I remember a lot of parallels, and some differences. Mac took over a program that like the one Hawk took over had virtually no speed, no difference makers, was losing virtually every recruiting battle in state and out. We had seen some flashes but at 1-10 the fans who were left were decidedly unhappy. We had lost some games to teams that we thought had no business beating us.
Some of the games were lost on what looked like inexplicable lack of fundamentals, stupid mistakes, etc.
Of course there were no internet message boards at the time but the talk shows, the newspapers, and most of the fans could not wait to get Mac out of town and get a "real coach" in here.
Mac had recruited a lot of young talent but so far it wasn't showing on the field, we had already lost some guys to various reasons. Mac could have held a meeting of his supporters in a small room and still had chairs left over.
A big difference was that even though very few believed him Mac always communicated a confidence that he had a plan and was working towards it. I remember dealing with some of the players who had an attitude that "we are just around the corner, this is going to work" Mac later proved that to be the case.
If you have read some of my postings since this weeks disaster you will see that I am kind of ambiguous about this whole deal. I believe that under all the disapointment and anger that the potential exist for this team to break out this year or next and be very good under Hawk.
Unlike the Mac years, I think to do so Hawk is going to have to look closely at himself and make some changes in how he does things, how he manages his staff, how he uses players. If he is willing to do so then I see the potential for this team to break out. If he can't or won't then our future is one of dissapointment.
By the way even though recruiting was not as closely followed, a lot of consensus was that Mac's classes after the 83 and 84 seasons were a dissapointment. Turns out that they were a lot better than some outside "experts" thought in terms of results.
Eddie Reinhardt was a distraction but not even close to the reason for the 1-10.