Here' what I see
I see a head coach who was part of a huge turnaround at Memphis. He saw first hand how a hurry-up, high-scoring offense can put pressure on the other team, both offensively and defensively. And he was the coordinator of a defense that went from bottom 25 to top 25 in the span of four years. Of course he's going to incorporate many concepts from that experience into his first head-coaching job.
I believe our new coach also sees how Missouri has struggled to recruit and even has difficulty keeping higher ranked Missouri kids home. In our best recruiting years, we were middle of the Big 12 and bottom third of the SEC. I believe HCBO wants Mizzou to be much better than the bottom third of the SEC.
His solution is a three-year plan to implement that same hurry-up, high-scoring offense and the same defense that were both successful at Memphis. And when successful, Missouri high-school football players will have Mizzou as their first option. But its got to be a completely different culture to make that happen.
Yeah, I'm disappointed with how the first year of the plan is going, but I'm not discouraged about the future. Of course there are going to be growing pains but I still firmly believe we've got the right coach and I believe his vision of the future is the right one for Mizzou.
I look at TCU and Baylor and how they became so successful while they had similarly low-rated recruiting classes - its the offense. The hurry-up, spread-out offense helped even the playing field against the higher ranked Texas and Oklahoma. The high-scoring offense made winners; and made them a desirable destination; and then came the higher-ranked recruiting classes.
This is the right path for Mizzou and I believe this is what we are seeing right before our very eyes. It just doesn't look pretty so far.
So when you see people ask why isn't Zanders getting a chance, its obvious - he can't run the offense that the coaches have in mind.
When people ask why did we change the defensive scheme, its obvious - they changed it to the scheme that worked for them at Memphis and TCU - its a scheme that helped get both Memphis and TCU into the top 25.
When people ask why did we run the hurry-up offense when we were running the ball against Georgia, its obvious - its what we do now and we're continuing to work toward the future.
So do you abandon your vision seven games into the first year - of course not. Expect to see HCBO stick with his vision, even if we finish 2-10.
And I'll know we're building something special here; something that will draw recruits to Mizzou; something that we can all be proud of.
I see a head coach who was part of a huge turnaround at Memphis. He saw first hand how a hurry-up, high-scoring offense can put pressure on the other team, both offensively and defensively. And he was the coordinator of a defense that went from bottom 25 to top 25 in the span of four years. Of course he's going to incorporate many concepts from that experience into his first head-coaching job.
I believe our new coach also sees how Missouri has struggled to recruit and even has difficulty keeping higher ranked Missouri kids home. In our best recruiting years, we were middle of the Big 12 and bottom third of the SEC. I believe HCBO wants Mizzou to be much better than the bottom third of the SEC.
His solution is a three-year plan to implement that same hurry-up, high-scoring offense and the same defense that were both successful at Memphis. And when successful, Missouri high-school football players will have Mizzou as their first option. But its got to be a completely different culture to make that happen.
Yeah, I'm disappointed with how the first year of the plan is going, but I'm not discouraged about the future. Of course there are going to be growing pains but I still firmly believe we've got the right coach and I believe his vision of the future is the right one for Mizzou.
I look at TCU and Baylor and how they became so successful while they had similarly low-rated recruiting classes - its the offense. The hurry-up, spread-out offense helped even the playing field against the higher ranked Texas and Oklahoma. The high-scoring offense made winners; and made them a desirable destination; and then came the higher-ranked recruiting classes.
This is the right path for Mizzou and I believe this is what we are seeing right before our very eyes. It just doesn't look pretty so far.
So when you see people ask why isn't Zanders getting a chance, its obvious - he can't run the offense that the coaches have in mind.
When people ask why did we change the defensive scheme, its obvious - they changed it to the scheme that worked for them at Memphis and TCU - its a scheme that helped get both Memphis and TCU into the top 25.
When people ask why did we run the hurry-up offense when we were running the ball against Georgia, its obvious - its what we do now and we're continuing to work toward the future.
So do you abandon your vision seven games into the first year - of course not. Expect to see HCBO stick with his vision, even if we finish 2-10.
And I'll know we're building something special here; something that will draw recruits to Mizzou; something that we can all be proud of.
