Will seemed to take the firing personally. His comments on the radio clearly showed he felt wronged. I know some folks who were friends of Willās and they said he was pretty upset. So while he might be getting paid I am sure he is watching all of this unfold like someone would when an ex goes and gets married.
Well, maybe he should have treated his ex better.
Will was a gamble, and we lost. Biff is also a gamble, but by the looks of it, he has succeeded at everything he has ever done. Some people just donāt know how to fail. I feel much better about the Biff hire than I did about the Healy hire. Both were WTF hires the days the news broke.
Agreed. Forcing players to show positive body language and filming them during practice to critique seems less important than creating a positive environment where players are genuinely excited and show it naturally.
Transactional versus Transformative.
Best of luck to Healy. But this 2023 class is a historical and this fan base is excited in a way we havenāt seen since 2013. I could frankly care less what Healy feels or thinks. He was a rough draft of a head coach who set the program backwards.
I liked Will but he basically fired himself by putting a sorry ass product out on the field. You donāt get torched by a bad team like FIU on homecoming. The team wasnāt prepared and some of the better players (ex. Camp) didnāt see playing time which is a poor reflection on Healy and his staff.
Iāve known many people in my life that have been let go from pretty good positions of employment. Iāve only known one that admitted he had it coming.
Of course Healy thought he was wronged, itās human nature
He also thought he would win the last 4 games.
Made out like a bandit!
I mean on one side dont you always want a coach that thinks he an win? On the other side gotta have a coach that understands you have to do some hard work to win too - it aint all feel good stuff.
If Healy was as good as he thought he was, he would already be on a staff somewhere. He is a good person, I have no doubt, but really lacked football coaching skills to be somewhere above high school level.
He got us to our first bowl game and win over a P5 team, so he wasnāt all bad. It was just time to move on.
Wouldnāt Brad Lambert have a lot to do with that?
Yeah, they both did
Whatever happened to W Keith Friedman anyway?
This. He was never going to say he thought the firing was justified.
I think it shows a certain level of awareness. Not that either Bobby or Lambert wanted to be fired but they both understood the situation. Will I think really did think they were on the edge of turning it around. All the positive thinking might not be a schtick - it might be who he really is.
Will struggled once Atkins left and Lambertās better players left or graduated.
Exactly. Thatās not building a football program. It was more like he inherited grandpaās car and house and crashed said car into said house
Leadership is brutal honesty. For example, here is a reported Chuck Noll quote in his first meeting with his new Steelers team
āLook, Iāve been watching the game films since I took the job. And I can tell you guys that the reason youāve been losing is not because of your attitude, or your psyche, or any of that stuff.
The problem is youāre just not good enough. You know, you canāt run fast enough, you canāt jump high enough, youāre not quick enough. Youāre techniques are just abysmal. Iām probably going to have to get rid of most of youā¦and weāre going to move on.ā
Will was probably the perfect coach for Bradās players. They needed some fun and excitement. We all probably take college sports a bit too serious - especially at our level. They are kids and the game should still be fun. Bradās staff outside of Phil was poor at recruiting but they did a solid job of developing guys. Will sucked at really developing players and outside of Atkins (who we tried desperately to get to comeback) his staff couldnt get it done, but Will brought the one thing the roster was missing some fun and positivity. The reality is though to succeed you have to have both. You have to be able to excite people - players and fans, you have to be able to develop kids, you have to let them have fun and keep them positive, you have to hold kids accountable, and you have to really understand the game. So far it looks like Biff is doing all those, but itās early.