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Talent Level

TheRealUW

Well-known member
While reading both of the Wyoming boards I have seen a lot of people who think our players have the talent to compete in the MWC. Many people believe it is the lack of coaching ability of Coach Glenn and his assistants that has led to our poor play this season. I disagree with this assesment. Granted, there are many factors that play into how any given game turns out, including coaching. However, the factor that decides MOST games is how well the players play the game. Each players performance in a game is a direct result of their talent level. There are many examples where a worse team with worse talent beats a better team with better talent (Oregon St. beating USC for example), but this never occurs for a majority of games a team plays in a season. It would be hard for me to believe that we have struggled all season because our players have played below their talent level each and every game. 9 times out of 10 the better team wins the game. I would like to suggest that our poor performance on the field this year has been primarily due to the lack of talent of our players, especially on the offesive side of the ball. I'm sure there are many posters that are friends and family of the players and understandably would not like to admit this. However, don't think I am arguing to keep Glenn around. I have always believed that a coach is highly overrated in their importance to the result of a game. I honestly believe that we could bring in Pete Carroll and the result of this season would not change much because of the talent level of our players. Conversely, I believe that if we handed Coach Glenn the head job at USC, then he would be wildly successful this year. The most important thing a coach does in college football is recruit. If talented players are recruited to Laramie, the wins will come no matter who the coach is. Obviously, coach Glenn has failed in this regard. Thus, he deserves to be let go. The only way this program will turn the corner is to bring in a big name coach who will be able to recruit players of a higher caliber to Laramie. We don't need 4 and 5 star recruits to compete in this league, but we do need a majority of our recruits to be of the 3 star caliber. It is no coincidence that BYU and Utah have consistently had the highest rated recruiting classes in our conference and the fact that they sit atop the win/loss column and have a little number next to their name. Again, there will always be the occasional 5 star recruit who never pans out and the 2 star recruit who works his ass off and becomes a great college football player, but these are not general trends that we should hang our hat on. We cannot trust that all the 2 star recruits we have been signing were all underrated.
 
I could not disagree more. The Head Coach is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT to a college football team. If that were not the case why are guys like Nick Saban paid 4 million a year? Look what he has done in 2 years with that team, with Shula's players. I could agree with you if you were speaking about a NFL coach, it's more about the players and less about coaching. In college, you have to constantly replace guys where as in the NFL you get a little more consistency with your team and players.

Let's take this a little further, First Example: Paul Johnson. While at Navy he certainly couldn't recruit great players, academy schools basically take what they get. With those undersized (I mean tiny) players he took them to 3 bowl games. Furthermore, at Georgia Tech he has turned a bottom ACC team and has made them a contender, In one year! We could Also throw Air Force into this example.

Second Example: Notre Dame. For the PAST 5 YEARS they have had a top 10 recruiting class according to rivals, scouts, etc. Now, why haven't those guys just dominated? If it's all these 4-5 star players, why can't they get the job done? Now granted, I do believe ND, get's a kiss from the Recruiting magazines, but not that much of one.

It all starts with coaching, especially with guys out of high school. If they are not taught a solid foundation through the right kind of system, I don't expect them to succeed. That's the problem with Glenn's system, he surrounds himself with below average assistants, his practices are run poorly, players aren't held accountable for mistakes in practice/scrimmages. So why would they expect that to translate into wins? From a personal experience, If I miss a kick during practice, I'm going to figure out what I DID WRONG, fix it, and get IT RIGHT! I could go on, but I'm hungry
 
I totally agree with you Cornpoke. I haven't played in quite a few years, but I remember there are coaches that the players just will not play for and it has almost nothing to do with the person the coach is. I don't know if it is the fact that they don't instill confidence in their players or the players just can't communicate with the coaches - but sometimes they just don't click.
 
Great post! When asked who the better coach was, himself or Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer replied, "When I had the better players, I was the better coach. When Jimmy had the better players, he was the better coach".

No coach could win with this group. I think a different coach might get a little more out of them, but the results would be the same.
 
