kearly":15r4uirt said:
seahawk2k":15r4uirt said:
Come on, "Massive' rebuilding effort?
Sadly, it's about to be just that.
Your point is well taken though. The Huskies were talented enough in Petersen's first year to sleep walk their way to a winning record.
Tical21":15r4uirt said:
Listening to this, I am fully convinced that he is not the guy for the job. Quite frankly, I don't think he's smart enough, and I think he's in over his head.
This is such a perfect Tical response. It's so predictable and exaggerated, it's as if you are doing an impersonation of yourself. Of course, I'm not ripping you. I think Tical being Tical is awesome.
And I basically agree, Petersen DID come across as being a bit shaky in that interview.
I don't know how to comment on the exaggerated part. I write boldly, that's how you get remembered. I don't think it qualifies as exaggerating if you're right on the money. It might not be PC, but it makes things a lot more fun, no?
If I could expand....
I liken my feelings on Coach Peterson to the first time I saw Dustin Ackley swing a bat. When we drafted Dustin Ackley, you read about this natural line drive gap hitter. EVERYBODY said he's a can't-miss hitting prospect. He might not have a position, he may not hit for power, but he is going to hit, period. So I'm thinking John Olerud, Tony Gwynn. I'm a lefty myself, and we're known for our sweet, long swings. I'm thinking this Ackley kid is just going to have a gorgeous stroke. Then he makes his debut, and he's lunging to his front foot, jumping at the ball. Wade Boggs and Ichiro are the only two guys I have ever seen that have the coordination to be successful hitting this way. I knew the very first time I saw him swing that we were screwed.
The very first time I listened to Coach Peterson talk, I thought we were in trouble. I've talked about this before. When you listen to a good coach speak, even if he is talking in coach-speak, there is something about him that makes him seem like the smartest guy in the room. You hear the question he is asked, and you think about the answer you would probably give, and then the coach says something wiser that you hadn't thought of. Almost like they all have a higher level of understanding.
I know, hearing a coach talk shouldn't mean much. We're not talking about strategy or recruiting, we're hearing him give an interview. However, I cringe every time his answer begins with "what worked when we were at Boise...." This shows me that he's not thinking outside the box. Rather than growing organically, he's trying to duplicate, and rely on past successes. He seems like he's trying to say what he thinks the right answer should be, rather than instinctively knowing what the right answer is. This is where I see the biggest Tyrone resemblance. I have a hard time becoming inspired if I'm a player listening to these speeches.
Then you get on the field. He made absolutely stupid, almost unbelievable decisions that good coaches don't make. And not just once or twice. Offensively, he kept banging his head against the same wall without every trying to see things a different way. The extent of our creativity was to put Shaq on offense and hand him the ball a bunch of times to see if he can win for us by himself. Defensively, and I know this isn't his department, but they played the absolute worst style of defense for their personnel possible. They knew they were crazy young in the secondary, so they went about it by trying to play preventative, trying not to get burnt. Even with Marcus Peters and a great front seven, we lined up our corners ten yards off the ball and invited teams to pick us apart, and NEVER adjusted. They must have missed the Kent Baer and Nick Holt eras where we proved beyond a reasonable doubt that playing this style in the Pac-10/12 gets you torn apart to historic measures.
Listen to that interview again. Does that seem like a smart guy? Does that sound like an outside the box thinker? Is there any offensive guru anywhere in there? Surely, the guy has been a successful coach, and those things don't happen by accident. There has to be a hidden level of genius in there somewhere. Doesn't there?
