Kerb Hohl wrote:MVP2110 wrote:Kerb Hohl wrote:
I don't think you get the point, whatever. There are "culture issues" and "downward trajectory" whenever Gard struggles. I'm talking mostly about 2018 or aybe 2 years ago...but somebody that can see the forest through the trees sticks it out. You can go back to the arguments in the early Gard days on the basketball board and everyone just knew Gard couldn't develop talent, because look at this team without 3 of his best players and a bunch of freshmen.
Fickell had very expected struggles given the constraints right away and suddenly everyone can come out of the woodwork to try to explain why. I think literally any coach you put in there would be struggling with no talent + not a ton of NIL to patch it quickly + playing a backup QB 2 years in a row.
I think your misconstruing me with someone who dislikes Gard. I am in agreement with you on Gard. He's a good coach and that's been pretty apparent to me since he took over. I can't say that same thing has been apparent with Fickell, he's underachieved in both of his seasons here even given the expected struggles. Gard & Fickell aren't the same imo.
I'm not saying you don't like Gard. I know you always have. I'm saying that the general consensus is generally to just start making these narratives if anything goes south, even if it isn't due to the actual narratives, and both have now experienced it.
Though they are polar opposite types of hires, they both hit some tough luck adversity. The only issue is that Fickell's happened almost immediately vs. Gard had a couple of years to build up some goodwill. If the team sucks with his own guys and his QB plays for the full season, then I'm ready to fire him in a year or two.
I'm not even saying I'd fire Fickell. I'm fine giving him 4 years to see what he can do. All I'm saying is to this point there has been very little on field play to be optimistic about