Let me go a step further…there are innovators who get a jump on the opposition and have success, but after what they are doing successfully schematically has been put on tape and / or they hit the post-season clinic tours and speak on facets of their programs, often their innovations aren’t quite as successfully simple on the merit of the playbook. The consistent winners. As the old coaching axiom says, understand that “it’s not about the X’avian and O’s, it’s about the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s” and they work like hell to get the best players they can to develop and run their system at a high level. Saban is a great coach, but I’ve heard him speak and he is quick to tell you that it’s no big secret…get the best players and a bunch of them and winning is a lot easier.
The last time I saw Kirby was in 2018 at the GHSA State Championsips in Atl. His Alma mater was playing and he had a couple of kids on participating teams he wanted to wish good luck. He stopped and spoke to a couple of us old timers and then quickly departed for the airport to go make a home visit down in Miami. The guy, whatever else you may think of him, is a tireless recruiter and has obviously started figuring out how to make the portal work for him. Until we get someone with similar drive and vision, we will struggle to be mediocre, much less elite.