Postby Spence » Sat Dec 31, 2022 12:44 am
Ohio State has a group of guys who run the football program over Gene Smith. Smith runs the day to day stuff, but these guys lay the foundation for how the program works. They work as a group and do not publicly buck each other. It has to work that way. They are the big money guys. The Schottensteins amd the Wexners among others. They don't fight each other publicly like Texas.
Michigan did the same thing when they hired Rich Rod. Not that he was a bad coach, he just went against their business model. They fixed it with Hoke, he got fired because they weren't patient. Harbaugh was the same way, except they realized they weren't doing better than him.
Michigan's problem wasn't the coaches. At least in an x's and o's way. It was the fact that they couldn't recruit Ohio the way they always had. Tressel threw a blanket over Ohio. Meyer kept it there to a point.
John Cooper was a good recruiter and a good football coach, but he recruited lots of guys who didn't understand the rivalry. It was just another game to them. That doesn't fly at Ohio State. Same thing is going on right now at Ohio State.
For Texas to be relevant, they must get every Texas kid they want. The kids from east Texas, the kids from Dallas/Fort Worth and the kids from West Texas. That fixes that program.
"History doesn't always repeat itself but it often rhymes." - Mark Twain