While pondering the Bills' hiring of Chan Gailey, I began thinking about his tenure at Georgia Tech, as that was his most "mediocre" period of employment.  Upon further investigation into his time there, I have found reson to believe he wasn't mediocre there at all.  The stat that gets nary a mention by sports writers when talking about Division 1-A football is the respective graduation rates of the schools involved.  I think this plays a big part in the success or failure or respective teams, and has doomed a few coaches because it isn't considered when they are let go because they "didn't beat Georgia". 

Gailey inherited something of a mess at Georgia Tech when he arrived, they had a graduation rate for the football program of 33%.  By the time he was fires, that graduation rate was up to 55% (as of 2007 NCAA graduation rate report), and has declined each year since he left.  I think that the head coach has a huge role in the academic success of his players.  Gailey might not have been the only reason for the improved graduation rates, but he was definitely a major factor.   It's just too bad Georgia Tech hasn't been able to sustain the improvement since he left, they're definitely the worse for it.

I'm not one to ponder what if''s so I won't try to project what might have been for Georgia Tech if they kept Chan, but I would definitely call his tenure there more than mediocre, at least for all those kids he helped see through to graduation that wouldn't have otherwise. 

(On a side note, coaching at Notre Dame has got to be one of the worst jobs in all of Division I.  The boosters / fanboys / etc think you have a real shot at national championships even though the same academic requirements are enforced for your athletes as the regular students.  Something has to give there, and apparently it's the coaches fault they don't win enough.  Also, no team that has all the service academies on their schedule is going to be the national champion.  Ever. )

The intention of this fanpost was only to give Gailey's time at Georgia Tech some dimesion beyond "He never beat Georgia", and to look beyond the football when judging a teams football program success.  Sure graduation rate improvement might not translate at all to the Buffalo Bills' success, but his time in the NFL was generally successful and the Georgia Tech years were looked at as "mediocre", so I dug into the numbers behind the numbers a little bit.)

One of my first thoughts after watching this Bills-Jets game was how almost every vivid injury in the contest was purely accidental and not conditioning at all.  When there is a pile, cleats get caught in the turf, bodies fall all over the place and knees and ankles get bent ways that they shouldn't.  That's football.  I agree with most of you that the Bills' seem cursed in this regard, however you want to explain it, but it is just a statistical anomaly.  Also this week, the mouthpiece of the "Harder Practice and Better Conditioning = Less Injury" crowd became an injury casualty himself and is headed for an MRI table.   The illustrious pro bowl left tackle Jason Peters has succumbed to a leg injury.  

Jason Peters post-game quote -

"I thought all those sprints in the off-season were supposed to protect me from someone rolling up on my leg.  Guess that's not true.  I think I'll go back to the 'donuts on the couch' conditioning program."

I'm sure the Bills conditioning staff is at least as proficient as almost any in the NFL.  We also have one of the best on-field post-injury personnel staff in the business.  I think it's time to lay off those guys behind the scenes who are just doing their jobs to feed their families and keep the focus on those who affect the outcome of games.

Ed. Note, by Brian Galliford: I love it when you guys put together a quality, front page-worthy FanPost when I have a day off from work.  Today, syrbillsfan takes center stage with this FanPost listing all NFL starting offensive tackles, where they were drafted and how teams assemble offensive lines.  It's an open-ended posting; it's here for discussion purposes - and with the Buffalo Bills in need of a new starting tackle (probably), this is particularly relevant with the NFL Draft only a day away.  Enjoy!  End Note

I compiled this information from ESPN depth charts and Yahoo Sports information for the draft round and year. 

From doing this, I observed that teams, both good and bad, seem to draft and keep their own tackles, not bring in free agents.  I don't know if this is because premium tackles cost too much in free agency, or if the tackles just prefer to take less money to stay with the team that drafted them.  I would imagine that if you expanded this to include guards, you'd find a similar trend, with more guys chosen later in the draft.

This doesn't really prove anything one way or the other as far as "lower round draft choices don't work out as starting tackles" or anything like that.  Sure, most of the players were chosen in the first two rounds, but all that shows you is that they required a larger up front commitment of cash.  When you pay a bigger deposit, you're less likely to throw something away.  I am sure, especially with offensive linemen, that there are tons of these guys who are talented enough; they just never get a chance because a team has more invested in their earlier picks.

Also,  I believe Mike Gandy and Marc Colombo were Dick Jauron picks during his time in Chicago.  It is interesting to note that Chicago doesn't start anyone they drafted at LT or RT.

Analyze and enjoy!

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I was just poking around a little bit after seeing another reference to Haloti Ngata on this blog, and did some research. 

I have come to the conclusion that when we talk about the 2006 draft and how the Bills should have drafted Ngata, we forget pick 1b for the Bills, John McCargo.  If you consider him, and his potential at the time, the Bills draft strategy was sound.  We've even seen a few flahses of what McCargo was capable of (albeit a very few). 

If he had reached his potential, we wouldn't be lamenting what might have been had we chosen Ngata, We may have made the playoffs last year, despite J.P. Losman dropping his balls all over the place. If only Whitner could figure everything out, something might still be salvaged from what turned out to be a less than stellar first round.

Who knows, the stars might shine down upon McCargo this year and we might get some production out of him.  Wouldn't that be great?  Stranger things have happened.

