1) Losing five out of your last six games is never going to sit well. No matter how well you started. However....
2) I think both extremes are overreacting a bit. On one side of it, Kiffin definitely deserves some criticism. The way we finished the season, especially on offense, is unacceptable. Being down nearly 40 against Arky, laying an egg against State, and getting beat by three scores in the bowl game versus Tech is embarrassing. There's obvious fixes that needed to be addressed. With that said, the people that have jumped off the ledge are insane. Have you forgotten the years 2017-2019? Kiffin taking family time right after a bowl game is expected. It could be a lot worse. We have All-SEC/American talent on this roster, we just need depth.
I can recall this time last year everyone freaked out about Kiffin striking out on QBs and striking out on a few portal targets. It all ended up great in the end. Let's see what happens with the portal this go around before making wide ranging assumptions.
3) People have speculated what Kiffin's first move needs to be going forward to 2023. I think it's obvious that we downgraded with both of our coordinator hires. Charlie Weis Jr. has no business being an SEC coordinator at this juncture in his career. His hiring was a mistake. Kiffin needs to go get an established offensive coordinator that's going to inject a shot in the arm for this offense. The playcalling was extremely predictable against MSU and TT to end the year. We sputtered all year when we met a formidable opponent. I'd prefer us moving in a different direction with Partridge as well, but I can justify keeping him another year more than I can Weis.
4) Next year's schedule is pretty brutal. We could be 8-4 next year and be 3 TDs better than this current group. However, with $9M comes a raised bar. 9-3 or better should be the expectation for 2023. 8-4 could be acceptable under the right circumstances, but anything less than that is a huge disappointment. Kiffin has two early put-up or shut-up games in the SEC (vs. LSU/vs. Arky). Kiffin also has to win the Egg Bowl this year. You can't lose that game back-to-back and be talking about competing nationally. That's the most damning loss of the year to me. We had no business losing that game.
5) Everyone argues about how we're doing as a collective. Bottomline, we've raised more than 2-3x what Kiffin requested was necessary for this class. All-in-all, talent wins. TCU is in the national title one year from a losing season in large part because they've gone from a top 115 defense to a top 60 defense. Their defense has 6 transfer portal starters. Talent wins, and it's evident by our snap counts this year that there were misevaluations. There were plenty of hits too though. Go get players, and most of this works itself out.
All in all, let's see what this roster looks like going into the spring. I think it'd be *more* fair to be definitive one way or the other at that point.
2) I think both extremes are overreacting a bit. On one side of it, Kiffin definitely deserves some criticism. The way we finished the season, especially on offense, is unacceptable. Being down nearly 40 against Arky, laying an egg against State, and getting beat by three scores in the bowl game versus Tech is embarrassing. There's obvious fixes that needed to be addressed. With that said, the people that have jumped off the ledge are insane. Have you forgotten the years 2017-2019? Kiffin taking family time right after a bowl game is expected. It could be a lot worse. We have All-SEC/American talent on this roster, we just need depth.
I can recall this time last year everyone freaked out about Kiffin striking out on QBs and striking out on a few portal targets. It all ended up great in the end. Let's see what happens with the portal this go around before making wide ranging assumptions.
3) People have speculated what Kiffin's first move needs to be going forward to 2023. I think it's obvious that we downgraded with both of our coordinator hires. Charlie Weis Jr. has no business being an SEC coordinator at this juncture in his career. His hiring was a mistake. Kiffin needs to go get an established offensive coordinator that's going to inject a shot in the arm for this offense. The playcalling was extremely predictable against MSU and TT to end the year. We sputtered all year when we met a formidable opponent. I'd prefer us moving in a different direction with Partridge as well, but I can justify keeping him another year more than I can Weis.
4) Next year's schedule is pretty brutal. We could be 8-4 next year and be 3 TDs better than this current group. However, with $9M comes a raised bar. 9-3 or better should be the expectation for 2023. 8-4 could be acceptable under the right circumstances, but anything less than that is a huge disappointment. Kiffin has two early put-up or shut-up games in the SEC (vs. LSU/vs. Arky). Kiffin also has to win the Egg Bowl this year. You can't lose that game back-to-back and be talking about competing nationally. That's the most damning loss of the year to me. We had no business losing that game.
5) Everyone argues about how we're doing as a collective. Bottomline, we've raised more than 2-3x what Kiffin requested was necessary for this class. All-in-all, talent wins. TCU is in the national title one year from a losing season in large part because they've gone from a top 115 defense to a top 60 defense. Their defense has 6 transfer portal starters. Talent wins, and it's evident by our snap counts this year that there were misevaluations. There were plenty of hits too though. Go get players, and most of this works itself out.
All in all, let's see what this roster looks like going into the spring. I think it'd be *more* fair to be definitive one way or the other at that point.
