(01-24-2016 10:26 AM)Brother Bluto Wrote:  

(01-24-2016 10:18 AM)3rdgenerationtiger Wrote:  

(01-24-2016 09:28 AM)Memphis Bunch Wrote:  

(01-24-2016 09:15 AM)roachman48 Wrote:  Paxton did NOT look sharp playing his last game as a Tiger in the Bham bowl.
That was the one game in his college career that he did not have Fuente on the sidelines.

Well let's put Paxton in reality. He is being drafted on potential. Paxton wasn't a heisman trophy candidate. He has a lot of growth to make. He has improved but was in no way an elite quarterback even college

FYI Paxton looked pretty mediocre against Navy, Temple and portions of the Houston game. Fuente was really good about calling plays that Paxton was comfortable making. I think Fuentes credit in Paxton's development is slightly overrated but Fuentes game management and player management is pretty good. I think he will be a solid coach at a VT

If you ever watched Lynch roll to his right and flawlessly through back across his body to a receiver on the far hash mark, you would know you were not watching any normal college quarterback. There are QBs playing in the NFL today that cannot make that throw. That is not coaching. That is not player development. That is God given talent.

By November of this year, everyone who watches football will know of Lynch's talent.

Three years from now I doubt anyone outside of VPI and Memphis followers will even know who Fuente is. He may be a decent coach. He definitely was a lucky coach.

We shall see. I think he's gonna kill it at VT

I agree. He is a rising star in the coaching ranks and he got to show his stuff here.

The first year he was here and we barely had any players you could see how good the play calling was and once the guys learned the system and could execute we were a pretty damn good team.

(01-24-2016 09:28 AM)Memphis Bunch Wrote:  

(01-24-2016 09:15 AM)roachman48 Wrote:  Paxton did NOT look sharp playing his last game as a Tiger in the Bham bowl.
That was the one game in his college career that he did not have Fuente on the sidelines.

Well let's put Paxton in reality. He is being drafted on potential. Paxton wasn't a heisman trophy candidate. He has a lot of growth to make. He has improved but was in no way an elite quarterback even college

FYI Paxton looked pretty mediocre against Navy, Temple and portions of the Houston game. Fuente was really good about calling plays that Paxton was comfortable making. I think Fuentes credit in Paxton's development is slightly overrated but Fuentes game management and player management is pretty good. I think he will be a solid coach at a VT

You don't think PL was an elite college qb, you weren't paying attention. Completion %, yards per attempt, qb rating, td:int ratio - all very high levels.

NFL is not the NBA. They don't take first rounders on "potential".

Fuente was the best game manager we have ever had at Memphis. What he got those kids to do the last 2 years was remarkable. I don't know how anyone that looks at what he did here can argue that unles. They are letting emotions into the discussion. Fuente is a class act guy and handled things as well as any first time head coach could be expected to.

Paxton has limitations and Fuente put him in positions to succeed which is the Head Coach job. Pax will have to improve his pocket passing and improve his release to be elite on the next level.

A great AD could have kept Justin. Low ball offer last year was an insult.

Fred Pancoast once remarked that leaving Memphis (State) was the worst mistake he ever made as a coach. It will be interesting to see how Fuente does.

(01-24-2016 08:14 AM)danny1 Wrote:  Bottom line - I could tell we had a vastly more disciplined football team when they first set feet on the field for Fuente's 1st game as head coach. It was obvious just from the way the team moved through pre-game drills that major changes were already underway. The improved organization, pace and timing were already obvious.

You are so right. You could see a huge difference right off the bat even if it didn't come with wins and losses

(01-25-2016 01:45 AM)Penny Lane Wrote:  A great AD could have kept Justin. Low ball offer last year was an insult.

Maybe he could have if there were people willing to spend more money (the sames ones that this forum expect to finish funding the IPF plus buy out Pastner). Then it would only take a few less than stellar years until people would decide that he only succeeded because of Lynch (see Tommy West and DeAngelo) and that Bowen was a fool for signing such a contract. Much easier to make such decisions when (1) there is plenty of other people's money on hand and (2) you aren't the one ultimately held accountable.

