I think most of the posters on here are missing the boat on the issues facing Coach Stitt and the team. It's not his X's and O's, it's the intangibles and aspects of human nature he underestimated.
When he came here, he left a program where he was head coach for 15 years. The first year he had his recruits (year 5) they went 12-1. There was no one left from the prior coach's recruits. There was no one left who didn't buy into Stitt's system, no one with loyalties to prior coaches, no one who felt entitled to a starting position once they won it. He comes to Montana and has to accept as his DC someone he beat our for the job, someone who was the players' first choice for the HC position. This was a bigger hurdle to team unity and performance than any opposing team.
Stitt's first mistake was agreeing to keep Ty. Ty's players were loyal to him, and backed him against Stitt. "Mature" 21 and 22 year-olds were acting like teenage step sons who wouldn't mind their step dad. Is it any mystery why tranfers, Jones, Hendo and Roberts were our three best players? Sure they had talent, but they also knew how to be mature and work with changes in coaches and philosophies and all bought in. Many of the players who didn't were cleaned out, but not until after the first year.
Montana is the state flagship university. CSM, not so much. Home state boys are the darlings of the fans, the media, the boosters, and this board. Look at the 37 jersey hoopla. I'm surprised the ACLU hasn't stepped in to stop that. Point is this is a seed for dissension, not unity, and I don't think Stitt anticipated this. But he did notice something about a "me first" attitude, and responded by taking names off the backs of jerseys. Think it was Stitt's recruits who bristled at this? I'd deal with this by making 73 a special jersey for the out-of-state kids, and raise that flag each game as well.
Stitt'ss now on his third year and it's evident he and the team have learned from these prior issues. The film of practice drills and the scrimmages show greater camaraderie and effort than I remember his first 2 years. I know parents of several players who report that Stitt's recruits are now becoming leaders in the locker room and on the field. They are excited about the leadership qualities of all the current QB's. None of them want or will tolerate the type of let down that happened last year. My experience with these players is they tell boosters and sycophants what they think they want to hear, and tell their parents the actual story. I share none of the pessimism of crowd on here wanting to run Stitt out on a rail.
Stitt has a very keen football mind. He didn't get stupid by leaving CSM. I think he underestimated the forces of resistance he was going to face, and his ability to get the square pegs he inherited at the QB into a system requiring round pegs. I think Semore will learn to adapt his defenses and adjustments much better now that he's seen BSC offenses for two years and had to make those calls by himself.
I think we will see less slow starts this year, and we will put a few teams away by half or mid 3rd qtr. And I'm going to take the Griz and the points against Washington. Stitt has won this team over. I believe he and this years' team will win the fans over as well with their performances. The football will still bounce in funny ways, and if a few more bounce the team's way, look out.
