Every coach whose program struggles can look at "reasons". Every single one. In most cases, reasons and excuses are used interchangeably. As an aside, coaches who are consistently under .500 are fired every day. Having a winning program is part of the expectations for a highly-paid coach at the P5 level. Doing so in a conference where the new commissioner has stated a desire for an improved football presence will be even more important.
That aside, let's look at the "reasons" for our 1-win season, and let's keep in mind that it was only the second one-win season in the past 70+ years (the other being accomplished by the Honorable Gregory Robinson). And by the way, this isn't aimed at you. Lots of people use these "reasons":
1. It was a COVID year! Well, OK, that "reason" would be valid if the entire pandemic were confined to a geographic area bounded by Genesee St and Skytop but it wasn't. It was a global pandemic. It was in all the newspapers. We had to get vaccinated. EVERY program had to deal with it. The programs who had solid years didn't minimize their achievement because of Covid. You know who else had to deal with Covid? Every one of the 10 teams who beat us. Besides, we all bragged about how none of our players actually GOT Covid. It was not like the hoops side where several players got sick and we had to cancel practice during quarantine in-season.
2. We had new coordinators! Here is the problem with that excuse. There would be validity if their predecessors had left for other jobs. That's not what happened. We had to fire both OC and DC in the same year. That is NEVER the sign of a healthy program and it reflects directly upon the guy who hired those two most important cogs in the first place. Yes, we lost Spring training that would have helped familiarize the players with the systems but we never would have been in that situation in the first place had Dino made the right hires previously. I don't let him off the hook very much for the "new coordinators" "reason". It is kind of like the kid who waits until the last second to do his homework and then doesn't feel well. Yeah, he has a reason but it is a problem he sort of got himself into.
3. We had injuries. Now, that is a reason I agree with and can get behind. However, the injuries really highlighted the lack of quality depth in the program in the fifth year. It is a dual edged sword and it does fall to the staff as to why the quality depth was not there. Or at least enough quality depth to avoid an historically bad final record.
At the end of the day, a one-off trainwreck of a season can be excused if the rest of the tenure had been successful. However, the "reasons" for four losing seasons in five years start to sound a lot like excuses.
Still, it's all irrelevant in the short term. Last year (and the reasons/excuses) is behind us, Dino is still here, he has shown that he CAN win big at least once, so now we have to move on and hope that the tweaks/recruits and whatever else is being done can get us back to a season that we can all agree on as successful. We all want that, we are all Orange, we all support the team, and we all want a winning SU regardless of how we individually view the reasons/excuses for our inability to have done that on a consistent basis during the Babers tenure. Let's start to turn it all around vs. Ohio!
Are you of the mind that all .500 coaches deserve to be fired regardless of the the circumstances of their employment? Have their been .500 coaches who've been fired unfairly due to fans and boosters applying a simple pass/fail to their judgements?
The framework of "excuses" implies that there is an attempt to skirt accountability. That is not my position. I'd prefer to look at all of the data, reasons, and intangibles (leadership, university spokesperson, etc) fairly. I think good AD's do this unless they get pressured by fans/boosters to apply a different metric (this often results in black and white thinking and blind talk of "excuses" and "holding people accountable").
Fans who rely on the term "excuses" feel to me to be lazy in their analysis. "I don't want to deal with the reasons, I just want to win baby" ... and then the new coach walks into the same set of circumstances held to the same bar by people who don't understand the job's structural weaknesses and things outside of the coaches purview (like pandemics, or NIL, or money for staff, facility improvements, etc.)
Alright, quick rundown of your reasons/excuses:
I'm not going to separate them like you did, as I think they should be taken together. It wasn't just COVID and new coordinators and injuries, it was no camp due to COVID to install systems with new coordinators and injuries and opt outs requiring things to be installed against conference opponents rather than a soft OOC.
I'm very open to holding Babers accountable for needed to replace both coordinators. It was a bold move. I think it shows that things were not healthy (to your point) and that he had the guts to try to fix it. I don't think he thought it would be combined with a global pandemic and no camp, limited practices.
Your last 2 paragraphs are interesting. I did some editing:
"At the end of the day, a one-off trainwreck of a season can be excused if the rest of the tenure had been successful.
Success based on what metric? I thought beating a ranked team in year one was good. Beating #2 Clemson in year 3, better. A 10 win season, beating two ranked teams, taking Clemson to the final drive? Amazing. Room for growth, but a steady progression. 2019 is a black mark on his time here. However, the "reasons" for four losing seasons in five years start to sound a lot like excuses.
Using one simple metric, combined with calling things excuses.
Still, it's all irrelevant in the short term.
Good. Big picture leads to a more exhaustive look at his time here. Last year (and the reasons/excuses) is behind us, Dino is still here, he has shown that he CAN win big at least once
(Again, using record as the sole definition of success), so now we have to move on and hope that the tweaks/recruits and whatever else is being done can get us back to a season that we can all agree on as successful.
I don't think we'll all agree on that. We all want that, we are all Orange, we all support the team, and we all want a winning SU regardless of how we individually view the reasons/excuses for our inability to have done that on a consistent basis during the Babers tenure.
This stuff is tricky. I get that we want to break it down on wins and losses, but if we're serious about the programs health - the reasons should be examined regardless of the result. I'd guess that this is how Clemson built what they've built. Let's start to turn it all around vs. Ohio!
Yes, go orange!
