Jimbo Fisher proved that you or the coaches on your staff better know a thing or two about X's and O's. Fisher's last 5 recruiting classes were ranked 4, 6, 8, 1 and 15.
Recruiting is very important. However,
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You can't just throw a bunch of 4* and 5* guys together and expect them to jell into a team without some coaching and evaluation to plug them into the right positions to win ball games.
It does seem like A&M just threw a ton of NIL money at "stars" and not players. It's great if you can bring in talent, but if that talent doesn't work in your system or culture, then those stars are meaningless.
Muschamp's recruiting strategy was similar though at a lower level. He did not recruit well to our needs. But went after any that would come with the highest ratings.
Hiring Muschamp as head coach was a seriously dumb move. He had already failed at UF, a place that is truly surrounded by talent and has a recent history of success. How anyone with a brain thought he was going to come to Carolina, a place not exactly swimming in talent with absolutely no history of football success, and be successful is beyond me.
As Co-DC at Georgia, Muschamp is thriving again. Kirby knew Muschamp was a great defensive coach and brought him in as an analyst and then moved him up to Co-DC when Lanning left. Muschamp is also able to use his recruiting talent now to go after defensive players. He doesn't have to concern himself with offensive players so that plays to his strengths as well.
It takes a different mindset to win at a place like USC. Muschamp didn't have that. I'll never forget him saying something to the tune of "this place has unique challenges" when asked about his struggles. Told me everything I need to know about him. Not his fault, it's the "progrum's" fault. Beamer came in and said "we have everything we need, just need to go do it". That's what it takes. HBC had that too. Remember "why not us?".
This alone points to the fact that Ray is not a division one AD. He compounded that mistake with another head scratcher-giving Mushhead a great extension and buyout for a 9-3 season which history proved was a fluke. He then muffed a great hire for MBB coach. YET...He's still USC's AD. Why? A great baseball coach. A dud AD.
The extension was probably more board driven than AD driven.
I think it had as much to do with a crappy coaching staff on O than it did anything else. He had a chance to rectify and set a new course for his career here...but he chose to promote BMac instead of going after Drink. First, he brought the guy that helped him get fired at UF, then promoted a guy that's never called plays before to replace Roper. Unreal.
I'm not a huge Ray the AD guy. But the man had two extremely bad luck scenarios. We would have had Kirby and Sean Miller had Xavier and UGA not fired their HCs to stop us from hiring them. I think if that happens the mood around RT is a little different. However, I think Paris is going to prove to be a really good coach for us.
UGA made a cold-blooded move to fire a really good football coach to roll the dice on Smart. It obviously paid off big time.
I don't think we really missed much on Kirby though. For one, he was always going to UGA when that job opened up. As slow as it takes to get things going here, I don't think he'd have been here long enough to build anything before going to UGA.
Still think we could have rolled the dice on someone other than Muschamp, but everyone knows he was not high up on Tanner's list. Herman kind of strung us along as well. In all honestly, Muschamp was probably an emergency hire. We still could have fared as well rolling the dice more of an unknown, young up and comer type, but I know Muschamp was not Tanner's first, second or probably even fifth choice.
When Tanner retires, I hope the geniuses on our BOT hire Ian McCaw. He is young and has put Liberty football on the map. He is a successful AD. But, they probably won't.
Yep. Who knows. Timing is everything. Kirby could have been here 2 years or 10. He seems like a much better CEO than Muschamp. So at least we likely would have been in better shape for the next guy.
Agree, Muschamp was the safety valve. But would have much rather rolled the dice on a G5 guy.
From what I read at the time, Georgia decided to fire Richt after Georgia's win over Georgia Southern. Southern took Georgia to overtime and when Georgia won, the players reacted like they had won a national championship. The AD decided at that moment that Richt wasn't the guy to get Georgia to a championship. Georgia won out that season and won their bowl game to go 10-3. Richt was fired after the last regular season game and a lot of Georgia fans were not happy about it. Kirby was the guy they wanted and they went after him right away. I think they hired him one week after they fired Richt. Richt wanted the Miami job and there were rumors he had already negotiated the job with them before the UF game. Some Georgia fans still think he threw the UF game that season so Georgia wouldn't win the East because he knew he wouldn't get fired if they won the East and he wouldn't get the big buyout check if he quit to take the Miami job. The firing wasn't as cold blooded as some thought it was.
There was a story that supposedly comes from Kirby's wife, I don't know if it is true or not, that Carolina had people in Kirby's house negotiating when Georgia called. Kirby listened to the Carolina offer, thanked them and told him he'd give them an answer. After they left, Kirby's wife told him he could take either job but she was moving back to Athens.
A young G5 guy like Chadwell is Carolina's best chance to develop a good football program.
I was on the Chadwell train instead of Beamer. If they can't land Mullen, MSU needs to hammer Chadwell. Sounds like Arkie is going to ax Pittman. Both of those would be great options for him.
BINGO...BINGO....BINGO....we have a WINNER. I hope that Shane can turn things around here. If not, hire a SUCCESSFUL, YOUNG G5 Head Coach.
