Heupel has won championships as a player in JUCO and at Oklahoma. He's won a lot as an assistant and as a head coach. He's not a band guy pretending to be a football coach, he's not living off daddy's name, he's worked his ass off to get where he's at.
And, he's not a dude who shits his pants at the first sign of adversity or pressure, my favorite quality in him. Finally, a dude with a swagger and cold blood in his veins wearing the headset.
Regardless of how the season goes it's nice to have a coaching staff for once that isn't constantly tempering expectations. They are not afraid to sound confident and I really like that.
When he went for it in the bowl game against Purdue I knew we had something. He didn't look scared or worried, he just made a decision and went with it.
Everyone should go watch the videos on YouTube where James Bates has his former teammates tell their favorite Spurrier stories.
It's amazing. I'd forgotten what it felt like having a coach going into a season beyond the second and not at least waiting on the inevitable.
When the team actually believes the championship talk and isn't saying it because that is the correct thing to say when asked, we become very dangerous. I don't think we're there yet but we are going to see some good football from here on out. IMO of course.
Does anyone remember that story from Basilio about the guy who saw Butch in public during the winter of '17 where the guy genuinely just wanted to say , " hey coach!" ? If memory serves correct, Butch immediately began telling this random stranger about how much they'd be affected in the upcoming season by attrition etc blah blah
Hard to have a better lineage of mentorship than that in this industry. Mike Leach helped foster a lot of his great coaching qualities too. I’ve always found comfort in the assertion that one doesn’t make Drew freaking Lock a 1st round NFL QB by being a crappy football coach.
We had a decade full of failure enablers with built in defense mechanisms. I don't think I could've hated them more, whether Butcj was doing his shtick or Mike Hamilton was telling Vol fans they should accept a lower status on the athletic totem pole because of location, resources, etc.
Milton has been extremely sharp so far in fall practice. Like he has barely missed a pass and has apparently learned to take some heat off his short throws. I am trying not to get too excited about him starting this year but man it sounds like he has come a long way since 2021 so its pretty hard. He even felt the rush the other day and stepped out of the pocket to deliver a dime of a deep ball. I just hope with all hope he has finally got it to all click and has a better feel for the pocket because I still feel that is his biggest achilles heal.
It's been building up to him doing so. One day people may look back and forget that there was any doubt Milton would excel in 2023 because he dominated vandy and clemson to end the year. Right now, people see that as an aberration. It might be the real Milton.
