Endless Mike {l Wrote}:Eagledom {l Wrote}:twballgame9 {l Wrote}:Endless Mike {l Wrote}:BCFAN94 {l Wrote}:Endless Mike {l Wrote}:BCFAN94 {l Wrote}:twballgame9 {l Wrote}:Endless Mike {l Wrote}:I like how OJ didn't quote the part where Ryan calls Al a good and successful coach.
Or the title of the article for that matter.
Not defending OJ here but saying Al is a good and successful coach was in total contridiction to everything else in the column. Sounds to me like, if you put a house plant in Al's seat, as long as he had his loyal assistants, you'd get the same results he got.
It depends on how good the house plant is at coaching up and developing players.
From the way I read Ryan's article, Al didn't do much coaching at all, let alone coaching up. Sounds like Coen was doing all of the coaching, coaching up, recruiting and everything else.
I got it from this:
"Coen found these fallen-through-the-cracks guys (which every one of the above was; no McDonald’s All-Americans in this bunch) and Al certainly coached ’em up, which is something Eagles fans should not forget."
OJ wasn't smart enough to get it in the first place, let alone forget it.
Despite the fact that no one in the country other than Bill Coen recognized that they could play, Troy Bell, Craig Smith, *** ******* and Jared Dudley walked on campus as NBA first round draft picks.
no. They walked onto campus as players that were going to develop into 1st round draft picks regardless of the coach
Wow! How did every other school in the country not notice that potential?
i suggest you look at Craig Smiths and Troy Bells stats as freshmen vs Seniors. Dudley improved greatly from freshman to senior year...I don't give Skinner credit for that - Dudley was going to develop regardless. *** ******* was draftedbased on athletic ability, not his development as a player - and any development he did have was more due to Lucas than Skinner. Not to mention that all of these players were not recruited by Al, but by Coen.