And that one incident was before school even started, involving mostly freshman who just got here. You can't argue 37guy it's gonna take Fleck YEARS to change the culture but Tracy is supposed to be able to have it established before incoming freshman go to a class. AND we don't know for sure they did anything to create an incident. How it was handled is the biggest incident.
Actually, you can. Claeys was taking over from Kill and the staff largely remained in place except 2 players. The staff has been recruiting these kids since they were juniors in HS. Some of these S-As were early enrollees, some were Sophs. They were all here by June training, being familiarized with the "culture", and associating with upperclassmen to assimilate into the program. The entire coaching staff has access to the during summer sessions, albeit a less than in-season for most except the Strength staff, but the head coach and the Strength staff are considered the primary communicators or the culture and expectations.
Prior to allowing freshman to take recruits out, player hosts are instructed as to what is acceptable and what is not on a recruiting visit. The coaching staff has plenty of opportunity to impress upon freshman and sophs what the appropriate culture of the program is.
As for it being one incident, there were at least 6 players involved. That's 5% of the entire team. Not one of those S-As had the common sense and understanding of the TC's team culture to see a situation developing and say "this isn't cool" or "this could lead to trouble"?
5% of the team, 1 out of 20 S-As, were involved in this situation. I'd like to think it's an aberration, but if 6 out of 6 players involved chose this path, why should we assume that all other S-As, had they been involved, would certainly chose another path. Maybe they would have, but TC was just unlucky and drew these 6 to take care of this recruit.
In my view, I don't think these kids are bad or aberrant. I think these kids made some bad choices, had a seemingly willing participant, and made some immature decisions. They didn't plan and carry out a robbery. I would bet these are good kids that weren't thinking. Why weren't they thinking?
IMO, they weren't thinking b/c TC and the coaching staff failed to impress upon them what the culture of the program is and supposed to be. TC took Kill's program and tweaked the Brick by Brick culture, parts of which include personal character. Some S-A's either weren't listening, didn't care, or didn't value the culture. Those failures don't usually reveal themselves in one event, but in smaller events along the way until one big one shows the public that there was a failure.
It's possible that one bad player led the others astray and this was completely isolated, but it's more likely what I outlined above. Either way, TC was responsible for the conduct of his team. Dismissal worthy?, probably not. But once he tried to side with the players after siding with the admin, he made his own fate.
This was a failure of the culture that TC had responsibility for since October 2015 as well as a extremely clumsy handling of the boycott situation demonstrating his lack of preparedness to be a head coach. I'm not saying he's a bad person, just that he lacked the experience or personality to lead the program and develop a strong culture that leads his players to make better choices.
Will PJ Fleck's culture lead to better player conduct and more wins? I don't know for sure, but his demonstrated history suggests that he has a better chance. However, it will be a significant culture change. A complete overhaul, which is quite different than the tweaking that was done by TC.
It doesn't spell out his lack of support, but it sure does suggest he doesn't have it.
