re: Spring Practice Thread

quote:

---

Were we a consistent winning program competing year in and year out for hardware under Gus?

---

Well, yes and no. AU in the Gustav Era followed a distinct pattern:

- We consistently stumbled out of the gate, losing at least one of our first four games every season except 2014 and 2019. “Four Game Gus” was real.

-Then the offense would gel, usually behind a stud RB (who typically wasn’t the starter at the beginning of the season) and we would start demolishing opponents and look like legit contenders.

-Finally, a significant injury - usually to aforementioned stud RB, but also to QB in ‘16 - would expose our complete lack of depth at those positions, and we would stumble through Amen Corner and fall out of the running. 2017 was the only exception to this pattern, as the key injury (KJ) came in Game 12 rather than 8 or 9.

-Rinse and repeat.

The PTB thought Gustav deserved caviar money after 2017, and that the only reason we hadn’t repeated as SEC Champs since ‘13 was just bad injury luck. I think last year finally proved conclusively that he was way underperforming, and was never going to live up to the championship potential displayed that magical November that led to the ridiculous and ruinous extension.