...the notion he once held about players needing to earn their positions on the depth chart from one practice or game to the next. That was the norm when he began as HC and I think it went a long way towards keeping players hungry, sharp, focused and executing at a high level. It also contributed to several 10+ win seasons and top 25 rankings.

But (imo) at some point before we moved to independence it seemed he started to comment more frequently about how long a player had been in the program and being rewarded for their tenure, possibly instead of production. It would be nice to get back to a reward system based on productivity on the field and players held accountable for their poor play and execution.