The problem as of last, I don't know, 5 years or so, is that their is no collective patience.  I think fans have been patient, ownership has not.  Those around here will chastise me, but I believe the best possible move as far as coaching was to keep Jauron.  That said, he and his staff need to continue down the path started by the release of Dockery.  If they want to see what this team is made of, they need to put trust in the linemen chosen by the Bills over the past few drafts.  Is there not a practice squad player they have been developing for a couple years to give a go?  What does that say about what's been going on around here?  After some thought, I don't believe trading for Brian Waters is the answer.  We need to think about who we're missing out on by not picking in the 3rd and 5th rounds of the draft or whatever picks might be necessary.  We may not win next year, but there is a light (maybe?).  There has been a plan over at Bills HQ, they just need to stay the course.  As a small market team, the Bills need to pick up young guys, develop them, and get them on the field.  Even if it takes 5 years.

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Time to go all run.  Take Trent out, and WR's (except maybe Josh reed), put Marshawn and Fred in the backfield, and run, run, run.  I bet it would get us at least 7 points, It is obvious to me the Turk has an issue with disguising plays, so we might as well go all in.  Show the other teams we're going to run.  Look them right in the eye and punch their lights out.  The formation "Wildcat" or whatever you want to call it, it doesn't necessarily have to be exactly like that.  It works because by removing the QB, you get an extra blocker who knows how to block.  You get 10 blockers instead of the usual 7-8.  Even if the defense loads up the box, there will be a hole somewhere.  If used continuously, you'll break a big run sometime.  Even if we got 3-4 yards every time, we'd still be able to punch it in, using 10 minutes of clock at the same time.

If you have both Marshawn and Fred back behind the line, they can be lined up in a few different ways. Under center, shotgun, split to the left and right (wishbone?), the possibilities are endless.  If only for one drive to start a game, this would work. 

Turk's problem is that he simplified things in the wrong way.  He is I-Form run, Shotgun pass 90% of the time.  If we stuck to one or the other, say I-form because at one time or another he said he was going to use a traditional fullback.  From that formation you could line up exactly the same every time, and still run a thousand different plays.  The key is to look the same every time.  In this simple way, you can disguise your whole playbook.  1 TE, 2WRs, 1 Fullback, 1RB or 3  WR's, 1TE, 1RB or 4 WR's,1RB, or 5 WR, or  2 TE, 2 WR,1 RB.   That is what Buffalo needs to run fo the future .  Old school under center big boy football.  A couple of years ago, it used to be a requirement that you throw from under center, and draftniks would knock your grade down a couple of notches for spending your college career in the shotgun.  Now that the "spread" (DOME) offense is taking everything over, it's time to go back to smacking people down.  SEE - NY Giants

I like to hope Turk isn't some kind of simpleton who can't learn from his mistakes.

Time to settle down everyone!  The biggest key to building a winning franchise is consistency.  If the Bills do what everyone seems to be asking and fire Jauron or fire Turk or bench Trent or whatever, we will be in for another decade of the same old crap, regardless of who they bring in as coach.  Being at 7-9 the last couple years, and maybe 8-8, 9-7 this year means that we are close.  Watching the team this year, regardless of the outcome in the W column, there is a definite improvement over the team of last year.  More talent, more depth, and even some more development of young players due to injuries to starters.  We are literally only a couple of bonehead mistakes away from being really great.  I say enough of the doom and gloom.  Let our coaches and players learn.  In order to get perspective on the whole Jauron situation, take a look at Bill Belichick's or Jeff Fisher's early coaching histories on Wiki.

Bill Belichick Wiki

Jeff Fisher Wiki

I do agree with those who say Jauron needs to start playing to win, not to keep the margin of defeat down.  No punting!!!!!!!   Ever!!!!! HAHAHAHAHa.

We need to call out and make people aware of what is wrong, yes, like 90% predictability in the offense (that's just crazy).  However, the damage caused by bringing in another new offensive system would be hard to quantify,  it could take more than another whole season for it to click. 

I think after watching the MNF game the team finally hit the bottom in the 1st quarter, and is on the way back up.  Let's just sit back and get whatever enjoyment we can out of the remaining games, and forget the playoffs.  Let's hope the Bills return to the clean, mistake free, fun football we saw in the Seattle game.  Wouldn't that be great?  An outstanding showing in all 3 facets, with a couple fun trick plays mixed in?

***  One other thought -

It may seem as if we've been patient for a while with the Bills, and we have, but I believe every time they changed coaches / GMs since Marv / John Butler left, they essentially reset the timer on our patience.  From Phillips to Williams to Mularkey, each time new systems and personnel needs were catered to, which all take time to implement, whether that time was given or not.  If the Bills stick to their guns, I believe they can prevail.  Once the Bills make the playoffs a few years, then we can discuss whether changing coaches would really bring us to the next level, a la John Gruden replacing dungy in Tampa Bay.  Even then, just being patient could result in a Bill Cowher situation ie almost there, almost there, almost there, Got it!   Other teams have an advantage the Bills don't have -> playing outside the AFC East.  Call it East Coast Bias, but the AFC East is very similar to the AL East in baseball.  No team is a doormat.  The rest of the AFC in general have at least one perennial doormat in their division, not so here. 

I think we as fans should stay in a "Wait and See" state, it takes many years to build a perennial contender.  If Dick Jauron was producing Gregg Williams or Mike Mularkey type results, then, so be it.  He isn't.  The Bills are consistently a play or two one way or the other in all of their games (sans JP Losman in Arizona).   The young guys just need a little more time.  (See McKelvin, Leodis.  Up until Monday Night, everyone around here was getting readings from their "BUST" detector, a whole 9 games into his pro career)