When Gregory was at Cal you all would have loved to have him as DC
For all the angst here about recruiting and Jimmy and not having Petersen quitting anymore some folks seem to forget we? were 8-5 in year 6 of leveling up with awesome blue chip soft fucking losers
I'm definitely contrarian on all of this. Let Jimmy fucking cook. If it tastes like shit then fire him
What other choice do we have but to either quit or be contrarian, so I get your desire there, but I've never agreed with your shitting on Petersen stance as the backbone of your argument for giving Lake a chance.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: What makes the Sabans and Meyerseses good isn't just that they're good coaches and good recruiters--there are plenty of both of those across the country. What makes them legends is that they can recruit the best and command the respect to get the best to stop sniffing their own farts and play hard and for their teams.
Petersen's 8-5 flameout was inexcusable, but him taking a roster of 2-star nobodies to the playoff is doog legend. There was some of that--Gaines, Johnson, Pettis, Jones. But that team rode its defense, and its defense was nasty because Petersen was able to get complete buy-in from some elite athletes like Baker and Azeem (three-star or not). On offense, you had a record-breaking four-star quarterback, Myles Gaskin, and the fastest guy to ever run the 40 at the combine, all with complete buy-in. McGary and Adams on the OL were dudes.
Those early teams that were good featured a combination of Petersen recruits and getting waaaay more out of Sark recruits. He was the kind of coach with the personality and name brand recognition to command the respect of even his most selfish player. Then he burnt out. At first, Jimmy Lake seemed like taking the best of Petersen (culture, program management, defensive focus, etc.) and giving us at least a chance of seeing improvement in the areas that Petersen gave up on (more... "modern" recruiting, fixing the offense, etc.). I agree that it's too early to completely judge, but, man, there are a lot of warning signs here that this is heading for a cliff.
Let's just take an objective look here:
For the last month or two, I've been on a Husky forum reading nothing but stories about dudes committing to other schools, other schools making coaching hires, and crickets from UW.
Then, when there's finally staff news, it's yet more nepotism and who.gif.
This is a program with three defensive back coaches. I should just end this one with that period at the end, because that's fucking ridiculous, but it's even worse when you look at DB recruiting transitioning from best in conference to... see "crickets" above.
We just watched Stanford leave their walkthrough in the Redmond Denny's parking lot and push Lake's shit in.
On the bright side, the walk-on program looks robust.
I'm in total agreement with you that the Huskies team looked to get increasingly soft as the recruiting classes got better, and it seems most of the best players on the team lately are guys who were under the radar during recruitment (Tryon, ZTF, Kirkland, Ulofoshio). Part of me also wants to think, "Let's nuke it all and go full Boise and accept nothing but tough fucking nobodies with chips on their shoulders and very impressionable attitudes toward rhino cum," but that's just not the answer anymore. The answer is getting these guys that Oregon's getting, extracting the silver spoons from their assholes, and being better than your best opponents at getting them to play like a team and to their potential. That train has left the station, though, so the only doors left available are Boise 2.0 or 8-5.
Hot take. Gregory is going to be pretty much identical to Coach K as DC. If you liked Coach K, you should be okay with this move. It takes Gregory off the recruiting trail somewhat, which is a positive. I will accept debates about hiring a QC guy as DL coach, but that has worked out pretty good for Cato. I'm in LIPO mode.
And what evidence is there that Cato's worth a damn other than he finishes in the Top 3 often?
Not only did we promote the shit LB coach to DC, we promoted the "defensive quality control" guy to DL coach.
No creativity. No effort. NOGAF.
Cato has looked like a pretty damn good internal promotion from quality control. LIPO.
He looks okay though I'd say the jury is still out.
Jimmy has made four staff hires since he's been HC (and multiple moves within the staff.
Jon Donovan Terrence Brown Two internal quality control coaches
That could not be a more depressing list.
Yeah, clearly Jimmy has taken after Pete. He's a system guy. It is what it is.
That being said, who is Terrence Brown?
Pete didn’t just make a steady stream of promotions though, he went outside the program to bring people on multiple ties. Guys he had ties to, sure, but that’s not unusual. He didn’t just settle for “promote the intern” 50% of the time.
Hot take. Gregory is going to be pretty much identical to Coach K as DC. If you liked Coach K, you should be okay with this move. It takes Gregory off the recruiting trail somewhat, which is a positive. I will accept debates about hiring a QC guy as DL coach, but that has worked out pretty good for Cato. I'm in LIPO mode.
