G'day Mates and Happy New Year!!!
Today's Topic = No Country for Old Men
I'm not talking about the Cormac McCarthy novel that was adapted for the big screen by the Cohen brothers in 2007...
Cormac McCarthy is considered one of the best American writers still alive and the movie won Best Picture Oscar that year...
The plot involves a drug deal gone bad in Texas, that includes a sociopathic hit-man sent to retrieve $2M in cash that was found by a stranger, where the drug deal went wrong, and the nearby sheriff, whose job it is to investigate the matter...
There are all kinds of plot twists and turns as the hitman pursues the stranger who found the money and the sheriff who is trying to figure things out...
Throughout the movie, a narrative by the sheriff, is heard about how the times had changed and not for the better, given the way people were behaving in the 1980 movie time-frame...
I happened to catch the movie on HBO at about the same time ESPN was talking about the Michigan football transformation under Jim Harbaugh this past season...
The transformation was orchestrated by Jim getting rid of six older assistant coaches for much younger coaches who could "relate" better to present day recruits and players...
As an example, he got rid of his 66 year old DC - Don Brown - for a new DC who was 33 or half the age of Brown, who ended up at AU, this past season, as we all know...
His new coaches ranged in age from 33 to 39 and brought new energy and a palpable sense of urgency to the program since Michigan hadn't won a Big 10 title since 2002 and couldn't beat Ohio St, etc...
Now let's look at the Sun Devils current situation where they have lost three young coaches(to the NCAA investigation), two in their 20s and the other 31, who were very good recruiters...
Herm is 67, Marvin Lewis is 63, Donnie Henderson is 64, Mike Cavanaugh is in his 60s, and Shawn Slocum is 56...
One might argue that those coaches bring a lot of experience and wisdom to our program but it might also be argued that they are way past their prime and not able to keep up with younger, hungrier coaches who can "relate" better to recruits and players...
So, does ASU football need a make over the way Harbaugh did it at Michigan..??
Especially given the NCAA investigation that has cast a dark cloud over the Sun Devil program...
And, are Herm and many on his staff, along with the "NFL model," anachronisms better suited to a time and place somewhere in the past..??
When Harbaugh made the coaching changes he said to his team (and I paraphrase) "if you're going to hop on the train, make sure you don't miss it" (since the new train will get us to our championship destination)...
Well, it certainly appears that they all hopped on the train and it did take them to winning the Big-10 championship by finally beating Ohio St and advancing to the College Football Playoffs as a #2 Seed...
However, The Talent Is Destiny fate train finally caught up with them yesterday when they lost to Georgia but the make-over to youthful coaches really paid handsome dividends to them this past season in Ann Arbor...
Getting back to the novel and movie, for a moment, we are now faced with a recruiting cycle that went bad this past year and are awaiting our fate at the hands of the NCAA hit-men, who like the sociopath in the story, often left the lives of his potential victims up to a coin toss, whereby, if the potential victim correctly picked the coin flip, they were spared and, if not, they lost their lives...
Wonder if president Crow has called the coin toss correctly...
Guess we'll all find out, perhaps, later this year...
Again, Happy New Year to all of you and Go Devils!!!
Today's Topic = No Country for Old Men
I'm not talking about the Cormac McCarthy novel that was adapted for the big screen by the Cohen brothers in 2007...
Cormac McCarthy is considered one of the best American writers still alive and the movie won Best Picture Oscar that year...
The plot involves a drug deal gone bad in Texas, that includes a sociopathic hit-man sent to retrieve $2M in cash that was found by a stranger, where the drug deal went wrong, and the nearby sheriff, whose job it is to investigate the matter...
There are all kinds of plot twists and turns as the hitman pursues the stranger who found the money and the sheriff who is trying to figure things out...
Throughout the movie, a narrative by the sheriff, is heard about how the times had changed and not for the better, given the way people were behaving in the 1980 movie time-frame...
I happened to catch the movie on HBO at about the same time ESPN was talking about the Michigan football transformation under Jim Harbaugh this past season...
The transformation was orchestrated by Jim getting rid of six older assistant coaches for much younger coaches who could "relate" better to present day recruits and players...
As an example, he got rid of his 66 year old DC - Don Brown - for a new DC who was 33 or half the age of Brown, who ended up at AU, this past season, as we all know...
His new coaches ranged in age from 33 to 39 and brought new energy and a palpable sense of urgency to the program since Michigan hadn't won a Big 10 title since 2002 and couldn't beat Ohio St, etc...
Now let's look at the Sun Devils current situation where they have lost three young coaches(to the NCAA investigation), two in their 20s and the other 31, who were very good recruiters...
Herm is 67, Marvin Lewis is 63, Donnie Henderson is 64, Mike Cavanaugh is in his 60s, and Shawn Slocum is 56...
One might argue that those coaches bring a lot of experience and wisdom to our program but it might also be argued that they are way past their prime and not able to keep up with younger, hungrier coaches who can "relate" better to recruits and players...
So, does ASU football need a make over the way Harbaugh did it at Michigan..??
Especially given the NCAA investigation that has cast a dark cloud over the Sun Devil program...
And, are Herm and many on his staff, along with the "NFL model," anachronisms better suited to a time and place somewhere in the past..??
When Harbaugh made the coaching changes he said to his team (and I paraphrase) "if you're going to hop on the train, make sure you don't miss it" (since the new train will get us to our championship destination)...
Well, it certainly appears that they all hopped on the train and it did take them to winning the Big-10 championship by finally beating Ohio St and advancing to the College Football Playoffs as a #2 Seed...
However, The Talent Is Destiny fate train finally caught up with them yesterday when they lost to Georgia but the make-over to youthful coaches really paid handsome dividends to them this past season in Ann Arbor...
Getting back to the novel and movie, for a moment, we are now faced with a recruiting cycle that went bad this past year and are awaiting our fate at the hands of the NCAA hit-men, who like the sociopath in the story, often left the lives of his potential victims up to a coin toss, whereby, if the potential victim correctly picked the coin flip, they were spared and, if not, they lost their lives...
Wonder if president Crow has called the coin toss correctly...
Guess we'll all find out, perhaps, later this year...
Again, Happy New Year to all of you and Go Devils!!!
