The Dabo Clemson and the road ahead fascinates me. Especially when you layer on everything. He lost his coordinators who have gone on to careers as HC. His opposition to the portal and modern recruiting has hurt the program and caused at least some damages being currently felt.
However, heās done just enough to keep the program afloat in terms of national relevancy that itās kept the hoards mostly quiet, but as an outsider we all see the cracks in the foundation and thereās no indication they are getting repaired by the current owner.
What does Dabo do? Double down reinvent himself and dig out? Jump ship before it falls out? Maybe too late for that the gloss is off that nut. Does he go down with the ship ala a Paterno, or a Bowden as you mentioned?
Best best for Dabo? Retire say you want to spend time with the wife and get out on a 9 win season before the wolves come to pick the bones.
I kinda thought he did all the right things before this season tbhā¦ He brought in legit coordinators and finally tapped into the portal. Klubnik is legit. They got some dawgs on the D-line. Seemed to address the hole at receiver.
I had them pegged to be a real force and end up in the national championship game (or pretty close depending on how the bracket shook out) I honestly donāt get it.
My best guess is there is some aspect of complacency that has taken over in scouting/recruiting/development where they either lost the staff who were good at it or havenāt tried as hard since it became easy to land big recruits. A little of that late era Bennett malaise.
Paterno coached until he was 85. Bowden retired at 80. Dabo is 55. Thereās no way he has 25-30 years left in this job. These days 60 is considered pretty old for a head coach. Saban and Belichick are outliers.
I agree. You can look at my Week 1 predictions. I thought this was going to be Dabo showing everyone his way did work. But the results arenāt there and it goes well beyond the loss to GT on Saturday.
The dline is too damn talented to be as poor as they are. Overall the output is not matching the talent. Like you said maybe itās complacency from the staff
Actually really like that comp. Same person same program ethos but itās just not clicking.
Wasnāt referencing those two because of their age. The reference was to how they held on too long and it cost the program overall. That can happen at 55 or 85,.
Yeah Iāve had the thought before.. Theyāre very very similar. Tony a little more understated, and seems like a better person for my money, but Iām biased. Pretty religious guys who wove that into their programs, developmentally focused with some slightly unusual recruiting philosophies and behaviors, insanely reluctant to bring in staff from outside the family or embrace NIL in an aggressive way, clear upgrades over the history of their spot who reached the mountain top and probably could have stayed there had the ground not completely changed underneath them.
Honestly their achievements being so great before the new era probably hurt their desire/willingness to adapt and hamstrung them a bit. I probably wouldnāt be taking too many notes next to my pile of ACC titles and national championship ring(s) either.
Neither have had assistants go on to achieve much with the big whistle either . Probably something to that.
Tough to build other leaders when your model is so unique and built around you. Also as you mentioned very tough when that model you built is not suited for the current world.
Yeah, but it might not matter. Bob Stoops retired at 56. Oklahoma had a few more good seasons and then struggled. Ryan Day kept Ohio State humming, but some of the years between Woody Hayes and Urban Meyer were rough. Kirby Smart elevated Georgia after Mark Richtās later years. Miami hasnāt really been the U since Jimmy Johnson. Michiganās been up and down between Schembechler and Harbaugh. Florida after Meyer has been a disaster.
I think more important than what state a guy leaves a program is who the program hires. And thatās often a crapshoot. Kirby Smart, Ryan Day, Lincoln Riley (OU version) and Dan Lanning had never been head coaches before. Either had Brent Venables. Urban Meyer (UF version), James Franklin and Chris Petersen were successful at smaller programs. Dan Mullen, Lincoln Riley (USC version) and Urban Meyer (OSU version) were also successful elsewhere. Steve Sarkasian, Lane Kiffin and Jim Mora are retreads on their 3rd or 4th HC spots. So was Chip Kelly (UCLA version).
Youāre right but it could be argued youāre painting with a broad brush to prove your point. Not uncommon on the internet and I do it myself all the time.
Yes, but they also brought in a national title under Tressel. Cooper was a good coach who got fired for losing to Michigan.
Lloyd Carr went 122-40 with a split championship in 97
They made an entire documentary about the post Jimmy Canes, that went on one of the all time great runs in college football that culminated with a national title and a massive upset to the OSU team mentioned above.
The right hire absolutely can transform a program. Either by elevating or simply building something out of nothing.
I wonder if the case could be made that certain programs are just too big to fail. Theyāll have an off hire or maybe two but generally they find their way back to relevance because they hire good ADās, have passionate and knowledgeable alumni, and they have deep pockets. This is why generally we always see the same teams float to the top. The ones that donāt have success built into their program are more susceptible to the back coach hire or the coach who remains on past their prime.
The Florida schools may be the ultimate test of this theory. They are still anew kid on the block compared to the OSUās, Mich, and PSUās of the world, but they operated successfully over a long window
Everyone used to think Dabo was a lock for Bama post-Saban but I donāt think they want him anymore, if they ever did. I could see A&M, Auburn, Miss St, Texas Tech ā¦ some SEC or Big 12 school with suffering alumni who want the sugar high of hiring a 2x national champ coach.
Agree. Said it on my football feed last week. No way this version of Dabo goes to Bama. The fans would explode of they moved on from 9win DeBoer for 10 win in ACC Dabo.
Also agree if Dabo coaches elsewhere. Its that nxt tier SEC team that thinks they are royalty and believe a retred will save them.
Be on the lookout for the new LRA UVA Football show, coming to you from myself and our favorite mod @BDragon ! This will now be a weekly show, first episode is recording tonight and will drop tomorrow!
Mostly my fault, had planned a family vacation a while back and didnāt want to do a show then pause until I could get back this week so weāre starting now!
If anyone has any questions feel free to post, this wonāt be a live show but if I seem them in the next hour or so weāll discuss when we record.
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. Probably something to that.
. Just speculation of course