Well, I had one of our press guys from Reddit press Bohl at Media Days RE: Off. Same response, different year. Lmao.

Full credit to u/ToeInDigDeep from r/CFB on Reddit for pushing the subject:

Wyoming Head Coach Craig Bohl

Well, u/DamThatRiver22, I pushed him a little. I asked your question pretty directly and for some parts verbatim. his response:

"No doubt we need to improve. Coach Polasek and I have talked a lot about how to distribute the ball."

"Working on the protection scheme"

"Fans need to understand that not everything is going to rapidly change"

"To say that we’re gonna go in and radically change and all of a sudden you’re gonna see us play with four wide receives and an empty backfield, that’s not gonna be accurate."

"But the needle needs to move. Tim and I have had some really candid conversations, we’ve done a deep dive, and I’m confident that we’re gonna improve in that area.”

"We're gonna be balanced between running and passing"

"Sometimes people will look and say if you're not throwing the ball 50 times a game, you're not with that... that's not gonna work in Wyoming"

"we have some weather sometimes that doesn't permit that"

concluded his response to me by asking, "do we have any other questions from the fans?"!

Looooool.

Bohl's strawman argument is tiring. There isn't one damn person asking if we'll all the sudden switch to an air raid.
Things aren't going to rapidly change? Good hell. Is a decade long enough?

How about:
How do you improve on a roughly 50% completion percentage.
How do you improve yards/attempt?
How do you improve protection scheme to provide another 1/2 to 1 second of pocket time?
How do you use the pass to keep out of 3rd and long?

How do you get out of having a bottom 10 offense?

etc. etc.

Out of all that was said (that wasn't really said) the one "term" that pisses me off to no end..."Deep Dive". Fuck that, and fuck you for saying that. That whole mantra needs to be removed from our vocabularies. Don't give me corporate speak. And we all know "Deep Dive" just means you have no mufu'ing clue!!

No matter what he says...We know, at this point, what is going to happen....He is unable to create an offense that is even in the middle of the pack in college football. If he could, he would have done it by now.

DamThatRiver22 said:

Full credit to u/ToeInDigDeep from r/CFB on Reddit for pushing the subject:

Wyoming Head Coach Craig Bohl

Well, u/DamThatRiver22, I pushed him a little. I asked your question pretty directly and for some parts verbatim. his response:

"No doubt we need to improve. Coach Polasek and I have talked a lot about how to distribute the ball."

"Working on the protection scheme"

"Fans need to understand that not everything is going to rapidly change"

"To say that we’re gonna go in and radically change and all of a sudden you’re gonna see us play with four wide receives and an empty backfield, that’s not gonna be accurate."

"But the needle needs to move. Tim and I have had some really candid conversations, we’ve done a deep dive, and I’m confident that we’re gonna improve in that area.”

"We're gonna be balanced between running and passing"

"Sometimes people will look and say if you're not throwing the ball 50 times a game, you're not with that... that's not gonna work in Wyoming"

"we have some weather sometimes that doesn't permit that"

concluded his response to me by asking, "do we have any other questions from the fans?"!

Looooool.

Click to expand...

This is the one that pisses me off....how long does it take given that we have been bashing our head into the same wall with the same offensive philosophy for how long now???

So, my own thoughts on the matter...

I knew exactly what he was gonna say when I made the request, but considering how much our own beat writers play softball and avoid directly addressing the issue a lot of the time, it was an opportunity to have our press guy push it a bit.

His entire response is verbatim what he's said for at least the last 7 years (replace Tim with Brent for earlier years, but yea). It' comical, to be honest.

Protection issues? Yea, pass pro has always been a big issue in years past, but last year's line was immensely better in pass pro than they have been...and we had some of our worst offensive performances yet. So clearly that's not really the sole, or biggest, issue.

"Candid conversations" and a "deep dive" with Polasek? You literally claimed that exact same thing the last two years. Lmao.

"We're gonna be balanced" For the first time in 7 years? Wow, this is definitely exciting news.

"not gonna throw the ball 50 times a game"

Like others, I'm reeeeaaaallly tired of this strawman. Literally no one has asked for the Air Raid here. Hell, I don't think I've seen anybody really clamor for a spread offense...at least, not one that isn't heavily predicated on RPO.

What we want is a passing offense that doesn't continually and literally rival triple option offenses for worst passing offense in league and country. Good god.

