Consider this

[CycloneWanderer]

Urban Meyer inherited a fantastic team when he arrived at Florida. Ron Zook had been landing huge recruits for them and their team was stacked when he left. They were going to have a great season that year no matter who was the coach. Not dissing Urban Meyer, cause he did great with what he had and I would do the same, but almost every piece was in place for them to make a run for the championship before he even saw them practice. Contrasting that with Chizik's situation, we had a returning quarterback who had underperformed, a star-receiver who we couldn't get the ball to, a great linebacker who lead the nation in tackles because he was one of the few who knew how to tackle properly, and a senior kicker who had a rep for missing big kicks. We had just come off of a terrible season which we saw a ton of sacks given up, no defensive penetration, and no excitement.

Come on, think about your argument before you post it.

 

[Steve]

Urban Meyer inherited a fantastic team when he arrived at Florida. Ron Zook had been landing huge recruits for them and their team was stacked when he left. They were going to have a great season that year no matter who was the coach. Not dissing Urban Meyer, cause he did great with what he had and I would do the same, but almost every piece was in place for them to make a run for the championship before he even saw them practice. Contrasting that with Chizik's situation, we had a returning quarterback who had underperformed, a star-receiver who we couldn't get the ball to, a great linebacker who lead the nation in tackles because he was one of the few who knew how to tackle properly, and a senior kicker who had a rep for missing big kicks. We had just come off of a terrible season which we saw a ton of sacks given up, no defensive penetration, and no excitement.

Come on, think about your argument before you post it.

The attached description of Zook's tenure at Florida really validates your post. It is much better to be accurate in describing what situations really are than to label what doesn't fit one's narrow mind set as "making excuses". The Zook to Meyer change was clearly the exception rather than the norm when it comes to coaching changes. The reason that most replacement coaches need 3-5 years is almost always lack of talent rather than lack of talent that they recruited.
Ron Zook - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Aclone]

They do take time. And it's *possible* Morgan wasn't the coach for ISU, but some of us suggested a teeny weeny bit of patience. Like 4 or 5 year's worth.

Excellent point. In any case, the only way to make amends for the mistake with Morgan is to not make the same one with GMac.

The reason that most replacement coaches need 3-5 years is almost always lack of talent rather than lack of talent that they recruited.

And, of course, at Illinois (which wasn't exactly bereft of talent), it still took Zook three years even with some ludicrously talented recruiting classes.

 

[BryceC]

And, of course, at Illinois (which wasn't exactly bereft of talent), it still took Zook three years even with some ludicrously talented recruiting classes.

The two years prior to Zook taking over the Illinois job Illinois was 5-17 overall and 1-15 in conference. They were completely bereft of talent.

 

[Steve]

And, of course, at Illinois (which wasn't exactly bereft of talent), it still took Zook three years even with some ludicrously talented recruiting classes.

Are you really trying to tell us that the Illinois team that won a total of ONE conference game in the 2 years prior to Zook had a stockpile of talent on the roster?

 

[cyclonenum1]

Urban Meyer inherited a fantastic team when he arrived at Florida. Ron Zook had been landing huge recruits for them and their team was stacked when he left. They were going to have a great season that year no matter who was the coach. Not dissing Urban Meyer, cause he did great with what he had and I would do the same, but almost every piece was in place for them to make a run for the championship before he even saw them practice. Contrasting that with Chizik's situation, we had a returning quarterback who had underperformed, a star-receiver who we couldn't get the ball to, a great linebacker who lead the nation in tackles because he was one of the few who knew how to tackle properly, and a senior kicker who had a rep for missing big kicks. We had just come off of a terrible season which we saw a ton of sacks given up, no defensive penetration, and no excitement.

Come on, think about your argument before you post it.

Maybe you should think about your argument before you post it. I live in SEC territory and know very clearly what was/is going on with the Florida program.

I do agree that Ron Zook had been doing a good job of recruiting at Florida. Why, then, could he not have a great season at Florida if, with all of this talent, it should happen "no matter who the coach is"?

Urban Meyer came in with an entirely different offensive scheme than his predecessors at Florida (Ron Zook and Ed Zaunbrecher) had recruited for. Chris Leak had been recruited as a drop back passer and Meyer was trying to fit a round peg into a square hole by using him in his spread option offense that requires a lot of option running by the QB. They won the National Championship anyway. No moaning and griping about "not having his players in place".

As an aside, a lot of SEC people are still skeptical as to whether you can run the Meyer offense long term in a conference that has some punishing defenses in it like the SEC. Many of us think it is easier to run this type of offense in a non-BCS conference where the QB does not risk getting "killed" on every play. The bottom line is that in Meyer's offense the QB takes a lot of hits. You may recall, even a bruisiing QB like Tebow got hurt last year...in fact he had a cast on during the Heisman ceremony. It will be interesting to see if there are more "bruising" type QBs out there to recruit like Tebow.

I am not comparing the talent level at Florida to the talent level at ISU. I am not comparing the capabilities of our previous coach with Florida's previous coach. I am not comparing Chizik to Meyer. What I am comparing (if you care to read my post a little closer and truly understand it) is the typical ISU fan to the typical Florida fan. The typical Florida fan expects to win a National Championship every year. The typical ISU fan appears to be OK with ISU losing more games in year two of the Chizik era because "he doesn't have his team yet". I find this to be nothing more than another excuse to rationalize away not having success (read: wins).