Dave Christensen and the moment it all started to go bad

[DocHolliday]

The season is over thank goodness - and so it concludes two disaster-ridden campaigns in back-to-back fashion.

As I alluded to on another thread, I was at one time a huge fan of the Dave Christensen regime and I thought he had the Pokes headed in a more than positive direction, and I looked forward to DC coaching in Laramie for many years to come.

Perhaps some of you were like me, where initially you were enamored with DC, only to lose faith over the past few seasons, and culminating with today's game that finally put the brown & gold out of their misery for 2013.

In assessing the DC administration over the last 5 years, I'm interested to get as many thoughts as are willing to opine on this matter.

At what point did you begin to sense that the program was going in reverse?

Was it one instance, was it the coordination of several factors...can you pinpoint necessarily the moment(s) when you began to sense that the show was not going to turn out like we all would have liked it to?

Did DC make any fatal mistakes which turned out to be his undoing?

Your candid observations would be most appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[PokeOLoco]

For me it was the Fresno game. The moment Carr made us look like a jv defense AND our offense disappeared. Boise reaffirmed it, USU cemented it. I was willing to give him a chance up to that point because of the play of our offense, but after those/these performances I personally was done.

 

[Cornpoke]

For me it was the Nevada game last year. I realized then and there this guy does not know how to coach to win. Taking a knee with a chance to win the game? OMG that was just laughable to me as someone who has coached and played football. How as a player do you believe in a guy like that? It's basically saying "I don't believe in you guys to win the game"

 

[BeaverPoke]

How about the Cal Poly game? How about shitting down his leg and not playing Brett Smith his freshman season when he got hit hard against TCU? If Wyo would have beat TCU, Wyo would have won the MWC championship, but he played "not to lose" which is the dumbest shit ever.
How about, CSU this season? Texas State? Any of the Boise state games? The Fresno games?
The USU games?

 

[Brew_Poke]

The back to back losses by a fuckload of points and yards vs. Utah State and Temple two years ago. That was the beginning of the end.

 

[Adv8RU12]

When he developed a hubris about his coaching. Probably after he went to a bowl. He could do no wrong, never question himself. Never think that it could be his fault. Look at the gameday demeanor between Dave and Larry. Dave's cocksure look of being in control even when he's getting his ass kicked so hard he has to part his hair to put his necktie on. Then there's Larry. Intense, always thinking like he's wondering "what can I do better?" "How do I solve this problem?"

 

[MrTitleist]

The AFA game last year sure was bad.. yeah, it was cool that he tried to beat Calhoun's ass on the field, but it did a lot of harm to the image of the program and that didn't help a pretty jaded fanbase.. it put our name in all of the papers in a really bad way.

 

[Wyovanian]

I was beginning to have my doubts following the Toledo game. That was when I really noticed our post-halftime play and the glaring lack of adjustments. Cal-Poly really drove home how clearly flawed he was as a coach, and the AFA game drove home how how clearly flawed his character was.

 

[fromolwyoming]

I was beginning to have my doubts following the Toledo game. That was when I really noticed our post-halftime play and the glaring lack of adjustments. Cal-Poly really drove home how clearly flawed he was as a coach, and the AFA game drove home how how clearly flawed his character was.

Though, lets not lie. Wyoming pounding the shit out of Air Force felt like sweet revenge, and wiping that smile off of Troy "Howdy Doody" Calhoun's face was satisfying.

Calhoun also played the kid that got knocked out by Konkolongo later in the game.

 

[DocHolliday]

The beginning of the end, ironically enough, for me, was the blowout loss in the bowl game against Temple a few years ago.

It only got worse and worse from that point forward.

Also, when we lost back-to-back home games last year, first to Toledo (a very well coached team), but then against Cal-Poly...and the way Cal-Poly ran all over us - that game was the one that made me believe we had a major problem.

 

[cowboyz]

I realized that we'd all been duped during his second season, and I've been preaching it on this forum since.

Year one, we were all pleased with the hiring. Plus, everyone gets a free pass the first year. Then with a bunch of Glenn's recruits on defense, a bunch of true freshman leading the offense and a combo of both taking care of special teams, we scrape our way to a 7 win season ending with a bowl game victory. Not too shabby compared to what we and the media were all expecting. In fact, a successful season!

