2020 Season

Get ready for some MACtion
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eldonabe
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2020 Season

Post by eldonabe » Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:08 am

We need to wash the stench of this season off and start thinking about next season:

Lots of directions to go and questions to ask....
- Bell isn't going anywhere
- We should have a little deeper roster next season in pure number of players (i cannot find it exactly but didn't we finish with about 52 active scholarship players). Hopefully we can net up 12 - 15 more warm bodies
- The next recruiting class is respectable (so far)
- Brito IS NOT the future (well, that is an opinion I suppose)
- Do we have a legitimate starting QB on the roster
- Can we honestly expect to win more games than this season
- Is Bell is an idiot or an idiot savant*
- Can the defense improve at all. Even with reinforcements coming they were so undermanned.

*The roster was ill-equipped to play Bell's desired style of offense for sure - but is that form or substance. It seems to me that the RPO needs a very athletic QB and at least two above average specialty players. Can UMass even recruit that level of athlete at this point - are they a mere 2 or 3 decent offensive players away from making that system work?

----------------------------

What would be considered successful next year? Doubling the win total? Giving up 15 PPG less, scoring 10 PPG more?

To me there are so many holes, where do you even start? There is no magic bullet that is adding 4 wins to the total next year. I feel like we do not have an answer at QB even though there are like 5 or 6 of them on the roster. We cannot protect the QB at all so it almost doesn't matter if the QB is any good anyways. The defensive line is giving up 20-30 LBS per position to any average or better team - so who are they stopping on the ground? UConn blows and they still manhandled our line and rushed at will.....

minutefanjsf
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Re: 2020 Season

Post by minutefanjsf » Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:20 am

We’re building culture. Haven’t you heard? That’s all we need. None of your analysis includes culture therefore none of what you see as holes matter. Culture will triumph! Who cares if we have no QB? Who cares if our guys in trenches are small and inexperienced? Who cares if our LBs haven’t been coached to get off blocks? Who cares if our D plays without correct assignments and lets other teams run or pass however they please? These things don’t seem to matter to the coach or AD. #Culturewins

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Re: 2020 Season

Post by dennisdent » Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:52 am

minutefanjsf wrote: Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:20 am We’re building culture. Haven’t you heard? That’s all we need. None of your analysis includes culture therefor none of what you see as holes matters. Culture will triumph! Who cares if we have no QB? Who cares if our guys in trenches are small and inexperienced? Who cares if our LBs haven’t been coached to get off blocks? Who cares if our D plays without correct assignments and lets other teams run or pass to however they please? These things don’t seem to matter to the coach or AD. #Culturewins
1000%! The last article in the Gazette all Bell talked about was changing the culture--academics and social-not on the field (he will get to that later...)! UMass football prior to Bell had many football players that were excellent students and people. Culture of UMass football before Bell hasn't been the problem--it was getting over the top to being a winning program. Until Bell explains why he kept playing Brito with all the other QBs on the roster, I find his "culture" talk a bunch of his phony, smoke screen BS! Look at the head coaches he worked for: UNC--fired, Maryland--fired, FSU--fired, in the past three years! Hire the Holy Cross coach before he gets another job and UMass will turn the program in the right direction...

https://www.telegram.com/news/20191126/ ... een-leader

eldonabe
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Re: 2020 Season

Post by eldonabe » Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:14 am

In agreement with both of you in general terms but we have to give this guy a reasonable amount of time - don't we? That said, I get that "Culture" is an important part, but all the culture in the world is not adding 6" to Brito's height, or really fixing any of the other shortcomings mentioned above.


Going to hoops for a second, I give Travis Ford A LOT of credit for changing his philosophy and adjusting his strategy to the ability and strengths of the players on his roster. I will give equal and opposite credit to Bruiser for NOT adjusting - he did not have the correct abilities on his roster to play the style he wanted but he force fed it and they underachieved as a result.