And what evidence is there that Cato's worth a damn other than he finishes in the Top 3 often?
Other than the fact that we have one of the best TE rooms in the country? Give Paopao some credit, but give Cato credit too.
Hot take. Gregory is going to be pretty much identical to Coach K as DC. If you liked Coach K, you should be okay with this move. It takes Gregory off the recruiting trail somewhat, which is a positive. I will accept debates about hiring a QC guy as DL coach, but that has worked out pretty good for Cato. I'm in LIPO mode.
And what evidence is there that Cato's worth a damn other than he finishes in the Top 3 often?
Exactly. Hat at the table is not something you put on your resume.
Hot take. Gregory is going to be pretty much identical to Coach K as DC. If you liked Coach K, you should be okay with this move. It takes Gregory off the recruiting trail somewhat, which is a positive. I will accept debates about hiring a QC guy as DL coach, but that has worked out pretty good for Cato. I'm in LIPO mode.
And what evidence is there that Cato's worth a damn other than he finishes in the Top 3 often?
Other than the fact that we have one of the best TE rooms in the country? Give Paopao some credit, but give Cato credit too.
Best TE room? We have Cade for one more year and a bunch of unproven guys. The only big recruiting win Cato's gotten turned out to be a methhead.
Hot take. Gregory is going to be pretty much identical to Coach K as DC. If you liked Coach K, you should be okay with this move. It takes Gregory off the recruiting trail somewhat, which is a positive. I will accept debates about hiring a QC guy as DL coach, but that has worked out pretty good for Cato. I'm in LIPO mode.
And what evidence is there that Cato's worth a damn other than he finishes in the Top 3 often?
Other than the fact that we have one of the best TE rooms in the country? Give Paopao some credit, but give Cato credit too.
We don't have one of the best TE rooms in the country ... that's pretty damn comical
Cade's great but the reality is that he's a local kid that any kind of competent recruiter could have and should have kept at UW.
I'll give credit for getting Redman on board ... he should be a stud. But at this point, he's all potential and no real substance.
And for those quick to say "yeah but" on the Redman comment, rewind 2 years ago and those comments would have been said about Culp who has gone from a "wait until you see what he's going to do" to a "decent part of the rotation but his limitations catching the ball effectively turn him into a high end JAG" type of player to date.
Hot take. Gregory is going to be pretty much identical to Coach K as DC. If you liked Coach K, you should be okay with this move. It takes Gregory off the recruiting trail somewhat, which is a positive. I will accept debates about hiring a QC guy as DL coach, but that has worked out pretty good for Cato. I'm in LIPO mode.
And what evidence is there that Cato's worth a damn other than he finishes in the Top 3 often?
Other than the fact that we have one of the best TE rooms in the country? Give Paopao some credit, but give Cato credit too.
Best TE room? We have Cade for one more year and a bunch of unproven guys. The only big recruiting win Cato's gotten turned out to be a methhead.
He's landed Quentin Moore, Chance Bogan, kept Cade for another year, has shown promise and effort on the recruiting trail, and can clearly coach. I'd give him a solid grade for the 9 months he's been TE coach.
Hot take. Gregory is going to be pretty much identical to Coach K as DC. If you liked Coach K, you should be okay with this move. It takes Gregory off the recruiting trail somewhat, which is a positive. I will accept debates about hiring a QC guy as DL coach, but that has worked out pretty good for Cato. I'm in LIPO mode.
And what evidence is there that Cato's worth a damn other than he finishes in the Top 3 often?
Other than the fact that we have one of the best TE rooms in the country? Give Paopao some credit, but give Cato credit too.
We don't have one of the best TE rooms in the country ... that's pretty damn comical
Cade's great but the reality is that he's a local kid that any kind of competent recruiter could have and should have kept at UW.
I'll give credit for getting Redman on board ... he should be a stud. But at this point, he's all potential and no real substance.
And for those quick to say "yeah but" on the Redman comment, rewind 2 years ago and those comments would have been said about Culp who has gone from a "wait until you see what he's going to do" to a "decent part of the rotation but his limitations catching the ball effectively turn him into a high end JAG" type of player to date.
Cato hasn't done jack shit.
Paopao/Garbers landed Redman. Cato was hired after Redman was already signed.
Also, this program is such a low rent joke. Let Jimmy cook? sure.gif. I mean yeah, maybe the meal tastes delicious, but here is a live look at Jimmys kitchen right now:
Hot take. Gregory is going to be pretty much identical to Coach K as DC. If you liked Coach K, you should be okay with this move. It takes Gregory off the recruiting trail somewhat, which is a positive. I will accept debates about hiring a QC guy as DL coach, but that has worked out pretty good for Cato. I'm in LIPO mode.
