saban is more than a just a recruiter. at bare minimum better coaching has 7-1 with a closer loss to OSU(in my opinion we win that as well) and we finish the rest of our schedule undefeated going into the bowl... thats going to have us sitting top around top 5. I'm not going totally anti bo here... he's a young coach who can improve... but he's not there yet.
Your comment "because we are not that good" suggests that you dont think we ahve the talent or whatever to be that good. Maybe I read too much into it, if so, I apologize. But to suggest we dont have the talent-when it's obvious we do because we can overcome the mistakes and inconsistency-that sir is blinders.
We could very well be 7-1 I doubt however we beat OSU, I will agree Saban is by far a superior coach to pelini I just disagree with your feeling that our talent level is on par with the upper echelon teams. Our O-line is way below average in both personel and coaching and our D-line is average at best, our best offensive lineman is playing defensive tackle and when it comes down to coaching it's the Jim's and the Joe's not the x's and the o's I know that's cliche but no matter how good of a coach you are you can't make chicken salad out of chicken sh$t.
No, our talent is not comparable to that of Bama and maybe even Oregon. But Kansas St? Easily. Notre Dame? yes, Anyone else? yes, we have what it takes talent wise to be competitive. It's just the little things that are lacking. Our talent is not elite, but it is definitely serviceable enough to be competitive with anyone outside of Oregon and Bama.
Really? Because KSU right now had top notch players? I don't think they recruited many top recruits. They are an average team, playing superior ball. They are COACHED very well. Everything always relies on coaching, no matter how good a kid is out of high school. If they aren't taught how to play on a collegiate level, then they won't make it to the next level.
The problem with this, is we don't know how some refs officiate. Something we knew more about in the Big 12. Some refs allow some contact, these tonight DID NOT. Some allow an o-lineman to adjust himself off the scrimmage line some, Northwestern's officials DID NOT. It does take some time to find what some refs leeway is. Those PI tonight would not have been called with other officiating crews. I watched the KSU/OSU, 'Bama/LSU game and they allowed may more contact than what we had tonight. That personal foul call, should have never been called since Stafford was pushed.
you're right we are overcoming mistakes but we are beating very average teams, we have the talent to beat good teams if we eliminate mistakes. The concept of why we make mistakes is like the chicken and the egg. Are we inconsistent because we make mistakes or do we make mistakes because that is our talent level. We have some very good players, receiving corps is very solid, running backs good, I even think Martinez is developing into a great player but our offensive line is both sub par in talent and coaching, our d-line and linebackers are average at best. C'mon do you really think Justin Blatchford sees the field at a top 5 school? Our best win is over a 6-3 Michigan team who we had the luxury of playing over half the game withour 68% of their offense. Think what we would look like if Martinez went down, it wouldn't be pretty.
I love your passion but by competitive do you mean beating these teams or playing them tough and losing a close one because either is competitive. i would hardly say we looked competitive against OSU this year. I think we look better than what we are because the teams we have been playing are pretty weak.
Obviously Coaching is important look at Callahan he could recruit talent just couldn't get much out of it, and recruiting is a big crapshoot fact is there are a lot of can't miss kids that miss. But to suggest that all you need to do is coach em up and you will be great is ridiculous, disparity in talent overcomes coaching more times than not. Bigger, Faster, Stronger wins most of the time and Well coached bigger, faster, stronger wins almost all of the time.
