Predicting the future is hard and we all know that. There are things that each one of us fundamentally knows will happen in our own lives this week and we will be wrong about a bunch of those internal predictions.
So I type this with that in mind: I don’t think the sentiment is there to 86 Seven Loss Steve before the end of year 4. People are tired of turnover and turmoil, and that includes every level - the admin, the money, the employees, the players, the recruits. People like the guy. You can see legitimate signs of player development. He’s recruiting well and not doing so naively. He’s hired a mostly sound staff and folks seem like they think the infrastructure work he is doing is making a difference for the future. He will be here through 2024 barring scandal or utter collapse.
That isn’t me advocating or saying anything absolute. You guys know I am most ardently in the “show me” category with Steve Sarklostagain, but that’s my read being around some of it.
Beyond that, and due to the positives I alluded to, I find myself in the weird spot personally of feeling like he’s got a shot to figure it out. I think if the dude takes the Patterson role for the offense, where he is really involved in the strategy and planning and then let’s someone else call the plays, it could be a breakthrough. I think he is a wizard strategically on offense but he is prone to ineptitude on the tactical side when the opponent makes adjustments. If someone like Marion were actually calling plays and Sarkisian could watch the defense make it’s adjustments to their plan, it might actually be a strength.
That’s probably far fetched as it’s part of his identity, I know. I see his personality type being more likely to do something like that than Fisher’s type, however. Whatever the case, if the guy doesn’t figure out how to overcome his clear mediocrity in handling the offense after good defensive staffs make their adjustments with their teams around the half, it will be his undoing. More than the defense or personnel, the offense going from the team strength in the first half to a team weakness in the second half is what is destroying outcomes on the schedule both this year and last.