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I agree with you. I think those types of coaches who can inspire without screaming are absolutely fantastic. I am amazed when they can pull it off (because I don't know otherwise). Maybe Whitesell's style could work at UB, I just think going from Bobby Hurley (high energy) to Nate Oats (high energy) to Whitesell (low energy) is a huge change of pace especially as you are trying to MAINTAIN success. We saw what success looks like at UB. We saw things that have never been accomplished here. Do we drastically change the recipe or do we modify it? In my mind, Whitesell is a drastic change to the recipe rather than a modification of the success that we had. Is this a perfect storm? Yes. When Whitesell was announced, I was worried. After the Dartmouth game, I started having conversations that Whitesell might not be the coach to continue the success. Now we are 0-2 in MAC play. I think, by definition, I have become a hater. If we bring home a MAC Championship within the next 2-3 years, I will gladly put my foot in my mouth. It will also make me reevaluate how I look at coaches. Will I attend/watch every game? Yes. Will I still support the team? Yes. Can I be upset but still love a team? Yes. Will I still come back every year? Well, I am a Buffalo Bills fan so I think we know the answer to that question

To get a bit back on track as we wait for Friday's game, I have two thoughts. First, is it as simple as a "good guy, bad guy" thing? Fill in your own analogy (I am trying to be sensitive to the impact of language as I age...) From reading on here (and other sources), Whitesell was the guy who would come over after Oats would yell and calm things down with the player. The "good guy", so to speak. And, apparently, he was good at that and was valued by the players in that role. But from what I have seen myself on TV (and from what has been implied here on the games I've missed), Whitesell is still (basically) the "good guy". And, of course, the "good guy" schtick doesn't work by itself. Viewed from this lens, it is hard to be optimistic for the rest of the season. ---- Second, at some level, what we are seeing now is one of the two alternatives that could have happened and Alnutt had to make his choice. What do I mean? Well...clearly Alnutt had some concerns about Whitesell unless he would have named him right away (instead of, eventually, coming back to him). So he had two choices: 1. Hire someone outside the program and have a mass exodus of players transferring...and start again with a coach he was more optimistic about for the future. In other words, they would have to rebuild. This was going to be a tough road because the team was coming off a 30+ win season, was ranked (basically) the entire year, still had a good core, etc. Did he really want to have that gutted in one year? And when I say gutted, I mean: "As a team, we were thinking they had to keep it in-house, or everyone would go their different ways," says senior guard Davonta Jordan, who estimates that half the roster would have transferred if an outside hire was made. "At that moment, everybody was trying to find out if we would stay." https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/sports/2019/10/21/whitesell-puts-imprint-on-ub-program-while-keeping-oats-influence 2. Hire someone inside the program to keep the roster together and see if the talent level of the team, despite any concerns he may have about Whitesell as the head coach, wins the day during the season. It was a wager and you can understand why Alnutt, considering where we were at the end of the season and the momentum of the program, would choose this option. But that is why he (Alnutt) is in this position -- to make these hard decisions. I don't know if anyone watches NASCAR, but sometimes if there is a late stage caution, a team will stay out on old tires to get track position to get stage points. Sometimes it works splendidly, where a team in 12th place does not pit, goes to the front on the restart of a stage with a few laps left, is able to keep it together on the old tires and then finishes 3rd and gets a bunch of stage points. When it works, it was a good strategy. However...there are times when a team does not pit from 12th, goes to the front on the restart of a stage with a few laps left...and gets passed like they are almost standing still during the first lap...and finishes 18th on the stage.. (and still has to pit!). This time the strategy failed miserably. To bring the analogy together, I believe we are now in the midst of that second scenario happening. And there is really nothing much to be done about it now. It was a calculated risk, but it is unfolding in a way that always could happen, but were hopeful it didn't. --- How is going to turn around? Not sure. It seems like the team is sliding on ice. Cohesiveness is off and not necessarily playing as a team, especially on defense. I'd like to say that these two games were a blip and they will turn it around on Friday (I am hopeful for that). But...my life experience tells me that it may get worse before it gets better. Teams got beat down by the Bulls the last few years and seeing a team like the Bulls (struggling with defense and not really playing for each other at the moment) is a great motivator for other squads. Miami will certainly want to kick us when we are down. Heck...we lost at Miami two years ago with a team that won 15 conference games. The Miami team this year isn't very good, so maybe we can right the ship here...but they may be thinking the same thing.

"I don’t agree with everything Tim says all the time, but he is a huge UB booster and fan. Personally I wish he “stick his nose”in more threads. In addition to his comments he has some great insights not to mention some access to information most fans do not. Tim was on this board long before many of the newer people came on board. There was a period of time where he didn’t comment at all. I don’t know why that was but I suspect it may have been some animosity/competition between Bull Run and UB Fan. We should welcome all comments especially from different viewpoints with the exception of hateful, vulgar etc type posts. But that is the job of the mods and not me." Just making it easier to read.

