Elite Matt Wells is growing on me, because he seems to possess these three traits that every great college football coach has.
1) Experience - At nearly every vocation, experience is invaluable. Everyone learns from experience - especially from the painful ones. By Matt Well's own admission, his past mistakes have made him grow as a coach.
2) Professionalism - This is how you carry yourself on and off the field. His interactions with the media, with boosters, with high-school coaches, with recruits, and with officials - they all add up to his "professionalism" grade. By all accounts, he's grading out pretty high in this category.
3) The desire to be great - If you don't want to be great, you'll slack off somewhere, whether that's the film room or the recruiting trail. This can and will catch up to you in the wins/loss column. For Matt Wells, you get a real sense that losses drive him nuts. I love that from a head coach. I have no doubt that Wells will leave no stone unturned when it comes to bringing in the best talent (coaches and players), and executing a winning scheme each and every Saturday.
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The reason why I'm suddenly so optimistic, is that I'm realizing that none of our last three coaches possessed all three of these traits.
- Leach had experience, but definitively lacked professionalism. Probably lacked a little desire to be great as well.
- Tubberville had top-notch experience, and certainly carried an air of professionalism, but lacked the desire to be great. Like Cincinnati soon learned, Tubberville was probably treating his role as a source of a paycheck, not as a passion.
- Kingsbury had all the professionalism and desire you could ever want, but his lack of experience cost him both on the recruiting trail and on the field.
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There's still a sizable part of doubt in my mind, and that's stemming from the three-season losing streak. Still, I can't help but find myself hoping, just maybe, we just hired our most well-rounded candidate in almost twenty years.
1) Experience - At nearly every vocation, experience is invaluable. Everyone learns from experience - especially from the painful ones. By Matt Well's own admission, his past mistakes have made him grow as a coach.
2) Professionalism - This is how you carry yourself on and off the field. His interactions with the media, with boosters, with high-school coaches, with recruits, and with officials - they all add up to his "professionalism" grade. By all accounts, he's grading out pretty high in this category.
3) The desire to be great - If you don't want to be great, you'll slack off somewhere, whether that's the film room or the recruiting trail. This can and will catch up to you in the wins/loss column. For Matt Wells, you get a real sense that losses drive him nuts. I love that from a head coach. I have no doubt that Wells will leave no stone unturned when it comes to bringing in the best talent (coaches and players), and executing a winning scheme each and every Saturday.
-----------
The reason why I'm suddenly so optimistic, is that I'm realizing that none of our last three coaches possessed all three of these traits.
- Leach had experience, but definitively lacked professionalism. Probably lacked a little desire to be great as well.
- Tubberville had top-notch experience, and certainly carried an air of professionalism, but lacked the desire to be great. Like Cincinnati soon learned, Tubberville was probably treating his role as a source of a paycheck, not as a passion.
- Kingsbury had all the professionalism and desire you could ever want, but his lack of experience cost him both on the recruiting trail and on the field.
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There's still a sizable part of doubt in my mind, and that's stemming from the three-season losing streak. Still, I can't help but find myself hoping, just maybe, we just hired our most well-rounded candidate in almost twenty years.
