In the off-season I (and many others) posted that essentially 2023 doesn't matter at all except in terms of vibes. We knew this year would be brutal and that the hole is so deep that it almost certainly would take time to climb out. Fundamentally, all that the first three weeks have shown us is that we can delete "almost" from that sentence. We are who we thought we were. We need to keep stacking days in Taylor's process-oriented way trying to scratch out modest, incremental improvements until they add up and we've changed the culture. That takes a lot of days and likely multiple recruiting classes cycling out Shaw players and cycling in Taylor players. We are still months away from Taylor's first recruiting class of his own. Very early days still.
That being said, I can't help but want to take a peek and get a sense of the vibe check a few games in. I'd imagine getting blasted out of the stadium against USC and losing at home to an FCS team create headwinds on the vibes and culture front, but I really don't know. I'd welcome thoughts/insights anybody might have. I also wonder if those who were there Saturday picked up anything on body language from coaches and players. I haven't been loving what I've seen in the last few press conferences and it seems on tv that Taylor operates exceedingly isolated (what one poster referred to as the Taylor bubble). I am having some doubts creep in whether Taylor has the fire and interpersonal skills to navigate certain situations of adversity; sometimes he seems like a personalistic dictator (or if that's too harsh mad scientist) trying to get the knobs of the machine turned to the right configurations and if they work or if they don't que sera sera. When things go badly he seems a bit more withdrawn than I would have expected. He's talked a lot about being resilient and responding when things go badly but in some ways he's a mirror of our players: they've never experienced winning so don't know how to act like winners, while he had never experienced much losing and doesn't know how to respond as a loser.
Hoping I'm being too harsh and restless in the face of adversity we knew was coming and doesn't change anything fundamentally. I admit that I feel more skepticism of Taylor after these last two weeks, as well as little small things that make me wonder if I misread him as a leader/person. Since I've opened this can of worms, I'll share a clip I've been thinking about that makes me wonder what culture of love really means for those Taylor is hoping to inspire loyalty among:
If you go to 2:10 you'll see the Taylor-Thompson postgame, which seems awkward at best. I can give Taylor a pass as that's an awkward ritual in most circumstances and certainly this one, but seemed more tense than one would assume from culture of love and Taylor not super gracious (body language almost made it seem like Taylor took "appreciate it" as a dig but I assume Thompson was saying he appreciated Taylor congratulating him....at best Taylor didn't seem to know how to act in the situation and Thompson then appeared a bit taken aback when Taylor then tried to brush past him). But this is a very brief interaction fraught with lots of subtext and history and it's hard to read either way. What really threw me was the clip immediately following: a three way bro-hug celebration among Taylor's old triumvirate of Thompson, Richardson, and Fresques with Fresques yelling "now that's what love looks like, that's ****ing love, that's love, yes!" and Richardson laughing along (maybe somewhat awkwardly/self-consciously). This is a guy the broadcast referred to as Taylor's "best friend" (an offensive assistant working under Taylor with the Cal WRs in the late 90s, former assistant at Folsom, QB coach under Taylor at Sac State....and according to the broadcast Taylor was best man in Fresques' wedding) openly referencing the culture of love in an apparently derogatory manner, with another erstwhile Taylor loyalist (Richardson, who had been co-head coach at Folsom and Taylor's right hand at Sac State) knowingly laughing along. I don't know if this is mockery of the culture of love or pent-up frustration that Taylor marketed culture of love as his thing/got the Power Five glory or something else. It just kind of stopped me when I was watching this clip. It's one of many data points I feel I've picked up on that Taylor has a complex relationship with his former assistants. Even if he does that's not necessarily a red flag but to the extent we're really counting on culture of love to be the genuine article and to instill trust and loyalty I am wondering what to make of this (and Taylor's avoidance with media, not seeming to spend much time during the game interacting with others, etc.).
Anyway, mostly interested in a culture vibe check from those who've seen or heard other things. Or maybe the answer is none of this matters and we need to see where the team is later, even next year.
That being said, I can't help but want to take a peek and get a sense of the vibe check a few games in. I'd imagine getting blasted out of the stadium against USC and losing at home to an FCS team create headwinds on the vibes and culture front, but I really don't know. I'd welcome thoughts/insights anybody might have. I also wonder if those who were there Saturday picked up anything on body language from coaches and players. I haven't been loving what I've seen in the last few press conferences and it seems on tv that Taylor operates exceedingly isolated (what one poster referred to as the Taylor bubble). I am having some doubts creep in whether Taylor has the fire and interpersonal skills to navigate certain situations of adversity; sometimes he seems like a personalistic dictator (or if that's too harsh mad scientist) trying to get the knobs of the machine turned to the right configurations and if they work or if they don't que sera sera. When things go badly he seems a bit more withdrawn than I would have expected. He's talked a lot about being resilient and responding when things go badly but in some ways he's a mirror of our players: they've never experienced winning so don't know how to act like winners, while he had never experienced much losing and doesn't know how to respond as a loser.
Hoping I'm being too harsh and restless in the face of adversity we knew was coming and doesn't change anything fundamentally. I admit that I feel more skepticism of Taylor after these last two weeks, as well as little small things that make me wonder if I misread him as a leader/person. Since I've opened this can of worms, I'll share a clip I've been thinking about that makes me wonder what culture of love really means for those Taylor is hoping to inspire loyalty among:
If you go to 2:10 you'll see the Taylor-Thompson postgame, which seems awkward at best. I can give Taylor a pass as that's an awkward ritual in most circumstances and certainly this one, but seemed more tense than one would assume from culture of love and Taylor not super gracious (body language almost made it seem like Taylor took "appreciate it" as a dig but I assume Thompson was saying he appreciated Taylor congratulating him....at best Taylor didn't seem to know how to act in the situation and Thompson then appeared a bit taken aback when Taylor then tried to brush past him). But this is a very brief interaction fraught with lots of subtext and history and it's hard to read either way. What really threw me was the clip immediately following: a three way bro-hug celebration among Taylor's old triumvirate of Thompson, Richardson, and Fresques with Fresques yelling "now that's what love looks like, that's ****ing love, that's love, yes!" and Richardson laughing along (maybe somewhat awkwardly/self-consciously). This is a guy the broadcast referred to as Taylor's "best friend" (an offensive assistant working under Taylor with the Cal WRs in the late 90s, former assistant at Folsom, QB coach under Taylor at Sac State....and according to the broadcast Taylor was best man in Fresques' wedding) openly referencing the culture of love in an apparently derogatory manner, with another erstwhile Taylor loyalist (Richardson, who had been co-head coach at Folsom and Taylor's right hand at Sac State) knowingly laughing along. I don't know if this is mockery of the culture of love or pent-up frustration that Taylor marketed culture of love as his thing/got the Power Five glory or something else. It just kind of stopped me when I was watching this clip. It's one of many data points I feel I've picked up on that Taylor has a complex relationship with his former assistants. Even if he does that's not necessarily a red flag but to the extent we're really counting on culture of love to be the genuine article and to instill trust and loyalty I am wondering what to make of this (and Taylor's avoidance with media, not seeming to spend much time during the game interacting with others, etc.).
Anyway, mostly interested in a culture vibe check from those who've seen or heard other things. Or maybe the answer is none of this matters and we need to see where the team is later, even next year.
