No.
Gabbert spoke at to the Freshman class this Fall.
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Any word on his fitness for duty or is it going to be a game day decision? I don’t trust Game notes.
I saw a tweet that had a bunch of pictures of them practicing in the snow today. One of the pics had AV practicing. Not sure that necessarily rules Brett out, but my gut reaction was, oh no.
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No need to play Brett the rest of the year. Get him healed for his future.
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I think everybody wants us to win and win big. How to get there is another question. We had the worst program in D-1 the day that Coach Martin got hired. We may have a losing season this year ( still possible to finish 7-6) but over the 4 previous seasons we had a 6-6 with no bowl bid, then 3 straight winning seasons). That is a huge step forward from the day he was hired. That is not like the fired coaches in men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and hockey.
We did have one coach who came in and turned it around in two season. He went 1-11, then 10-4 with a MAC and bowl championship. Then he immediately left and we went right back down to being the worst program in the country in a few years.
We actually have a pretty good coach who has done what every other coach in these sports in the last 20 or so years has failed to do, he has built a solid program with some enduring success over the last 4 years. We took a step back this year ( unless we win out). I think a better path forward is to stick with the guy who has built the program and reached a level of above average and see if eventually he elevates the program farthur. Heywood and Duffy were two great hires. We got two years out of each, and then our programs quickly regressed to rock bottom after they left. Odds are that our football program will also regress with a firing, or if we get that one out of 4 or 5 lucky hits and get a great coach they will be gone in two years and then we will regress again. That is our history over the last 2 decades. I think those who want to keep Coach Martin feel that keeping him is a much better bet than firing him, and more likely to lead to success. And that is based on what has been happening at this school under him compared to what has been happening at this school under all the other coaches of the Big 4 programs.
By the way, NescaDad, instead of railing at Martin as usual, did make a couple of really good posts about many of the issues that make this such a tough spot to build a program in the high profile sports. If it was easy, Coaches like Owens or Blasi or Montgomery would have been able to build something. They failed.
BallCoach1 basically asked for one thing when he started posting, that was to be enthusiastic and supportive until the season was over and give the staff the support needed to turn the season around. It is the way coaches think, because if you have been doing it for awhile you have experienced turning it around and going on a run. ( think the 0-6 to 6-6 or the 3-6 to 6-6 under Chuck or the 4-4 to 10-4 under Heywood. For that BallCoach1 has been belittled and harassed.
I just want to say that those of us not ready to fire Coach Martin do want to have great teams again, but do not think firing him ( the most successful of our Big 4 coaches), is a method likely to improve anything. And I was completely in favor of firing Coach Owens, who I really liked) for his failure to build a program or raise the level. The same with Coach Montgomery or a couple of women’s hoops coaches who failed. Coach Blasi and Coach Fantanarosa ran very good programs for a long time, but at the end their programs had dropped off to several years of being bad and the rosters they left behind when they were fired were bad. So they needed to be let go too. I just do not see the current football program as being anything but far better than those programs were at the time of firing.
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Great post. Here’s the crazy thing: if Chuck ended a season nationally ranked in the top 25, I can only see him leaving for like 3 schools. I don’t see him getting let go, so my wish for him is to radically change his expectations. Ie, shoot way, way higher. His defense knowledge is correct. He needs help on the other side of the ball. I hope he owns that and fixes it.
Ps. Random Question: Where is Jordan Diamond? I loved that hire. Is he still a part of the team?
Respect you Dick for your dedication to Miami sports, and appreciate your knowledge of the program and your pragmatism of its state. I guess it due to that I find your observations on Chuck to be rather demoralizing…from the perspective that you feel that we can’t likely do better and may be mired with a HC who is hard working, recruits well and is well regarded by his players, but is arguably a rather terrible gameday technician, and as a result we constantly lose games we should win, many times against inferior MAC competition.
My frustration w Coach Martin is that I see little recognition of the faults of his coaching…the seeming lack of adjustments, terrible play-calling, and poor decisions on playing key injury prone players when games are out of reach. I keep looking for improvement and at least some recognition that these aspects must be improved, but I never hear it or see it. It’s just more of how we were one or two plays away from beating the likes of Bowling Green, etc.
So yeah, I am frustrated which is why I posted that Coach Martin needs to make some important changes (e.g. assistant coaching changes such as OC), or force Sayler to allow his current contract to expire without renewal.
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Come on, Dick. You make us sound like we have a legacy similar to that if Rice, UTEP, ULM or New Mexico State. That’s nonsense.
We did not have a single losing season from 1995 through 2005. Our program finished 10th in the nation in 2003 and lost 17-14 to Iowa State in the Independence Bowl the very next year. We had a 7-4 winning season in 2005.
After four or five subsequent off-years, a competent coaching staff came in in 2009 and had a 10-4 season with a bowl win in 2010, proving its possible to get back to being competitive quickly. Then, as you noted, they left.
We went 4-8 each of the next two years and then one bad hire from the Cradle took us off a cliff, bottoming out in 2012 and 2013. We were indeed probably the worst or one of the worst programs in the country during those two seasons. But that was an anomaly.
Martin was brought in to correct the course in 2014 and has had only mediocre success over nine seasons. There is no upward trajectory, just stable mediocrity.
Regarding your reference to Ballcoach1’s urging that we “all get behind the coaches and support them until the end of the season”, I am well convinced nothing we say on here has any impact on our coaches’ or team’s performance. They’ve managed to crap the bed all by themselves.
Support for our football program is melting away like warm goose poop in a torrential rain. This can not continue!
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GameDay at Montana State tomorrow morning. Gonna be 10 degrees when they start the show. Priceless!
My bucket list includes seeing GameDay in Oxford. Better happen pretty fast!
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FWIW, Montana State has a very rabid fan base, and a strategic plan to expand their facilities. My wife and I went to a game in Bozeman…very nice campus and town…
They actually have ATMs at the stadium.
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I love Bozeman! Beautiful area. Have been in both Bobcat and Montana’s Washington Grizzly Stadiums but not for games. WG has the feeling of a lot bigger stadium.
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Agree…both stadiums are very cool…and fan friendly. The Griz stadium is a scaled-down version of a much larger place…and I agree it’s very well done.
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Ridiculous long term contracts: What a situation Texas A&M finds itself in. Not eligible for a bowl at 3-7 after being in the Top 25 in September and only leading UMass 10-3 at the half at Kyle Field today . And Jimbo’s buyout is currently $85 million!
Indiana’s double OT win could put 5-6 Spartans on sideline during bowl season as they finish up with Penn State.
And Vanderbilt beat Florida!
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Maryland played a heck of a game but OSU, again, made the big plays.
Classic OSU-Michigan next week.
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Michigans lucky. Illinois got Big 10 homered on the review of that pass that set Michigan up for their FG. The ball clearly touched the ground befor the receiver controlled it.
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I think either a) Michigan could’ve gotten those 5 yards on the next play with the time that would’ve been put back on the clock or b) the reigning Lou Groza Award winner would’ve made a 40 yard field goal after already going 3/3 in tricky conditions.
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Remember him? He just beat UNC at Chapel Hill as Tech’s third string QB.
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One unhappy coach…