(01-25-2016 01:45 AM)Penny Lane Wrote:  A great AD could have kept Justin. Low ball offer last year was an insult.

Fuente is 4 years away from being a co-offensive coordinator. He was coach at a job that was one of the worst jobs in all of football 4 years ago and was offered one of the 10 best college jobs in the country. He was gone no matter what we offered.

(01-24-2016 10:23 PM)memphomike Wrote:  Fuente was the best game manager we have ever had at Memphis. What he got those kids to do the last 2 years was remarkable. I don't know how anyone that looks at what he did here can argue that unles. They are letting emotions into the discussion. Fuente is a class act guy and handled things as well as any first time head coach could be expected to.

Yeah, he really tore it up in those Houston and Temple games.

(01-24-2016 06:31 AM)EvilLore Wrote:  

(01-24-2016 02:05 AM)roundhouse74 Wrote:  No, but any other coach would likely have benched Lynch early in his career rather than let him develop in games and grow into the great QB he became. They helped each other immensely.

Yep, I agree. I think most other coaches would have stayed with Karam for his senior year and probably eeked out 6 wins and a minor bowl. But that trade off would have been costly, because the next season, Lynch would not have been ready to take over. 10-3 and a bowl victory over BYU would have been a pipe dream.

Im not sure Karam would have suddenly found the ability to lead the Tigers to 6 wins.

Not once in any public or private conversation is there any indication that JF did anything but go with the best QB he had. Karam showed at two places that he was not a D-1 QB. JF repeatedly said PL was his best chance at winning and he was playing for now not the future.

Karam was a great person to have at our University but that's all.

And all we get for anything less than a near perfect season is a minor bowl. That's all the AAC has.

Fuente did a lot of things right besides Lynch. Did Lynch get him there a year early? Yeah, probably. Good for them both.

(01-25-2016 04:32 PM)Briskbas Wrote:  

(01-25-2016 01:45 AM)Penny Lane Wrote:  A great AD could have kept Justin. Low ball offer last year was an insult.

Fuente is 4 years away from being a co-offensive coordinator. He was coach at a job that was one of the worst jobs in all of football 4 years ago and was offered one of the 10 best college jobs in the country. He was gone no matter what we offered.

He is less than 4 from being one again.

Some noticed he kind of checked out or was distracted by the inquiries after the Ole Miss win. Since a P5 school offered, we couldn't keep him, period.
He admitted telling the team he was leaving was more difficult than he thought it would be. But several of his favorite players were leaving, one way or another.

(01-25-2016 11:08 PM)Tigerx3 Wrote:  

(01-24-2016 06:31 AM)EvilLore Wrote:  

(01-24-2016 02:05 AM)roundhouse74 Wrote:  No, but any other coach would likely have benched Lynch early in his career rather than let him develop in games and grow into the great QB he became. They helped each other immensely.

Yep, I agree. I think most other coaches would have stayed with Karam for his senior year and probably eeked out 6 wins and a minor bowl. But that trade off would have been costly, because the next season, Lynch would not have been ready to take over. 10-3 and a bowl victory over BYU would have been a pipe dream.

Im not sure Karam would have suddenly found the ability to lead the Tigers to 6 wins.

Not once in any public or private conversation is there any indication that JF did anything but go with the best QB he had. Karam showed at two places that he was not a D-1 QB. JF repeatedly said PL was his best chance at winning and he was playing for now not the future.

Karam was a great person to have at our University but that's all.

And all we get for anything less than a near perfect season is a minor bowl. That's all the AAC has.

We don't give Houston the game two years ago and we are playing in the Peach Bowl as the G5 rep.
We don't give Houston the gme last year and we are likely playing in the AAC Championship game to go to the Peach Bowl as the G5 rep!!!
Yeah, that's "all" the AAC has.

Apart from that, I agree.

(01-25-2016 11:54 PM)shere khan Wrote:  

(01-25-2016 04:32 PM)Briskbas Wrote:  

(01-25-2016 01:45 AM)Penny Lane Wrote:  A great AD could have kept Justin. Low ball offer last year was an insult.

