Bitter blog - Five thoughts the day after the Hokies' loss to UCLA in the Sun Bowl

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The grace period is over for the new coaches. Theyre starting to get their guys into the program. The adjusting to the scheme narrative will no longer exist going forward. This spring will be important for the coaching staff.

This last part bothers me. Yes, we're bringing in recruits but they still need some time in the system. I think the offensive coaching staff still deserves more time. They might have 'their guys' in 'their system' next year, but 'their guys' are going to be TRUE FRESHMEN! Think about that for a minute.

Andy's last thought epitomizes a point I made in another thread. This society is ruled by the "What have you done for me lately" mentality. Patience is dead and everyone and their brother wants immediate results OR ELSE!! That just isn't fair, nor is it realistic. Building a new offense from scratch isn't going to happen over night. It's not going to happen in one season. It's going to take TIME

Onward and upward

I think the assessment is fair. He said it's "important," not "make-or-break." The latter would be true in the "win now or else" culture. It is important that the coaches begin to cultivate "their" players. At the same time, the existing players are now one year older and should be expected to perform better in the developing system that they've been practicing and playing. It will be important for existing players to demonstrate growth, and perhaps allow for some truly outstanding new players to start to shine.

"Exit light..."

I'm not contesting the importance of the off season for the coaches. I just don't know if it's fair to say their grace period is over. That's like saying if we go 8-4 again next year these coaches are bust and we need to find new coaches and move on. Do you think that's what needs to be done? I don't. I think there is a really high chance we'll go 8-4 next year and possibly miss another ACCCG but I don't think by the end of next season we need to call the "Loeffler experiment" a failure and move on to new guys.

Onward and upward

I agree with you. I just think that Andy is sort of right. Grace periods are short. We have seen that good coaching can turn our patchwork team into one that can win 8 games; that's better than most in college football. But you can only use the "everything is new" argument for a year. In year 2, you expect improvement, though it may not be huge nor should that be expected or demanded. I think our record will probably still be about 8-4, and I think some attrition on D but improvement on O will be the reason. As long as we're improving demonstrably, there is no reason to trash the coaches or demand heads to roll. We won't see real dividends for 2-3 years probably (and I'm patient enough), but this offseason definitely is important. Keep the existing guys learning and get the new guys acclimated to college ball. Without a solid footing going forward, there will be problems, but if they get off the ground running (pun intended), things will be fine.

"Exit light..."

what kind of expectations should we realistically have for the new RB recruits? Besides KJ (lesser extent DMFW), true freshmen making an impact seems unlikely. I would love to be wrong on this.

We live in a deeper youth cultured environment in college ball. Now it's play makers play. 17 or 24. Win or gtfo. We need the mentality. We can't let every college team pass us up.

Bigger, Faster, STRONGER...BUILT TO HIT

I'm cool with it just skeptical.

Yes, we've got some pretty good looking recruits coming in but let's face the facts, they're going to be true freshmen next year. Some of them will probably end up red-shirting, some will boom while others will bust. The simple fact is that one year of new coaches bringing in new players is not enough to right our ship just yet. We'll have frustrations next year just like we had this year but we'll likely have some of the same exhilarating moments we had. I'm unfortunately one of those that tends to overreact to these things (you should see my hand and my fridge after yesterday....) but I don't think we've seen enough after only a year to judge Lefty & Co.'s impact.

All that being said, if they keep up recruiting like they did this year, those 10 wins will roll around again sooner rather than later. Above all else #KeepCalmAndGoHokies!!