And what evidence is there that Cato's worth a damn other than he finishes in the Top 3 often?
Other than the fact that we have one of the best TE rooms in the country? Give Paopao some credit, but give Cato credit too.
We don't have one of the best TE rooms in the country ... that's pretty damn comical
Cade's great but the reality is that he's a local kid that any kind of competent recruiter could have and should have kept at UW.
I'll give credit for getting Redman on board ... he should be a stud. But at this point, he's all potential and no real substance.
And for those quick to say "yeah but" on the Redman comment, rewind 2 years ago and those comments would have been said about Culp who has gone from a "wait until you see what he's going to do" to a "decent part of the rotation but his limitations catching the ball effectively turn him into a high end JAG" type of player to date.
Cato hasn't done jack shit.
Paopao/Garbers landed Redman. Cato was hired after Redman was already signed.
Hot take. Gregory is going to be pretty much identical to Coach K as DC. If you liked Coach K, you should be okay with this move. It takes Gregory off the recruiting trail somewhat, which is a positive. I will accept debates about hiring a QC guy as DL coach, but that has worked out pretty good for Cato. I'm in LIPO mode.
And what evidence is there that Cato's worth a damn other than he finishes in the Top 3 often?
Other than the fact that we have one of the best TE rooms in the country? Give Paopao some credit, but give Cato credit too.
Best TE room? We have Cade for one more year and a bunch of unproven guys. The only big recruiting win Cato's gotten turned out to be a methhead.
Hot take. Gregory is going to be pretty much identical to Coach K as DC. If you liked Coach K, you should be okay with this move. It takes Gregory off the recruiting trail somewhat, which is a positive. I will accept debates about hiring a QC guy as DL coach, but that has worked out pretty good for Cato. I'm in LIPO mode.
And what evidence is there that Cato's worth a damn other than he finishes in the Top 3 often?
Other than the fact that we have one of the best TE rooms in the country? Give Paopao some credit, but give Cato credit too.
Best TE room? We have Cade for one more year and a bunch of unproven guys. The only big recruiting win Cato's gotten turned out to be a methhead.
He's landed Quentin Moore, Chance Bogan, kept Cade for another year, has shown promise and effort on the recruiting trail, and can clearly coach. I'd give him a solid grade for the 9 months he's been TE coach.
Cade stayed because he didn't have enough film on him to get a high enough pick this year to make it worth the while ... coming back and he'll very likely be an easy Top 2 round guy. It makes sense.
Moore was a local kid that while I am optimistic on it being a good get we need to be realistic at what we're doing here. Moore is hopefully a high end guy that is getting brought in to fill gaps in recruiting that effectively didn't pan out for a few years. He wasn't the highest TE on the board last year for us and we missed on the higher targets.
Bogan looks like he's a nice prospect and I look forward to seeing his development. Keeping local players home is a sign of competence vs being a disaster. For me to view a coach as being pretty good or better, you need to start winning recruiting battles against programs that are above your weight class and/or kids from out of the area that you're competing against at least relatively peer schools. Scott Huff is worth a damn. Cato ain't even close to that level at this point.
Hot take. Gregory is going to be pretty much identical to Coach K as DC. If you liked Coach K, you should be okay with this move. It takes Gregory off the recruiting trail somewhat, which is a positive. I will accept debates about hiring a QC guy as DL coach, but that has worked out pretty good for Cato. I'm in LIPO mode.
And what evidence is there that Cato's worth a damn other than he finishes in the Top 3 often?
Other than the fact that we have one of the best TE rooms in the country? Give Paopao some credit, but give Cato credit too.
We don't have one of the best TE rooms in the country ... that's pretty damn comical
Cade's great but the reality is that he's a local kid that any kind of competent recruiter could have and should have kept at UW.
I'll give credit for getting Redman on board ... he should be a stud. But at this point, he's all potential and no real substance.
And for those quick to say "yeah but" on the Redman comment, rewind 2 years ago and those comments would have been said about Culp who has gone from a "wait until you see what he's going to do" to a "decent part of the rotation but his limitations catching the ball effectively turn him into a high end JAG" type of player to date.
Cato hasn't done jack shit.
Paopao/Garbers landed Redman. Cato was hired after Redman was already signed.
