In the business world, there are many who believe that the time to make adjustments or change is when things are going well. Tinkering to improve. Small course adjustments continue to press on the bar to raise it to new levels thus achieving growth successfully. Those businesses that sit and wait for a problem before they change are doomed to be overtaken by companies that are pursuing greatness 24x7.
In sports, the same thought process applies. Sometimes change is mandated and occurs when others decide to change without the knowledge or discussion with the mother ship. Take for instance a coach departing or a player going into the Transfer Portal (TP). This creates a need without an immediate plan. Sports are driven by administrative managers. In college football that would be the Athletic Director.
The AD has to be looking forward all the time. He or she must be able to tinker with the current team and staff to continue to create that push on the bar to improve or else be taken over by an opponent who is investing and moving in a direction to overtake another team or team. An AD must have the courage to do what is not seen as popular at times. They also must be able to sense when outside influences need to be listened to. So you have internal and external forces pressing on their plan to improve and grow their school's program.
All of this comes at a huge price. Human capital is never an easy topic and requires a sharp knife when needed as well as the patience to allow an investment to mature if things are slow to develop. The longbow approach to hunting vs the pull it back mentality is slow and steady. Repeating success over and over becomes the foundation of building a sustainable and always developing competitive program. The opposite of that is trying to win today which does happen (LSU recently) but seldom builds long-term success to a program. Just look at LSU today after their recent National Championship, Coach of the Year, Heisman Winning QB and now we see collapse.
Program building is sustainable. It has processes that are top-down and bottom-up served. It works as a shared vision to the long term and applies the Law of Attraction to everything it does. Players and staff will come and the media will follow the path taken and the path forward because it's a natural fit to being close to a successful program over time. No one likes a loser.
Fight On