Yogi: I’m fine with looking at the bright side, but let’s not be revisionist either. There’s a path behind the DD’s bus of post game press conferences. He clearly needs some schooling on handling the media. It’s easier to say the right thing when you are winning, but even this year he’s thrown some “none of you believed me” nonsense out. Be gracious in victory, accept the blame in losses, and act like you’ve been there.
Amato publicly said the right things. What he did behind closed doors obviously had some glaring gaps, but to the public was almost always spot on. The revolving door of assistants and the general downward trajectory of the hires made it clear we had huge problems in how the sausage was made.
I think we can agree on TOB. Coming off of HWSNBN in basketball, he was a really bad hire from the start and I was pretty vocal about that. He was the perfect Fowler hire — a “name” and one that was just good enough not to get fired, but not really trying to go big either. Run it cheap, run it tight, make a buck and avoid controversy. TOB’s general attitude in the media was that he was going to say what he wanted (which I appreciated), but at the same time if we fired him he was fine with it as well. It was his last rodeo and one that got him closer to his retirement lifestyle. There’s nothing wrong with that. I think Larranaga made a similar (and brilliant move) in going to Miami, but Larranaga’s had paid off better for him professionally.
Grey: I hope you are right on the DL coach. I contend with the talent we have on the field right now, I could coach them and they’d look good on the field. We’ve probably got enough depth for next year as well. The key will be the year after that. Do we have anything in the pipeline? This is a hire that we won’t really be able to judge for a couple of years. I’d tread with caution before judging, and would suggest we do the same relative to rewards. Larry Coker looked like a genius for 2 years as well………
In contrast, the OL hire is a very different situation. I thought we saw immediate improvement last year, and a line that improved all through last year. This year’s line is the best of the DD or TOB eras. App had a great line, particularly given their talent level. Quick returns on that hire, and I hope we lock him up.