Football is a little different, lots more moving parts and pieces to get into place - I get that - but RPO, no huddle or whatever he was trying to run DID NOT WORK with the roster last year and I don't think it will next year either.


So that leads to the question is it just time that is needed for his "system" to start bringing results - growing pains and all that crap... OR are we just on a treadmill to no place until the next guy comes a long and we start from scratch (AGAIN)..... Does Bell change his tune this off season and try to win some games or does he continue with the "building blocks" approach. IMO you can do both, but as if right now, I don't think he "cares about the wins" so to speak.

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Re: 2020 Season

Post by dennisdent » Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:42 am

eldon: Personally I feel that UMass football is fxcked until a new coach is hired. This Bell is a great recruiter (other than is wife, per Bamford...) is more BS. look at his track record--he's never been at most schools long enough to see if his recruits panned out. All the coaches other than ASU have been fired! Guess his "great" recruiting didn't help UNC, Maryland, or FSU.

I totally agree with your view on Ford and fitting his system to his players. That's why he's still doing well as a head coach and Bruiser is an assistant.

Bell was a scrub player and he acts like one as a head coach during the games--not a leader!

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Re: 2020 Season

Post by minutefanjsf » Fri Nov 29, 2019 12:36 pm

You have to do both at the same time IMO. If you just build culture and lose, you’re building a losing culture. The fact that there is some culture or attitude box that needs to be checked before anyone sees the field is not unheard of, but in our case it seemed as though that culture box trumped talent. Or, the coach doesn’t know how to evaluate talent. Neither are good news for us. I understand that there are kids/players who need to step up culture wise. But, the Michael Curtis situation is very troubling. From all accounts, he is a great kid. West is too. West got a one game penalty for actually breaking team rules, which seem to be the gateway to playing time. Curtis had a crappy game on the field and was called out publicly for it. Bell has professed the idea that everyone is equal and valued, but his actions seem to indicate otherwise. Curtis is not the only player who was in the doghouse. It is clear that Bell had different rules for players, which to me isn’t a problem, unless you tout that everyone is equal and that is the basis of building culture. If you’re building culture on a lie, and that culture doesn’t win, you’re culture argument is BS.

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Re: 2020 Season

Post by McKinney » Fri Nov 29, 2019 12:59 pm

dennisdent wrote: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:42 am eldon: Personally I feel that UMass football is fxcked until a new coach is hired. This Bell is a great recruiter (other than is wife, per Bamford...) is more BS. look at his track record--he's never been at most schools long enough to see if his recruits panned out. All the coaches other than ASU have been fired! Guess his "great" recruiting didn't help UNC, Maryland, or FSU.

I totally agree with your view on Ford and fitting his system to his players. That's why he's still doing well as a head coach and Bruiser is an assistant.

Bell was a scrub player and he acts like one as a head coach during the games--not a leader!
When I've heard people rave about his recruiting abilities it hasn't been about talent evaluation. It's essentially been about sales. They talk about how persistent and convincing he is. Listen to Adam Breneman's interview on the "Plant the Flag Podcast".

Are there great CEOs who have a background in sales? Yes. Does every great salesman make a good CEO? No.
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Re: 2020 Season

Post by Steve81 » Fri Nov 29, 2019 1:07 pm

Bell, assistant coaches, and freshmen players have the same objective. You got your feet wet this year, next year is time to take that big step and improve from first year to second year. That absolutely has to happen with recruiting that we all expect to improve from rock bottom in being almost 2 dozen players short.
Go UMass!!

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Re: 2020 Season

Post by minutefanjsf » Fri Nov 29, 2019 1:12 pm

Steve81 wrote: Fri Nov 29, 2019 1:07 pm Bell, assistant coaches, and freshmen players have the same objective. You got your feet wet this year, next year is time to take that big step and improve from first year to second year. That absolutely has to happen with recruiting that we all expect to improve from rock bottom in being almost 2 dozen players short.
Do you think that improvement will be measured in moral victories or actual victories? Is one better than the other for year two? Or can we survive on moral victories alone?

