While everyone is talking about these coaching changes and speculating on each one, with no real intel, I’d like to take this time to share a player’s view on it.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to go through a head coaching change during my career at South Carolina. We did lose the quarterbacks coach and the coach that recruited me in David Reeves, but G.A Mangus was a very good coach and I learned a ton about football from him. I can tell you that after talking with guys (Jeff Driskel and Zack Mettenberger, among others), that when a team brings in a new coach, things don’t change all that much mid-season, but the following year is when it gets hairy.
When the new coach has an entire offseason to recruit HIS guys and pitch to the head coach why HIS recruit is the best, that’s when you see transfers happen. I’ve seen it with my own eyes and I can’t even tell you how many stories I’ve heard about that situation.
That’s a very tough scenario because as a recruit, we have to turn down other schools. In some instances, the recruits make the critical mistake of falling in love with the coaching staff. That is rule number one. You can’t fall in love with the coaches, especially not these days.
Obviously, there are some coaches that are pretty locked in, but for the most part, these guys will haul ass or can get fired at the drop of a hat. So for any future recruits, don’t fall in love with the coach. Fall in love with the teammates and the university as a whole. Obviously a coach does have a pretty big influence on a recruit’s decision, but you should invest more in the school and the community as a whole.
After a full offseason and after his recruits sign to the school, these new coaches show favoritism to their recruits. I can’t blame them, but that’s a tough situation for veteran players. I’ve heard some very crappy stories about that exact situation and I would’ve hated it.
One guy told me, “coach really just stopped coaching me altogether. It was all about his guy that he recruited and that was it.”
That’s just an awful deal and that would have drove me crazy as a player. That’s why, as a recruit, you have to love the school and not go overboard putting stock in the coaching staff.
So while everyone else is speculating incoherently about where some coaches may end up or who’s getting fired, the players are sitting on pins and needles thinking about their future.
College football is becoming less of a game. It’s less and less about the player year after year. Hopefully things change and the game goes back to what it was intended for, the players, fans, and the GAME.
The Man. The Myth. The Legend.
