Case of the Mondays: Coaching Edition

Sometimes you wake up thinking you’re going to have a great week…and then Monday slaps you in the face. So let’s get angry about some stuff.

Expectations of Doeren’s Extension

I’m not here to necessarily bash State for extending Doeren, although I could debate both sides of whether they should have or not. This is more so directed at the subset of the fanbase that has irrational goal levels in order for a coach to be deemed “successful.” Yes, Doeren is sub .500 in the ACC and a bunch of overall wins are against programs that have no business being on the same field as State. But he also just won a record 7 ACC games, which is more impressive considering they used 7 different QBs last year (rounded up slightly). Furthermore, he’ll have 20 returning starters, including a LOADED offense.

Yet when news broke of the extension there was the usual “So we’re just good with mediocrity?!?”, which tops my list of worn out responses. Other than winning an ACC Championship or making it into the Bowl Championship Series, there will be folks that never like Doeren, Keatts, Avent or a host of former and current coaches. Here’s how it would go…

• 2020: 8-4 (7-3 ACC)… “Why are we extending this guy? Remember when he lost to ECU, like five years ago?”
• 2021: 9-3 (6-2 ACC)… “All a fluke, wait until next year when he chokes again.”
• 2022: 10-2 (7-1 ACC)… “Yeah, but we still don’t have an ACC Championship.”

How insane is that?! We could go 8, 9, and 10 wins and have folks still hate the guy. Seriously, give credit when credit is due and call for his head if we go 3-9. Otherwise, GTFO.

No Selling Gardner

Last week started with Jayden Gardner deciding that UVA was the answer. For a team that somehow made Huff a star, let’s be honest, it made sense. Oh…and they recently won a championship… We at PI even speculated and heard rumors it was UVA a week in advance. While time will tell if having a team truly fitted for “Keatts Style” will get us over the hump, I have issues elsewhere.

When asked about his conversations with State, Gardner had this to say,

“Our relationship is really, really good. All their foundation is built on North Carolina players. Their main pitch was that you can’t be a hometown hero anywhere other than NC State.” – 247 Sports

I’m sure there were other selling points made to Gardner, but really? Our main point was you could be a hero? We couldn’t focus on his relationship with Manny Bates or that he is THE missing piece for a team that is going to bring the energy every night? We couldn’t talk about our upbeat offense (compared to UVA) that’s going to give him the national spotlight? State didn’t even make the effort to ensure themselves the last interview slot. We literally went with “you could be a hero”…Guys want to win and go to the NBA, being a hero is cute, old school and laughable.

Adia Barnes Bird Watching

This story is 2 weeks old, but we haven’t had a CotM, so here we are. Adia Barnes is the head women’s basketball coach at Arizona. Arizona by no means was expected to do well, let along make it the National Championship game. However, after a HUGE win in the semis against UCONN, Barnes was shown in a huddle with her team, throwing up middle fingers and saying “F*ck everybody if they don’t believe in us, because we believe in us!”

Then the media went crazy with it.

Look, in a moment like that, with her team, she had some fun. It wasn’t directed at the UCONN bench or straight into a camera. Why do we put so much stock into in the momentary actions in the heat of competition. Granted, Myles Garrett swinging a helmet or using a racial slur is one thing…telling your team that you’re ride or die is MUCH different.

The woman gave birth, missed like a week of practice and then lead her team to a Natty appearance…she can do whatever the hell she wants, in my opinion. If ya got a problem with that, GTFO.