Bammer Fans: Proclaiming head coaches to be the next messiah or complete failure based on pure speculation since 1982.
I'm not really basing that on speculation. I applaud Mike Shula for coaching for us at a time nobody in their right mind wanted to. However, he was a horrible coach. He did a good job of proving that. Same with Chizik. Maybe he was a good coordinator all on his own, or maybe he was riding the coattails of CTT. I really don't know. One thing I do know, is that as a coach, he hasn't done shit. You're just not going to impress me with a coach who has a worse winning percentage than Lee Corso.
LEE CORSO.
Chizik didn't do shit in 08 to really scare any Alabama fan. Nothing really in 2007 either. The defense improved some in 07, but in 08 tanked back down to 111th in the country in DIV-I. I know one of the more common defenses of why he tanked in 08 is the whole "he had to play so many freshmen, blah blah" excuse. According to some interviews from recruits, Chizik himself used this as a defense as well. Let me show you a little breakdown:
Eligibility Breakdown: 19 Freshmen, 30 Sophomores, 26 Juniors, 21 Seniors
Of the freshmen that did play:
CB Ter'ran Benton - Played 12 games,
1 pass defended.
QB Brett Buerker - Did not play in 2008.
TE Carter Bykowski - Played 10 games, 3 receptions for 21 yards.
WR Chris Campbell[/u] - Did not play in 2008.
DB Joe Cicciarelli[/u] - Did not play in 2008.
WR Darius Darks - Played 12 games, 49 receptions for 477 yards.
LB Ernest Ferguson - Played 11 games, 12 solo tackles. Did not have any stats in 4 games he played in.
DB Leonard Johnson - Played 12 games, 31 solo tackles. Also had 40 KOR for 1055 yards.
WR Sedrick Johnson - Played 12 games, 18 receptions for 188 yards 3TD. Did not have any stats in 2 games he played in, and only had more than 2 receptions in a game in one game.
DB Dustin Land - Did not play in 2008.
DB Judah Linder - Did not play in 2008.
WR Patrick Mulcahy - Did not play in 2008.
WR Lonzie Range - Did not play in 2008.
QB Jerome Tiller - Did not play in 2008.
LS Zac Tucker - Did not play in 2008.
RB Johnny Williams - Did not play in 2008.
LS Dakota Zimmerman - Played 11 games, had 2 asst. tackles.
I'm not going to include the Punters/Kickers.Out of that list, on offense, there is only one freshman who you could even begin to think about starting an argument that he had significant playing time (WR Darks). Even then it would still be a fairly weak argument. On defense, it seems as though DB Johnson played quite a bit. Good coaches are supposed to show improvement from year to year, right? There were 9 ther DBs on the team, that was his decision to play a FR. There were also 9 other WR on the team as well. You can't convince me that the reason ISU collapsed in 2008 is because of two freshmen. He recruited all of those freshmen, not the coach before him, so can't blame it on him either. I'm sure some of you will rattle the sabers when he beats a scrub team or two. Maybe when Arkansas St. comes to town (which btw, why in the HELL did AU pay them $1 million to come to AU???). I think you will be disappointed when some of the big boys roll into town, though.
Lee
Corso.