Air Force's teams are another good example - especially their basketball team. Do they ever have the best athletes and talent? Hell, no - but they have a good system that maximizes the skills they have and leads to wins.

I look at the team we put on the field - guys that Glenn recruited - and wonder what his master plan was. He didn't get big horses for a power running game, didn't get speed guys for a stretch the field kind of game... what are we doing?

Besides losing, I mean.
 
Actually coaching has WAY more to do with it than talent level does. I am not for or against Sween or any other QB on this team just as long as we win but I'll give you an example why coaching is WAY more important. First off obviously if you have high school talent your not going to win even if you have Bear Bryant as your head coach so thats a no brainer so I understand where your coming from there. I also understand that not every recruit ends up playing to thier potential as well but lets look at something here real fast.

Sween coming out of high School was rated as the # 23 rated Qb in the country which puts him as in Phil Steele would say "Highly touted Status" . ALso Jacob Doss was what Mr. Kentucky in football coming out of high school and Stutz was one of the top rated QB's in Oklahoma and Hetrick is a real athlete. Crum was supposed to be a four sta recruit. When each one of these guys comes in the game how come is it that each of them does the exact same thing? Are you telling me that it is because even though they were all highly recruited they all suck at the college level because they have no talent? Sorry I'm not buying it.

I live out here in Seattle , Washington and have to listen to Pac 10 crap all the time and Washington St. Cougar talk shows and fans as well as Washington Huskie talk shows and fans. They put WAY more pressure on the coaches out here and the fans bitch way more than you hear in Wyoming and they take football more serious from a school athletic standpoint where as the talk show hosts don't put up at all with the way Ty Willingham has coached and he will be gone at the end of the year. If Glenn were out here he would have been gone back after 2006 for sure and maybe after 2005. Back to my point though, I listen to Hugh Millen on the radio out here who was QB in the NFL and played QB for Washington. He is pissed off at the way Jake Locker has been developed by Coach WIllingham as a QB and passer since Ty has been at Washington and even though Jake Locker is one of the top 5 Qb's in college football he should be even better now but because of the inept coaching of Ty Willingham and the way they develop Qb's the talkshow hosts Hugh Millen and others out here are pissed. While listening to this and being the Wyoming cowboy football fan that I am it made me think of how shitty of a job coach Glenn has done with developing the talent of our QB's and other talent on our team. Sorry but when more than one person who played on one of the top college football teams back in the day and also played QB in the NFL says coaching is a huge factor in the way talent is developed and the way QB's play in college and after the way EVERY SINGLE ONE OF OU RQB"S do the SAME thing OVER and OVER and OVER again its because of the coaching and those are the FACTS . Get a clue! Joe Glenn is a nice guy but HE SUCKS at COACHING !!!
 
All the posters have made some good points. I believe we have individuals on the offensive side of the ball who are talented football players (including Sween and Crum). However, football is the ultimate team sport, so it is very important to look at the OVERALL talent of the team. A good player can look bad when surrounded by sub-par talent. I believe we are severely lacking talent at the the receiver positions and on the offensive line. The lack of talent on the offensive line causes problem on each and every play because they are an integral part of both run plays and pass plays. The lack of talent at receiver obviously can have a profound effect on the play of the quarterback. This helps explains Sweens dramatic change in play from his redshirt freshman season compared to last season and this season. Holden, Ford, and Marsh weren't elite receivers by any means, but they were better than the group we have right now (except Bolling). I honestly, believe that we could bring in Sam Bradford from Oklahoma right now and we would only see a small amount of improvement in our offense. He obviously has the talent and has been developed correctly by the Oklahoma coaching staff. On the other hand, give us Oklahomas offensive line or their receivers and our offense would become explosive overnight. Sween or Crum would tranform into a stud of a quarterback as well. I should have clarified in my first post that I believe there are some talented players on our offense, but the lack of talnet at key positions (namely the offensive line and receiver) make the offense horrible.
 

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