Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Loeffler Presser: Never had a clearer picture



Whew....so Loeffler's presser was something else last night.  I don't think he would have argued with Gibby's "Rock Bottom" assessment.  He sat at this angle for almost the entire 5 minutes.  He had his jaw set and a scowling frown on his face.  He barely moved his head.

Let's parse.

I felt like the key part was the part that should run if you hit play above...to set the scene...in the previous answer he said he had been here "11 months and 21 days" and "never had a more clear picture of what we need to do."

He was asked a follow-up question, which you couldn't really hear, but the jist appears to be about how did you get this clarity.

And then he says. something about watching and listening...and then he takes an almost five-second pause and starts the sentence above...

"Trying to get people to go in the standards and expectations, coddling, tapping them on the rear end...that's not happening anymore, we're either going to do it or we're not.  Period.  End."

So, that's a mic-drop.  What I hear in there is that there are holdover players that they have been trying to get to buy in and the coaches have tried to be patient with them because we have numbers issues and we need guys.

Here's the thing.  You'd like to improve over the course of the year.  You understand the team is not a winning team, but it is frustrating to essentially play the Kent game over again in mid-November.

Coach also mentioned that there are issues you don't even see on the field--essentially, it's worse than what you see on the field.

I'm gathering Coach feels the same way, based on that.  And, for those players who have been "coddled," it sounds to me that if they aren't going to do what Loeffler is looking for they will be expected to move on.

So if that's the clear idea he has, it further impacts the numbers, but implied in all this talk about numbers is you need 85 guys who are bought in, not 85 guys with 70 of them bought it...which is really just having 70 guys.

I know I hear some frustration in the Falcon Nation.  I just want people to be patient.  This was a terrible situation when Loeffler came in and it's not going to get better right away.  I wouldn't expect huge improvement in wins and losses next year, either.  Year 3, at the earliest.

2 comments :

Cameron Kruzel said...

I just watched the entire presser (yes, on 11/21), and I was ready to run through a brick wall for Loeffler by the end of the second minute. This guy just gets it. I love the build and the climb, and he's gonna get us there! Anyone who has any doubt of this knows nothing about culture, leadership, or building a program - either in sports or business.

Orange said...

Cameron, I agree. Interesting you mention business...I'm sure that you are familiar with the quote that "culture eats strategy for lunch."