Accepting mediocrity PSA

[307bball]

Anybody ok with the 7 win ceiling that Bohl has established?

I suspect that number of fans is zero.... But if I'm wrong.... Please reply here. This thread can also serve as a place for various posters to let off some steam by insulting all of the mediocrity accepters out there so the rest of us can discuss reality without being condemned as being "ok" with perpetual seven win seasons at best.

 

[SDPokeFan]

But he gets us to bowls! Who do you think is going to come here and do any better? He's cowboy tough! Powder River let 'er Buck!

Did I miss any cliches?

 

[OrediggerPoke]

But he gets us to bowls! Who do you think is going to come here and do any better? He's cowboy tough! Powder River let 'er Buck!

Did I miss any cliches?

I think the point of this thread went completely over your head.

 

[307bball]

What?...I wake up and there is a post from SDpoke with some sort of toungue-in-cheek response and Oredigger telling him he missed the point of the thread...Where are all the mediocrity accepters? Come on guys!

To hear Wyovanian post about it you would think this board's greatest dreams had come true with this seasons results!

Could it possibly be that the posts admonishing the acceptance of mediocrity are just chest-beating performance art? hmmm

 

[BackHarlowRoad]

What?...I wake up and there is a post from SDpoke with some sort of toungue-in-cheek response and Oredigger telling him he missed the point of the thread...Where are all the mediocrity accepters? Come on guys!

To hear Wyovanian post about it you would think this board's greatest dreams had come true with this seasons results!

Could it possibly be that the posts admonishing the acceptance of mediocrity are just chest-beating performance art? hmmm

Are you still drunk from the night before?

 

[ragtimejoe1]

The 3rd (or 4th or 5th or ..)youngest team in fbs was not going to beat fsu this year regardless of the name on the front of the uniform. The bsu game hurt and the young group was surprisingly competitive in that game. sjsu was growing pains early. They happen when you are the 3rd youngest team in fbs. Outside of 1 or 2 games, I don't know that the conference season could have been much better.

Bohl's offense absolutely stinks. It is horrible. Horrendous. It is the only thing holding this team back. Transfer portal? NIL? Didn't matter. All came down to offense, again. Through year 1, Bohl has demonstrated resiliency in the new era of CFB.

I don't accept mediocrity. The question is do you think it is more likely for Bohl to finally field an adequate offense and win the conference or find some new hire who can build an entire new program and win a conference? For me, my money is on the former. I think chasing new coaches sends us back to the abyss. That said, I do understand and struggle with the idea of trying to get an innovator in here. Just because DC failed, doesn't mean the idea is a failure.

I guess it is more at this juncture, it seems more prudent to wait and see how all this shakes out (budget uncertainties, NIL, transfer, realignment, etc.). In the meantime, we have a solid program that may surprise us if the offense can ever find a pulse.

 

[307bball]

What?...I wake up and there is a post from SDpoke with some sort of toungue-in-cheek response and Oredigger telling him he missed the point of the thread...Where are all the mediocrity accepters? Come on guys!

To hear Wyovanian post about it you would think this board's greatest dreams had come true with this seasons results!

Could it possibly be that the posts admonishing the acceptance of mediocrity are just chest-beating performance art? hmmm

Are you still drunk from the night before?

Nope...stone sober.

Just sick of having every discussion hijacked by inane accusations that the mere act of noticing that Wyoming outperformed their talent this year is the equivalent of "settling" or being ok with this level of result in perpetuity. There has been plenty of time now for somebody to come out of the woodwork and make the claim that this all they want out of Wyoming football and nobody has done it. My theory that the number of fans here that are ok with this years result is zero, holds. Show me the reservoir of fans that are going to be happy with always being close but never getting a chip. It will always be a disappointment..to all of us...prove me wrong!

 

[PokeNer]

I guarantee that there are more than zero fans that are good with the typical 7 win seasons. It's obvious that at the influential booster level that they are good with status quo, otherwise Burman/Bohl would have been forced to make changes.

Being a Bohl apologist is accepting mediocrity in my opinion and is reality. If not, please explain "reality" to me. I understand the challenges our program faces, but I think we can do better than what we're seeing.

