'It was a microcosm of the season'

It was just yesterday we were at the Dome getting ready to kickoff against UNC.  They go by faster the older I get.  Losing Saturday was just awful, but it’s a game of inches, and we’re not a team right now, basically, that makes the plays on the right side of those inches.  It’s easy to blame Eason for throwing behind Godwin and Nauta.  It’s easy to nitpick at Chaney’s call on 2^nd and 8.  But we also didn’t HAVE to let them score twice.  Kirby was right.  It was a microcosm of the season.

 

Alabama’s D has not let a team in the month of November get past the 10 yard line.  They have not given up a TD and if the field were 90 yards long, they still would not have given up a TD.  They have played LSU, Miss. St., Chattanooga and Auburn.  They beat LSU 10-0.  Can you even fathom that?  The best team we’ve had in the last 10 years beat #2 17-9 because we had a D that would shut you down and force turnovers in the red zone.

 

This year, we’re 127 out of 128 in FBS red zone defense.  Teams have scored 29 TDs in 37 trips.  There is a lot that needs fixing in Athens.  It’s just where we are.  We do not have a roster full of guys that believe they can and will make the play to win the game.  They lack confidence, and maybe that’s because they’ve seen it go haywire too often.

 

And we are here, in many respects because the SEC has lost its ever-living mind.  Nick Saban has made us lose our minds.  I know that because LSU fired the winningest coach in school history and we fired a guy who reeled off 10-win seasons in his sleep (and he very well may have been asleep for a good portion of the last two seasons).  We’re an impatient bunch, but it is what it is.  And there’s no looking back with buyer’s remorse, and most folks just don’t get it.  Miles and Richt had both run their course.  I left Jax in 2015 knowing we HAD to make a change.  Perhaps I didn’t know how painful that would end up being.  I think the criticism at our process to get Kirby is ridiculous.  If you know who you want, get them.  Had I been asked who I’d have liked us to interview among current head coaches who I thought we ‘might’ could sway from their schools, I’d have said:  Dantonio, Shaw, Fedora, Kelly @ ND, Helfrich and maybe Herman and Fuente, though I’m not a fan of hiring coaches at small schools who have no roots or experience in SEC country.  Those are some darn good coaches who have led their teams to Conference titles, CFP playoff births and BCS births.  They went:

 

Dantonio:  3-9

Shaw:  9-3

Fedora:  8-4 (w/ a loss to Kirby)

Kelly:  4-8

Helfrich:  4-8

 

Herman lost to SMU, Navy and Memphis.  Fuente had a sterling debut at VT, going 9-3 and winning his division.  The point is 4 of those 5 coaches had proven recently they could do something Richt couldn’t do recently:  win a Power 5 conference title, go to BCS title game, go undefeated in the regular season, make the CFP playoff.  They went a combined 28-32 this year.  Simply, we could have hired them and it still could have gone sideways this season.  3 of them aren’t going to bowls in the programs they’ve spent years establishing.  We had to make a change, and with change comes pain.  We…are in pain.

 

Honestly, as much as we’d like, there’s not much data you can pull from first seasons that tell us a lot.  Had Kirby gone 10-2 this year, we’d feel great, but Malzahn proved to us that first year success doesn’t mean sustained success.  Everyone talks about Saban’s 7-6 campaign at Bama (6-6 regular season).  But he also went 7-4 at LSU, and 6-4-1 at Mich. St.  Richt was 8-4 through the bowl, and I left Nashville in 2001 scratching my head at what I just saw.  8 months later we lit the SEC on fire.  Mack Brown was 1-10 his first year at UNC.  What we can say is that 1^st seasons for a HC are like introductions to their book.   Next season is chapter 1 and it started yesterday on the recruiting trail.  You know how had the #1 and #2 classes in 2013, for what is now senior classes?  Alabama and Ohio St.  I also think we knew that a little.  Would feel better if we were 9-3 (and probably going to the Sugar Bowl) had we slow played Eason with a series here and there and basically let Lambert manage the team?  We threw the kid to the wolves, and we’ll be better off for it.  And for those thinking Fromm might push Eason for playing time.  No, just no.  No more QB carousel. 

 

I don’t know what to do about Chaney.  It’s not my job.  We’re not terrible.  And there are a lot worse.  I trust Kirby.  I promise you Kirby wants to score more than 24/game.

 

Go Dawgs!  On to Music City!