#team-turnaround

#team-turnaround

Walking into the New England Patriots this offseason meant there was a lot of work to be done for Mike Vrabel and the new coaching staff. Besides the five years of dwindling relevancy straight to the bottom of the league, the franchise appeared to be in more trouble from a roster standpoint, as the team seemed disjointed in a way that would take a while to fix.

Over the last few weeks, listening to the Ireland players and coaches outlining why they are confident that the game-plan is very close to coming together, we have been reminded of a similar scenario shortly after Andy Farrell took over as head coach in 2020.

If only Henry Slade had managed to stop Ben Donaldson getting that offload away, if only Ollie Sleightholme had been able to make that wrap-up tackle on Len Ikitau, if only Marcus Smith was able to catch Max Jorgensen. But Slade didn't, Sleightholme couldn't, Smith wasn't, and Jorgensen scored in the corner. This time last year the Wallabies beat England 42-37, their first victory against them at Twickenham in nine years, and it was, the players will tell you themselves, the moment when everything changed.

"I'm really looking forward to being part of this amazing football club. We want to win, we need wins because we want to turn around the position at the moment," Rohl said during his unveiling. "I am looking for an ambitious club, a club that is wanting more. This club has everything for all these goals. My job is clear. My focus is on my person, what I can bring to this football club."

The Dodgers didn't just fall short of lofty expectations during the regular season. For a large chunk of it, they were basically mediocre. They began with a 23-10 record and ended, after a well-timed meeting by their manager, with 15 wins in a stretch of 20 games. But in between, from May 4 to Sept. 7, the Dodgers were 56-54, a mere two games above .500 in a 110-game sample.

Did you wake up today and ask yourself if yesterday afternoon was real? It's the day after the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated their first division title in ten years after defeating the Tampa Bay Rays 13-4. After the division race came down to the final day of the regular season, it went the Blue Jays' way, and it was straight to the champagne.

Derwin Henderson was not intending to coach this season. He hadn't been a head coach since 2019 at Hawthorne. But he lives in the Inland Empire, and Rialto High kept asking him to take the open position. He finally relented, and big changes are already taking place. Rialto is off to a 3-0 start with wins over Ontario, Temecula Prep and Indio. That's notable because the team was 0-10 last season and 1-9 in 2023.

Me, Casey and even Jimmy weren't doing the stuff we were asking him to do, making checks at the line, getting people in places. He managed the game well. He did a really good job getting us in and out of the huddle. The game was not too fast for him.