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Expectations for 2009

J-Rod

Well-known member
With Christensen's staff nearly assembled what are your expectations for 2009? Coming racing out of the gates? Are is he going to need time to build? Colorado State and Air Force had instant success with their hires, any chance the Pokes can go from the Glenn era to a 6-8 win season in just one year?
 
I'm expecting a bowl game. I think the Pokes have talent, but the coaching wasn't there. If English can keep the D up to snuff, and Christensen improves the offense even slightly then we should see more wins.

I haven't seen next years schedule, but from what I recall it is something like this (not in any order):

  • Weber State (H) - Win
  • Texas (H) - Loss
  • Bowling Green (A) - Win
  • Colorado (A) - Toss-up, Colorado wasn't very good this year, and Mizzou seemed to have their number, so maybe Christensen can pull off the upset
  • Air Force (A) - Toss-up
  • San Diego State (A) - Win (but we haven't won in SD since 1995)
  • BYU (H) - Loss
  • Utah (A) - Loss
  • UNLV (H) - Win
  • TCU (H) - Probable loss
  • New Mexico (H) - Win
  • Colorado State (A) - Win (we owe those bastards)

So I see 6 wins, with a couple of toss-ups.
 
Looks favorable, TCU could end up being a win if Patterson leaves. Making a 7-5 record probable.
 
I think the Pokes have talent, but the coaching wasn't there.

Sorry Pokener, you lose all credibility with this statement. The fact is the coaching was there, but the talent was not. Glenn was a terrible recruiter, but he is one of the top coaches in the country. Greg Bolling is the best WR we could come up with under Glenn's recruiting. We missed the bouknights and malcom floyds badly. Our Offense was a mediocre D1AA squad, except for Devin Moore. The whole problem is Joe Glenn's philosophy does not work at Wyoming because we don't get the best athletes. We have to have a gimmicky passing offense in order to be successful. Glenn wanted to line up and run over people without the horses to do that. If I'm Nebraska I would hire Glenn in a heartbeat, watch what he does with equal talent.
 
East_Popcorn_State said:
Glenn was a terrible recruiter, but he is one of the top coaches in the country. If I'm Nebraska I would hire Glenn in a heartbeat, watch what he does with equal talent.

So he would be OK for a couple of years. Then according to your perspective he would fail because he would then be limited to using his recruits. Correct?
 
Good on defense and a little better on offense—and that could equal six wins. What we really need, to get better, is a turn around in special teams, better field position equals better offense and better defense. Looks like we may get the duel threat JC Quarterback out of Arizona, if we do our O could be vastly improved. A couple of speed wideouts and more help at running back and we can be in the middle of the pack next year in the Mtn West.
 
I don't buy the garbage that top quality D1A athletes as good as any other team in the MWC can't be recruited to UW. I also won't get on here and bad mouth Glenn - that era is done. I make no predictions but am going to wait and see what happens. My feeling is we made good moves.
 
I would like to go bowling, but won't make any predictions either, last year I was shooting for 10-3 after a bowl win, man - I was way off.

I wear thick Brown & Gold glasses.
 
WYCowboy said:
I don't buy the garbage that top quality D1A athletes as good as any other team in the MWC can't be recruited to UW. I also won't get on here and bad mouth Glenn - that era is done. I make no predictions but am going to wait and see what happens. My feeling is we made good moves.

Agreed. Top quality athletes will come to Wyoming, and have come to Wyoming before. Anyone though, in any sport at UW, that throws their hands up saying how "tough" it is to recruit to Wyoming, is just making excuses.
 
McPeachy said:
Agreed. Top quality athletes will come to Wyoming, and have come to Wyoming before. Anyone though, in any sport at UW, that throws their hands up saying how "tough" it is to recruit to Wyoming, is just making excuses.

That was the one thing that did really rub me the wrong way about Joe Glenn. I have never believed that recruiting to Wyoming is as tough as he made it sound. Also didn't like the way he always made it sound like any opponent that beat us was a top 10 program in the nation because they made us look bad.

We can get recruits, especially with all our new facilities.
 
East_Popcorn_State said:
I think the Pokes have talent, but the coaching wasn't there.

