“But none of that explains how State came so close to a great season and finished so far from one. The fault ultimately must lie not on the field but off it. This was a season that slipped away on the sidelines.”
Ned Barnett of the News & Observer
Late November, 2003
Some interesting comments that followed this quote on a PackPride.com thread in 2003 that (unfortunately) sound all too familiar. We won’t brag about ourselves too much here, but we are proud of how insightful two of our own were at the time:
A very objective, detailed analysis of what truly was a “C” caliber job by the coaching staff this year. None of this is something that can’t be fixed, or anything that sggests Amato won’t get it done or should be fired. Anyone who won’t admit mental toughness was a problem here – and that is a direct indictment of coaching. Watch Maryland play ever since Fridge got there, and you’ll see a mentally tough team that derives such from the coach. Objective, rational discussion and analysis of a coach is healthy. I wish we could all be that way, with all coaches in all sports.
The next 2 years will be very telling.
^said BJD
I just don’t get the theory that some fans like to purport that “coaches didn’t fumble…or coaches didn’t miss the field goal….etc”
It is coaching (and play calling) that impacts everything on the field. Heck…why are we having to even kick the field goals when we have the amazing offense that we have? Why don’t we have bigger leads such that we aren’t in situations where the fumbles kill us?
The thing about football is that everything is inter-related. It is truly like a chess match. You make one bad play call, then you are forced to do something else on future plays. If you have certain levels of success on previous plays, then you are in a different position on later plays. So, one could make and effective case that it doesn’t matter which player made which mistake on the field on a certain play when the very reason that we are in that particular position can be traced to previous strategies, play calls, etc.
^said Jeff
