Pebbycree, Bar7 and others already touched on a couple of priorities I was going to get to. Great...uh...minds think alike, huh?! lol. Below are the ones I intended to address specifically. I am intentionally not ranking them in importance because I don't believe I can distinguish between the importance of the value to the team's success because I think they inexorably intertwined.
- Development (Off Season Workouts) - Technically, the Director of Football S&C is part Coaching Staff, but I am going hang a bigger hat on Coach Moffitt for development of our players while we work toward the Spring season. While Coach Elko sets the tones in terms of daily accountability, Coach Moffitt sets the tone in terms of the daily follow-through, accountability to self and teammates. Now, is the time when good habits are formed and unfortunately some bad ones, too. Hopefully, the latter are few and far between. Last season, I just didn't see us as a consistently physical team and that lead to 7-6 and my next priority...
- Play in the Trenches - I touched on the O Line, specifically Tackle, in my last post, but I wanted to delve into more deeply in this one. Good QB and O Line play, steak & mashed potatoes, bread & butter, peas & carrots, Mark & Landyn (when he's not grounded) gotta have'em! Sometimes one or the other can cover up deficiencies in the other, but eventually it will catch up. Unfortunately, we have had such such a confluence of marginal to bad QB and line play, along with poor coaching (more on that later), it's been hard to sort out the "blame." At that point, the only thing you can do is evaluate the team and move forward. I will say that the staff must see something in the holdovers because of the players still here, but also something not in the holdovers because of the competition brought in. Speaking of which, there's no irony in one of the first firings, leading to my next priority...
- Coaching - I don't know about y'all but I'm really, really tired of hearing about how our team does less with more (I might have an argument for O$U, but that's another thread entirely...) than any other program in the country. Bottom line, I want it to stop! And I think one thing that can really help is much better fundamental coaching from a technique standpoint. And no, I'm not just speaking just about physical technique but mental as well. It was flat out ridiculous how many mental errors our O Line made on simple communications last season. I'm not talking about complex twists or stunts, but simple pass offs they see every day in practice I'm sure. Physically, we could match up with top flight SEC units for a half then get run around for 3 quarters by an FCS team. Maddening. I'll be praying for Coach Cushing every day unless the Good Lord tells me to knock it off. Of course, there are other units that were hurt by subpar coaching (wide receivers, anyone?!) but O Line was the most obvious. Let's try to not get our QB1 broke in the first game, huh?! Hold'em, clip'em, Grab their facemasks. IT'S YOUR DANG QUARTERBACK!!!!!!!!
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