This is just incorrect. Not every execution problem is caused by an effort problem. It's just not. It's like saying the difference in Steph Curry shooting 50% one night and 60% the next is that he tried 20% harder the second night. That's just not the way it works. Certainly inconsistent effort will cause execution problems, but incompetent coaching can cause execution problems even while players are playing hard.
I never said every execution problem was an effort problem. But quite a few of them are, and we had more than our lion’s share of those under Croom. Fumbling the ball is an effort / focus problem. Not catching a perfectly thrown ball that hits you in the hands is an effort / focus problem. Not being able to open holes, pass protect, or tackle against FCS / C-USA competition when you are an SEC West team are most definitely effort / focus problems. We did all that **** on a regular basis.
From the outside looking, I can't see one being obviously better than the other. I think the Nkemdichees were going to be a problem and the younger was going to coast on his talent probably where ever they went. Maybe if the younger had ended up in an alabama program, he might would have shaped up before getting kicked off the team. I don't think Tunsil would have been any different. Maybe wouldn't have had a video of him smoking weed, but that would have just been luck. Treadwell? He seemed pretty internally motivated the way he came back from his injury. Don't think his problems in the NFL were lack of effort as much as just not having the athleticism to make up for not learning how to run routes in college. Bo Wallace? I think he'd have been a douche at MSU too? Hard to judge Freeze's overall culture because the most obvious guys might have been exceptions. It's possible the Nkemdichees got free rein while the rest of the team was held more or less accountable. That usually doesn't work out great but it can work ok.
This just proves that your definition of “culture” is quite different than mine. It seems that you are choosing all the outward facing aspects of a program to judge what the culture is. Who gets arrested, NCAA issues, bravado / party reputation, etc. In terms of all that, OM was the Wild West under Freeze....no question.
But as far as what actually happened between the sidelines on the practice field, during games, and in offseason workouts, they were a machine. Probably the worst loss Hugh Freeze had in 4 years was to a 9-4 Memphis team in 2015 that started out 8-0 before Fuente started job shopping. They played above their overall talent level far more often than not. Because in the midst of the public chaos, they were able to get extremely high end effort out of the whole roster. High level competition in practice, nobody feeling safe about their job and showing up ready to work to get better....they were able to get there. That is the real “culture” that matters. Croom never in 5 years was able to figure out how to get guys to do the little things right all the time that they needed to to become winners. If he did, we wouldn’t have dropped off so precipitously in 2008 after finally having what many saw as a breakthrough year in 2007. That’s why his culture sucked. Freeze and Mullen both were able to do it practically from Day 1.
