Well he has totally “his” players now. If he flounders I’ll join you. But, at this point, I don’t feel all of the problems are because of him. We have some nice looking recruits and red shirts coming, so hopefully I am right.
I'm sorry Ive coached on all levels and the his players argument falls on death ears when you inherit the talent he did and we can literally point to every coach preceding him going back to Jim Reid as accomplishing more (sometimes with less than what he was gifted) in his first couple of seasons. Once they are there they are your players. Granted if there is a talent deficit it can be understood that you need time to get more talent in. That wasn't RH case.
I get they probably weren't big fans of all that went down and probably didn't give him a fair shake but listening to his rhetoric its hard not to blame them. Rocco took over a winless CAA team the year before his arrival and had us in the playoffs had the NCAA committee screwed us over. London won a NC without "his players", Dave Clawson took us to the playoffs without a lot of "His players" his second year here. Hell even our DUI coach managed to go 6-5 one season with FOUR quarterbacks and none of them were "his players" and he was barely trying according to some on here. Meanwhile you have Barney Rubble come in and do nothing his first three years and sulks non stop when adversity hits.
That's all I need to know when it comes to judging RH first few years here. I don't think its all his fault and Im certainly not pinning it all on him. I just find him uninspiring and unmotivating and as a result unable to return us to what we once were on a consistent basis.
All those coaches had something about them to help build and sustain their program.
For Clawson it was relentless recruiting to procure amazing talent and implement an exciting offense
For Mike London it was all about a brotherhood and motivating players to feel good about himself
For Danny Rocco it was his game management and development of players that fly under the radar.
With RH its gosh, we suck, whoa is me, our rivals are better than us, these refs blew the game and inaudible screaming into a mic at halftime. Hes a defense guy and it looks like hes been more of a swiss cheese maker these past few years. Hes already come out and said he doesn't plan to take spring season serious and to prep for fall which is fine, but what happens if we have a repeat of the past 3 seasons this fall? We gave him two seasons to prepare for one. Wait another year right? Basically 5 years of irrelevancy while we let two biggest rivals raid our coaching staffs. Do we really want to do this with FCS football which is a lot easier to compete in?
This isnt about whats right and wrong I am wrong all the time, RH could certainly turn it around as i mentioned it earlier, but I have 0 reason to believe he will. As a fan of this team for over 25 years going back to my childhood i have never been so apathetic about the program and I am far more patient than most on this site about winning. I sat through those final Jim Reid years and went to every game. I could hardly bother myself to go to a game last year (Only WM) and come home to hear him whining in a presser about circling a game with your rival after losing a close game to them. That game doesnt need a circle if you understand the history of the rivalry which he should considering he been on both sidelines.
As you said it is not all RH fault but he has a lot he can control and doesn't do a great job of what he can. He is very lucky Mooney is still here in whatever capacity because hes such a lightning rod topic on this board. If he wasnt perhaps people would see the forest for the trees.
With all that being said, I sure hope you are right, but am entitled to my doubts.
richmond.com
clemsontigers.com
