How far away from being competitive?

[Cosmic Cowboy]

So I only casually watched that Boise game at work last night and yes it had the typical suicidal back breaking blunders this season has been plagued with. The other side to that is we played decently (by our standards???) on the road against what might be the best MW team this year, most likely a top 3 MW program at the least? I'm impressed that the Pokes have continued to improve this whole season. I posted earlier that's all I wanted to see and I stand by that. The competitive spirit is still lurking in this team. Hey we gotta WIN! So how long before we really give Boise a game in Boise?

I feel like this team is just 2 decent or maybe 1 decent, 1 solid recruiting classes from being able to compete in the MWC. It feels like they just need in 10 to 15 new guys that can contribute. That doesn't mean all starters either. Just guys that can help in practice, help depth, and yes fill in a few starting holes for sure. Need a kicker. More contributors across the board should even shore up or help us excel in special teams as well. Goddamn I'd love to see us have the best special teams in the conference...that pretty much never happens.

I think we'll get there even with current coaching. Our play calling, schemes, and gameplans with a few more recruiting classes could work more efficiently/effectively. They obviously haven't seemed too great this year either, but some of these TO's might be on the players. The TO's have been what completely kill us consistently this year more then anything from what my causal eye sees. Again to be competitive it means to start playing teams like Boise within 10 on the road. We gotta start making these other teams sweat more.

I think this staff is competitive in 2 years if they get 2 above stated recruiting classes. How long do you think before we make teams start to sweat us again? Could we really be a top 3 MWC team in 3 years? I mean the MWC looks pretty shitty this year, it seems possible right?

 

[fromolwyoming]

We clearly have a lot of good pieces out there, just haven't really completely clicked yet. Injuries to key players have not helped this season. And play calling. The ultra-conservative play calling can be mind boggling.

 

[bladerunnr]

We clearly have a lot of good pieces out there, just haven't really completely clicked yet. Injuries to key players have not helped this season. And play calling. The ultra-conservative play calling can be mind boggling.

It's amusing to me to always blame the play calling. When your qb has a d-lineman between himself and the receiver and he throws it right to the lineman as if he didn't even see him, does that mean it's time to throw it all over the field? Coffman has a tendency to lock in on his first option and throw it there, whether the guy is open or not. He did it early in the Air Force game and other games as well. I know the young man is doing his best, but you think the OC is going to open it up when he sees a play like that?

I don't want to piss in anyone's cornflakes. I know how everyone is excited that were covering these massive point spreads. But did you get a look at the Boise st. sideline? Did you see them laughing and some of them even look bored?
After it was 24-0, do you think they played hard?

I know we turned the corner after that 1 win, but I'm not seeing what everyone else is seeing.

 

[fromolwyoming]

We clearly have a lot of good pieces out there, just haven't really completely clicked yet. Injuries to key players have not helped this season. And play calling. The ultra-conservative play calling can be mind boggling.

It's amusing to me to always blame the play calling. When your qb has a d-lineman between himself and the receiver and he throws it right to the lineman as if he didn't even see him, does that mean it's time to throw it all over the field? Coffman has a tendency to lock in on his first option and throw it there, whether the guy is open or not. He did it early in the Air Force game and other games as well. I know the young man is doing his best, but you think the OC is going to open it up when he sees a play like that?

I don't want to piss in anyone's cornflakes. I know how everyone is excited that were covering these massive point spreads. But did you get a look at the Boise st. sideline? Did you see them laughing and some of them even look bored?
After it was 24-0, do you think they played hard?

I know we turned the corner after that 1 win, but I'm not seeing what everyone else is seeing.

And when we played Nevada and didn't do more than run left, right, and up the middle in the second half? No quick drop backs, no underneath throws, nothing like that. And you can't let 1 bad pass dictate the rest of the game. He did.

 

[J-Rod]

I don't want to piss in anyone's cornflakes. I know how everyone is excited that were covering these massive point spreads. But did you get a look at the Boise st. sideline? Did you see them laughing and some of them even look bored?
After it was 24-0, do you think they played hard?

This. Even BSU's coaches seemed to suggest they treated this game as a preseason game. Left out several key starters, offense was super conservative. Started running over and over again early in the 2nd half. I'll be impressed if we play USU close, cause last night frankly looked like it had much more to do with BSU scaling things back before their bye in a week than it did Wyo playing them well. A "back to the basics" game. Not a bad result at all, but I'm not drawing any future conclusions based on it. This team is still staring at 3-9 for 2015 in the best realistic scenario.

 

[ELKMT]

I think we are getting better, but the gap is huge. I don't think we go better than 3 wins in 2016 either.

 

[kansasCowboy]

We clearly have a lot of good pieces out there, just haven't really completely clicked yet. Injuries to key players have not helped this season. And play calling. The ultra-conservative play calling can be mind boggling.

What's mind boggling is now another key position will be manned by yet another Freshman... Nick Smith. Arguably better and better prepared than he was against EMU, so hopefully he will keep our passing game honest.

If you look at our stats it insane!!

We have one RB over 100 yards! Hill (1,061). The next in line has been out most of the year, Wick (97). Our next best RB has only 38 yards total, Evans. Overstreet (29), and Tappscott (28)... If you want to throw in a QB Smith now has (83 yards).

Receiving we have only three... 3!!! Players over 100 yards receiving...and one is out indefinitely, Gentry (697). Maulhardt is our guy at (442) followed by TE Hollister (213). Our next closest to 100 yards receiving is our RB Hill (89).
Next is Harshman (2-39-1) and Parker (5-39-0).

We are extremely young and rely BIG TIME on our best and most veteran players.

