One of my favorite “Randy Walker”-isms was that “The Bar don’t lie”. During my one season on the team, he repeated this as a message in front of all the returning players - and the staff - and here is what he meant.
If you showed up for fall camp and you didn’t pass your weight lifting expectations, you hadn’t put in the work. No excuses: you either lifted that bar where it needed to be, or you didn’t and you failed. And he had no problem benching you if that was the case. The strength coach, Larry Lilja, was a badass and enforced this - in a generally pleasant way.
And here’s why this matters. I probably shouldn’t post this, but it’s been a lifetime:
Patton was constantly sweating for his job those first two seasons because he knew Coach Walk was watching. And that if he underperformed, he would have been “managed out” quickly. Thankfully he improved and moved on to a better gig, but we all knew he was working his ass off to transition from being a TE to a OL coach.
My point: Cushing would not have lasted over a decade if Walk were still the coach. Neither would McCall’s offensive results. I admit that Randy knew offense and hired the wrong guy as the DC, but I would also posit that Fitz has the opposite problem: he knows what great defenses look like, but is lacking in exposure to advanced offensive philosophies.
And that’s ok as long as he hires the right people. Anderson might be a good start.
Enough of this back and forth. I need to go take care of family things before another crazy day at work. Let’s see how we do against Wisconsin.
If you showed up for fall camp and you didn’t pass your weight lifting expectations, you hadn’t put in the work. No excuses: you either lifted that bar where it needed to be, or you didn’t and you failed. And he had no problem benching you if that was the case. The strength coach, Larry Lilja, was a badass and enforced this - in a generally pleasant way.
And here’s why this matters. I probably shouldn’t post this, but it’s been a lifetime:
Patton was constantly sweating for his job those first two seasons because he knew Coach Walk was watching. And that if he underperformed, he would have been “managed out” quickly. Thankfully he improved and moved on to a better gig, but we all knew he was working his ass off to transition from being a TE to a OL coach.
My point: Cushing would not have lasted over a decade if Walk were still the coach. Neither would McCall’s offensive results. I admit that Randy knew offense and hired the wrong guy as the DC, but I would also posit that Fitz has the opposite problem: he knows what great defenses look like, but is lacking in exposure to advanced offensive philosophies.
And that’s ok as long as he hires the right people. Anderson might be a good start.
Enough of this back and forth. I need to go take care of family things before another crazy day at work. Let’s see how we do against Wisconsin.
