The title presupposes a long range plan. And it should, given the investment, rather than an ad hoc response to bad choices in leadership...and I mean defense. And maybe even....well, let's let the season play out.
We have become so focused on coaches that we've been stupidly unconcerned with management, you know, the guys who are actually MOST responsible for the product on the field.
I have no doubt that our well paid program managers have hearts in the right places. And they get it right in many respects, witness our BB program, Track, VB, BB, Golf and Women's Softball amongst others. Yet in each of these the success of the program invariably depends on coaching and recruitment.
One would think that the greatest driver of Oregon sports...FOOTBALL...would be the most aggressive, forward thinking, brand burnishing, excellence determined, hell bent on the best there is, on the minds of the guys who write the checks, who should brook no mediocrity.
Yet, we act as if we're still the little engine that once could because we were lucky enough to have hired Chip and recruited Mariota. But we've now seem more like the Dutch Boy with his finger in the dike that's cracking. We've become incrementalist in football management....patch here and there...see what happens.
The recent player comments have shaken my trust in MH. As for the defense, trust was lost long ago. We can look forward to, if not, DEMAND, redemption from players and coaches over the last half of the season and we should have the patience to see it through...to hopefully appreciate development, find reason for optimism and a return to respectability.
But if we limit our critique to the coaches on the field without holding those who appointed them as much or more responsible, we live in a two dimensional universe.
With a half season left to play, let's wait until the end game in Corvallis before we light the torches...but be sure we include the boys in the suites if it comes to that kind of ending.
We have become so focused on coaches that we've been stupidly unconcerned with management, you know, the guys who are actually MOST responsible for the product on the field.
I have no doubt that our well paid program managers have hearts in the right places. And they get it right in many respects, witness our BB program, Track, VB, BB, Golf and Women's Softball amongst others. Yet in each of these the success of the program invariably depends on coaching and recruitment.
One would think that the greatest driver of Oregon sports...FOOTBALL...would be the most aggressive, forward thinking, brand burnishing, excellence determined, hell bent on the best there is, on the minds of the guys who write the checks, who should brook no mediocrity.
Yet, we act as if we're still the little engine that once could because we were lucky enough to have hired Chip and recruited Mariota. But we've now seem more like the Dutch Boy with his finger in the dike that's cracking. We've become incrementalist in football management....patch here and there...see what happens.
The recent player comments have shaken my trust in MH. As for the defense, trust was lost long ago. We can look forward to, if not, DEMAND, redemption from players and coaches over the last half of the season and we should have the patience to see it through...to hopefully appreciate development, find reason for optimism and a return to respectability.
But if we limit our critique to the coaches on the field without holding those who appointed them as much or more responsible, we live in a two dimensional universe.
With a half season left to play, let's wait until the end game in Corvallis before we light the torches...but be sure we include the boys in the suites if it comes to that kind of ending.
Last edited:
