It occurred to me that we were not down at all really on Buzz in b'ball his first year and a half even though we were struggling because we could see better days ahead with significantly improved recruiting. I'm old enough to remember that in the early years of CFB, notwithstanding the 2-8-1 season, a lot of people (certainly not everyone but a lot of people) were willing to give him some benefit of the doubt as he was seen as recruiting fairly well (remember Maurice DeShazo, Jim Pyne, the Basham brothers etc) in the early going and thought that better days may be ahead, which they were.
Not taking away from criticisms of CJF's style or philosophy I think what really worries a lot of fans, including myself, is that his recruiting at this point appears to be declining, not getting better. His first couple of recruiting campaigns were fairly good but had he not signed Nester at the end last year it would have been considered a mediocre class and the 2020 class appears to be a further decline (although you really don't know until 2-3 years down the line). The optimism therefore is not the same now as you would like about the future. Heck, I hear more enthusiasm about CMY in b'ball and he's looking at a tough year or two than about the football program which did after all go to a bowl game last season because CMY seems to be keeping recruiting at a good level. I don't think there is much CJF can do about the '20 class as he is running out of schollies for that class but he just has to find a DC or other who can really recruit to turn the appearance of the program around. Even with a 8-4 type season this year the VT brand is going to continue to decline & suffer next year if we don't get some more highly considered recruits in, and enthusiasm is going to continue to decline.
[Post edited by lazarus1 at 09/10/2019 11:10PM]