I know for a fact that one of the key players on this years team was considering transferring because and I quote "The defensive philosophy and how soft Les Miles handles this team." Sorry, I cannot give say where this came from only to tell you I don't quote this kind of stuff randomly. I might be flamed on this board for speaking my opinion but it's this kind of stuff I just heard recently that makes me luke warm on Miles and his style.
That's hard to believe that a key player of any team would want to transfer because of coaching philosophy. Transferring schools is pretty drastic, you have to start all over on the new team, including sitting out a year if you transfer to another Div 1A team. Has a key player ever transferred from any team based on "coaching philosophy"? I would think that if a key player leaves a team to transfer to another team, that the real issue or problem he had would be something else than "coaching philosophy." And if somebody is on our team that doesn't like our coaches, then he is a bad apple anyway.
4-6 players going elsewhere is not out of the ordinary. Happens every year and I expect the same this year.
Troy Aikman left Oklahoma because of the difference in offensive philosophy. "In 1985, his first season as a collegiate starter, Aikman led the Sooners to wins over Minnesota, Kansas State, and #17 Texas in the Red River Shootout before hosting the Miami Hurricanes and his future head coach Jimmy Johnson. On October 19, in front of a sellout crowd of 75,008 at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Miami's Jerome Brown broke through the offensive line, sacked Aikman on the Sooner 29-yard line and broke Aikman's ankle. Aikman, who had been six of eight passing for 131 yards, would be lost for the season. Switzer and offensive coordinator Jim Donnan were forced to switch back to the wishbone offense under freshman quarterback Jamelle Holieway. The team went on to win the 1985 National Championship by beating Penn State in the 1986 Orange Bowl.[1][2] With Holieway established as the starting quarterback at OU, Aikman decided to transfer to UCLA"
Also Ryan Mallet, who may have left Michigan to go to Arkansas because he didn't think Rodriguez's gimicky spread-offense would be as good as a pro-style offense to prepare him to do well in the NFL. How about this: Has a key player ever transferred from any team based on "the defensive philosophy"?
Ryan Mallet, big, husky Michigan QB transferred b/c he couldn't play in the spread option attack when Rodriguez went there. That's coaching philosophy.
Right, I already beat you to it. The rumor I am responding to is the guy claiming a key player is thinking about transferring due to our "defensive philosophy." Yeah, if we were doing something as out-there to our defense as a gimicky spread offense or a wishbone offense to our D, I could see someone not liking it, but we aren't doing that. Also, another reason that the rumor doesn't make sense is the fact that everybody knows we need to bring in a new defensive coach to replace Peveto. The defensive coaches on our team this year carried over a defensive philosophy that won us a National Championship and gave us three Top 5 defenses. It is unlikely that a key player would transfer due to our defensive philosophy.
It's not only the philosophy according to this particular player but how Miles handles the team. He is viewed by some of the players as soft. He might talk a big, tough game with the media, ala "I've got a damn strong football team" stuff but things we saw this year like players screwing up and being allowed to play further apparently set some of our starters off. The undisciplined play and putting players back in is viewed as soft by some of the players.
