We cannot compare this to Flood, Flood was not even a coordinator and whomever followed Flood, was going to do significantly better in recruiting, the bar was so low in a comparison.....The question is are we playing/coaching/motivating and doing everything at a Power 5 level....that answer is clearly up for a debate, not an item to wait and see based on 3 to 4 years out....
We also had the same arguments regarding Eddie Jordan and basketball on how inept things were on the court (Myles Mack was too short to defend, not a true PG, Seagears this, Junior Etou that), and I was one of the same people stating that our kids in basketball were in charge of motivating themselves and having pride......I was wrong to place that much responsibility on the players and not the coaches.....
You have to have true leadership that can coach ALL types of personalities on your roster....right now Ash has only proven he can motivate and coach kids that fall in line with him, no questions asked.......what he does in the next two years with kids that may not buy in 100%, but have game day talent, is the question....There is no perfect roster of kids on and off the field.
Jordan had a staff of Shoes (former HC and good recruiter) and at times Okoren (not a college coach) and Van Macon (also a good recruiter).....it was clear to see the lack of communication between coaches during timeouts, lack of defense and lack of everything.....yes, that talent level was low, but it didn't require much to see it wasn't working or could be improved, even if it didn't mean significantly more wins than losses....it doesn't mean RU should have won more games but the margin of defeats was so alarming, that it signaled other things need to be looked at....some were in denial (myself included), especially with the lack of defense being coached).
We have to be careful about placing Ash and football in that same argument was in place about Eddie Jordan....the coaches are not communicating on the sidelines, there is no fire, no energy, misuse of the pieces in place at RB (still a mystery about how Sneed, Hicks are asked to run east and west and not north and south) and there are better coaches that can run a spread offense. Even the best coaches in the country, go and lean on other coaches to learn and evolve in the offseason.
Strictly speaking on the field, Ash can stay as the HC as long as people want, he is a good leader, but needs improvement there as well..... there has to be significant upgrades with the rest of the staff.....which is the exact same formula that I was looking to keep in place with replacing the defensive coordinator the last couple of years, if you weren't going to truly spend the money to make a real hire that mattered across the entire coaching staff...... You are only as good as your assistant coaches, the rest is window dressing.
We also have to address whether Ash truly values special teams as a 3rd variable of football.....we have no kickers scheduled to visit and even if we did score points, we are surrendering a short field, because our kickoffs are short.....we punt, it's also a short field....we are playing with one hand behind our back, because we can't recruit a legitimate punter or kicker....??? These are not extreme fixes, they all are a part of football.
There are too many variables beyond recruiting that it takes against elite competition of this conference...we can act accordingly and expect upgrades or just coast for 5 years and wait for the boatload of cash and try to rebuild then....in the interim, Ash has to be called out for these performances, it's just not acceptable by any stretch of imagination, especially with PSU looming in 7 days.....
