RE: ***Game Thread*** La. Tech edition
Some of Coach Clark’s strongest assets are a double edged sword. It has been noted by other posters that he is stubborn, driven, relational and deeply loyal. That’s the only type of personality that would have stayed aboard for the return and made it the huge success it has been.
But the re-establish a team and facilities phase is accomplished and now we move to the Stadium in 2021 for phase 2 of the return. Now is when the program has the opportunity to REALLY sell UAB, Birmingham and Coach Clark to higher level recruits who can take us out of this dreadfully unsuccessful football and basketball conference.
2021 is the opportunity to begin a move into Boise St or UCF level of G5 heavyweightS. We are not there, nor do I think we are Particularly close, yet. I can’t think of one very good team that UAB has won a game against during the return. We’ve made a name by dominating our peers, who are generally bottom 40 teams, and have shown little threat of winning against the better teams we’ve faced. Texas A$M was our best showing and we still lost by multiple TDS.
So what constrains us at this stage? Recruiting is still limited. Most of our best players are those that others undervalued. But we sign very few bonafied high three star type players out of HS. Maybe none yet. We sign good classes for CUSA but our rosters don’t come close to Memphis, or UCF orApp State. Or apparently Coastal Carolina. We barely keep up with Troy in recruiting.
But, that said, we have some good to very good Young players. McBRIDE has the look of a freshman All American if we give him 12 carries a game for the remainder of the season. Swoopes is a Gamer. Damon Miller is looking better each week. Moultrie is a beast, as is Fish. The freshman center has played well. Nikkia Eason is turning out to be the hidden jewel I thought he might be as a pass rusher.
But from the beginning we have had struggles in finding and competing for higher caliber quarterbacks and high school wide receivers that can be in the program for five years. Name one Impact WR during the return that hasn’t been JuCO. I can’t. JUCO are great but they are high risk and gone quickly. Many only have one high impact year. Think Parham and Ubosi. Hopefully not Watkins.
And QBs. I can’t clearly discern if it’s the players, the scheme or the coaching. But With the exception of Erdely they have all consistently struggled with similar issues (decision making, eye control, health and ball security), so I lean toward scheme and QB coaching. Tyler’s best year was his first in the saddle and he regressed in year 2 and didn’t look very good with his reads to start this year. Lack of progress again suggests coaching. The OC is not developing QBs and is thus having trouble attracting WRs and other higher caliber QBs, as a result.
So, IMHO, the program appears to be currently constrained by the offensive scheme and the OC, and their impact on recruiting offensive skill players (RBs being the exception). And UAB is frankly behind the arc of where I expected us to be in recruiting, based on the tremendous potential of this program. We are well positioned to grow into the best G5 team in the nation and perhaps one day transition to a power conference. But dominating G5 might be more fun.
So now comes the other edge of the sword for the Coach. This is the stage at which the growth of a relatively new D1 head coach becomes even more painful, particularly someone as admirably stubborn and deeply loyal as Coach Clark. His leadership has resulted in program success and a trajectory significantly exceeding the abilities of one or more of his assistants. Assistants to whom he is probably deeply connected and perhaps feels even deeply indebted to for his success.
To let such a person or persons go is extremely painful, particularly if that assistant is working their tail off to try to fix the problems. To have a hard worker and good person that you truly like not be able to deliver at a higher level when the organization grows is one of the worst feelings as as a leader. I say that from experience. Letting them go feels like treason. But at a certain point a leader has to make the hard decisions that most benefit the organization he or she leads, or else that assistant becomes increasingly miserable in their struggles and the organization suffers loss and the leader loseS valuable momentum, or worse, credibility.
I believe that Clark is driven to elevate UAB further, and that he will eventually make a Very Painful staff change for the good of the program. But I also think he will give it another year, to gauge the stadium effect, before he makes big changes. Such staff changes will likely mark the painful growth from team as Family, to team as Family AND business. Not a fun growth stage for his personality type, I suspect. Success is often much more personally painful and costly than it appears from the outside.
(This post was last modified: 11-03-2020 10:20 AM by Ranger1386c.)
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***Game Thread*** La. Tech edition
