Now that this year has ended in total and looking at some of the best teams and stories from this year... i think building and maintaining a culture/locker room is most important trait for a head coach. Ed Orgeron was horrible as a Hc before, but damn he’s got the entire state hanging on every word of his and team will go full kamikaze mode for him. Same thing for Dabo, I don’t think he’s some schematic genius but he demands a certain culture, and his players eat it up. Hell even PJ Fleck, Minnesota had no business winning 10 games and beating Auburn, Penn state, almost beating Wisconsin etc. but his players love him and would run through a wall for him.
The energy/culture inside & around our program got so bad at the end of butch and the Botched search that it was like an anchor (literally & figuratively Bc of losses to vandy) weighing us down. I mean we were literally having discussions if our roster was worse than Vanderbilt or if our OL was better than Charlotte. It took longer than we wanted and it wasn’t always pretty by any means... and quite frankly i have no Fn idea how we won some games like Indiana, Kentucky, miss state lol.... but i give Pruitt and Fulmer major major props for finding a way to power wash all that filth off this program and now have us looking like we belong again. Hopefully our fan base and players rally around them just like those other teams have done.