Weeds or Wheat? This coaching stuff is tough... Patience is called for prior to judgment.

A disclaimer... I am not a theologian, and I know I am swimming in some uncharted waters on this blog, but alas, I wish to explore the process of evaluation of talent and I think that maybe this is a good place for me to start.

"Let both [the weeds and the wheat] grow together until the harvest..."-Mathew 13:30

I was inspired in church yesterday to look into the concept of recruiting/developing of student athletes both in Basketball and Football. Who are the weeds? Who grows into the wheat? Do we as a fan-base jump the gun in our evaluations of student athletes? Do we "weed" the field pulling up the "wheat" as well and burn it prior to the true harvest time?

I think WVU is similar to most Universities in the major conferences. The coaching staffs are called to make evaluations of 17 year old students and then reevaluate these students on a year to year basis. A student athlete's scholarship is renewed or discontinued from one year to next. Sometimes the walk-ons turn out to be much more valuable to a programs success than the most sought after athletes out of high-school. On other occasions a player may prove to be a poison to an entire team. When do you cut the bond? Or to keep with my parable, when do you pluck the weed from the field of wheat and bind it to fire? A head coach and by extension his staff must determine what value a given athlete has to the program. This person must also determine who to take a chance on in terms of time to develop. So how do the successful ones do it? Well I believe he does this by determining who fits his system now and who can in the very near future.

The truth is that John Flowers had always been a tough defender, but it wasn't until his Junior season that we caught glimpses of what he could do to lead a team. And he didn't develop a free-throw-shot until the summer before his senior season. Coach Huggs determined that John was his guy long before anyone else could see it. In the football world I would use Mike Lorello as an example. He was a 2 or 3 star (depending on recruiting source) out of high-school and Coach Casteel and Coach Rod saw something in this undersized safety/linebacker that proved to be very special. He developed into one of the best safeties and hardest hitters to ever don the uniform. I only know this with the benefit of hindsight but these coaches have to do this "betting on the come."

When the harvest comes is a little cloudy too. I realize that we have a season every year so the evaluation of a given recruit/walk-on may be premature. But we as a fan-base choose to make those evaluations with very little evidence. One such athlete who has proven to be special is Keith Tandy. If you asked most Mountaineer fans while exiting Ray Jay stadium 3 seasons ago what type of Corner Keith would be I think the almost uniform position would be negative. But Coach Casteel and Coach Stew stood by their cornerback. He is now one of the preseason all big east d backs. My point is that Mathew's gospel commanded in God's followers to render the judgement of man to God as he was the only one who was qualified to make the determination. My point in this post is that with the benefit of hindsight we are able to say who is a bust and who is not. But we needn't jump to these conclusions prematurely. Patience is providence in this process.

With all of this said, I realize that we as a fan-base will come to judge some of these athletes justly both in negative and positive I just hope we do so with a little more patience. Otherwise, I think you will find this cool-aid drinking Eer fan posting mainly positive things about my favorite team and my favorite athletes.

Da Geek.