Early, but let's do it now

[EastHallApp]

And didn't Jerry Moore blow a 28 point lead at JMU with Armanti? - what does that mean to you? - I'll tell you what it means - It's football and every team and every coach has seen big leads disappear into a loss - It has happened once to Coach Clark, which means it is not anything more than a bad day of football -

It was 21, but who's counting...

You're right, everyone has bad days. The difference is/was that Moore had a bunch of championships on his record. If Clark wins some titles, people will be more forgiving of those occasional hiccups. As of now, though, he has none.

[WVAPPeer]

True, but not in his first 3 years -

[BambooRdApp]

Personally, it should maybe be a worse look for Moore. If he had all those years of coaching experience, his recruits, etc. compared to Clark in his 3rd year and not having had faced adversity like this in his short tenure at App. St.....and the GOAT was coaching the GOAT....I am not sure if Clark has had a GOAT on the roster as of yet.

Side note- I apologize to you GOAT Coach Moore. I will say 59 App Marys as punishment for stating anything even remotely negative about you...but did so to respond to a comment

[WVAPPeer]

Wasn't my intention either to defame Coach Moore - I'm Sorry

[AppStateNews]

Wasn't my intention either to defame Coach Moore - I'm Sorry

If anybody takes it that way, they have a lot of issues...

Losing a large lead in a game happens to every coach. It's only a big problem when it happens over and over. That's yet to be seen with Clark.

Arguably the best college coach ever, Nick Saban, lost to UL Monroe at Alabama after coaching LSU to a national championship and a stint in the NFL. Does that mean he's a bad coach? Obviously not. Coaching football is easy in hindsight.

Unless you've played or coached at a high level you don't know the factors that go in to winning a game in college football. And, our fan base has been spoiled so one down year and shit hits the fan to them. Majority of our fan base hasn't experienced a .500 season so they don't know how to handle it.

Good news though -- Clark has and knows how to handle it. And he and his staff have done a tremendous job getting creative to fix issues and the future is bright. Some may not see it that way, and that's fine. They don't have to. But I hope they share their plate of crow when we're back to our dominant ways with Clark at the helm.

[AppStateNews]

So you’re telling me we’ve got a couple burner accounts in here?!

No, just people who talk to coaches/staff members on a regular basis and basically present that side of the argument.

That's fair and that's great. But you have to take what you're being told from the inside with a grain of salt. It's not like Clark would ever say "Looking back I wasn't really ready for this job. The move from position coach to head coach was a lot more than I expected. Even four years in, I'm in over my head with all the things that go into being a head coach."

To the media, he's always going to use coach speak. Every coach does. It's the only way to save face with your university, fan base, and players.

But to others he knows and trusts, he's as real as it gets. He told several of us after spring practices last year, if some players didn't unexpectedly step up, we're a maximum 7 win team. Then UNC and Texas A&M happened. So the optimism from the fan base was understandably way higher than it should have been.

A common key misconception about our roster last year was the talent. Sure, we had a decent amount of talent on the field. The problem was the depth. We had two o linemen that any other year would have had minor surgery after Troy game (I think, can't remember the exact game) and been out a 2-4 weeks. They chose against it because they knew the talent level behind them was not ready (largely due to Geep, but that's a different conversation). So, they chose to play the rest of the season at maybe 75% -- and that's a BIG maybe. Half of our first team was/still are NFL caliber talent (and some still on the team so that's a plus).

The problem was depth and leadership. And the dead horse has already been beaten way more than enough on the reasoning for that.

I am going to let this go after this: We didn't have the depth or leadership to hold on to a 25 point lead v. JMU or beat Texas St.? We win those two games and we finish 8-4, probably loose a bowl game, but we go. Those two games turned an okay season into a bad one. I had questions about Clark from the beginning, but win those two games and I'd have to be a lot less critical now.

I've explained it ad nauseam. If you refuse to read it or accept it, there's nothing more I can do.

[TurfMonkey]

"Unless you've played or coached at a high level you don't know the factors that go in to winning a game in college football"
I played college football, pretty sure I've never played the "If you didn't play or coach you don't know" card.

[AppStateNews]

"Unless you've played or coached at a high level you don't know the factors that go in to winning a game in college football"
I played college football, pretty sure I've never played the "If you didn't play or coach you don't know" card.

You also aren't the one arguing everything lies solely on Clark and other factors outside of his control have zero impact on the team or program.

[mike87]

"Unless you've played or coached at a high level you don't know the factors that go in to winning a game in college football"
I played college football, pretty sure I've never played the "If you didn't play or coach you don't know" card.

You also aren't the one arguing everything lies solely on Clark and other factors outside of his control have zero impact on the team or program.

FWIW, appreciate your support for Coach. You might be full of crap on everything you post but seems to be insightful and the support is genuine and appreciated by most.

[Stonewall]

Have to overcome circumstances, some beyond your control , in life , business and athletics , to "win" consistently. This is the year to find out what we've got.