Buckle in kids, this one got wordy. But, I am a man of my words.
Keller held up his end of the deal, so here is mine.
The official Kyle Keller apology. (Sorry to any grammar Nazis out there).
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Dear Coach Kyle Keller,
Let me get this out of the way first.
I. Am. Sorry.
I was wrong about you.
Let me also say this. I do not hate you. Posters on THE SAWMILL refer to me as a "hater," because I am critical of you as a coach.
I do not hate you. From all accounts, you are a wonderful human being.
However, I did not like when we hired you.
When I heard we were getting an assistant from Texas A&M, I thought, "YES! Rick Stansbury is a great hire!"
Nope, we got Kyle Keller.
"Who the **** is Kyle Keller," I asked myself.
We captured lightning in a bottle with Brad Underwood, a long-time assistant coach.
I didn't think it was wise to try it again.
Your first season did not endear many to you. Even those that have become your most ardent supporters were questioning if you had the chops to return us to the level we had been during the previous regime.
It was a constant barrage of bad play, worse coaching and an overall lack of fundamentals that had most of thinking"Yikes."
But, to their credit, there were several SAWMILL members that kept the attitude of "Give him time. It takes time."
I did not want to wait. To hell with waiting. I wanted to keep winning. Now. Not later. Not next year. Now.
I got a call one day from the Varsity Club about donations, "We going to use this money to hire a coach that can win?" I asked the guy.
He responded, calmly, "I know Kyle. Give him time. He's a winner."
I even had a new motto for you, "Next year we will be great." It would be the running joke of your era.
"So what if he is a great recruiter," I would ask myself, "Cause he can't coach for ***** No game management, no fundamentals. Nothing impressive."
Perhaps you were pressing to make a good impression in year one.
I don't know, but my impression of you was poor.
Enter, this year.
Off court issues.
"Terrible leadership," I said.
Cream-puff preseason didn't impress me. I still thought your in-game management sucked.
Then we beat LSU and faceplanted Mizzou for 39 minutes.
I saw something. That you may be the man. That this team might have "IT."
Then SELA. Guh. I thought you beat us. Shannon Bogues. 6 Minutes. *** were you thinking?
We rallied. Won some games. UCA, fluke.
"Were supposed to win games in the Southland. Were SFA! We own this conference."
Then Lamar. Then Lamar, again. I was pissed. I thought Tic Price owned you.
I didn't think you were capable of leading our guys to three wins in three days.
But, BOOM! You did.
UCA. Pound them.
Nicholls. Pound them.
SELAuh oh. Here we go. When we blew the lead, I said "this is it, Keller has no way to rally our troops. He's clueless."
But, whatever you did in that final timeoutit worked. By golly, it worked.
I've told many people this, that I was not always sold on you. People reading this know this.
But, one thing that has happened since you walked into SFAthe guys love you. It's obvious.
I have never seen a squad play as hard for 40 minutes as we do. OMG, we just harass the **** out of people.
You have connected with the guys that make them want to run through a wall for you.
That wall was the last 4:00 against SELA. You asked them to do itand they busted down that wall.
So here we are.
I am a man of my words. I am sorry for doubting you.
You have taken us back to where we belong. On top.
I believe you can keep us therebut don't worry, I'll still be there to call you out if I think you're screwing it up.
But, you have proven me wrong.
I doubt you will read thismaybe someone will pass it along to you. You've probably got better things to do, like beating Texas Tech.
I fear that there might come another day, soon, that we will have to replace another coach. But, that means you have continued to get us to the mountain top. If that is the case, then so be it.
So, one final time.
Coach Keller, I am sorry for doubting you. You have done what I did not believe you could do.
And for once, I am so glad to be so wrong.
Keep playing hard and I look forward to us giving Tech 40 minutes of absolute misery.
Axe'em Jacks.
MasterAxe
SFA Class of 2005 & 2007.
