Iāve said very little about his coaching this season beyond absolutely despising many of our (specifically second down) offensive playcalls.
Iām with @tonyburnertt. Never loved the hire, but I know a lot of people did and said to be patient. Well weāre definitely showing up this year.
That said, I find this season to be tough to replicate. And you can make a lot of arguments on what Tony had to uniquely overcome to get to this point, but I still donāt fully trust his in game coaching or recruiting. There really arenāt a lot of modern comps in terms of guys that put together the losing records he did and suddenly became a consistent winner. Combine that with looking at what guys like Jake Dickert have done in year 1ā¦
Anyway, no complaints this year. Seems greedy to be looking ahead at this point, but as always happy to be wrong.
Well to be fair - there also arenāt a lot of modern examples of power 4 coaches who went 11-23 in their first 3 years and were given more time, so we donāt know what a lot of these coaches wouldāve become with more Time. Patience is a lost art - and I say that as someone who wouldāve been completely fine if Tony had been canned last year
Generally Iām in a similar boat. I wasnāt blown away with Tony when he was hired, but I was glad to be moving on from the direction the program was heading. If the program decided to move on from Tony after last season I would have understood it.
I also understand that Tony faced some realities that virtually no coach has had to deal with and the impact that had on everything cannot be measured. It doesnāt give the staff a free pass, but it has to be considered.
Has this season been lucky? Sure was the program due for some of that? Maybe. But I cannot take credit away from the staff who put in the work in scouting recruiting and culture building that made it possible for the luck to shine through. It takes hard work for luck to happen.
None UVA related I also think in the modern era programs are too quick to move on from their coaches. Itās okay to do that when youāre a powerhouse program and can buy the next great thing. But for those middle and lower tier programs itās a dicey game going back into the fishing pond over and over. Despite his age Tony is a young coach and at this time Carla has let him grow and it seems to be yielding some results. Sometimes the next shiny object isnāt always the best idea.
All that said, I can spend my time looking back with anger over the failures of the past, or I can look ahead at an unknown future and stand scared and frightened about situation I have no control over, or I can chose to be present in the moment and bask in the warmth of a winning season, some good will for a good group of men and enjoy where Iām at. I chose to be present. Canāt do a thing to undo the past, and have little control over what tomorrow brings.
There really arenāt a lot of examples in the non-modern era either (coaches with losing record first three seasons, then turned it around). Or for that matter even examples where a coach was canned after three seasons and then found success elsewhere. But I get the argument.
A couple of examples though that fit your point,.
Bill McCartney with Colorado. Started his career 7-25-1, finished 93-55-5 with a national championship.
Barry Alvarez with Wisconsin. Started his career 11-22 and finished 119-72-4. A bunch of Roses.
Iām not saying Wilcox has done a good job, but he definitely was not a bad coach, taking a very underfinanced Cal to bowl eligibility the past 3 seasons. Iām not sure who Cal thinks they can hire that would do better. Maybe after 9 years though, things had just run their course.
My understanding is Cal is putting together some funding and looking to make a go of it in football. They brought in Ron Rivviera to GM and they honestly believe they can make some noise.
Guess they figured Wilcox wasnt the right fit moving forward
Yeah I actually think Wilcox does/did a good job. If we lost Rud for whatever reason I would love to give him a call for DC, but I imagine B1G and SEC teams will be beating down his door already.
Going with Rolo over Harsin as interim is an interesting move. I wonder if Harsin is in the running for the full time and they didnāt want to put their finger on the scale too hard or something? Just an all around kind of weird handling of things with one game left.
ESPN lists the potential candidates as Tosh Lupoi, Ryan Grubb, Sean Lewis, Jason Eck, and Tim Plough. My guess is they think they can get Lupoi by tugging at the alum heartstrings. He would definitely increase their talent level overnight.
Grubb should wait on something better, Eck will probably wait on Wisconsin next year, Lewis would actually be a good fit for both sides potentially. Thatās who I would go for if Tosh doesnāt work out if I were them. I like Lewis a lot. Thought he got done ridiculously dirty by Deion.
Eric Morris to OKState. Iām very happy heās staying away from the ACC. Didnāt want to face off with him on a regular basis. I think heāll do very well.
Keep reading from our friends to the southwest that they think theyāre getting Rahne as OC.
Seems to me a guy who was an OC at a blueblood before getting his own job but quitting that job for a coordinator spot at VPI would be like Sumrall (who was Ole Missā OC) quitting as Tulane HC for a coordinator spot at Syracuse.
The logic I could see behind it is that heās probably having the best year heās going to have at ODU and maybe heās still not getting the phone calls heād like. Tech could give him a raise and then he could go into the pool for maybe a better Go5 job.
Sean Lewis and Joe Moorhead have done similar-ish things in the recent past because they saw their path up the ladder as easier with a coordinator job than where they were at currently.
Listened to a podcast that was sent to me by my son, a Hokie, about the recruiting of Franklin. J. Pearson, who is on the BOV at Tech and played a huge role on the search team, was the guest. Interestingly, he spoke to Pry after the hiring announcement and asked if he would consider taking a position under Franklin. He said yes.
There wasnāt a suggestion that this was going to happen or even if Franklin wanted it to happen, more like Pearson being curious.
That logic makes sense for Rahne. Sometimes you have to give ground to gain ground.
A successful run as a coordinator at a P4 that makes national waves will put him in front of people who may not dig far enough into the crates to see whatās actually taking place at ODU.
@lodger96 your analogy makes sense for Sumrall because Tulane is a legit Group of 5 power and you can make the connection between their set up and a P4. Itās a big jump from ODU to a P4. A stop as a P4 OC could be a less risky shortcut instead of going ODU - - Tulane levelā P4 (espically if that p4 is a low level one)
I actually like that move for him. CSU has a higher ceiling than UConn. Itās not a homerun but Iām not sure thatās what Mora wants at this point of his career.
The conference attachment is huge for what it can do for a program. CSU has history and pedigree and seemingly a path forward. UConn has been in building mode my entire life, except for maybe 4 seasons when it looked like they were serious about football.
Damn I do not think of him as that. I still see him as the plucky young son of Jim Mora Sr.
CSU is the type of job Mora can take and win 7-8 a year on avg for the next 4 years and sail into retirement peacefully.