In Reply to: I recall seeing the name Dave Aranda last time around * posted by AnnuBruin on February 10, 2024 at 17:07:04
The bloom is off that rose. IMO cfb is an offensive sport today. It’s much harder to be a defensive head coach. Thr only successful defensive HC is Kirby Smart. Smart is able to recruit a zillion 5 star DL guys. It’s why the Pac has been so poor. There are so few DL coming out of the west.
Look, Chip SHOULD have been a wild success. He possesses the offensive acumen. He was given more financial and facility support than any HC at UCLA has ever had. He just wouldn’t FCUKING recruit. People like to blame lack of NIL for the lack of recruiting. That’s a red-herring because he didn’t prioritize hob-nobbing with donors. He didn’t cultivate relationships with the big donors. He eschewed raising $$ for NIL so as to watch D3 tape of Johns Hopkins games to diamond mine.
People should stop blaming anyone other than Chip for his poor performance. He had a great opportunity to succeed. He just decided (against a Mt. Kilimanjaro sized reem of evidence) that recruiting was not important. At its most basic it’s the Jimmys and Joes, not the Xs and Os.