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Re: 2020 Season

Post by Floyd » Fri Nov 29, 2019 1:17 pm

Better hope they look MUCH better the first game next year or the place will be empty. Can't imagine many fans are going to sit thru another season like this one
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Re: 2020 Season

Post by Steve81 » Fri Nov 29, 2019 1:35 pm

minutefanjsf wrote: Fri Nov 29, 2019 1:12 pm
Steve81 wrote: Fri Nov 29, 2019 1:07 pm Bell, assistant coaches, and freshmen players have the same objective. You got your feet wet this year, next year is time to take that big step and improve from first year to second year. That absolutely has to happen with recruiting that we all expect to improve from rock bottom in being almost 2 dozen players short.
Do you think that improvement will be measured in moral victories or actual victories? Is one better than the other for year two? Or can we survive on moral victories alone?
Don't care about wins to a great extent as the fan base will not grow until there is a jump in wins. Look at basketball, they look much better but fan support is not that great, yet. Everything needs to look better for me to be thrilled, coaching x's and o's, with team performance are where things better show up. Not wins per say but looking better and more fun to watch, good execution.
Go UMass!!

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Re: 2020 Season

Post by eldonabe » Fri Nov 29, 2019 1:45 pm

Steve81 wrote: Fri Nov 29, 2019 1:35 pm Don't care about wins to a great extent as the fan base will not grow until there is a jump in wins. Look at basketball, they look much better but fan support is not that great, yet. Everything needs to look better for me to be thrilled, coaching x's and o's, with team performance are where things better show up. Not wins per say but looking better and more fun to watch, good execution.

I think you are partially right Steve. This team got annihilated on the field this year. If they show up week 1 and get the same pounding like they have all year this year, even the diehards will stay home. That stadium will look like a Womens B-Ball game in Mullins.

Maybe wins don't quite matter next season, but they better look/be competitive in all the non-body bag games.

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Re: 2020 Season

Post by stevemaz » Sat Nov 30, 2019 8:07 am

From the mind of the great one.. ..Bell is going to land a savior at QB (grad transfer) that will add more pts and time of possession and lower our pts against to around 40 per game. We will beat Albany and Troy (who is headed for bottom 10 status) and possibly at Akron. 3-9.

Now, let's jump ahead to 2021 where we become reasonably respectable, akin to the best of the Whipple years.

2022 bowl bound.. 10-0 heading into College Station.. LOL.. I am just kidding with this prediction but I have used this line a few times to stress that we are going to be a good team with a winning record. The place will be sold out for the Army game on 11/26 leading to finalization of stadium expansion plans.

2023. Down goes Auburn on 9/9.

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Re: 2020 Season

Post by Roadtrip » Sat Nov 30, 2019 8:22 am

^He smoking the good stuff early again.

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Re: 2020 Season

Post by McKinney » Sat Nov 30, 2019 8:46 am

stevemaz wrote: Sat Nov 30, 2019 8:07 am From the mind of the great one.. ..Bell is going to land a savior at QB (grad transfer) that will add more pts and time of possession and lower our pts against to around 40 per game. We will beat Albany and Troy (who is headed for bottom 10 status) and possibly at Akron. 3-9.

Now, let's jump ahead to 2021 where we become reasonably respectable, akin to the best of the Whipple years.

2022 bowl bound.. 10-0 heading into College Station.. LOL.. I am just kidding with this prediction but I have used this line a few times to stress that we are going to be a good team with a winning record. The place will be sold out for the Army game on 11/26 leading to finalization of stadium expansion plans.

2023. Down goes Auburn on 9/9.
Well, if we aren't bowl-bound in 2022 I have to think Bell is canned (if he hasn't been already before then). An AD in his right mind wouldn't seriously extend the contract of a sub 0.500 coach in his 4th season, right?
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