Guys, this is bad on two fronts.
First, it’s bad management, and that would apply whether we were talking about a football team or any other organization.
It’s bad because it indicates that the leader (Brown) has no governing philosophy. It’s not that he has a bad philosophy -- which I think the spread is…more on that later – it’s that he doesn’t have one at all.
He’s gone from multiple to power to spread in only a very few years. It takes players and coaches with different mindsets, talents and physical abilities to run them all. So when you switch, you necessarily go through a 2 – 3 year transition period. And when you switch yet again, you’re forever behind the curve with your personnel both on and off the field.
Paul Bryant, Gene Stallings, Urban Meyer, and Steve Spurrier at Florida are actually consistent on this point. True, they had vastly different philosophies. You might agree or disagree with any of their outlooks. But each ran his team and recruiting 100% consistently with his governing concept. As a result, each won a lot of games.
Second, I think the spread is a fundamentally flawed philosophy, and therefore a poor choice.
The spread gives an outmanned team its best chance at an upset. If your running QB gets a hot passing hand, it can run up a lot of yards and points. But unless you have a Heisman-caliber QB, it’s exceedingly difficult to win championships with it. To us in the Southeast, I think it seems more effective than it is because we’ve seen Tim Tebow, Cam Newton and Johnny Manziel up close and personal.
If you want to build your team around a philosophy that requires a QB you’ll be lucky to get once in a generation, be my guest. If you want to build your team around a philosophy that generates considerably more consistent championship-caliber results, you’ll choose something else.
The barn’s results without Cam are highly instructive. In Chizik / Malzahn’s first year (2009), they ran up a lot of yards and points against lesser teams. But against Alabama, LSU, Arkansas and Georgia, they averaged 19.5 points a game.
In Chizik / Malzahn’s third year (a time by which their personnel should be thoroughly on board), they averaged 11.25 points against the teams that mattered, and even that’s being generous. The offense didn’t score against Alabama (fumble recovered in the end zone and a KR), and scored only a meaningless late TD against LSU, when they were already down 45-3. If you eliminate those scores, it’s a woeful 6 points a game.
Florida didn’t fare a lot better in their year under Meyer without Tebow.
UTw is looking like a drowning man grasping at anything. It’s clear that Mack Brown has no philosophy, so there are no fundamental principles to rally the troops (players, coaches and fans) around. Look no further than Bill Curry and Gene Chizik to see how this ends.
Sorry for the length. I just don't for the life of me understand why the talking heads don't pick up on this.