(Although the Air Raid in Laramie would be entertaining as f***, not gonna lie.)

"Weather" You have got to be sh*tting me. He really pulled this one out? A) Plenty of coaches at Wyoming have thrown the ball effectively. B) Plenty of coaches around the country have thrown the ball well in snow and cold. C) While we have more wind than most, I've rarely seen it literally ground the passing game. (Kicking is another story, obviously.)

"Any other questions for the fans"

No, Craig. This is literally the only major problem with the team (besides some of your curious game management decisions), so it's literally the only thing we give a sh** about at this point. Lol.

Also, I'm getting reeeaaally tired of him being borderline patronizing with fans and press guys as if we know literally nothing about football or how it works when we call him out on this stuff. No, our names aren't Craig Bohl and we haven't been coaching for 40 years....but at least, unlike you, we understand what a forward pass is. And while I understand sometimes stats can be misleading....when they're that bad for that long, especially when compared to 130+ other coaches in the exact same level of the exact same sport as you...maybe, just maybe, you're the one who's lost.

The thought that comes my mind is what if Joe Tiller had the Josh Allen / Brian Hill team? Does anyone doubt that team would have achieved far more with someone like Tiller who actually believed in a balanced attack as head coach? Bohl is basically giving lip service to the question . He is really just recycling the same old lines without any intention of actually doing something besides calling the same two two runs off tackle against a stacked box followed by a desperation pass attempt on third down?

doreno5 said:

The thought that comes my mind is what if Joe Tiller had the Josh Allen / Brian Hill team? Does anyone doubt that team would have achieved far more with someone like Tiller who actually believed in a balanced attack as head coach? Bohl is basically giving lip service to the question . He is really just recycling the same old lines without any intention of actually doing something besides calling the same two two runs off tackle against a stacked box followed by a desperation pass attempt on third down?

Click to expand...

Hey, give 'em some credit...every third game or so they open the game with a ridiculous 60+ yard bomb attempt on first down that works 25% of the time...so when it fails they can spend the rest of the game saying "welp, that didn't work".

I think Wyoming should run some version of the spread. RPO or not Bohl’s offense has sucked unless he had an NFL QB or was playing at a lower level with easier transfer rules and recruiting for that level.

The RPO-based spread offense under DC was the right idea...at the wrong time and with the wrong coach, IMO.

DamThatRiver22 said:

The RPO-based spread offense under DC was the right idea...at the wrong time and with the wrong coach, IMO.

Click to expand...

That offense was spectacular. Too bad the defense was as big a joke as our offense is now.

The current rules in football favors a passing offense. Period. Back in the day the secondary could really get physical with receivers and a safety would punish a slot receiver coming across the middle. Unless that changes, then I see no reason to put a running game first. With that said, it's not about the X's and O's it's about the jimmys and joes. Give me superior talent and we could run just about any offensive scheme.

Personally I don't like quick scoring or 3 and out offenses like the spread, it's why we didn't win many games under DC. It wears on a defense. I certainly would favor a passing offense, such as a west coast style. Having a deep threat like Neyor allowed us to open up a little bit of the WC offense Bohl favors for a passing game. I unfortunately don't a see a light at the end of the tunnel with the current coaching staff and the current state of CFB.

It doesn't matter. History tells us that.

An ever weakening conference will help as much as anything.

ragtimejoe1 said:

It doesn't matter. History tells us that.

An ever weakening conference will help as much as anything.

Click to expand...

For conference championships... It won't matter. Whatever is weakening the conference will affect every team... Including Wyoming.

307bball said:

ragtimejoe1 said:

It doesn't matter. History tells us that.

An ever weakening conference will help as much as anything.

Click to expand...

For conference championships... It won't matter. Whatever is weakening the conference will affect every team... Including Wyoming.

Click to expand...

Losing bsu, fsu, and sdsu will help probability of a conference championship if we stay at 9 or add the likes of nmsu.

Cornpoke said:

The current rules in football favors a passing offense. Period. Back in the day the secondary could really get physical with receivers and a safety would punish a slot receiver coming across the middle. Unless that changes, then I see no reason to put a running game first. With that said, it's not about the X's and O's it's about the jimmys and joes. Give me superior talent and we could run just about any offensive scheme.

