| 19 October 2009
So despite the fact that I am still furious over that pathetic excuse for a game on Saturday, we all have to move at some point, right? Well first I'm going to reel out one more diatribe before I call it quits.
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Frank Beamer is a great coach. He knows what to do on the field and has been all we could ask for thus far in his coaching career. One thing about him, though, I could live without. This is his loyalty to his coaches. While it provides the means to maintain Bud Foster as our defensive coordinator for so long, it is a double edged sword. Think of it like communism. If all the coaches do their part it will work like a well oiled machine and we will live happily ever after. But that's why communism is good in theory and not practice. Not all of our coaches do their part. Ahem, Stinespring. Our OC rides along through the victories won by our defense and the talent of our offense, rather than the efficacy of our playcalling. Play conservative and let the defense do the work of holding the other team to less points than us.
And this is where the loyalty aspect of Beamer's personality is the bad edge of the double-edged sword. Stinepsring isn't held accountable. He has no concerns about losing his job. He will continue to make conservative playcalling his thing as long as the defense keeps saving his ass. As long as we keep winning, Beamer has the argument of "how many consecutive 10-win seasons have we had?" As we keep winning 10 games a year, Stinepsring can happily dawdle along and call draw plays to his heart's content.
Now what do we do? Well, we can't really do anything. But what can happen to change this are at least three situations.
1. Bud Foster leaves to be a head coach somewhere. Then our defense will take a hit, and we won't be winning games like we have the last many years based on their efforts.
2. Frank Beamer realizes we cannot compete with SEC, progressive ACC, high-scoring Pac-10, and even some Big 10 teams until we utilize ALL of our offensive talents rather than strap the team onto the back of Ryan Williams/Darren Evans/Tyrods scrambling abilities and pray our asses off.
3. We don't win 10 games in a season, thus rendering the 10-win excuse moot.
There are probably some others, but I can't think of them right now. Leave 'em in the comment section if you can think of them.
But anyway, I'm not trying to beat a dead horse or anything, but we cannot constantly let our defense bail out our offense if they have an off game (or if the offense loses the TOP battle). If we want to go anywhere other than the Orange Bowl, Gator Bowl, Chik-fil-A Bowl, or God help us, Meineke Car Care Bowl, then we need to change the way our offense works. We had it going these last few games, but as we all now know, that stopped as abruptly as a Ryan Williams run up the middle.
Finally, one thing that Beamer might not realize he's doing by not holding Stinepsring accountable is hindering his own chances at becoming an all-time elite coach. Sure he may rack up the wins, but how many elite coaches have only been to one National Championship and lost? Beamer's loyalty to Stinespring is admirable in regards to his personality, but at some point, you need to realize that the loyalty isn't being returned. Stinespring is not making every effort to thank Beamer for his years of loyalty by helping him win a National Championship. And sooner or later Coach Beamer needs to realize this lack of action for what it really is, an insult to his loyalty.
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