Coaching or Players?

[Dawgs]

Would Kurt Traylor come back if the position opened up?

[waterboy]

Would Kurt Traylor come back if the position opened up?

I doubt he would, but I wouldn't mind seeing it. I would hope we would spend the money to bring in a good defensive coordinator, though.

[stardog]

Coach Bob Shipley (a very good coach) says " You got to have the Horses !!!

[Aesculus gilmus]

Coach Bob Shipley (a very good coach) says " You got to have the Horses !!!

Exactly. Gilmer won't ever again have a coach as charismatic as Jeff Traylor. He was a Texas high school football coach out of central casting. I thought of Jeff every time I'd watch Kyle Chandler play Coach Taylor (eerily close to our coach's last name) on "Friday Night Lights."

Traylor didn't have to go get the horses. They came to him. Reverse recruiting just within the rules.

We now have a transient coaching staff, having lost most of the original Traylor staff and even quite a few from the Turner staff (and losing Kurt was big, no doubt), and we also no longer have the same reliable contingent of "Jimmys and Joes" year after year.

Moreover, we have a practically nonexistent fanbase compared to what we had, say, 10 years ago. Football at all levels is fading away. "Peak football" was reached in Gilmer almost 10 years ago during the Stump Godfrey era.

Maybe we in Gilmer deserve this. Still, I know the Buckeyes have not given up and I know Coach Turner had an impossible act to follow and yet has coached in 13 playoff games in three seasons with an overall record of 39-8. Not too shabby.

[lostaussie]

Would Kurt Traylor come back if the position opened up?

I have to be careful about what I say on here because lots of folks know who I am. First of all I don't think the position is going to open up and I'm not sure I want it to anyway. What I want to see is some fire, some intensity and some discipline which we have lacked since Jeff left. We have slowly been letting this thing get away from us and now it's starting to snowball.
Now back to your original question. At the time that Kurt left I didn't know if he was HC material. Looking back I'm not sure he shouldn't have been given a chance. 1st HC job, fire, intensity, discipline. He has shown it at REL. His progress is evident. I wonder what he could have done with an established program. We shall never know.

[waterboy]

I have to be careful about what I say on here because lots of folks know who I am. First of all I don't think the position is going to open up and I'm not sure I want it to anyway. What I want to see is some fire, some intensity and some discipline which we have lacked since Jeff left. We have slowly been letting this thing get away from us and now it's starting to snowball.
Now back to your original question. At the time that Kurt left I didn't know if he was HC material. Looking back I'm not sure he shouldn't have been given a chance. 1st HC job, fire, intensity, discipline. He has shown it at REL. His progress is evident. I wonder what he could have done with an established program. We shall never know.

You're right in that it's likely the AD/HC position won't open up until Coach Turner retires. People at the time of his hiring didn't know if he had the right temperament to be HC. Some people were saying Alan Metzel probably was the better choice, or even Kurt. I still think we can win with Turner, but I would still like to see us go out and get a really good defensive coordinator, and maybe even an OL coach. I've been saying it for years as you well know, and I'm going to stick to my guns on the DC. I shudder to think how many more possible championships we would've had if we stressed defense more. This year is an anomaly offensively. I do think we miss Kurt more than people think. His offensive lines were top notch and consistent in his time here. I just don't think Turner was able to replace the coaches that Jeff had with coaches that are in the same mold, and that's the biggest difference. When Jeff did lose one of his coaches, he was able to replace him with a comparable coach. In other words, he was better at the political part and getting what and who he wanted.

[Txbroadcaster]

I have to be careful about what I say on here because lots of folks know who I am. First of all I don't think the position is going to open up and I'm not sure I want it to anyway. What I want to see is some fire, some intensity and some discipline which we have lacked since Jeff left. We have slowly been letting this thing get away from us and now it's starting to snowball.
Now back to your original question. At the time that Kurt left I didn't know if he was HC material. Looking back I'm not sure he shouldn't have been given a chance. 1st HC job, fire, intensity, discipline. He has shown it at REL. His progress is evident. I wonder what he could have done with an established program. We shall never know.

I am just asking...but what progress has LEe shown? They are about where they were for the last 5-6 years..5-5 type of team

[lostaussie]

I am just asking...but what progress has LEe shown? They are about where they were for the last 5-6 years..5-5 type of team

If I'm not mistaken the year before he got there Lee won a couple of games. Didn't they go 6-4 last year? Heck I could be wrong. It's not like I keep up with them that closely. I know they have struggled some this year.

[waterboy]

If I'm not mistaken the year before he got there Lee won a couple of games. Didn't they go 6-4 last year? Heck I could be wrong. It's not like I keep up with them that closely. I know they have struggled some this year.

Yes, Lee went from 2-8 in '16, to 6-4 last season in Kurt's first year, their best season since going 6-6 in 2009. Lee is 1-3 thus far this season.

[Celina8]

It is the Johnny and Joes folks and I will say that I have seen a lot of good Coaches make teams and players much better yet their Coaching record would not indicate how good of a Coach they actually have been.

[Txbroadcaster]

If I'm not mistaken the year before he got there Lee won a couple of games. Didn't they go 6-4 last year? Heck I could be wrong. It's not like I keep up with them that closely. I know they have struggled some this year.

yes they were 2-8 the year before...If I remember right their QB got hurt early in that year but from 2013 they have been

4-6, 5-6, 5-5, 2-8, 6-4 and this year 1-3 so far

I am not saying he will not turn it around some..but they are basically a .500 team again....That 2004 fluke run to the title IMO almost hurt the program more than it helped because it created a false narrative that Lee was a state power in the mind of the Lee fan base.

[waterboy]

yes they were 2-8 the year before...If I remember right their QB got hurt early in that year but from 2013 they have been

4-6, 5-6, 5-5, 2-8, 6-4 and this year 1-3 so far

I am not saying he will not turn it around some..but they are basically a .500 team again....That 2004 fluke run to the title IMO almost hurt the program more than it helped because it created a false narrative that Lee was a state power in the mind of the Lee fan base.

It would be tough for any coach to win consistently at Lee. The same program at the high school level is not being taught to the kids in the junior high schools in the city, so the coaches and kids are already behind the curve. It is kind of a death zone for high school coaches, to be honest. I'm not sure what the answer is to making the Tyler schools consistent winners, but it's going to take a LOT of people on the same page to get things turned around, in my opinion.