This. I am sick and tired of hearing how what Cignetti has done at Indiana is a totally unique situation because he brought most of his players with him. What rubbish. The players he brought were not a group of four star P4 guys. Coaching matters damn it and the guy is just flat-out a great coach. What a shame that Rhule can't seem to even put a stable coaching staff together let alone properly identify and develop athletic talent. Jeff Sims anyone? And don't tell me that was a "rushed" thing. He talked Sims up big time and made him sound like the next Tom Brady. The usual Rhule overhype. Just like Rhule gushed and gushed in our preseason about how great our defensive line was going to be and what a strength our offensive line would be. So he is either a liar who hypes players he knows are not that good, or he is a lousy evaluator of talent.
But we are stuck with Rhule probably for another two years at least. So we had just better hope that at the very least Rhule can learn from his own mistakes, and learn from the Cignetti's of the world, step back and put together a high caliber coaching staff and then lets them coach while he manages the bigger picture aspects of the program. I am hopeful that Rhule can learn and will change, despite my criticisms above. He has real issues and so far has not proven to be a solid coach. But I think patience is in order here and there is hope he can learn and adapt.
In this era of coaches getting fired at the drop of a hat perhaps we can be different and actually stick with a struggling coach so long as he does manage to bring in good recruits and transfers. Even in the modern era of football it may take four or five years before a coach hits his stride. I think programs that keep dumping coaches, as we have done, are only setting themselves up for constant upheaval. Rhule is so far a disappointment and we may yet end up firing him. But it is too soon to write him off and it is in our best interest for him to stay, develop stability and finally bring in a coaching staff that can coach and recruit at a high level.
