Quote:
Originally Posted by UCBearcats
I'm guessing somewhere between 4-8 and 7-5. Obviously Coach Fick has done a tremendous job of creating buzz for the program and locking down some fantastic recruits, now I'm interested to see how he and the staff handle game day.
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The biggest knocks on Tuberville were usually about being unprepared and undisciplined. I can't say for sure how Fickell and staff will handle gamedays, but I very much doubt that we'll have gripes about the issues of Tuberville's teams.
I don't know how exotic we'll be this year, especially on offense, as we start to get the pieces in place...but I expect a physical team that plays to their assignments. With our schedule, that could easily be enough to send us to a bowl. The days of beating ourselves, then shutting down in the 2nd half need to be over for good. And I can't imagine Fickell punting the ball away with 3 TO, over 4 minutes left, down 14. So that's a start.
I forget who it was, but one of the players did an interview and said that it sounds bad to admit it, but they would shut down and quit in the 2nd half last year. You can put whatever % you want of that on the players, but that to me starts at the top no questions asked. Terrible leadership. If the coach is quitting the game and shutting things down, and you've lost however many in a row, it's hard to expect the players to rally, basically against the coach, to keep going despite getting whipped play after play with no real gameplan.