faithinviks said:
I am still confident I will not have to make good on my bet to eat my words the end of next season (we won't win more than 2 conference games).
I'll provide the seasoning. :lol:
I'm going off topic here. I think my response should be under the Roberson topic or the Barnum topic, but I'll post it here. After three years, coaches are just beginning to get their own personnel for their own style of play. We have seen firsthand what happens when you bring in a whole new philosophy after three years. We had Walsh and a very successful ball-control offense and a strong defense when he left for Army, and instead of bringing in someone who could build on our running style, we decide to go with a run and shoot offense and a whole new defense. The run and shoot is pretty much a 180 from a ball-control offense and the team struggled. The run and shoot team had its best performance when Glanville's recruit, Hubel, ran it by throwing for 9 touchdowns against Weber. So after three seasons, we decide it is not working and instead of building around Hubel and a passing offense, we do another 180 and bring in Burton with a pistol offense that was built around the run. Hubel was a passer, he was not a runner (I believe his teammates called him "Big Bird") so we had to rebuild as a running team. Thankfully, he brought in an OC, Barnum, who tried to "hybrid" the pistol by throwing in some passing plays. Burton's best days in the pistol was actually when McDonnough was the QB. Another three seasons, we decide this is not working, so we get rid of Burton. Barnum is now ready to build his "BarnyBall" as a hybrid of the pistol, but built around passing. He gets lucky that he finds a quarterback ready to go with it in Kuresa. Result, playoffs the first year, and a super class of recruits for Barnum's style of play.
This year, Barnum had to find a replacement for Kuresa. This conference is not forgiving if you do not settle on a quarterback right away, and it showed us all year. This was a terrible year, but those kids that Barnum brought in fresh off the playoff appearance got experience in Barnum's system. Next year, their experience has to start paying off. Yes, the 0-fer season this year has created a tall hurdle to overcome. We are going to lose some recruits to EWU and other Big Sky schools, and playing the Rubber Duckies next year may be pretty rough. I think the play of the youngsters was really encouraging, but I will admit that Barnum is going to be on the hot seat at the beginning of the year. If PSU football does not come through for him next year, it will be much easier to let him go than it would be this year. Barnum has always been an offensive coach so it was easy for the DC to take the fall this year. However, no results next year and the bulls-eye will be on Barnum.
At this point next year, I will provide the salt. The future is bright. Gotta wear shades.
