Everyone has an opinion, but you will be judged based on your opinions. For example, back in January 2007, one sports fan responded to my suggestion that Nick Saban would bring Alabama back to the top of the SEC. Confident that Saban would have great success at Alabama, I posted the following statement: "Saban and Spurrier are without a doubt the best two college coaches today. Alabama will soon be back on top of the SEC and I will certainly enjoy The Tide beating the Vols on a regular basis." (see link below).
To my amusement, the poster responded with the following post: "O yeah right they are just going to beat Florida, Georgia and Auburn to a pulp. Please pass whatever you're smoking to me, I could use a good buzz. lmfao"
Now that Saban is on the verge of winning his fifth national championship at Alabama, I believe it's safe to say I was correct on my prediction regarding his success with the Tide.
Not that I have always been right about predicting the success of football coaches. Like many others, I would have never thought that Charlie Strong would struggle as he did at the University of Texas given his impressive resume.
And many would still question my loyalty to Doug Martin and use the success of Darrell Hazell during the 2012 season as evidence to prove me wrong. However, I still claim Martin could have had the same success of Hazell in 2012 had he been retained since he was the one who recruited those top MAC recruiting classes and knew the players' talents better than anyone. But we will never know where the program would be today had Martin not been forced to resign. However, we do know that Hazell is not the panacea that we once thought given his miserable record at Purdue. Hazell was just able to capitalize on a great situation much like Stan Heath when he took the Flashes to the Elite Eight. After two head coaching stints at Arkansas and South Florida, Heath is now an assistant coach at Boston College for Jim Christian. With Hazell getting fired at Purdue before this season ended, it's quite possible he could also become an assistant coach again.
From my perspective, the jury is still out on Paul Haynes. The abysmal performance at Bowling Green gave me some cause of concern, but at least he took responsibility for the lack of mental preparation and did not place the blame on his players. Certainly, when the season began, I had expected the team to win more than three games. But with the exception of Bowling Green and Alabama, the Flashes competed in every contest this year which is encouraging given the number of injuries the team incurred.
Next year the Flashes open at Clemson, one of four teams with the opportunity to play in the 2017 College Football Playoff Championship. That is not exactly the way a coach wants to start a season developing his young players but that is the reality of Kent State football. Unfortunately, the program needs to play these paycheck games in order to pay the bills. And with Miami turning its program around, the MAC East is not going to get any easier. Perhaps, Haynes is not the answer for Kent State, but based on the history of the program, I'm willing to give him more time to develop his young talent as opposed to rolling the dice and hoping for better results. If I was convinced that Kent State would hire another Chuck Martin and get the success that Miami is currently experiencing right now, I could be in favor of it. But the history of Kent State shows me we would get another Dick Crum, Pete Cordelli, or Jim Corrigall and that's what scares me the most. Rather than take that risk, I prefer to stay with a coach who played at Kent State and is dedicated to building young men. I understand the desire of fans who want more but I agree with Coach Haynes who said, "Anybody who thinks Kent State football is not a long process is crazy. It's been 94 years and 26 winning seasons, so it's not going to happen overnight. It's going to take some time. The next phase is learning how to win and that's what we have to do."
That's just my opinion, and only time will tell whether I'm right or wrong.
http://www.cincinnati.csnbbs.com/thread-152640.html
To my amusement, the poster responded with the following post: "O yeah right they are just going to beat Florida, Georgia and Auburn to a pulp. Please pass whatever you're smoking to me, I could use a good buzz. lmfao"
Now that Saban is on the verge of winning his fifth national championship at Alabama, I believe it's safe to say I was correct on my prediction regarding his success with the Tide.
Not that I have always been right about predicting the success of football coaches. Like many others, I would have never thought that Charlie Strong would struggle as he did at the University of Texas given his impressive resume.
And many would still question my loyalty to Doug Martin and use the success of Darrell Hazell during the 2012 season as evidence to prove me wrong. However, I still claim Martin could have had the same success of Hazell in 2012 had he been retained since he was the one who recruited those top MAC recruiting classes and knew the players' talents better than anyone. But we will never know where the program would be today had Martin not been forced to resign. However, we do know that Hazell is not the panacea that we once thought given his miserable record at Purdue. Hazell was just able to capitalize on a great situation much like Stan Heath when he took the Flashes to the Elite Eight. After two head coaching stints at Arkansas and South Florida, Heath is now an assistant coach at Boston College for Jim Christian. With Hazell getting fired at Purdue before this season ended, it's quite possible he could also become an assistant coach again.
From my perspective, the jury is still out on Paul Haynes. The abysmal performance at Bowling Green gave me some cause of concern, but at least he took responsibility for the lack of mental preparation and did not place the blame on his players. Certainly, when the season began, I had expected the team to win more than three games. But with the exception of Bowling Green and Alabama, the Flashes competed in every contest this year which is encouraging given the number of injuries the team incurred.
Next year the Flashes open at Clemson, one of four teams with the opportunity to play in the 2017 College Football Playoff Championship. That is not exactly the way a coach wants to start a season developing his young players but that is the reality of Kent State football. Unfortunately, the program needs to play these paycheck games in order to pay the bills. And with Miami turning its program around, the MAC East is not going to get any easier. Perhaps, Haynes is not the answer for Kent State, but based on the history of the program, I'm willing to give him more time to develop his young talent as opposed to rolling the dice and hoping for better results. If I was convinced that Kent State would hire another Chuck Martin and get the success that Miami is currently experiencing right now, I could be in favor of it. But the history of Kent State shows me we would get another Dick Crum, Pete Cordelli, or Jim Corrigall and that's what scares me the most. Rather than take that risk, I prefer to stay with a coach who played at Kent State and is dedicated to building young men. I understand the desire of fans who want more but I agree with Coach Haynes who said, "Anybody who thinks Kent State football is not a long process is crazy. It's been 94 years and 26 winning seasons, so it's not going to happen overnight. It's going to take some time. The next phase is learning how to win and that's what we have to do."
That's just my opinion, and only time will tell whether I'm right or wrong.
http://www.cincinnati.csnbbs.com/thread-152640.html
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