Sorry Pokener, you lose all credibility with this statement. The fact is the coaching was there, but the talent was not. Glenn was a terrible recruiter, but he is one of the top coaches in the country. Greg Bolling is the best WR we could come up with under Glenn's recruiting. We missed the bouknights and malcom floyds badly. Our Offense was a mediocre D1AA squad, except for Devin Moore. The whole problem is Joe Glenn's philosophy does not work at Wyoming because we don't get the best athletes. We have to have a gimmicky passing offense in order to be successful. Glenn wanted to line up and run over people without the horses to do that. If I'm Nebraska I would hire Glenn in a heartbeat, watch what he does with equal talent.

Tell me what part of the coaching was there? The run, run, run, punt coaching? There was no creativity on offense, what-so-ever. Excellent coaching can make up for poor or mediocre talent (see Air Force). To clarify, I agree that we don't have the talent to win the conference, but I still think we have the talent to go bowling, which is what I am predicting for next year. I also agree that we need a gimmicky offense to compete for the conference title.

We were a game away from being bowl eligible in '07 (we should have been 6-6, if the coaching wasn't so conservative in San Diego). We went into '08 with basically the same team minus Ford, Claffey, Medina, and Stinson. Were those guys a big enough loss that we went from being a pretty competitive team in '07 (minus Utah & BYU) and 3 pts away from being bowl eligible to being blown out by Bowling Green, losing to UNLV, CSU at home, and nearly losing to NDSU, and Ohio?

Does Youngstown State, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois, Northern Iowa, Missouri State, and South Dakota State have more talent then us? They all scored at least 23 points against NDSU. We scored 16 against a 6-5 D-1 FCS team. I know, comparing games like this is highly subjective. But, the same comparison can be made with Bowling Green and Ohio. I doubt that these teams have better offensive talent then us. We completely under-performed on offense under Glenn.

The fact is we had 7 home games this year, and nearly the same team from '07, yet we went backwards. Is Ford the sole reason we went from a miserable 322 yds/gm in '07 to 296 in '08? He was the only one we lost on offense.

Was the coaching there to stop the same bullshit turnovers that have plagued us for years? When it becomes a problem for a bevy of players, over several years, then I don't think you can pin it on the players. The prior staff didn't instill discipline or any creativity on offense. There was only a couple of bright spots on the previous staff and one of them is still here.

I'm not expecting a miraculous turn around by Dave Christensen. I expect that he can limit the turnovers, and install a creative, gimmicky offense. If we didn't have the worst turnover ratio in the country, we would have beat CSU (3 turnovers), UNLV (3 turnovers), and Air Force (5 turnovers), making our record 7-5. This is what I expect in '09
 
Adv8RU12 said:
East_Popcorn_State said:
Glenn was a terrible recruiter, but he is one of the top coaches in the country. If I'm Nebraska I would hire Glenn in a heartbeat, watch what he does with equal talent.

So he would be OK for a couple of years. Then according to your perspective he would fail because he would then be limited to using his recruits. Correct?


Incorrect. You missed it. Fail. The point is we are ranked near the bottom of D1 in recruiting and have been for a long time. At Nebraska, Glenn would get equal talent and would then would be a yearly contender for his 4th national championship title.

IT IS VERY HARD TO RECRUIT TO WYOMING. ANYONE WHO DOESN'T REALIZE THIS IS IGNORANT. ALL WE CAN HOPE FOR IS THE LEFTOVERS AND A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH EVERY NOW AND THEN.

Joe Glenn is one of the best coaches I've ever seen in 30 years of playing, coaching, watching college football.
Unfortunately, he went to Wyoming thinking he could get equal talent as everyone else, and in turn he ran an offensive system that will only work with equal talent. The fact is Wyoming is near the bottom in Talent and I will argue that the WR's are just about the worst bunch in America, which is the reason for the turnovers. I don't have a problem with the playcalling one bit.. In fact I loved it, I truly wish Glenn's style would work at Wyoming, But I have come to realize that it never will because its too damn hard to recruit to Wyoming. Because of this, we have to have a gimmicky offense in order to be successful.. .We cannot line up man to man and overpower anyone.
 
Incorrect. You missed it. Fail. The point is we are ranked near the bottom of D1 in recruiting and have been for a long time. At Nebraska, Glenn would get equal talent and would then would be a yearly contender for his 4th national championship title.
:lol:

Glenn can't evaluate talent for shit. He had some decent teams with Koening's players, but has gone down hill since. Adv8RU12 hit the nail on the head, he might do alright with the previous coaches players, but would consistently get worse as time wore on.