Was more of a generic "as a program we got him on board" and the reality with the timing of Paopao leaving, if you recall there was a lot of uncertainty when Pete left and efforts to make sure that everybody was kept in that class. So I'll give credit for being able to keep Redman from going elsewhere.
Other than that, there's nothing to really view at this point other than Redman looks to be a good looking prospect that is in a spot to take the torch from Cade in 2022.
Tryon came out in support of Rip Rowan, so he at least has that going for him.
Has any player come out in support of Gregory at this point? Ariel Ngata seemed to subtweet the hiring with laughing emojis, but I have yet to see support from any players.
Comments
I've said it before and I'll say it again: What makes the Sabans and Meyerseses good isn't just that they're good coaches and good recruiters--there are plenty of both of those across the country. What makes them legends is that they can recruit the best and command the respect to get the best to stop sniffing their own farts and play hard and for their teams.
Petersen's 8-5 flameout was inexcusable, but him taking a roster of 2-star nobodies to the playoff is doog legend. There was some of that--Gaines, Johnson, Pettis, Jones. But that team rode its defense, and its defense was nasty because Petersen was able to get complete buy-in from some elite athletes like Baker and Azeem (three-star or not). On offense, you had a record-breaking four-star quarterback, Myles Gaskin, and the fastest guy to ever run the 40 at the combine, all with complete buy-in. McGary and Adams on the OL were dudes.
Those early teams that were good featured a combination of Petersen recruits and getting waaaay more out of Sark recruits. He was the kind of coach with the personality and name brand recognition to command the respect of even his most selfish player. Then he burnt out. At first, Jimmy Lake seemed like taking the best of Petersen (culture, program management, defensive focus, etc.) and giving us at least a chance of seeing improvement in the areas that Petersen gave up on (more... "modern" recruiting, fixing the offense, etc.). I agree that it's too early to completely judge, but, man, there are a lot of warning signs here that this is heading for a cliff.
Let's just take an objective look here:
- For the last month or two, I've been on a Husky forum reading nothing but stories about dudes committing to other schools, other schools making coaching hires, and crickets from UW.
- Then, when there's finally staff news, it's yet more nepotism and who.gif.
- This is a program with three defensive back coaches. I should just end this one with that period at the end, because that's fucking ridiculous, but it's even worse when you look at DB recruiting transitioning from best in conference to... see "crickets" above.
- We just watched Stanford leave their walkthrough in the Redmond Denny's parking lot and push Lake's shit in.
On the bright side, the walk-on program looks robust.I'm in total agreement with you that the Huskies team looked to get increasingly soft as the recruiting classes got better, and it seems most of the best players on the team lately are guys who were under the radar during recruitment (Tryon, ZTF, Kirkland, Ulofoshio). Part of me also wants to think, "Let's nuke it all and go full Boise and accept nothing but tough fucking nobodies with chips on their shoulders and very impressionable attitudes toward rhino cum," but that's just not the answer anymore. The answer is getting these guys that Oregon's getting, extracting the silver spoons from their assholes, and being better than your best opponents at getting them to play like a team and to their potential. That train has left the station, though, so the only doors left available are Boise 2.0 or 8-5.
And you serious Clark about Brown?
Cade's great but the reality is that he's a local kid that any kind of competent recruiter could have and should have kept at UW.
I'll give credit for getting Redman on board ... he should be a stud. But at this point, he's all potential and no real substance.
And for those quick to say "yeah but" on the Redman comment, rewind 2 years ago and those comments would have been said about Culp who has gone from a "wait until you see what he's going to do" to a "decent part of the rotation but his limitations catching the ball effectively turn him into a high end JAG" type of player to date.
Cato hasn't done jack shit.
Moore was a local kid that while I am optimistic on it being a good get we need to be realistic at what we're doing here. Moore is hopefully a high end guy that is getting brought in to fill gaps in recruiting that effectively didn't pan out for a few years. He wasn't the highest TE on the board last year for us and we missed on the higher targets.
Bogan looks like he's a nice prospect and I look forward to seeing his development. Keeping local players home is a sign of competence vs being a disaster. For me to view a coach as being pretty good or better, you need to start winning recruiting battles against programs that are above your weight class and/or kids from out of the area that you're competing against at least relatively peer schools. Scott Huff is worth a damn. Cato ain't even close to that level at this point.
Other than that, there's nothing to really view at this point other than Redman looks to be a good looking prospect that is in a spot to take the torch from Cade in 2022.
Has any player come out in support of Gregory at this point? Ariel Ngata seemed to subtweet the hiring with laughing emojis, but I have yet to see support from any players.