Whatever might or might not be happening with the later part of Barney's career, my position on him is this: I want him to succeed. Desperately. Completely. I want a Cotton line to go out there and dominate, and for him to sign a ten year extension and produce another Pipeline every single year.
It wasn't very likely that was going to happen when he was hired. It's only slightly more likely now that he has some help along the line. I know a lot of people have gripes against Cotton and not without reason. And if he continues to blow it, Bo won't have much of a choice. Once you make an offensive transition like Bo did, you can't continue to pawn off failings on your assistants. Bo has his guys in his scheme. If things start to go wrong he better intervene quick, because it's the Bo Pelini show from here on.
This is a good point. I, too, want Barney to succeed and to exceed the Pipeline years if possible. We all want a fantastic O Line. It's not about
Barney, it's about the results. I don't care whose name sits next to the "Offensive Line Coach" title as long as it's a prospering unit. If it fails, it's time to make a change no matter whose name it is we're changing.
The one time I spoke to Coach Gilmore I found him to be very open, engaging, pleasant - a lot more approachable than Bo, for example. I wanted Gilmore gone not because of
Gilmore, but because our WRs couldn't catch the ball (or hold onto it as they ran down the field untouched).
