A lot of the discussion on this board revolves around how much political capital Dabo has in the bank based on his past success. Many people are willing to give him as long as he wants to right the ship. Many others judge performance on a day to day and future outlook basis. Neither is wrong, but I can tell you that across my years I have seen many ships go down because of assuming past success is an indicator of future success.
I am not saying Dabo should be fired or even forced to make changes that he doesn't want to make. That is ultimately Neff's call and he will have to live with the results he delivers across the entire AD. I never imagined 10 years ago that we would have 2 nattys and 6 playoff appearances. However, I do believe that Dabo has a fiduciary responsibility to deliver results based on the investment being made in the program. A lot of folks on here were not around when we went into the dumpster after the Ford years. It happens faster than you think and it is harder than you think to get back to the top. Our rise coincided with the fall of FSU, UNC, Miami, UGa, UF, Tennessee, etc. It occurred when ACC revenues were more on par with the SEC. Those days are gone.
Despite what many seem to think, Dabo is paid for current production not past production. The investment in the program is to deliver results now and in the future, not because of the past output. We are locked into Dabo for the long term because of his contract. He holds the keys to when he will leave. Hopefully, he will decide to play the current game in a way that supports his ideals.
He has shown that he will make tough decisions, just maybe not as fast as many of us would. He has shown he can make great hires. What I have not seen is his ability to adjust his approach to talent acquisition. We have to figure out how to cast a wider net and bring in bigger classes. Once someone has a degree, we should not feel bad about pushing them out if they are not going to make us better than talent we can bring in.
I am going to admit that I find it troubling that we are repeating the cycle of having a bad loss and Dabo having to go scorched earth on his staff to try and salvage a season. We NEEDED to get into the CFP this year. We NEED to show that we are still on top of the mountain while slappy the clown is having a little success down at the armpit of the state. We need to show relevance to open up any opportunities to generate more revenue and we were actually positioned to get that done, but we stumbled our way to where we do not control our own destiny and we appear to be heading back to the dreaded 'Clemsoning' days.
It is going to get harder to ask for more and more money for parking, tickets, etc, if people don't see the results. I have confidence Dabo can figure it out, I do not have confidence he will figure it out as quickly as he could. I hope our floor is a lot higher than it was after the Ford years.