Meeting DC and observing him in person that first season, I could see that he was a prick. The disdain he projected toward the "locals" really pissed me off. Then to see how he treated the players and the media confirmed, to me anyway, that he was indeed a prick. He arrived as if he was presenting the game of football to the state of Wyoming for the first time. This football god was going to show the ignorant natives how this all works. Pretty ballsy for a guy that had never lead a team at any level! He had spent years sucking up to the "boss" and now everyone was going to suck up to him. But hey, we didn't end the season in last place, we went to a bowl game and even beat a pretty decent FSU team in the process. Maybe this guy was going to lead us to the promised land.

Then we have year two. 2010 was a killer schedule. I believe there were 6 teams getting national ranking in one poll or another and they were mostly front loaded on our schedule. Boise, Texas, TCU, Utah, BYU, even Air Force was getting some love. I personally was not expecting us to equal the previous year's performance, nor was the media, so here he was with a another free pass. Then as expected, we got our ass handed to us early on. Some games a little worse than we had hoped (TCU, Boise), but realistic expectations were that we would lose these games, so no surprise. With 3 games remaining we sat there at 2 - 7. These 3 games were against the dregs of the MWC; NM, UNLV and CSU. Win these and we end up at 5-7. Not great and not an improvement, but with the schedule, understandable. With most of our firepower returning for the 2011 "cupcake" schedule, 8 or 9 wins, maybe 10 with a bowl game victory would be attainable. But the wheels fell off. We allow New Mexico their only win of the season and follow that mess up with allowing UNLV one of their only two wins for the season. That's when it all came clear to me that we had the wrong guy leading the program. Attending the CSU game felt great for an afternoon, but seeing where we ended up for the year and then seeing yet more players running from this guy, I knew it was over.

He doesn't have what it takes to lead a program and the mostly-goober assistant coaching staff he put together was a lost as he was. Half of them coaching positons they had never coached or even played. In fact their combined coaching experience at any level was thin at best. Over the years when they started leaving for various reasons (English couldn't stand DC, Arroyo's family issues, etc.) he replaced them with experieinced guys, who were unfortunately just as ineffective. Now I don't know if these assistants aren't up to par, or is it that DC micro-manages them or not at all.

So when was the moment it went wrong for me, 2010 week eleven. Losing to NM could be called a fluke. Losing the next week to UNLV showed me that we were simpy overmatched at the coaching level.

 

[DocHolliday]

I realized that we'd all been duped during his second season, and I've been preaching it on this forum since.

Year one, we were all pleased with the hiring. Plus, everyone gets a free pass the first year. Then with a bunch of Glenn's recruits on defense, a bunch of true freshman leading the offense and a combo of both taking care of special teams, we scrape our way to a 7 win season ending with a bowl game victory. Not too shabby compared to what we and the media were all expecting. In fact, a successful season!

Meeting DC and observing him in person that first season, I could see that he was a prick. The disdain he projected toward the "locals" really pissed me off. Then to see how he treated the players and the media confirmed, to me anyway, that he was indeed a prick. He arrived as if he was presenting the game of football to the state of Wyoming for the first time. This football god was going to show the ignorant natives how this all works. Pretty ballsy for a guy that had never lead a team at any level! He had spent years sucking up to the "boss" and now everyone was going to suck up to him. But hey, we didn't end the season in last place, we went to a bowl game and even beat a pretty decent FSU team in the process. Maybe this guy was going to lead us to the promised land.

Then we have year two. 2010 was a killer schedule. I believe there were 6 teams getting national ranking in one poll or another and they were mostly front loaded on our schedule. Boise, Texas, TCU, Utah, BYU, even Air Force was getting some love. I personally was not expecting us to equal the previous year's performance, nor was the media, so here he was with a another free pass. Then as expected, we got our ass handed to us early on. Some games a little worse than we had hoped (TCU, Boise), but realistic expectations were that we would lose these games, so no surprise. With 3 games remaining we sat there at 2 - 7. These 3 games were against the dregs of the MWC; NM, UNLV and CSU. Win these and we end up at 5-7. Not great and not an improvement, but with the schedule, understandable. With most of our firepower returning for the 2011 "cupcake" schedule, 8 or 9 wins, maybe 10 with a bowl game victory would be attainable. But the wheels fell off. We allow New Mexico their only win of the season and follow that mess up with allowing UNLV one of their only two wins for the season. That's when it all came clear to me that we had the wrong guy leading the program. Attending the CSU game felt great for an afternoon, but seeing where we ended up for the year and then seeing yet more players running from this guy, I knew it was over.

