And yet the analogy is spot on. It's dead center perfect.
Would have worked the same if I'd used Aerosmith, Van Halen, Led zep, Pink Floyd, etc.
Here's why I disagree...
In the band KISS (or Aerosmith, or Led Zeppelin, etc), the band members are the one's that control the music...they write the songs...they own what they are. The members of KISS create the melody, the rhythm, the words, etc. It's all from within them.
However, you actually can get quite a few "cover" musicians that can reproduce
accurately the "notes", and therefore the song. That "cover" guy could never have
created it all though...he can only
play it. And as for playing it, some will lack the "touch" or the "flare" that another may have had, but either way, they can play the notes to some varying degree of success.
Likewise...I think the same thing is missing in your analogy....the
coaches are KISS....not Ben Tate or Chris Todd.
Ben Tate and Chris Todd are the equivalent of the "cover" guy...asked to step in and perform the song written by someone else.
Tate and Todd were the ones "plugged in" to perform the songs written by Malzahn. Tate performed his role pretty well, hitting the notes, and even doing so with a "style" we all appreciated. Todd, at times, played his notes perfectly, but more often than not he was obviously lacking the skill to play the rifts Malzahn had put in front of him.
Next year Malzahn will plug in two new musicians to try to "cover" the songs he's written. Will Newton look at the sheet music put before him and comfortably and creatively "play it" the way Malzahn intended it to be played? Will Aycock or Dyer or whoever be able to play the same chords Tate played with as much success and flare as Tate did?
The point is, we aren't asking two new guys to be the next contributing members of Led Zeppelin. Trying to replace Paige and Plant? Yeah, monumental task. Trying to replace members of ZoSo or Blackdog or any other cover band? Somewhat of a task, sure, but not even remotely the same thing as replacing Paige, Plant, Bonham, etc.
We are trying to find the next members of the cover band to see how close they can play what Jimmy Paige (Gus Malzahn) originally wrote.
The good news for our offense is this...Todd was "wedding singer" quality at being a lead guitar cover man. He could get through the song, but he offered nothing of his own style or flare, and wasn't even that good at simply reproducing the notes. Replacing him with someone at least equally as mediocre shouldn't be too hard.
For Tate, he was much better. He was successful at what he did, no question. The good news? We don't have just one or two new applicants for filling his vacated spot. We have Aycock, Dyer, Smith, Fannin, etc. And from the tapes we've heard and glimpses we've seen, we have reason to think at least one of those guys could adequately play Malzahn's music to the same degree Tate did.
To me, the hope I have that the offense will be at least as good as last year isn't blind hope. It's founded on some pretty decent logic I think. By the way, I know you're not saying the offense will NOT be as good..you're just saying why you're not assuming it. I'm not assuming it either, but I am expecting it.