Strange Days Indeed
It's kinda odd that earlier in the year around these parts there was a significant trend of people chiding others for criticizing the players on the team, because the players were young and are not paid and are trying their best and its a new scheme and so on. Yet now there is a trend of people chiding others for criticizing the coaches, and the rationale behind their position is that its not the coaches' fault because its really just the players who suck.
Strange...
November 7th, 2008 at 4:59 PM ^
As one of the chief people who asked people not to bash the players, I objected to personal attacks on people like Threet (he's a pussy!), Brown (he should be lynched!), or Sheridan (he's death!). Saying "Brown isn't a good tackler" and "Brown should be lynched" are two very different things. Saying "Threet isn't very accurate" and "Threet is a pussy!" are two very different things. Surely you see the distinction.
Additionally, I think it's manifestly clear that this is not "the coach's fault" OR "the players' fault". When you install a new defense in 3 days, clearly, that's an issue, and I do blame the coaches for putting a defense that was utterly unsuccessful. HOWEVER, I assure you that Obi Ezeh is not coached to passively accept a block, and that John Thompson is not coached to be immobile. Surely you see that.
In other words, it is not the fault of the coaches. It is not the fault of the players. Both are responsible for poor results. To pretend otherwise, and to lay the blame 100% on either party is idiotic.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:45 PM ^
I don't think either one is 100% repsonsible. I think both of them are at fault, and hence both should be criticized. *whether the criticism should be so vile is another issue* I.e., it is both "the players fault" and "the coaches fault," which I think you agree with.
My point wasn't that there was an inconsistency here. Simply that it is was strange to see that crappiness of the players being used to deflect criticism of the coaches, when previously the crappiness of the players was seen as a sensitive subject. Another way of putting it, might be thus: I understand, though perhaps don't agree with, why people get upset when others to really get on the players for bad performances. They really are mostly young kids who won't have a career from this, although to say that they aren't paid is misleading. But I can't understand why people seem (maybe they actually don't and I've been misreading) to feel the same way about the coaches. Suppose that all the criticism of the coaches is wrong (which I would argue it isn't, but that's not at issue here). It still strikes me as strange that people would become so protective of the coaches. Their not kids, they are making a career of it, and their very well paid. I have trouble with the intuition that I should view them as victims in some way.
November 8th, 2008 at 8:14 AM ^
I don't think they're victims. But I DO think that in order to level a specific criticism at a coach, you need a basis of knowledge that I, and most of the amatuer coaches on this site, don't have. Regardless of your opinion of how he's done this year, Rodriguez is a successful coach, and there's something absurdly ridiculous about me criticizing his X's and O's strategy when the peak of my coaching accomplishments came when I won consecutive national championships on Dynasty mode with Temple in NCAA Football 2009. Most of us here, at best, played High School football (I didn't even do that) - a level of knowlege that leaves us unequipped to even understand what RR is doing.
In short, me criticizing RR on his coaching would be similar to him critiquing me on frittering away my day on an internet message board being an asshole - he just doesn't have the experience to know what it's like.
November 7th, 2008 at 5:00 PM ^
But here is what is really hapenning. The point that is trying to be made is that our problems are neither due to SUCKY players nor NINCOMPOOP coaches, it is sort of both. Players appear sucky when they dont quite understand what the coach's philosophy is (yet) and coaches look like nincompoops when a carefully drafted play is busted because of the same reason. It is impossible to separate one from the other. So blaming just one and roasting the guilty over red hot coals is not helping anybody. Nobody is perfect and taking things out of context to make snap judgements about players or coaches is kinda lame.
The only real option is chill out and give the program some time to settle down.
This the real message of most of the commenters in mgoblog, but it sometimes gets in lost in the clique behavior that has unfortunately set in. Some people have appointed themselves the arbitrators of everything and will criticize you no matter what.
November 7th, 2008 at 5:04 PM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 6:03 PM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 6:08 PM ^
Nobody told me there'd be days like these.
Nobody told me there'd be days like these.
Nobody told me there'd be days like these.
Strange days indeed. Strange days indeed.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:28 PM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 6:21 PM ^
November 8th, 2008 at 9:33 AM ^
. . ."It's not the X's & O's, it's the Jimmies & Joes"