Game day had a piece on Clark Lea yesterday morning. He explained what he means by “rethinking everything” he does this past offseason.
He decided that the whole model of player development as athletes, students and people doesn’t work anymore. He’d invest in players and they’d just leave. So he went out and found the best QB he could, hired that OC and the recently retired HC as an analyst or whatever. He quit starting meetings with team building stuff and now goes straight to game planning.
All of which is very sad to me, but very true.
Why spend all that money on “Gator Made” and so forth? Why spend money on anything but compensation, recruiting and keeping them “eligible” - whatever that means now.
I’m afraid these undercurrents are washing away the foundations of college football. Conferences, rivalries and bowl games are eroded already. If the vision/myth of our school ties doesn’t matter to the players, why should it matter to me? If I were a big-money booster, I’d question what I’m boosting.
To be consistent, that should morph into owner and investor.