Joe Glenn is one of the best coaches I've ever seen in 30 years of playing, coaching, watching college football.
:lol:

Was it his stopwatch skills that have you so thoroughly impressed? And I'm the one that loses all credibility. :roll:
 
If Joe ran an offensive system that assumed that he had "equal talent", when in fact he didn't, then two conditions obtain: 1) He didn't recognize that he didn't have equal talent ( but should have)- therefore he is a poor coach, or 2) He did recognize that he didn't have equal talent but stubbornly persisted in forcing his system (rather than adapting to one that fit what he had) - therefore he is a poor coach.
 
Adv8RU12 said:
If Joe ran an offensive system that assumed that he had "equal talent", when in fact he didn't, then two conditions obtain: 1) He didn't recognize that he didn't have equal talent ( but should have)- therefore he is a poor coach, or 2) He did recognize that he didn't have equal talent but stubbornly persisted in forcing his system (rather than adapting to one that fit what he had) - therefore he is a poor coach.

Calling Glenn a Poor Coach AFTER he won 3 National Championships makes you the biggest moron in the world.
 
East_Popcorn_State said:
Calling Glenn a Poor Coach AFTER he won 3 National Championships makes you the biggest moron in the world.

Joe WAS a good coach at a lower level. When he moved up he just couldn't quite match up consistently that well with the big boys. So he was a good coach in division II and a poor coach in division I - BY DEFINITION of how coaches are judged - do they win or not. If he was a good coach they wouldn't have got rid of him. This says nothing about him being a good person, being liked, or anything else. It is about his record. The Peter Principle caught up with him.

At least I got a first place vote for one category. Thank you. It is great to be recognized in one's own time.
 
2009 will be about the same record as this year. Has anyone looked at the schedule? I don't see many wins that you can chalk up right away. Weber State, @SDSU, UNLV & New Mexico maybe because they are at home. Other than that I don't see many other opportunities to win. Texas, BYU, @Utah, TCU all are losses. On the road to Colorado and Bowling Green who spanked us this year at the War will probably be losses. Then on the road for CSU and Air Force who we can at best hope for a split.

Best case I could see 6-6 maybe if we play well 7-5 and worse case probably another 4-8 or 3-9.
 
I really think it comes down to how well Christensen can teach the players the new offensive scheme, and in turn how well they can run it. However anything less than 6-6 would be a bit of a dissapointment to me. We should have been at least 6-6 this year, but since we ran a ball control offense that couldn't score points and turned it over often we gave 2-3 games away IMO.

Just a hunch but I wouldn't be suprised if we suprise one of the the Utards or Yners next season.
 
Snowman_55 said:
I really think it comes down to how well Christensen can teach the players the new offensive scheme, and in turn how well they can run it. However anything less than 6-6 would be a bit of a dissapointment to me. We should have been at least 6-6 this year, but since we ran a ball control offense that couldn't score points and turned it over often we gave 2-3 games away IMO.

Just a hunch but I wouldn't be suprised if we suprise one of the the Utards or Yners next season.

I completely agree. There really isn't anywhere to go but up on the offensive side of the ball. If he can work with the receivers to catch balls better, find a QB that can run the system, and limit turnovers things might be alright. I was looking on NCAA.com, and Mizzou had the 70th ranked turnover margin (-.15/gm). While this isn't great, it is a hell of a lot better than -1.83/gm. The defense loses Dobbs and Rogers. The D-Line and corners return intact. If the Gipson brothers improve and someone can fill in for Dobbs, then there might not be much drop off on D.

With their suspect defense, you never know, we might be able to pull off the upset against the Yners in Laramie next year.
 
East_Popcorn_State said:
Adv8RU12 said:
If Joe ran an offensive system that assumed that he had "equal talent", when in fact he didn't, then two conditions obtain: 1) He didn't recognize that he didn't have equal talent ( but should have)- therefore he is a poor coach, or 2) He did recognize that he didn't have equal talent but stubbornly persisted in forcing his system (rather than adapting to one that fit what he had) - therefore he is a poor coach.

Calling Glenn a Poor Coach AFTER he won 3 National Championships makes you the biggest moron in the world.

Thinking that Glenn is a great coach after the last 6 years only qualifies one poster in this thread to be a moron. Does not matter what he did in Montana or Greeley. What did he do at UW? Not a great coach at all, great person all the way but that does not win football games. Coaching includes recruiting so by your own admission that makes him a poor coach since he did not succeed at that. Popcorn, are you a blood relative or by marriage?
 
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