I think there’s a confluence of things going on right now with our program. Most of this you’ve already read/believe too.
1) We’ve lost a TON of coaches and players from the best three year stretch in our history. You can’t always be legendary. Countless draft picks, assistants becoming head coaches, coaches effectively retiring. We’re paying the piper now.
2) NIL/portal will keep us from replicating what Saban/Bama did. I think we would have gotten close if those two things didn’t happen. Tough luck. You can’t stack rosters like you used to.
3) Kirby made some tremendously bad assistant hires to replace the championship level we had. It’s easily the weakest staff he has had. You can see how hard he’s coaching when he was almost a CEO from ‘21-‘23. He’s quite obviously earned the right to make it right in the future but time will tell if he’s willing to do what needs to be done with his buddies there.
4) We’ve had awful luck with injuries and guys getting kicked off the team. The spots you can’t afford to be thin at, we’ve sustained them there. In this era, you then have to go to guys like Cash Jones to fill in. We have an amazing walk on program, so he looks competent, but you shouldn’t ever have to rely on him. How much would a healthy RodRob and BRob have on a backfield rotation? How much would Rara and Colbie be helping right now with being able to separate? All these things matter. JMO. Also, not advocating that Rara should still be with the team. Speaking purely football.
5) It seems to me we are extremely soft both physically and mentally. The way Kirby coddles Beck and says that he’s playing good when he would rip Stet after he throws for 400 and beat Ohio State in the semis is the difference in the mental state of this team and teams past.
6) We have the hardest schedule in the country on top of everything. It’s probably the hardest schedule we’ve ever had. The SEC completely and utterly ****ed us over (as they always do mind you) by having us go to Bama, Texas, and Ole Miss. We’ve had three home games in the first nine games of the season. Just a brutal schedule when you account for all the aforementioned. Sankey is a tool.
Edit to add Jake Pope is the latest instance of this team’s culture. Not good.
1) We’ve lost a TON of coaches and players from the best three year stretch in our history. You can’t always be legendary. Countless draft picks, assistants becoming head coaches, coaches effectively retiring. We’re paying the piper now.
2) NIL/portal will keep us from replicating what Saban/Bama did. I think we would have gotten close if those two things didn’t happen. Tough luck. You can’t stack rosters like you used to.
3) Kirby made some tremendously bad assistant hires to replace the championship level we had. It’s easily the weakest staff he has had. You can see how hard he’s coaching when he was almost a CEO from ‘21-‘23. He’s quite obviously earned the right to make it right in the future but time will tell if he’s willing to do what needs to be done with his buddies there.
4) We’ve had awful luck with injuries and guys getting kicked off the team. The spots you can’t afford to be thin at, we’ve sustained them there. In this era, you then have to go to guys like Cash Jones to fill in. We have an amazing walk on program, so he looks competent, but you shouldn’t ever have to rely on him. How much would a healthy RodRob and BRob have on a backfield rotation? How much would Rara and Colbie be helping right now with being able to separate? All these things matter. JMO. Also, not advocating that Rara should still be with the team. Speaking purely football.
5) It seems to me we are extremely soft both physically and mentally. The way Kirby coddles Beck and says that he’s playing good when he would rip Stet after he throws for 400 and beat Ohio State in the semis is the difference in the mental state of this team and teams past.
6) We have the hardest schedule in the country on top of everything. It’s probably the hardest schedule we’ve ever had. The SEC completely and utterly ****ed us over (as they always do mind you) by having us go to Bama, Texas, and Ole Miss. We’ve had three home games in the first nine games of the season. Just a brutal schedule when you account for all the aforementioned. Sankey is a tool.
Edit to add Jake Pope is the latest instance of this team’s culture. Not good.