Great post! So true. Baylor athletics is humming along to great things. You forgot to mention Volleyball, A&T, and the rest.

We are so blessed to have great coaches and so many fine young men and women athletes representing Baylor.

It's all about how you finish. Not where you are currently

Timbear said:

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Everything worked out perfectly for Rhule and Baylor.

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Too early to say. We have reasons to be optimistic about this fall but don't really know. We could very well have a serious regression this year. In fact, even if Aranda proves to be all we hope he will be, it will probably be later & we likely will see some drop off in 2020 because we have lost so many key players--especially James Lynch. Also, our OL is very much a work in progress and there are questions about Charlie's health. I would love to have another 11 win season and another trip to Arlington in December but 2019 was almost a miracle season. The lack of continuity in coaching may have a serious negative impact. I very much hope this pessimism is wrong but realistically these are major concerns.

I'm not sure how significant that is. It's been 17 years, and we still sometimes hear stuff about the basketball mess. Thankfully, not very often or only vaguely alluded to--while praising Drew for the greatest turn around ever.

historian said:

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Timbear said:

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Everything worked out perfectly for Rhule and Baylor.

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Too early to say. We have reasons to be optimistic about this fall but don't really know. We could very well have a serious regression this year. In fact, even if Aranda proves to be all we hope he will be, it will probably be later & we likely will see some drop off in 2020 because we have lost so many key players--especially James Lynch. Also, our OL is very much a work in progress and there are questions about Charlie's health. I would love to have another 11 win season and another trip to Arlington in December but 2019 was almost a miracle season. The lack of continuity in coaching may have a serious negative impact. I very much hope this pessimism is wrong but realistically these are major concerns.

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Agree. Even if CMR had returned I would not have expected another 11-1 regular season. Losing our starting DL and tougher schedule will make next year a bigger challenge.

With those challenges and the growing pains of a first time HC and new staff I could 6-6 or 7-5 as possibilities....hopefully we win more....but I won't be surprised if we don't.

But I think we will be trending back up after next year.

I am pumped about Baylor's football future. 3 coaches removed from the scandal, and we have a Championship coach that wants to be here. Rhule never won a Championship anywhere.We will do at least as good this year as Rhule would have done, and probably better. It's all a guess. We'll see.

Rhule served a purpose and put some backbone guys in the team. We'll know more next year, but he was kind of a triage coach who swallowed some hard medicine.

When it's all said and done, I'll say he peaked while he was here and the only improvement he brought us was Snow's defense. I didn't see a continued upward trajectory because I didn't see his commitment to recruiting or offensive philosophy.

I don't care how great a coach you think you are, it's all about getting the best athletes through the door.

He won the AAC Championship his final year at Temple.

Rhule was a program manager, closer to the GM style I've always felt would work well in a college program and I think tha'ts consistent with the programs like Stoops ran at Okla.And I say that as a compliment to him, I think it's a wonderful strategy. I think that approach can keep you above .500 at a minimum, but you've really gotta differentiate to close the gap and win a title.

Rhule's strength was his network first, his ability second.

Timbear said:

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I am pumped about Baylor's football future. 3 coaches removed from the scandal, and we have a Championship coach that wants to be here. Rhule never won a Championship anywhere.We will do at least as good this year as Rhule would have done, and probably better. It's all a guess. We'll see.

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Rhule and Temple won the AAC Championship. They went 2 years in a row and won the second year.

Sorry, my bad. Rhule won the AAC Championship as McLane accurately stated.

Wineguy89 said:

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Timbear said:

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I am pumped about Baylor's football future. 3 coaches removed from the scandal, and we have a Championship coach that wants to be here. Rhule never won a Championship anywhere.We will do at least as good this year as Rhule would have done, and probably better. It's all a guess. We'll see.

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Rhule and Temple won the AAC Championship. They went 2 years in a row and won the second year.

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And was a play away from winning the Big 12 title too.

Krieg points are accurate almost all of the time.

TellMeYouLoveMe said:

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Aliceinbubbleland said:

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It's all about how you finish. Not where you are currently

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that's what she said.

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This one finished nicely:

Krieg said:

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Next year would've been a lot worse had Rhule stayed, anyway, and they didn't seem to have a plan for improvement on offense. Assuming we hire a good OC I expect more points on both sides of the scoreboard next season with at least 7 wins. Maybe that's one worse than if the staff stayed, but we're already seeing recruiting pick up and Aranda is hungry. We'll be better in year 2 than if Rhule had stayed. That's a win for us.

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This is a very good reason for optimism. We must be patient because it is very unlikely that 2020 will have the best results, but 2021 and beyond are very promising. We can thank Rhule for building a foundation that Aranda can build upon. I know the haters will go bonkers, but really Briles did too: we have higher expectations this decade than any time since CGT and we have the facilities to attract top notch recruits.

We would have been A LOT worse?

Rhule didn't have any plans to improve the offense?

Ummm..ok..

historian said:

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Krieg said:

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Next year would've been a lot worse had Rhule stayed, anyway, and they didn't seem to have a plan for improvement on offense. Assuming we hire a good OC I expect more points on both sides of the scoreboard next season with at least 7 wins. Maybe that's one worse than if the staff stayed, but we're already seeing recruiting pick up and Aranda is hungry. We'll be better in year 2 than if Rhule had stayed. That's a win for us.

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This is a very good reason for optimism. We must be patient because it is very unlikely that 2020 will have the best results, but 2021 and beyond are very promising. We can thank Rhule for building a foundation that Aranda can build upon. I know the haters will go bonkers, but really Briles did too: we have higher expectations this decade than any time since CGT and we have the facilities to attract top notch recruits.

