IMO, Bo has never called out a player and will not. The fixes, again IMO, have to do with personnel over scheme. When we had the horses (2009 and 2010) we looked like world beaters on D. The first 2 "poor" recruiting classes hurt on D. Bo had to play guys who "knew" the system over guys who did not. Looking at our roster, in 2011 and 2012 were the younger guys really athletically much better? Did they step up and improve our D? Obviously not. Seems a lot, myself included, are hoping that true Fresh and Red Shirt guys can step up this year.
Maybe Raymond was more correct than any of us when he said to "look at them and look at us". Bo calls a complicated scheme that takes smarts and athletic ability. We are kidding ourselves to think the past two years we were deep with talent. Look at how many walk-ons have been starting on both sides of the ball. How many DL we had on schollie, yet Cam had to move inside when Stein went down or a converted DL to center etc.......
The past 2 years, we have been so devoid of quality depth and it shows.
Bo's comments also show a man who realizes his stubbornness has possibly cost us as many games as the lack of fundamentals and fumbles. From the "should have played some guys" to the "starters on special teams" etc.... Show a coach who, again IMO, gets it and what needs to be done. Throw in basically brand new staff with little to no experience and lack of talent and depth and you get what we had the past two years (well actually 4 if you count our pathetic O in 2009 and 2010.
I'm not convinced it's fixed. A lot of that void isn't for a lack of recruiting, its for a lack of retention of those recruits (peat/rome, etc) - and moving others to the OL - Pensick. 2 offseasons ago we were talking about our young talent on the DL exactly like we are talking about this years. Those guys are no long here - we'll have to wait and see if these guys are a year or two from now when we finally need them.
Agree with you on that. Retention has proven an issue as has player development. The staff seems,IMO, to do a poor job in getting younger guys ready to play. QB is a prime example. No back up with any playing time.
I hope that Bo admitting he was wrong not playing the our younger guys last year will translate to playing more guys this year. Retention will be better if more guys get reps and actually see themselves getting meaningful snaps. ie Heard, Green, come to mind on the O side.
At least Bo has admitted some issues and will hopefully figure something out. Avoid blow out losses and I will believe it. We get curb stomped again, I am done and realize that it is the staff.
