All the people calling for Strong’s head are wrong. It takes time. Hes competing with a freshman qb, freshman center, several freshman wr’s freshman on defense…where there aren’t freshman, its mostly sophomores, but the freshman have not had time to get their bodies and minds D1 football ready. If there was a no brainer coach out there who could take the team to the glory land, it would be different, but there isn’t one. This can be proven simply by reading the above comments. Are we going to press reset on the rebuilding process and start with a new coach from scratch? How does that look? Ill support my conclusion with some facts. Lets look at Notre Dames program since Lou Holtz left in 1996 (by the way his final team was 8-3 and finished 19th in the rankings):

Bob Davie 5 years .583 record no bowl wins

Tyrone Willingham 3 years .583 record no bowl wins (10-3 first year with Bob Davie’s Players)

Charlie Weiss 5 years .565 record 1 bowl win (10-3 and 9-3 in his first year with Tyrone Willingham’s Players)

Bryan Kelly 6 years .705 record 3 bowl wins

My point, due to the impatience of the fans, donors, administration, whatever, it took Notre Dame 15 years to return to a National Championship Contender…and maybe they still haven’t found a coach who can sustain it long term. This was a program that was ranked in the top 25 9 of Holt’z last 10 years and top 10 5 of his last 10 years…since, just a little over .500 and much of the success was in transition years which they had just fired their previous coach. Coincidence? No. It takes time to turn a program around, and every time you hire a new coach, you have to start over….

Now lets look at number 10 West Virginia’s transition from Bill Stewart to Dana Holgorsen:

2011 – 10-3

2012 – 7-6

2013 – 4-8

2014 – 7-6

2015 – 8-5

In the 6 years prior to his hiring, WV was 60-17, a 77.9 winning percentage with 4 bowl wins. In his first season, Holgorsen was on par with the previous year (9-4) and went 10-3 and won the Orange Bowl…then he went 7-6 then 4-8….that 4-8 year, thats where Charlie Strong is right now, and oh by the way, Skyler Howard was a freshman that year, right where Shane Buchelle is right now…Holgerson would have been fired if you guys had been in charge, and many in West Virginia believed he should have been when he was 4-8, but the program has turned around, and I believe will be a successful program for several years under Holgerson.

My point is it takes time, and absent the ability to make a home run hire, there is no reason to change coaches. Yes, the program is not winning right now, but I don’t think its struggling. There is a barrage of young players who are just on the verge of being great, but they still have to learn how to play college football. Their bodies still have to be ready to play college football…against grown men, not teenagers. There is a huge difference between 19 and 21 in how a male’s body progresses, but y’all don’t care about that. Now lets talk the last game.

1. Penalties. 10 for 72 yards. This is a youth issue. the first drive included 3 offside penalties, which resulted from youth, and without them, Kansas State doesn’t likely score on that drive. The second drive, also a TD was a PI call…which is questionable. I say it was good defense. Very similar to the dropped Armanti Foreman pass at the goal line which was a no call. These calls were made by different officials, so I’m not saying it was one guy screwing us, I just think the PI on Boney, I think was a bad call, and it allowed K-State to score.

2. Coverage. The defense spent most of the 2nd quarter trying to the short passing game in trips. They had no adjustment for it because of the simplification of the defense. Charlie knows the adjustment. It was what we were trying to do against Cal and OSU when we kept getting burnt deep. The adjustment was made at half time, and it worked, with only 3 points allowed (and 3 turnovers) in the second half. The very fact that this was a struggle was once again a function of youth…but I think the lesson was learned.

3. Offense. 344 total yards and 3-11 on third down…only 21 minutes of possession. Doesn’t really help a struggling defense. The offense had ample opportunities to score in the first half, and to give the defense time to make the adjustments that were needed…either of which would have resulted in a different outcome in this game. The reason, missed assignments in pass blocking (hes a sophmore but this is his first year playing O-Line in college), dropped passes, missed reads by a freshman quarterback, and a freshman running back running to the wrong hole on 3rd and 1…once again, youth.

So yes, the problem is youth, and there is only one way to fix that….time and experience. We can go ahead and fire Charlie Strong and bring in another scapegoat who will be gone in another 3-5 years and be the next Notre Dame….a major program with an average 20 year history, or we can wait this out and give Charlie 2 more years to see where the program is at that time. Thanks for reading, and HOOK EM!