In "reality," you can't praise Bohl for this season's results because he had the 3rd youngest team in FBS, when it's likely his doing that we are the 3rd youngest team. His no BS, conservative offense, and stubborn attitude is directly contributing to the losses in the transfer portal. I understand the top talent at the G5 level are going to move up (i.e. Neyor, Coldon, X), but how do you explain the loss of key starters that have huge impacts (Blankenbaker, Williams, V Jones, Rome Weber)? All those guys made a lateral move at best. Its obvious there is a cultural issue in Laramie, and IMO that has to be attributed to the top guy.

I don't think this program can wait and see how this shakes out. IMO, Bohl needs to retire and we need someone that 1) can run a modern offense, 2) can actually recruit (or develop) a salvageable QB, 3) relate to the players, 4) adopt and utilize the transfer portal to our benefit.

This difference between our program and the top of the MW is obvious when you look at how Boise handled their poor start vs. what we've seen in the post-JA era. They have higher standards for their FB program than we do, and they are willing to make drastic changes to meet those standards. We have the sit back and see approach, hoping a dinosaur of a coach will all of a sudden see the light and start adapting his offense, and take advantage of the portal....

 

[LanderPoke]

In "reality," you can't praise Bohl for this season's results because he had the 3rd youngest team in FBS, when it's likely his doing that we are the 3rd youngest team. His no BS, conservative offense, and stubborn attitude is directly contributing to the losses in the transfer portal. I understand the top talent at the G5 level are going to move up (i.e. Neyor, Coldon, X), but how do you explain the loss of key starters that have huge impacts (Blankenbaker, Williams, V Jones, Rome Weber)? All those guys made a lateral move at best. Its obvious there is a cultural issue in Laramie, and IMO that has to be attributed to the top guy.

Agree with much of what you say, but we only really missed Coldon and Neyor, imo. X wouldn't have won us any more games, and Neyor...yeah. The rest were readily replaced imo. Didn't miss them one iota.

 

[PokeNer]

In "reality," you can't praise Bohl for this season's results because he had the 3rd youngest team in FBS, when it's likely his doing that we are the 3rd youngest team. His no BS, conservative offense, and stubborn attitude is directly contributing to the losses in the transfer portal. I understand the top talent at the G5 level are going to move up (i.e. Neyor, Coldon, X), but how do you explain the loss of key starters that have huge impacts (Blankenbaker, Williams, V Jones, Rome Weber)? All those guys made a lateral move at best. Its obvious there is a cultural issue in Laramie, and IMO that has to be attributed to the top guy.

Agree with much of what you say, but we only really missed Coldon and Neyor, imo. X wouldn't have won us any more games, and Neyor...yeah. The rest were readily replaced imo. Didn't miss them one iota.

Outside of X, and Levi, I would have loved to have all those guys this year. We lost a lot of experience and depth in the secondary with Blankenbaker and Weber. I think they would have made a big difference in our terrible pass D this year. And we sure could have used the depth on d line with Jones and Pate.

 

[LanderPoke]

Agree with much of what you say, but we only really missed Coldon and Neyor, imo. X wouldn't have won us any more games, and Neyor...yeah. The rest were readily replaced imo. Didn't miss them one iota.

Outside of X, and Levi, I would have loved to have all those guys this year. We lost a lot of experience and depth in the secondary with Blankenbaker and Weber. I think they would have made a big difference in our terrible pass D this year. And we sure could have used the depth on d line with Jones and Pate.

Disagree. Jones and Pate were easily replaced, as was Byrd, as were Blankenbaker and Weber, all by young guys waiting in the wings. There was zero drop in production that I can tell. We missed Coldon and Hearn somewhat. I don't think Hearn was all that good, probably the level of Hawkins and Harrell, but Coldon proved he was good by having a good year at Oklahoma.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

This difference between our program and the top of the MW is obvious when you look at how Boise handled their poor start vs. what we've seen in the post-JA era. They have higher standards for their FB program than we do, and they are willing to make drastic changes to meet those standards. We have the sit back and see approach, hoping a dinosaur of a coach will all of a sudden see the light and start adapting his offense, and take advantage of the portal....

