- Sep 4, 2014
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I don't disagree on the staff adjustments. They should be gone, imo, and if it ends up being the reason his family has to pack their stuff and go elsewhere, he'll have to live with that.
But to your first point, the last two stiffs did nothing of the sort. WM especially, spent his first 2 years here conditioning the minds of fans that he'd inherited a mess from the previous regime, even debating with the fans as to whether or not we were justified in our anger during 2013. McElwain publicly complained about facilities, blaming them for the current state, and was snarky in interviews as early as the 2016 Lsu game where he practically wanted to be crowned for winning the East a second time. I'm not saying these guys didn't talk about standards and winning titles, etc. Yes, that's coach speak. But Mullen made it clear when he got here, and repeated it several times in the first offseason that there was nothing less that was acceptable and that it should start immediately. And he inherited by far the worst of the three scenarios. Again, I'm not discounting that all coaches speak glowingly about their prospects. But by his own admission, if he isn't delivering championships, then he's failed. I respect that he didn't take the easy route and give us the "patience" line the way many head coaches have done.
If there's a flaw that I see, it's that he's too confident in his ability to coach-up, making him susceptible to being ok with average recruiting. But unlike JM who saw no issue, I think he does realize this and truly wants to improve it. The question is how, and will he do it? I think he will because I think he's smart enough to know that you only get a job like this once. But as was mentioned in the recruiting thread, if he's winning 10 games a year while getting us to that next level, I'm ok with giving him the benefit of the doubt.