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You are correct Sir!
https://giphy.com/gifs/x88e1awUi05by/html5

TellMeYouLoveMe said:

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Rhule served a purpose and put some backbone guys in the team. We'll know more next year, but he was kind of a triage coach who swallowed some hard medicine.

When it's all said and done, I'll say he peaked while he was here and the only improvement he brought us was Snow's defense. I didn't see a continued upward trajectory because I didn't see his commitment to recruiting or offensive philosophy.

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Well said. The greatest college coaches need just a little more of that thing. Stoops was a good example as well. Good but some major recurring soft spots / weaknesses. The aggregate managing approach at all times.

A Saban would get very focused and detailed on those specific areas if he had to while still doing a top down managing for the strong areas. Saban would be on the o-line (I believe Aranda will be as well) yesterday if needed. Not that Rhule wouldn't but I sense he wouldn't as much or say take a bit more hold of the offense when needed (middle of this year).

Compounding said:

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TellMeYouLoveMe said:

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Rhule served a purpose and put some backbone guys in the team. We'll know more next year, but he was kind of a triage coach who swallowed some hard medicine.

When it's all said and done, I'll say he peaked while he was here and the only improvement he brought us was Snow's defense. I didn't see a continued upward trajectory because I didn't see his commitment to recruiting or offensive philosophy.

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Well said. The greatest college coaches need just a little more of that thing. Stoops was a good example as well. Good but some major recurring soft spots / weaknesses. The aggregate managing approach at all times.

A Saban would get very focused and detailed on those specific areas if he had to while still doing a top down managing for the strong areas. Saban would be on the o-line (I believe Aranda will be as well) yesterday if needed. Not that Rhule wouldn't but I sense he wouldn't as much or say take a bit more hold of the offense when needed (middle of this year).

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Stooper started off on fire. He was a defensive coach, and he hired the mother of all OC's in Leach. They took a John Blake squad that had an abundance of RB's and won a title. But then it was a game of watching his first litter of coaches get picked off one by one, season by season.
As time wore on, he sorted of retreated back to his comfort zone and that's how Briles was able to exploit him.

By the time he fired his ****** brother, he'd tapped his network for the most part.

That approach works until you run out of good replacements.

Stefano DiMera said:

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We would have been A LOT worse?

Rhule didn't have any plans to improve the offense?

Ummm..ok..

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Rhule leaving has brought the stupid out of a lot of people here.

bear2be2 said:

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Stefano DiMera said:

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We would have been A LOT worse?

Rhule didn't have any plans to improve the offense?

Ummm..ok..

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Rhule leaving has brought the stupid out of a lot of people here.

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I think birth did it to some others.

bear2be2 said:

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Stefano DiMera said:

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We would have been A LOT worse?

Rhule didn't have any plans to improve the offense?

Ummm..ok..

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Rhule leaving has brought the stupid out of a lot of people here.

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Yup, hot takes are very prevalent on this board.

Stefano DiMera said:

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We would have been A LOT worse?

Rhule didn't have any plans to improve the offense?

Ummm..ok..

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I had to go see what you meant by the "a lot worse" comment. I guess "a lot" is up to individual definition but if you don't think there would've been a steep drop off on D next year after losing 9 starters you're lying to yourself. That's not a criticism of a coach it's just how it works.

Assuming Brewer can play again we keep the QB, but there's a chance he either can't or gets hurt again. We lost our best WR and our #4 WR. We're losing one of our first string RBs (they got basically even stats), and we're losing 2 starting OL that have a TON of experience.

The schedule next year will also be more difficult. We play a real (albeit not good) opponent in OOC, we're in Austin, TCU almost has to improve, OSU should be significantly better, and we'll be playing against 4 teams in their second year of new coaching instead of their first.

All of that adds up to, probably, 3ish additional losses in the regular season next year. I'd argue 8-4 is a lot worse than 11-1. I think that's the most likely outcome for 2020 with the old staff. Most likely we drop an extra game without them this season but oh well.

TellMeYouLoveMe said:

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Rhule served a purpose and put some backbone guys in the team. We'll know more next year, but he was kind of a triage coach who swallowed some hard medicine.

When it's all said and done, I'll say he peaked while he was here and the only improvement he brought us was Snow's defense. I didn't see a continued upward trajectory because I didn't see his commitment to recruiting or offensive philosophy.

I don't care how great a coach you think you are, it's all about getting the best athletes through the door.

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Ask UT if they agree with your last sentence.

BirelBear said:

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TellMeYouLoveMe said:

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Rhule served a purpose and put some backbone guys in the team. We'll know more next year, but he was kind of a triage coach who swallowed some hard medicine.

When it's all said and done, I'll say he peaked while he was here and the only improvement he brought us was Snow's defense. I didn't see a continued upward trajectory because I didn't see his commitment to recruiting or offensive philosophy.

I don't care how great a coach you think you are, it's all about getting the best athletes through the door.

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Ask UT if they agree with your last sentence.

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I'd argue that the team with the best balance of both generally wins the game.

BirelBear said:

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TellMeYouLoveMe said:

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I don't care how great a coach you think you are, it's all about getting the best athletes through the door.

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Ask UT if they agree with your last sentence.

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UT would definitely agree with last sentence. The scoreboard in many of their games, however does not prove it to be true.

Chamberman said:

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BirelBear said:

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TellMeYouLoveMe said:

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I don't care how great a coach you think you are, it's all about getting the best athletes through the door.

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Ask UT if they agree with your last sentence.

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UT would definitely agree with last sentence. The scoreboard in many of their games, however does not prove it to be true.

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They won a title, in spite of their lackluster coaching.