All good and fair points. I’m on record saying Prohm should and will get another year. But I’m also on record saying that I see the signs of a pretty major downward trend and signs that he wasn’t as good in those first 2 years as the talent level on the team. It’s rare that coaches turn around this downward trend as above average coaches don’t need 6 years to figure things out.
So let’s give him next year and when we are in the bottom on the league again (which I fully expect us to be), I guess we can rehash this conversation again.
I really hope I’m wrong and Prohm turns things around. But I’d bet money I’m not.
Yeah that's fair as well. I'm in the camp that Prohm has done an average job here. He was given a plethora of talent when he came in his first year, and in his second year he did a very good job of finding a couple of pieces to work with those guys that returned. I also think he did a pretty darn good job in coaching that 2016-2017 team. Ever since that year, I've had doubts. His ability to recruit and find high talent is great, but it's the role player guys that he's had loads of trouble finding/developing, and those role players are usually the difference between a good season and a bad one.
This season is missing those middle guys. We had talent in Solomon, Halliburton, and Bolton but honestly for this specific season I'd have a hard time choosing another player on this team that I would want on my team. That's not to say that Conditt, Grill, or Jackson won't develop, because I honestly think all three of those guys are gym rats, have skills, and their work ethics will get them there. But this year none of those guys are ready to play at this level yet both ways for significant minutes.
I'm not being blindly optimistic in Prohm either. I don't think our recruiting class alone next year is going to be able to come in and save the day. That's just too much to put on a bunch of freshman. Other pieces are going to have to be brought to this team, guys are going to have to get in the gym and develop and Prohm has a chess match in front of him to try and figure out how to not only be successful next year, but be successful for the following year. We've already seen Coach Prohm turn around a team's talent level in a year. Two years ago we were bad and then BOOM we're a top 25 team again. Next year could be a similar situation, but Prohm cannot have next year go the same way. He can't allow whatever happened last year to happen again. You can't lose to a TCU team at home. You can't lose by 20+ @ Texas and @ WVU. I'm not saying you can't lose on the road, but you can't get boat raced like that.
I don't know how next year is going to go, but I think a goal for the team should be to go .500 in the conference and make the NCAA tournament. Those are not unrealistic expectations and who cares if you're in the bottom half of the league if you go 9-9 and end up in the Big Dance?