We aren't ever going to have the luxury the CA schools do. That's reality. Kids deciding between a low-level P5 offer or other G5 offers may select a school close to home. CA schools have a lot of quality recruits that fit that critieria. We don't.

bsu is an anomaly. There will never be another bsu-like run especially with NIL and the transfer portal. Hell, I'll be surprised if bsu can sustain it; they already have dropped off compared to their bcs buster days.

usu won a conference championship during Bohl's tenure, so I guess a usu-like program should be attainable. Are we far off?

No coach or AD has succeeded at WYO in the modern era of college football. I'm not sure x's and o's are the limitation.

With that said, if Bohl did step down or we moved on, I wouldn't be disappointed or anything. I just don't believe things will get better. I think odds are that things get worse.

 

[Wyomingisgreat1]

Winning the MWC is just being the best at being mediocre. So we might as well accept being mediocre sooner rather than later.

 

[307bball]

I guarantee that there are more than zero fans that are good with the typical 7 win seasons. It's obvious that at the influential booster level that they are good with status quo, otherwise Burman/Bohl would have been forced to make changes.

Being a Bohl apologist is accepting mediocrity in my opinion and is reality. If not, please explain "reality" to me. I understand the challenges our program faces, but I think we can do better than what we're seeing.

In "reality," you can't praise Bohl for this season's results because he had the 3rd youngest team in FBS, when it's likely his doing that we are the 3rd youngest team. His no BS, conservative offense, and stubborn attitude is directly contributing to the losses in the transfer portal. I understand the top talent at the G5 level are going to move up (i.e. Neyor, Coldon, X), but how do you explain the loss of key starters that have huge impacts (Blankenbaker, Williams, V Jones, Rome Weber)? All those guys made a lateral move at best. Its obvious there is a cultural issue in Laramie, and IMO that has to be attributed to the top guy.

I don't think this program can wait and see how this shakes out. IMO, Bohl needs to retire and we need someone that 1) can run a modern offense, 2) can actually recruit (or develop) a salvageable QB, 3) relate to the players, 4) adopt and utilize the transfer portal to our benefit.

This difference between our program and the top of the MW is obvious when you look at how Boise handled their poor start vs. what we've seen in the post-JA era. They have higher standards for their FB program than we do, and they are willing to make drastic changes to meet those standards. We have the sit back and see approach, hoping a dinosaur of a coach will all of a sudden see the light and start adapting his offense, and take advantage of the portal....

I think there may be a lot more common ground here than I had previously realized. Much of what you are claiming and observing seems sensible.....And your specific observations about Bohl's contribution to the transfer issues is interesting..not sure I agree with you but that is not what I'm taking issue with. Please keep in mind that this message board is a very particular group of Cowboy fans who, unless I'm mistaken, are decidedly not at the high donor levels you mentioned. Everybody here as spilled plenty of ink describing Bohl's limitations...I am not hearing any Bohl "apologists" that your are describing. If they exist...they are not posting here.

Where is this "praise" of Bohl you are referring to? It is a fact that Wyoming was not predicted to do very well this season by the vast majority of poke fans and even Vegas....They out-performed nearly everybody's pre-season expectations...is that the "praise" you are referring to? If so ... well...I guess, but to me that is just noticing something. For every post that points this out there are way more complaining about the downsides of our Bohl-led program. I myself have pointed out that to be as close as we were to beating Boise only to lose it in the way we did was almost worse than if they had just gotten the first down and run out the clock on us. I think that series of plays and decisions are exactly why all of us are so frustrated with Bohl. Runs a clean program? check. Team first, no nonsense? check. Cultural fit? check... He checks so many boxes and has kept the program consistently above a level that has not been achieved in over a quarter century. Yet nobody is happy because, to all of us, it seems like this is as good as it gets. Yet I'm being told that there are a lot of fans that are ok with this level of success...I think that is not a defensible position and is used to shut down any mention that there are some things about the program that Bohl leads that nobody wants us to lose if we have a change of leadership.

Ragtime said it best so I'll just quote him and get off my soapbox "With that said, if Bohl did step down or we moved on, I wouldn't be disappointed or anything. I just don't believe things will get better. I think odds are that things get worse."

 

[PokeNer]

I guess that's where myself and a lot of other folks I have discussions with that are passionate about the program, differ from some views on here. I believe things can get better. If this is the best it gets, then why continue to invest large $ into facilities and pay a head coach top-MW money only to have middle of the road MW results every year?