Personally I don't like quick scoring or 3 and out offenses like the spread, it's why we didn't win many games under DC. It wears on a defense. I certainly would favor a passing offense, such as a west coast style. Having a deep threat like Neyor allowed us to open up a little bit of the WC offense Bohl favors for a passing game. I unfortunately don't a see a light at the end of the tunnel with the current coaching staff and the current state of CFB.

Click to expand...

I don't get the X's and O's vs Jimmies and Joes argument. There are a so many examples where talent level doesn't match production. Teams like TAMU last year (their total offense was 92nd in the country) or Air Force every year (58th and they're usually in the top half) show that. Scheme and talent both matter.

East Carolina (23rd), North Texas (21st), Ga Southern (18th), UTSA (12th), and Western Kentucky (7th) don't all have top 25 talent. And Nebraska (101st), Virginia (102nd), Indiana (109th), Kentucky (115th), Wyoming (118th), Virginian Tech (119th), and Iowa (129th) don't all have bottom 30 talent.

Wyoming's defense under Bohl is regularly ranked in the 50's or better, and the top 20 a couple of years. The offense is usually in the high 80's or worse, with a couple of bottom 10 rankings. That's clearly a coaching problem. There isn't that much of a talent gap between our offensive and defensive players. Bohl's offensive scheme clearly doesn't produce results. We can argue about what scheme would work but at the end of the day, his doesn't.

ragtimejoe1 said:

307bball said:

For conference championships... It won't matter. Whatever is weakening the conference will affect every team... Including Wyoming.

Click to expand...

Losing bsu, fsu, and sdsu will help probability of a conference championship if we stay at 9 or add the likes of nmsu.

Click to expand...

Well... Membership will be stable at least through next year. And when those teams leave ... I'll cheer on the pokes to win whatever is left of that conference. If you want to cheer on a P5 conference team... I'm sure the bandwagon has room. If you want Wyo to be in a conference with that caliber of team..... That is just not going to happen.

307bball said:

ragtimejoe1 said:

Losing bsu, fsu, and sdsu will help probability of a conference championship if we stay at 9 or add the likes of nmsu.

Click to expand...

Well... Membership will be stable at least through next year. And when those teams leave ... I'll cheer on the pokes to win whatever is left of that conference. If you want to cheer on a P5 conference team... I'm sure the bandwagon has room. If you want Wyo to be in a conference with that caliber of team..... That is just not going to happen.

Click to expand...

Umm, what? What did I state that was incorrect?

ragtimejoe1 said:

307bball said:

Well... Membership will be stable at least through next year. And when those teams leave ... I'll cheer on the pokes to win whatever is left of that conference. If you want to cheer on a P5 conference team... I'm sure the bandwagon has room. If you want Wyo to be in a conference with that caliber of team..... That is just not going to happen.

Click to expand...

Umm, what? What did I state that was incorrect?

Click to expand...

I agree with your premise that it is easier to win a 9 team league.... But next season that will not be the case.

The rest was a commentary on your continued fixation on how good the conference is. Why not cheer for an SEC team? Whatever conference Wyo is realistic a part of will have us somewhere in the bottom of the top half as long as Bohl is at the helm.... If the programs you mentioned left tomorrow, our chances of a championship would increase next season but the overall damage to recruiting and reputation that the rest of the MWC teams and us would suffer would drag everybody down in the medium to long term.

There was a time that best non power conference teams were respected but that is eroding away....

307bball said:

ragtimejoe1 said:

Umm, what? What did I state that was incorrect?

Click to expand...

I agree with your premise that it is easier to win a 9 team league.... But next season that will not be the case.

The rest was a commentary on your continued fixation on how good the conference is. Why not cheer for an SEC team? Whatever conference Wyo is realistic a part of will have us somewhere in the bottom of the top half as long as Bohl is at the helm.... If the programs you mentioned left tomorrow, our chances of a championship would increase next season but the overall damage to recruiting and reputation that the rest of the MWC teams and us would suffer would drag everybody down in the medium to long term.

There was a time that best non power conference teams were respected but that is eroding away....

Click to expand...

Interesting. No matter how bad the competition gets, WYO will always eventually regress to middle of the league or lower?

I actually think the opposite. Once the conference regresses enough, we'll move to the top end of the league more consistently. We just need to replace the bsu types with nmsu types. Then, we can all have fun cheering on a conference championship team.

If we're lucky enough to be in a conference after this fiasco, we might get to find out.