No, it wasn’t really the same things that people were saying about Cal although everyone definitely was excited and high on him. Cal’s in-person introduction to BBN was standing at a podium and staring down at the printed pages he was reading his half stellar/half cheesy “domination proclamation for the big blue nation” off of. Really soon after that he said “the Lamborghini is not leaving the garage.”
We had no idea the magnitude of the bullcrap that was headed for us six years down the pike even though plenty of people were warning us even then. But even then, even though we were very high on him, most fans knew and talked about the fact that Cal was a bullshitter and a salesman. We started saying very very early that “Cal could sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves.” ——In addition to which it took a while to convince a huge chunk of people that DDMO was even a real thing as opposed to just a marketing gimmick Cal hawked to bring the talent in here and roll the balls out. (And plenty of people never did believe it at all, including several vocal voices here).
Sure, people were saying complimentary things about Cal back then and were excited with high expectations. And as a result anyone can be forgiven for feeling once bitten, twice shy regarding the similar-level excitement about Coach Pope now. But ultimately there are very significant differences between both what people are hearing from Pope compared to what they heard from Cal and what people are saying about Pope compared to what they said about Cal. Pope has been working hard to achieve those differences. They are significant and he deserves credit for them.