Yes, what you mention is the praise Bohl I'm referring to. In other threads, criticism of Bohl is shot down because of how he over-performed this year. I'm happy that we exceeded expectations, and I'd rather be 7-5 than 2-10, for sure. However, from my seats, Bohl should be criticized for letting program expectations fall this year and should be held accountable for what's happening with the portal - whether that's players leaving for lateral moves or not actively recruiting the portal to backfill. I mentioned it in another thread, but what we're seeing in the portal isn't the same as what other programs are seeing. Programs are losing masses of players due to coaching changes, or players that are unhappy with playing time. We're losing starter after starter, many of which are leaving laterally. And from my outside perspective, Swen's comments of "Bohl's system isn't his style" is why many players are leaving. What happens if we see another 5-10 enter the portal, and once again we're top-5 youngest teams in the country? Bohl gets a pass on conference championship desires because we're too inexperienced again?? We're going to be okay with Vegas pegging us at a 2-3 win team, and Bohl gets us to 5-7 wins because he's constantly backfilling with Freshman and Sophomores?

IMO, the negatives out-weigh the box-checking to me and some I don't agree with. I don't believe he has a team-first program; I believe he has a coach-first program. He consistently berates the defense, when his conservative offense has cost us numerous games over the years. He rarely takes accountability. The no-nonsense check box could be construed as overly-conservative and not able to relate to players. I just don't see what's going on in Laramie as healthy, and I'm worried that Bohl peaked in 2016-17 and the slow downward spiral is occurring, potentially leaving the program in terrible shape when he does decide it's time.

And yes, winning the MW is being a top-mediocre program, but that's all that is attainable as a G5 program in today's environment (maybe getting throttled in the opening round of a 12-team playoff). It's all relative. We've only even sniffed the MW championship once, so I guess you could say that we aren't even mediocre (Sagarin and other ranking services would agree).

I can bitch and moan all day long on here, but the only way anything changes is if Bohl decides it's time to hang it up. So for now, we deal with what's occurring and what Bohl puts on the field.

 

[307bball]

It all makes sense to me...I still think the amount of people who would consider themselves "happy" with how the season turned out is very, very low....and the amount of people actually praising Bohl (not merely noticing that they outperformed the preseason predictions) is perhaps zero or very close to zero.

 

[HR_Poke]

The offense sucks. If burman were a decent AD he'd sit down and tell bohl his offensive scheme doesn't work and it's time for a change.

 

[PokesArePeopleToo]

Most fans aren't happy with the state of affairs I think. I think most have come to expect the status quo. I asked several weeks ago if this is the best it can get. Despite all of the offensive limitations Bohl has managed to keep the program somewhat relevant with some winning records and now 5 bowl appearances. We're not exactly really good but we're not exactly really bad, at least on the surface. We're right in the middle. What's middle? Mediocre right? The frustration comes into play where most of us are wondering when the program takes that next breakthrough step? When does the program have a 5 year run where they are serious mwc contenders? I guess I'll go back to that question again. Is this as good as it gets for Wyoming football whether Bohl is the head coach or someone else is?

 

[307bball]

Most fans aren't happy with the state of affairs I think. I think most have come to expect the status quo. I asked several weeks ago if this is the best it can get. Despite all of the offensive limitations Bohl has managed to keep the program somewhat relevant with some winning records and now 5 bowl appearances. We're not exactly really good but we're not exactly really bad, at least on the surface. We're right in the middle. What's middle? Mediocre right? The frustration comes into play where most of us are wondering when the program takes that next breakthrough step? When does the program have a 5 year run where they are serious mwc contenders? I guess I'll go back to that question again. Is this as good as it gets for Wyoming football whether Bohl is the head coach or someone else is?

With Bohl calling all the shots...I do think this is as good as it gets.

If we shake the snow globe up ... I think it goes back to the bad old days of the bottom third of the conference, but I guess the possibility of some sort of lightning in a bottle situation is out there.

I just can't see it not end badly for Bohl here. He desperately needs some help on the offensive side of the ball but he has shown no ability to find that help.

 

[wypoke]

Colorado Football Coach: Prime Time
Wyoming Football Coach: Waste of Time