It will take a 7-5 record for Carolina to probably finish 4-4 in the SEC Will a sub-.500 conference record be acceptable in a coaches 4th season? Something to think about.
Missing out on a bowl game last year was unacceptable but I doubt Ray cans him with a 5-7 record this year as unacceptable as it would be again. That would only happen at a program that has expectations.
I have always said that Beamer will be given as much time as Muschamp (5th season). I'm just saying that if you can't go .500 in the conference in Year 4, something is wrong, badly wrong. If that happens, I'd ask Beamer: What the hell have you been doing in the past 4 years?
I don't know. Have you seen the schedule? Probably the strongest we've ever faced. We're playing 7 teams in the Top 25 and 3 in the Top 10. Besides Vandy, what games would you expect us to win to get to .500 in the SEC?
Yes, I've stated something like this too. Ray has turned us into strictly an elite women's basketball school. State of the football program starts with Ray but doesn't exonerate Beamer. If we keep missing bowl games, we don't need him. I can coach the team for less if missing bowl games annually is acceptable.
As I said, Ole Miss and Missouri have not destroyed us in recruiting like, for example, Georgia. Thus, they are not heads and shoulders above us talent-wise. And we get them at home. Texas A&M is coming off a coaching change and we get them at home. We play Kentucky on the road. But we beat them last year and the year before. LSU at our place looks like a big mountain to climb until we realize that Missouri last year was beating them going into the 4th quarter. My point is that there are conference games we can win besides Vandy. I'm not saying we will win all those games. I am saying that there are winnable games other than Vandy. My goodness....this will be Beamer's 4th season here. What has he been doing in his recruiting trips? Hopefully , he has been getting quality players who, with good coaching, will win. After all, Beamer made changes on his staff after last season. Hopefully he brought in coaches who can provide that good coaching to quality recruits.
It's a very tough road to .500. I'm not sure our best team ever would get there this season.
It never is easy in the SEC no matter what and never will be. But if Ole Miss and Missouri can do it, to quote Steve Spurrier, "Why not us?".
I dunno man. I think we would be far better off without the portal or NIL situation overall. Just look at last season and the players we lost who would have been difference-makers in some of those games. Year 4 means little if you're losing top talent which used to stick around for years. Also, Beamer has already broken even in the conference.
NIL and the Portal impact all teams, not just us. When you lose players, it's up to you to bring in better than you lost. Yes, he broke even in Year 2. Then he regressed in Year 3. Do we want a coach who regresses or has the program stay the same? Or do we want a coach who continually improves the program? I choose the later.
Don't think you can judge the portal/NIL because we hired an incompetent head coach who hasn't shown the ability to at least hire competent coordinators.
Ole Miss and Missouri have both benefitted from the NIL. We haven't. I would have much rather had Lloyd, Bell, Burch, Wells, etc. and a Blake Mitchell or Steven Thompson caliber QB than what we had last season. We were far too one-dimensional on offense and a good part of that had to do with losing players to the NIL.
Well, I think it's all a matter of perspective.
Source? The no-wait portal allowed him to head to the LA spotlight immediately.
Looking at the recruiting rankings above for the past 3 years, it shows from 2022-24:
I hope that we did not more than double Beamer's pay last year so that he could just say "oink". But to paraphrase Art Linkletter, "kids do the darndest things".
Now do the players we're losing at the end of each season.
The more one can put into NIL, the better. But even then, the talent gap between us and Missouri is not great. Did Missouri have better talent when they demolished Tennessee last year? Did Missouri have better talent when they beat Ohio State last year? The answer to both questions is "NO". But, they had better "coaching".
MIssouri and Ole Miss are not having their top talent walk out the door each year and are spending far more than us in the NIL. Missouri just received a $60 million contribution to the cause. Coaching can't replace that.
Neither are Ohio State and Tennessee having their best talent leave each year. Yet Missouri beat them both.
What does this have to do with us? We beat a better UT and Clemson teams back to back. Missouri and Ole Miss have surged since the NIL and no wait portal went mainstream. They get publicity regularly on the topic. We do not.
You're still not considering the fact we're losing some of our best players each year. Ole Miss and Missouri aren't having this issue. It's a very big deal.
Honestly, I don't keep up with either and am not going to take the time to find out what they have lost, if they have lost anyone. Certainly retention/attrition can make a difference. It's easy and quick to look up recruiting rankings. But if recruiting rankings say anything, they say we have a chance against both of them. And that's especially true at home. I think we have a better chance against them at home than we do against LSU at home. But I don't know what LSU has lost or not lost either. All that being said, the above poster brought up 2 good examples: our games against UT and clemson in 2022. We beat them both (and really had no business beating them if only player talent was considered). And supposedly, we have upgraded the coaching staff since 2022. So why not beat Ole Miss, Missouri, Tam and UK this season? I for one don't believe that Beamer has done a bad job recruiting. And I for one think we have a great chance to win at least 3 of those games. If we could beat UT and clemson in 2022, why not?
Because the other teams have more talent and better coaches. 2022 was not the norm. Have you forgotten 5-7 with a veteran quarterback and 1st round wide receiver? Are you selling season tickets? Must be your first year.
Just for the record, I was very much opposed to hiring Beamer. And I'm still not sold on him. That being said, I suspect we are going to surprise people this coming season, proving me wrong in opposing his hire. It's important to his Head Coaching career that he show progress this coming season. He knows that as indicated by the several changes on staff. Time will tell.
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That is correct. No one denies that recruiting is important. And yes, NIL money is important. But even with the NIL disadvantage, we are primarily on par with Missouri and Ole Miss in player talent. I credit Beamer for that. But now, he has to show what he can do with that talent in his 4th season. In Drinkwitz' 4th season, he made Missouri into a Top 10 team, as did Kiffin in his 4th season at Ole Miss. Now, I'm not saying we have a good chance of beating Alabama and Oklahoma on the road. But our player talent plus the home field advantage give us a great chance to beat Missouri, Ole Miss and Texas A&M. And our player talent gives us a great chance to beat Kentucky on the road. If a game is a "coin toss", good coaching can make the difference. I'm not saying that we should expect a Top 10 season in Beamer's 4th season. BUT, if Beamer's 4th season turns out to be mediocre as last season was, then Beamer has some explaining to do, imho.
Whoever hired him has some explaining to do. Beamer just wanted to be here.
No one wanted Beamer as a head coach when we hired him and if things don't work out (I really hope they do but I'm not sold) then no one will want him ever as a head coach and we'll be another five years behind. We have an AD that had no business making Shane's hire or any other football hire after the Muschamp fiasco but as usual our university gave Ray another contract extension after 12 years of diminishing men's major sports and giving us the special title of being a "strictly elite women's basketball school". Ray keeps a tight budget though (woohoo) and the rich BOT just gets richer on his watch so he could sign a lifetime contract for all they care.
Please explain how we're on par with Ole Miss and Missouri in talent as of today. I see both of those teams bragging about their NIL programs and their talent isn't exiting at season's end. Recruiting figures are only one part of the story with the new system around.
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