I never understood the Pittman hire. He had never been a FBS Head Coach. He was a Head Coach for a couple of years at a junior college and barely won over 50% of his games. That was a "head scratching" hire. I can sort of understand the Beamer hire, though I was against it. I suspect that the hope regarding Shane is that he is a "chip off the old block". That being said, I'm not aware of any son of a legendary coach to have big, sustaining success as a Head Coach. I think Shane would be the first.
Read some of the other comments. Muschamp WAS an emergency hire. It was a third or lower choice and you hoped that Muschamp learned something from failing at UF. He did. Just look at his financial statement.
I agree with everything that’s been said. Obviously Muschamp was a bad hire. Love him, but Tanner is not a capable AD. Beamer can still show me something if he is willing to make bold moves and let people go to upgrade the program. That is yet to be seen, but I need to see it to continue to believe in Beamers ability to take us forward. Can he be a CEO and make the hard decisions? That’s what I need to see.
Here is the big problem. Beamer is wrapping up year 3, we know what we have with him and there isn't going to be any big change in how he does things. Recruiting isn't really any better than it has been historically and the wins and losses are about where they have always been. He is currently 19-17 and could easily end up 19-19, pretty much exactly what the standard is for Carolina football. Without the two big upset wins last season I don't think Beamer would have many fans at all among the gamecock faithful.
People love to say a coach needs four or five years to really get his system in place but that really isn't true for good coaches. Saban won a NC in his second year. Kirby won the SEC and played for a NC in his second year and played for another SEC championship in year 3. Beamer hasn't sniffed anything like this. Beamer seems like a good guy and is a big cheerleader (a lot like Dabo) but he hasn't shown that he can win a whole lot. Constantly shuffling the staff isn't a good way to build a successful college football program. The top programs have stability on the staffs and that helps with recruiting and retaining players in the portal era. Kids don't like to see the coach that is recruiting or recruited them fired.
I agree, but hesitate to use Kirby and Saban as examples.
This, imo, leads to people arguing that we're complaining we haven't won a title in uear three.
I think of it as, after year three, you should have a good idea of the coach, his style, and his trajectory. Not necessarily that he should be at his peak success by uear 3.
You are right that Beamer is not recruiting any better than what previous coaches here did (and "recruiting ability" was what his supporters were claiming before he was hired). I don't think, though, it's fair to compare us with UGA, Alabama or LSU.
I do agree that after Year 3, you know what you have in a Head Coach.
Regarding staff: that's on Beamer. I'm not sold on Beamer's ability to hire quality staff. BUT, is that Beamer's fault or is he handcuffed with what he is able to offer potential coaches? I don't know the answer to that. I don't think any of us here know.
Even if we win out the rest of the year, this season has been disappointing. Next year won't be easy, for sure. I still think he will be given a chance to go into Year 5. Time will tell.
Not only had Beamer never been a head coach but he didn't have a system. He would have kept Bobo.
It's comical for people to omit a coach's biggest accomplishments b/c they don't like him. It's silly.
"Take away Dabo's CFP appearances and what do you have??" lol
It's really not worth discussing if you're going to expect results similar to Bama or UGA. Perhaps you should spend more time on their boards and you'll find some joy.
Beamer is getting 5* kids from 1,000 miles away, vs instate kids that grew up gamecock fans...which is all we've ever gotten. I don't think we've ever had 2 5*s in one class. Currently 19th with about 9 spots to fill. His recruiting has been so much better than Muschamp's. HBC had 2 really good classes out of 10.
I'm not comparing him directly to Saban or Kirby at all. I'm pointing out that really good coaches don't need 4 or 5 years to start getting positive results. I wouldn't expect the same results but I don't think it is unrealistic to expect improvement in year 3.
I didn't omit his biggest accomplishments. I pointed out that without them, and they were obviously both "blind hog finding a nut" wins since none of the perceived momentum carried over to this season, Beamer has a losing record at this point with an even worse losing record likely. The inability to keep any momentum going again points to what Beamer's trajectory seems to be.
Until the commits are in the barn with the LOIs signed, I will reserve judgement on his recruiting ability. We aren't closing any gaps with our rivals either. Clemson has 2 5 stars and 10 4 stars, UF has 2 5 stars and 13 4 stars, we have 1 5 star and 9 4 stars. I won't even bring up Georgia since their class is sick good. We are neck and neck with Clemson right now overall so I guess that is improvement. If we end up with a losing season there is no guarantee the best recruits will stick with us if they are being pursued by better programs.
Forget the names. Forget the coach. It's a lot easier to win at Al. and UGA than with us for multiple reasons so to expect Beamer to match those coaches is not reasonable. By the way, Saban has had a coaching carousel at bama quite often. Sounds to me like some of you are hoping recruits will flip.
Only thing I'm gonna say about Beamer is that last year was Drinkwitz's 3rd year and none of them were winning. No, you don't know what a coach is capable of after 3 years with roster issues.