Bring back Zook. Holy $h!+
I’ve thought for some time that Robert aLionEye’s take on CFB success, particularly with regard to certain B10 programs, is a bit overwrought. He emphasizes the importance of having a system, recruiting to it, redshirting youngsters, and having them step in when they’re good and ready, at which point the machine keeps cranking. In his view, Wisconsin and Iowa are the epitome of this phenomenon, this way of maintaining a “Program”.
I think that certainly helps, but I also think it’s a bit simpler. I think perhaps more than any other sport, CFB is about the Jimmies and the Joes. Now, I would sympathize with anyone who recoils at the well-worn coaches’ cliche,“We gotta make plays,” as it is fairly obvious, but I also think it says a lot...
When I think of “plays” I think of bombs to burner wide outs, huge stops by ferocious LBs on 4th and 1, NFL-like open-field tackles by CBs when the shifty RB is about to break one off, DEs beating LTs for sacks in huge moments of games, QBs getting hot and going off, etc… The kinds of things Alabama, Clemson, OSU, OU, etc. do consistently because they have the best J & J.
Which is not to say Illinois has no J & J. We do, and they made a bunch of plays in the Wisconsin and MSU games last year. But there’s a frequency component here: the top teams have dudes all over the field making plays repeatedly, whereas middling teams have fewer playmakers and less frequent plays being made. I think it’s a slight misdiagnosis to attribute Wisconsin’s and Iowa’s success to their systems… Wisconsin is full of studs year after year.
{Let the “Thanks Captain Obvious” comments rain down.}