Change My Mind
This will be my last rant on this I promise, but I had to get it all out for the 50th time before I really let it all go. Please try to change my mind on any of the points I make. I desperately want to be wrong and have more hope for the future. Here goes..
Bill Clark coaches an old-school, overly conservative, non-analytics based, boring, scared, undisciplined, and an excessively penalized brand of football. He and his staff do not manage the clock, timeouts, or game situations well (look at the 4th down play last night as evidence, as well as a myriad of other situations). He and his staff make a lot of very questionable (to be nice) decisions. He doesn't have a killer instinct. He wants to run the clock out on the other team the second the game starts. He does not own up to mistakes, seemingly can't handle criticism, and does not change or adapt his style of play or his staff. We don't recruit at a high level. UAB has plateaued and will never be better than 2018 unless we make changes. I don't think Clark and his staff as currently constructed will be able to lead us to take the proverbial "next step" in the AAC. I fear that with the step up in competition we will fade further backwards.
He has massively bungled what was supposed to be our best season ever, with a triumphant transition into a beautiful new stadium and a new and better conference. Instead, we have less fans in attendance than we did at Legion field, fans are upset, and we have zero positive momentum. He and much of the fanbase seem to be stuck in the "thank God we got football back" mindset, and are unwilling to strive for more.
That being said, I really can't express how much I appreciate his loyalty to UAB and fighting for the program when it got shut down. I remember how bad that felt. Loyalty means a lot to me personally, and what he showed during that time was priceless. He is obviously a good coach. He always has a top notch defense. He is able to maximize what most would consider to be very marginal recruiting talent. He instilled a winning culture in the program. In a nutshell, he fixed an absolute dumpster fire.
Even the best coaches need to recognize their weaknesses. He needs to make staff changes. He needs to address the penalties. He needs to shore up the clock, time out, play, and game management. He needs to delegate things he is not good at to staff members who specialize in that particular thing. I really do think we're at a crossroads. If he digs his heels in and makes no changes over the offseason, we will never be anything more than CUSA-level good and nationally mediocre.
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