(09-01-2016 07:05 PM)GoodOwl Wrote: Bailiff on game pre-game show:
1. "I think we've made great strides. We've got to play well. (WKU) Coach Brohm has been an absolute model of consistency since he's taken over."
2. "(Stehling) has made great decisions with the football all camp."
3. "We didn't play well last year. A lot of that is that those freshmen last year are now sophomores. We've come to where you expect bowl games and come to where you expect to compete for conference titles."
4. "(Bickham) we still have JT Blasingame, and Ellis, a true freshman has stepped up."
5. "(Running backs) They've checked their egos at the doors and put on their hard hats."
6. "It doesn't matter (who you open with.) You'd rather have a game where you know, last year we opened up against Wagner and we really didn't learn much with that game. We rather have a game where you could maybe see whether there's a freshman who could step up."
Coach Bailiff's pre-game comments from before the WKU game this past season. In light of the fact that we're opening 2017 with Stanford after having just played them, how much of that will be regurgitated?
1. Apparently not only did we not make "great enough strides" to be able to compete with the top teams in the conference, (much less beat them) we could barely compete with most of the bottom ones either. Keep in mind, CUSA has been rated by many as the worst or second worst football conference this season, whereas it was rated somewhat higher previous immediate seasons. So it should have been easier to in CUSA this year, not more difficult, especially if a team truly actually "made great strides."
2. I feel really, really bad for how Stehling's career seemed to be so mishandled by Coach Bailiff and staff. I think other coaches might have helped him be more successful. If I was a decent QB being recruited by Rice, I'd only come play for Coach Bailiff if I had no other offers. Even NDSU and some FCS schools can produce a Flacco or a Wentz. Now, if you're a TE, maybe you can overlook the coaching here and succeed anyway.
3. We didn't play well for the second year in a row, after having an entire offseason to evaluate and make adjustments from our poor play the previous year. Seems like the problems ran much deeper than just freshman who becoame sophomores in 2016. Now is the argument those same sophomores will be juniors so they will magically all transform into superplayers? Or will it be this past year's freshman who will now be sophomores in 2017 that will step up and somehow play better than the ones from this past season did? Or will it be that some of next year's freshman will be the answer?
If the coaches expected a bowl game with the product they put on the field, they seem to have serious issues with judgement and evaluation. If they expect a bowl game next season by rinsing and repeating, shame on who? While Coach Bailiff once again did not compete for a conference title slot, we were in a neck and neck competition for the worst team in the conference. Compelling. Will we be "expecting to compete for conference titles" again next season in this way?
4. I'd guess there will be three more players mentioned this pre-season that will fill in the same comment.
5. They might want to purchase their hard hats from a different vendor this season. Stanford had a vaunted running attack. We had some players who lined up but didn't make as much noise as we had hoped they would. This area had been cited as a team strength but was either underutilized, incorrectly handled, not as true as we were led to believe, or some combination. I don't fault the players as much as I do the coaching/preparation. Again, if I'm a RB recruit and Bailiff is trying to sell me on playing for him have major concerns and would look elsewhere first.
6. This seems to reflect the "learning from failure" comments that Coach Bailiff made often before and through the past 2016 season. The thing about learning from failure (which can be a legitimate teacher) is that you actually have to learn from it by changes and improvements and not just say the words as lip-service. Wonder what the coaches learned from two years of the same kind of failure? Does it make much difference to the Rice admin how they perform on the field? What will be learned form 2017's first game against Stanford at HRS? We don't have a Wagner or Prairie View game on the schedule next season, but perhaps CUSA brethren will accommodate again? I maintain that as of now, next season's schedule looks tougher than this season. That might change with the conference teams readjusting, but in no way do I see next season's schedule as likely to be easier than this one.