After a while, the excuses have to stop.
A start recruit or QB may not pan out. I get it. But when it becomes a pattern, it may not be the players.
Ayoob was a JC 5* and knew how to win championship, yet we couldn't use him. Oregon had no problems using JC Masoli to get to the RB. Auburn had no problems using JC Newton to win the NC.
Riley, Longshore, Bridgeford, Sweeney, Mansion, etc. were all Elite-11 and 4* QBs. Other coaching staffs would have loved to have such talent and would have turned them into draft picks and 10-win seasons. Yet, we couldn't use them.
Every year, we have first rounders and draft picks on defense, yet our defense sucked since forever. And don't even get me started when I look at how many Cal players are in the NFL compared to the other Pac10 programs and programs like Texas, OK, SEC teams, etc. And what do we have to show for except mediocre seasons one after another.
And then the amount of coordinators and assistants that took the blame every year. ST seems to suck regardless of which assistant is at the helm. But then again, who is responsible for allocating appropriate resources to ST practice? And defense seems to suck whether it was Gregory or Pendergast. And how many OCs have we gone through in the past years? Yet we have been outcoached in every game for the past years, and when we won, it was only because individual talent. Most of the time, we lost with more talents.
Maybe, just maybe, there is a common thread in all of this. I truly believe that we would have been in the same situation if we had Luck as QB, and that Luck would not even be talked about as a first rounder if he had played for our program.
I think it's time for us to remove the "in Tedford we trust" smiley. It was a good ride. We appreciate what JT did for us the last 10 years, and we compensated him handsomely too. But it's time to move in a different direction.
Perhaps Sandy is listening and reading....:cry:
A start recruit or QB may not pan out. I get it. But when it becomes a pattern, it may not be the players.
Ayoob was a JC 5* and knew how to win championship, yet we couldn't use him. Oregon had no problems using JC Masoli to get to the RB. Auburn had no problems using JC Newton to win the NC.
Riley, Longshore, Bridgeford, Sweeney, Mansion, etc. were all Elite-11 and 4* QBs. Other coaching staffs would have loved to have such talent and would have turned them into draft picks and 10-win seasons. Yet, we couldn't use them.
Every year, we have first rounders and draft picks on defense, yet our defense sucked since forever. And don't even get me started when I look at how many Cal players are in the NFL compared to the other Pac10 programs and programs like Texas, OK, SEC teams, etc. And what do we have to show for except mediocre seasons one after another.
And then the amount of coordinators and assistants that took the blame every year. ST seems to suck regardless of which assistant is at the helm. But then again, who is responsible for allocating appropriate resources to ST practice? And defense seems to suck whether it was Gregory or Pendergast. And how many OCs have we gone through in the past years? Yet we have been outcoached in every game for the past years, and when we won, it was only because individual talent. Most of the time, we lost with more talents.
Maybe, just maybe, there is a common thread in all of this. I truly believe that we would have been in the same situation if we had Luck as QB, and that Luck would not even be talked about as a first rounder if he had played for our program.
I think it's time for us to remove the "in Tedford we trust" smiley. It was a good ride. We appreciate what JT did for us the last 10 years, and we compensated him handsomely too. But it's time to move in a different direction.
Perhaps Sandy is listening and reading....:cry: