97and03

Hence the “we” in that sentence. I question most of the hires due to their inexperience. I am not qualified to evaluate their coaching abilities so I can only go off their resumes, which in my opinion are way too short and/or lack little direct experience at the position they were chosen for. I think that is a very logical assessment for a fan to make.

Seems like we are working really hard to justify these coaching hires. That should be a red flag.

I would have been more ok with an experienced DC bringing in young, hungry talented assistants or an upcoming young DC filling in his staff with some solid veteran coaches. I feel like we are getting neither.

Exactly. Was waiting to judge the DC hire based on who they got to support him. This ain’t the type of guy I was expecting.

Don’t be silly. It’s way more than half.

See my above posts. I don’t think Aune was completely to blame. As I mentioned the coaches didn’t develop him or replace him with someone better. Also they relied heavily on a game plan that required the QB to be accurate without an accurate QB. On the flip side, opponents gave him single coverage and he still missed open WRs in the l majority of situations when we needed a completion early in games. Hence the 1 minute drives that led to our defense getting worn out. And not that I didn’t love the quick scores but they also paid a toll on our D. But we struggled with methodical drives and often relied on the deep ball, which seemed to be an all or nothing approach, or receivers breaking short passes to score. I don’t have the stats in front of me but our red zone and short yardage seemed weak again.

This kind of show?

Sure but the kid from SOC specifically mentioned we offered again.

We should look for an announcement if have re-offered

Correct, looks like he will go to Washington.

This guy struggled at time but was such a solid player for us and honestly was underrated. When he was injured this year the defense had a hard time in his absence. The D picked up immediately upon his return. Good luck, Whitlock!

Probably not much since we are almost certainly still servicing the stadium debt.

No, I can’t completely agree with this at all. His career completion percentage was 54.5. I agree that his coaching was lacking but Fine’s was 62.8 and his TD-INT ratio was almost 3-1. Thankfully Aune finally got his to 2-1 but how many pick sixes did he throw only this season? Four? Five? Two alone in the Memphis game, which was the difference. So an only above average QB would have won a couple more games just this year. So chicken or the egg in this situation, right? He clearly needed a competent, non-high-school-girl-seducing QB coach. I think we all mostly believed Shanbour could provide that as he was always praised by Fine for his ability to provide guidance. But even with the best QB coach in the world there would have been some limitations to Aune’s ceiling. And again that comes back to the OC and HC’s inability to identify and develop QBs. So ultimately I do agree that this was a coaching failure, but Aune deserves plenty of criticism. If you look at his bowl game INTs, they look like freshman Fine mistakes, not a 30 year old with three years experience.

Wet $100 bill means we went on the log ride!!

Too soon. On a related note, can TY come back for a special report on this guy’s connections to Putin. I mean, isn’t Svoboda the Russian word for freedom. And if he were a Russian spy, wouldn’t they give him a fake name just like that. You know, like opposite of the repression he really stands for? Help us, Tina Youthers, you’re our only hope!

Well SMUt was worse than us in PPG and he threw 2 INTs in that game. So was FIU (2 INTs including a pick six). As was LaTech, who still managed an INT. In fact, the only team with a worse defense than us that didn’t get a pick against Aune was Rice, an astounding feat. So I assume his expression before any game is:

Ridge and Gaddie before facing Aune:

I am ok with being direct about what’s needed but it seemed like more of a “well if you guys would be more committed…” rather than a pledge to make it more desirable. To be fair he said something along the lines of “we are going to try to make it as attractive as possible” but then spent a lot of his speech telling us to do more. The people paying attention to that speech are those who already buy tickets and donate, not the casual alumni or quasi-interested Dentonite that we need to bring in. But whatevs.

And if there is any position on this type of team where we can afford to stretch a bit it would be at slot receiver. Two of our best recent slot receivers (Burns and Lawrence) started as walk-ons.

It was somewhat bizarre and then he immediately shamed our alumni for not being interested in the program. It would have been better to say “The first thing we are going to do is make sure we have winning programs that people want to come see.” And then he could have said “we have a lot of alumni who are looking for a reason to come back - we are going to give them plenty of reasons!” Instead he said “people are waiting for everything to be perfect before they commit” and I think that struck the wrong tone.

He definitely doesn’t have the most impressive offer list but 247 rated him as a 3-star with an 85 rating. Looks like he really took off his senior year and was mostly recruited late because of that. I like that he runs track in multiple events, which shows he has good speed and athleticism. Worst case scenario we offered a guy right on the cusp between FCS and G5 levels. If we offer such a player, it makes sense it was a local Denton kid.

Well if some leave we can replace them.