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Message: [QUOTE="Henny & Coke, post: 279511, member: 323"] So, because two different coaches in the history of SU Football both happened to find success around the same time period in their coaching tenure (7-8 years in), that makes 7-8 years a universal benchmark for how long it will take every coach thereafter to turn a rebuilding project into a success? Yikes. As far as what has changed in this "era", from 1987 and 1956 (the years of the "turnarounds") that may enable a coach to find success quicker than before? Well, I don't know about "quicker", but I'd argue that all the changes that have occured since those time periods have made it pretty useless to compare similar situations and accurately project what may happen in the future off of them. Just some of those changes include: 1987 - I'm assuming that scouting high school players is much easier now (internet), and that recruits come from different areas (maybe not even further...just different)...larger coaching staffs, more emphasis on passing games allow for the importance of finding a difference maker at just one position (QB) to increase (so a guy like Luck or Griffin being on a rebuilding team can have great improvments on their team's win/loss records unlike 25 years ago), how good your direct opponents are in those time periods, which schools are "cheating" in those time periods, just so many changes happen in 25 years (money spent on athletics, community support, impact of coaching strategies, ect) that make comparisons to what happened 25 years ago pretty useless, IMO. And as for what has changed since 1956? Wow. Um, I guess we can start with the fact that some colleges wouldn't play african-american athletes, while others would, as evidenced by this account of events: "Having said all that, I will now add that LeVias was technically not the first black player in SWC history. Let’s return to the summer of 1964, nearly a year before LeVias signed a scholarship offer with SMU. John Westbrook, then entering his senior year at Washington High School in Elgin, stepped into the offices of the coaching staff at Baylor University and told them of his plans to enroll there and perhaps play football. Westbrook, the son of a Baptist minister, had been ordained at age 15, and Baylor was a Baptist school, so why not? Well, for one thing, the BU Board of Trustees had only integrated the university in November 1963, and no word had been said about athletics. Like most European-American Texans back then, they did not want to think about a black guy wearing the green and gold of the Baylor Bears. Coach John Bridgers and chancellor Abner McCall may not have been eager, but they decided to let Westbrook walk on as a freshman in 1965. He was one of just seven black students on a campus of 7,000, the large majority of whom were sons and daughters of the South. Hostility and isolation were the norm, although to be fair to those people, they were feeling their way in an integrated world, too. Westbrook’s arrival on the Baylor football team was utterly unheralded. His time in the 40-yard dash made him one of the fastest players on the team, but he hardly got on the field that season. Freshman coaches like Milburn “Catfish” Smith and Ramsey Muniz did all they could to discourage Westbrook with verbal taunts and brutal three-on-one drills. He was ignored by most of his teammates and goaded by a few others. And to make matters worse, some of the black people in Waco regarded him as an Uncle Tom for even making the attempt to integrate Bear football. His lonely fight, however, was made easier by the support and reassurance of Eucolia Erby, a small black man who had known Westbrook’s father. Erby came to practices, watched and encouraged him and told him repeatedly, “Don’t quit.” His coach, Bridgers, made the decision, at the end of spring training, to award him a scholarship. That alone permitted Westbrook to stay at Baylor. [B]On September 10, 1966 (one week before SMU’s opener in which Jerry LeVias began his fabulous career), Baylor hosted Syracuse. The Bears were ahead by 22 points midway through the fourth quarter when Bridgers sent Westbrook into the game, making history."[/B] [B][url]http://richardpennington.com/index.php/publications/entry/racial-integraton-of-college-football-in-texasracial-integraton-of-college[/url][/B] So...yeah, I'm not exactly sure that comparing situations from 1956 & 1987 and applying them to situations today makes a whole lot of sense. But I could be wrong. [/QUOTE]

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