And The Second Guessing Begins

Courtesy of the Anti-Orange Page, Jim from Duluth offers his usual stellar recap of the Bulldog Hotline call in show Monday night.
It never ceases to amaze me that fans are so pompous after a loss (such as the Dawgs loss to South Carolina). If you’re one of those fans who constantly criticize a coaching staff, you probably need to evaluate what you say. Understand that I DON’T feel that coaches are above criticism. Take Virginia’s Al Groh. There’s a man who needs to be criticized. He was brought in to use his NFL type recruiting skills and turn around a Cavalier football program that has not seen excellence in sometime. For all the money UVA paid him, and all the hype about his connections to the NFL, he has done very little for that program.
But it’s easy to say that we should have done so and so in a particular game, when the coaches plan didn’t work. How many things go wrong in our own lives and hindsight turns out to be the only true vision? Now you may come back with “Yeah, but those guys get paid millions of dollars……” This is true, but chances and odds don’t change just because there’s more money at stake. College coaches are pinning their hopes on young men that are between the ages of 18 and 23. Think about the brilliant things you did when you were 19.
Back to the Bulldog Hotline. As I read through, I see a host of questions that just come out wrong. One caller basically questions the caliber of the WR corps. For the record, colleges can’t go out and recruit players mid-season. You’re stuck with who you have for a year. Second of all, you can teach every fundamental you can to a wide receiver, but he and he alone will make the catch on the field. A better question would have been, “was there a reason that we were throwing crucial throws to Mike Moore and Tony Wilson (2nd team WR’s) rather than starters Sean Bailey, Mikey Henderson and Mohamed Massaquoi?
Another popular perennial question that comes up (though disguised each time) “Why did you abandon the running game” or “Why don’t you use one running back?” Let’s be clear – Knowshon Moreno is the real deal. We already know that. But the best RB’s in the world need an OL to open up holes. Since everyone agreed at the beginning of the season that our OL was young, is it really right to place such a heavy burden on them when the game is on the line? I suspect that if the Dawgs had utilized Moreno more, and we still lost, the question would have been, “Why run the ball when you’ve got a gunslinger like Stafford?” You can’t win with some people.
Question the coach? You bet. Fans deserve that. But coaches spend there entire lives watching film and evaluating talent. The average fan, who doesn’t go to practice or know the weight room stats, is just that – the average fan. I doubt he has any suggestions a coach hasn’t already thought of.