I recently wrote that in college football, players making plays is what wins football games. So, if you are a coach, to win games you recruit players who make plays. Let me restate that, if you are a coach, you better recruit players who make plays. There is no grey area here. Either the kid makes plays or he doesn't.
In today's information age, evaluating talent in order to recruit the best players should be easy. Every move these kids make is recorded. So, if evaluating the talent is a given, why are the powerhouses of college football having so much trouble remaining powerhouses?
It's because the stars want to play immediately, not in a year or two. This has changed everything in college football.
Time was that kids wanted to play for a certain school, now they just want to play as soon as possible. It isn't about tradition and history, maybe never was, but these kids want the big money they will get at the next level asap. If a kid can get a guaranteed 50 million dollar contract (Sam Bradford) then tell me again why I need to be a player on the taxi squad until I earn my spot as a Junior or Senior in one of the powerhouse programs?
When I was a student at Texas, their coach was Fred Akers. He was accused of being too arrogant with recruits with an attitude of this is Texas and that should be enough. The kids went elsewhere and Fred was shown the door.
After players like Vince Young and Colt McCoy, the Texas program looked invincible, no pun intended. The media and the coaching staff all figured it was the program that had won all of those games. No, as I've said before, players making plays wins football games. So, now the program at Texas is in a rapid decline because they do not have enough players who make plays.
I think Mack Brown is terrific, but he has come out and said that his players are playing with a sense of entitlement and arrogance. These words sting Texas fans particularly because people who are not Texas fans use them regularly to describe Texas fans.
The coaching staff at Texas and the Texas fans have been the beneficiary of some great players in recent times. The program however sabotaged itself by being so good. Players who wanted to play immediately went elsewhere and are playing against Texas instead of with them.
5 star recruits who stink are rare, but it happens. Some players skills and talents do not transfer to the next level. This happens from college to pro all the time. I think it is happening from high school to college as well. If the very best players go to the powerhouses, then they would always be good, not 4-3. The arrogance might be that just because we have a Longhorn on the helmet, doesn't mean that what we hope to be inside the helmet lines up with reality.
Texas has had a remarkable modern day run of success, but that is in the past now. And it seems that the past is all that Mack Brown wants to talk about these days. He is constantly talking about his 13 seasons at Texas as a body of work that should speak for itself. Hey Mack, you better wake up. You do not have the talent to be Texas right now. You don't have the talent to beat Iowa State right now. These are facts.
If Mack doesn't change the players he has on the field, he is gonna keep getting what he has been getting this year, beat.
The game today is about recruiting. Look back on the recruiting evaluations from years gone by. You do see exceptions. The great Nebraska teams of the 90's were listed 8th or 9th in recruiting. But USC, Florida, Texas, Alabama, and Boise State have dominated the top 5 recruiting classes for many years. There is a blend of players, coaching, and flexibility to adapt your game plan to the players you have. Texas is a solid team in a bad stretch. It happened to Oklahoma, it happened to Michigan, and it is about to happen to USC. And all bounced back.
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