This post made me think about something. Whitesell used to run a slower system but has changed to fast paced to keep the players happy and because we have had success with it. Maybe he really isn't comfortable with that system or at the very least isn't as good at coaching it due to his personality. His low energy method might be better for a slower paced system. I am 95% sure that I am wrong, but still interesting.

I mean, that’s all you do when you stick your nose in any thread.

I hope we win again soon lol

By calling someone out for being rude, I myself am being just as bad? Well I guess this is the thread for hot takes

S'all good. I agree the team needs more energy too. And that that it comes from the coach... just not necessarily during a game. The other thing I was thinking, was that I don't know the players, so I don't know how to best motivate them. As a fan, it's easy to want to see a certain thing during a game (after all, that's all I see)... but, then I think One way might not be best way to get that extra energy from every player.

A) I get it. B) I only made a general comment, and wasn't calling anyone (you) out. C) To me, The Coach/Player relationship during practice is more important than what it is during a game. To me, during a game , the interaction between Coach and Referee is the more important 'relationship'. So, Sure, I'd like to see more fire from the Coach from time to time, but I'm not sold that doing so during a game would necessarily impact the players as much as we all want.

Not stirring the pot Jesph, I said above I would not blame him either way, sorry if you missed that. Hell I even defended his post against the reaction: I think it was a shaq take, but not so awful or disrespectful that UB communications should have weighed in, in any capacity. But since I seem to be a bad influence here in your opinion I'll just go away.

You're really going to use this as another opportunity to stir the pot between the two of you as well? Let it go...

@Kevin has been trying to tell y'all.

Got it. Everything about the output of the department got better and many of his changes are still in place but because the words "New York" offended your provincial sensitivities danny white was a hack amateur.

Scoreboard... Results before white, results during and after white.... Nothing needs to be defended.

a-freaking-men!

The job of the coach is to motivate and inspire their players to be successful. They provide guidance, structure, as well as playcalling in games. They must also have a good sense of when to call a time out to try and regroup when things aren’t going well. I started the season optimistic, now not so much. Our coach may be a great person, but his sideline intensity leaves a lot to be desired. When a team isn’t playing well, and when they’re down by double digits, they need a fire under their ass and some sort of energy to feed off of to motivate them to play better and make a come back. Whitesell simply does not get fired up. A bad call happens? He stands there with his hand on his chin. A player makes a bad play? He starts Sean McDermott clapping in front of the bench. There is ZERO intensity. If your team was down by several scores and you’re starting to get demoralized by it, which one would motivate you better and give you the energy boost to do something about it: A coach calmly explaining techniques and pointing things out, or a coach who is going to yell and scream and put a chip on your shoulder? Its why players who’s coach also happens to be their parent put so much effort in. Their parent knows EXACTLY what buttons to push to get you pumped up and motivated to do better. A coach can’t always be a player’s best friend, sometimes they have to call them out and make situations uncomfortable because clearly whatever the player was doing before wasn’t working. Until there is a significant culture change and surge of energy brought to this team, expect a lot of the same results. As far as players posting their own personal highlights after bad losses go, take that any way you want. I personally interpret it as them saying “Hey other college coaches, look what I can do! Look how talented I am, look how solid of a transfer I could be for your program! Get me out of this lifeless team please!” Disagree with me all you want. There plenty of people on here that seem to not comprehend that people will have differing opinions than them. My position is going to remain that this team needs a f**king leader to stand up and be vocal and motivate them to be better and play to their potential.

You Market UCF as the "home town team" for a few reasons.. 1 - It's not the highest level of athletics by a state school in Florida. HE's never going to get any buy in on "we're floridas team" when you have *FLORIDA* AND *FLORIDA STATE* in objectivly better conferences with real history. In NY you don't have that problem. UB as a state school is at the highest level and with far more history than any other institution. we *ARE* the leaders and our only competition for that mantle is a large private school and a military academy. Everyone else in the state has no FBS football, let alone *better* football. 2 - Orlando is significantly larger than Buffalo. The metro area is twice the population of Buffalo NY so you're fishing in a bigger pond -- The NYBI logo and some of the sales pitch could have been better but the program as a whole undoubetly advanced the department and we are reaping the benefit of that time. Attendance went up, donations went up, performance went up. Our profile raised more under white than it did under Warde or than it has since White. Warde did a great job laying groundwork, it was not sexy but it was critical. He handed White a healthy Athletic department white handed off an even better one. As to the "it alienated people" I lay that at the feet of Bucky and Sully who spent years harping on uniform patches and slogans when they could have been introducing the people of Buffalo to Khalil Mack.

And he ends up as our leading scorer for the game...our chances of winning have to be pretty close to zero when this happens. His playing time isn't going anywhere though - guess the same can't be said for Grant (mercifully). This team seems comparable to Oats' first season in many ways, but sadly these guys are not Blake Hamilton and Willie Conner and most likely we will not see similar success come March.

How about calling up our Bahamas Bowl buddies the Charlotte 49ers? Seriously, why shouldn't we play a few C-USA schools and get home & homes? EDIT: We have ODU for a there-and-there 2021 and 2023. Actually we don't have an OOC opening till 2024. https://fbschedules.com/ncaa/buffalo/