He doesn't have what it takes to lead a program and the mostly-goober assistant coaching staff he put together was a lost as he was. Half of them coaching positons they had never coached or even played. In fact their combined coaching experience at any level was thin at best. Over the years when they started leaving for various reasons (English couldn't stand DC, Arroyo's family issues, etc.) he replaced them with experieinced guys, who were unfortunately just as ineffective. Now I don't know if these assistants aren't up to par, or is it that DC micro-manages them or not at all.

So when was the moment it went wrong for me, 2010 week eleven. Losing to NM could be called a fluke. Losing the next week to UNLV showed me that we were simpy overmatched at the coaching level.

You really sense an outright arrogance for this guy, eh?

I wonder if Tom Burman gets your drift...

 

[cowboyz]

I realized that we'd all been duped during his second season, and I've been preaching it on this forum since.

Year one, we were all pleased with the hiring. Plus, everyone gets a free pass the first year. Then with a bunch of Glenn's recruits on defense, a bunch of true freshman leading the offense and a combo of both taking care of special teams, we scrape our way to a 7 win season ending with a bowl game victory. Not too shabby compared to what we and the media were all expecting. In fact, a successful season!

Meeting DC and observing him in person that first season, I could see that he was a prick. The disdain he projected toward the "locals" really pissed me off. Then to see how he treated the players and the media confirmed, to me anyway, that he was indeed a prick. He arrived as if he was presenting the game of football to the state of Wyoming for the first time. This football god was going to show the ignorant natives how this all works. Pretty ballsy for a guy that had never lead a team at any level! He had spent years sucking up to the "boss" and now everyone was going to suck up to him. But hey, we didn't end the season in last place, we went to a bowl game and even beat a pretty decent FSU team in the process. Maybe this guy was going to lead us to the promised land.

Then we have year two. 2010 was a killer schedule. I believe there were 6 teams getting national ranking in one poll or another and they were mostly front loaded on our schedule. Boise, Texas, TCU, Utah, BYU, even Air Force was getting some love. I personally was not expecting us to equal the previous year's performance, nor was the media, so here he was with a another free pass. Then as expected, we got our ass handed to us early on. Some games a little worse than we had hoped (TCU, Boise), but realistic expectations were that we would lose these games, so no surprise. With 3 games remaining we sat there at 2 - 7. These 3 games were against the dregs of the MWC; NM, UNLV and CSU. Win these and we end up at 5-7. Not great and not an improvement, but with the schedule, understandable. With most of our firepower returning for the 2011 "cupcake" schedule, 8 or 9 wins, maybe 10 with a bowl game victory would be attainable. But the wheels fell off. We allow New Mexico their only win of the season and follow that mess up with allowing UNLV one of their only two wins for the season. That's when it all came clear to me that we had the wrong guy leading the program. Attending the CSU game felt great for an afternoon, but seeing where we ended up for the year and then seeing yet more players running from this guy, I knew it was over.

He doesn't have what it takes to lead a program and the mostly-goober assistant coaching staff he put together was a lost as he was. Half of them coaching positons they had never coached or even played. In fact their combined coaching experience at any level was thin at best. Over the years when they started leaving for various reasons (English couldn't stand DC, Arroyo's family issues, etc.) he replaced them with experieinced guys, who were unfortunately just as ineffective. Now I don't know if these assistants aren't up to par, or is it that DC micro-manages them or not at all.

So when was the moment it went wrong for me, 2010 week eleven. Losing to NM could be called a fluke. Losing the next week to UNLV showed me that we were simpy overmatched at the coaching level.

You really sense an outright arrogance for this guy, eh?

I wonder if Tom Burman gets your drift...

If you've ever met him at functions or even watched him at practice or games, you can see his arrogance. In fact, maybe it's more bullying, as you can see the lack of confidence in his eyes. When confronted, up goes the tough guy wall to shut you out or distract you from noticing his total lack of a clue. That outburst after the AF game last season is how I see DC. At least for that one moment in time he wasn't bullying our own players or media. At least it was directed at an opponent.