Fuente is 4 years away from being a co-offensive coordinator. He was coach at a job that was one of the worst jobs in all of football 4 years ago and was offered one of the 10 best college jobs in the country. He was gone no matter what we offered.

He is less than 4 from being one again.

And he is also less than 4 from being considered one of the best in the country.

(01-26-2016 05:12 PM)tigernole79 Wrote:  

(01-25-2016 11:08 PM)Tigerx3 Wrote:  

(01-24-2016 06:31 AM)EvilLore Wrote:  

(01-24-2016 02:05 AM)roundhouse74 Wrote:  No, but any other coach would likely have benched Lynch early in his career rather than let him develop in games and grow into the great QB he became. They helped each other immensely.

Yep, I agree. I think most other coaches would have stayed with Karam for his senior year and probably eeked out 6 wins and a minor bowl. But that trade off would have been costly, because the next season, Lynch would not have been ready to take over. 10-3 and a bowl victory over BYU would have been a pipe dream.

Im not sure Karam would have suddenly found the ability to lead the Tigers to 6 wins.

Not once in any public or private conversation is there any indication that JF did anything but go with the best QB he had. Karam showed at two places that he was not a D-1 QB. JF repeatedly said PL was his best chance at winning and he was playing for now not the future.

Karam was a great person to have at our University but that's all.

And all we get for anything less than a near perfect season is a minor bowl. That's all the AAC has.

We don't give Houston the game two years ago and we are playing in the Peach Bowl as the G5 rep.
We don't give Houston the gme last year and we are likely playing in the AAC Championship game to go to the Peach Bowl as the G5 rep!!!
Yeah, that's "all" the AAC has.

Apart from that, I agree.

This year, aside from giving Houston the game we had a chance to take it at the buzzer and the best kicker in the nation just misses.

(01-26-2016 05:26 PM)Tiger46 Wrote:  

(01-26-2016 05:12 PM)tigernole79 Wrote:  

(01-25-2016 11:08 PM)Tigerx3 Wrote:  

(01-24-2016 06:31 AM)EvilLore Wrote:  

(01-24-2016 02:05 AM)roundhouse74 Wrote:  No, but any other coach would likely have benched Lynch early in his career rather than let him develop in games and grow into the great QB he became. They helped each other immensely.

Yep, I agree. I think most other coaches would have stayed with Karam for his senior year and probably eeked out 6 wins and a minor bowl. But that trade off would have been costly, because the next season, Lynch would not have been ready to take over. 10-3 and a bowl victory over BYU would have been a pipe dream.

Im not sure Karam would have suddenly found the ability to lead the Tigers to 6 wins.

Not once in any public or private conversation is there any indication that JF did anything but go with the best QB he had. Karam showed at two places that he was not a D-1 QB. JF repeatedly said PL was his best chance at winning and he was playing for now not the future.

Karam was a great person to have at our University but that's all.

And all we get for anything less than a near perfect season is a minor bowl. That's all the AAC has.

We don't give Houston the game two years ago and we are playing in the Peach Bowl as the G5 rep.
We don't give Houston the gme last year and we are likely playing in the AAC Championship game to go to the Peach Bowl as the G5 rep!!!
Yeah, that's "all" the AAC has.

Apart from that, I agree.

This year, aside from giving Houston the game we had a chance to take it at the buzzer and the best kicker in the nation just misses.

Yep. I was surprised when he missed it.

Fuente can flat out coach and the man is a leader. No need to try to take anything away from him. Like every coach, he benefits from having great talent but still has to Coach both players and staff. Fuente is the real deal.

(01-26-2016 05:17 PM)tigernole79 Wrote:  

(01-25-2016 11:54 PM)shere khan Wrote:  

(01-25-2016 04:32 PM)Briskbas Wrote:  

(01-25-2016 01:45 AM)Penny Lane Wrote:  A great AD could have kept Justin. Low ball offer last year was an insult.

Fuente is 4 years away from being a co-offensive coordinator. He was coach at a job that was one of the worst jobs in all of football 4 years ago and was offered one of the 10 best college jobs in the country. He was gone no matter what we offered.

He is less than 4 from being one again.

And he is also less than 4 from being considered one of the best in the country.

TrUetH