This is why the O play calling is so "ultra conservative". Basically our young guys are learning the basics of our offense in real time football games. Which is why we see them "aging" so fast in experience. But when our go to guys are out, you aren't going to risk much more collateral damage. You will coach conservative, but yet, effective enough to try to win.
These young guys are still proving to the coaches that they can be effective in the basic concepts of the offense. The higher the trust that the coaches has for these guys, the more open and fluid the play calling.

 

[bladerunnr]

We clearly have a lot of good pieces out there, just haven't really completely clicked yet. Injuries to key players have not helped this season. And play calling. The ultra-conservative play calling can be mind boggling.

It's amusing to me to always blame the play calling. When your qb has a d-lineman between himself and the receiver and he throws it right to the lineman as if he didn't even see him, does that mean it's time to throw it all over the field? Coffman has a tendency to lock in on his first option and throw it there, whether the guy is open or not. He did it early in the Air Force game and other games as well. I know the young man is doing his best, but you think the OC is going to open it up when he sees a play like that?

I don't want to piss in anyone's cornflakes. I know how everyone is excited that were covering these massive point spreads. But did you get a look at the Boise st. sideline? Did you see them laughing and some of them even look bored?
After it was 24-0, do you think they played hard?

I know we turned the corner after that 1 win, but I'm not seeing what everyone else is seeing.

And when we played Nevada and didn't do more than run left, right, and up the middle in the second half? No quick drop backs, no underneath throws, nothing like that. And you can't let 1 bad pass dictate the rest of the game. He did.

I take your point. It's certainly valid. But when I watch a game like last night, I have to ask myself: Are we playing to win or just to keep the score from getting out of hand? On both sides of the ball, it looks like we are playing to avoid the blowout.

 

[Adv8RU12]

Two years at least to be a middle-of-the pack MWC team with a 6-6 record. But this improvement will be mostly because the defense will cover for a lagging offense caused by the limited thinking in the offensive management. That's my prediction and I'm sticking with it.

 

[joshvanklomp]

I take your point. It's certainly valid. But when I watch a game like last night, I have to ask myself: Are we playing to win or just to keep the score from getting out of hand? On both sides of the ball, it looks like we are playing to avoid the blowout.

How can you win if you don't keep the score from getting out of hand?

 

[PokeOLoco]

Freshman receivers= one of the biggest disappointments of the season.

 

[Cosmic Cowboy]

Two years at least to be a middle-of-the pack MWC team with a 6-6 record. But this improvement will be mostly because the defense will cover for a lagging offense caused by the limited thinking in the offensive management. That's my prediction and I'm sticking with it.

This is what I kinda see. I'd hope we'd be the kind of 6-6 or better team that could at least give games to the top half of the league. Big hope that it'd be the transactional year into some 8+ season for year 3. Staff has to hit big with recruits, continue to develop our talent, and improve gameplans/calling. I think they can do it, but its critical to get at least a decent recruiting class this year which ain't easy. Shouldn't we be able to recruit some positions based on our history? I mean we historically have great receivers, decent qb's, etc. I like that Bohl can sell his recruits with instant playing time. He's not scared to play talented freshmen it seems.

 

[JimmyDimes]

I see the Pokes being a middle of the pack team next year and competing in two years if Josh Allen comes back from injury and is that QB we think he is.

And to answer some of the questions. Yes, Boise was still competing after going up 24. It isn't like those 24 were earned....some points were gift wrapped. And their stud RB was still averaging just over 3 ypc at half time. He broke a couple bigger runs in the 3rd that helped him get most of his yards. The Pokes D did a good job of stopping him most of the night.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

The MWC is a juggernaut. Did you see what usu did to BSU and then what SDSU did to usu? PARITY. This conference top to bottom is one of the best in the country. To top it off, we as a conference are working together to rebuild and make each other stronger. Pac-12 look out.

Why does this matter? Because, the hill Bohl has to climb is huge. There is talent everywhere, but, unfortunately, for some reason, we'll have to graduate 3 or 4 of Bohl's classes before we are competitive. Sure we'll expect the new president of the US to get the entire country back on track in 4 years, but that is not realistic for WYO football. I realize that essentially every successful G5 coach had success within 4 years, but they didn't coach at WYO and didn't have to compete in the MWC.

Bohl needs at least 8 additional years or maybe more. If we were in the AAC or even the ACC, I'd say 1 maybe 2 years tops but in the MWC and at WYO? No way. Our AD plans to give Bohl everything he needs; it'll happen. It is just going to take a lot of time. Cowboy Tough means we do it the tough way. It will take longer but it will be worth it!!!

 

[LanderPoke]

Ha ha! I don't think anyone is even thinking about 8 years down the road at this point. If bohl sees some good success within the next four years he'll be here 8 years from now. And I do think we're not far from being competitive. I'm hopeful for the defense because it's obvious that we've got some good, young talent. I'm hopeful for the future of the QB position, Allen and the OK recruit should be good. I think we're set at RB for a while( Hopefully Hill doesn't leave early to go pro, seriously). The young WRs are disappointing me, but we haven't seen CJ Johnson yet so maybe he can redeem them next year. The real reason I think we're on the up and up is the line. Those dudes are holding their own this year and they are young. With the OL recruits we're bringing in I think we'll start dominating the line of scrimmage in the next couple of years and we'll see this pro-style offense bulldoze teams. Not there yet, but you can see glimpses. Hopefully we can win one more this year and go out feeling good. Things aren't as bad as they seem. And hopefully Vigen can learn that if we are getting stuffed up the middle then he needs to try something else.

 

[cowboyz]

So I only casually watched that Boise game at work last night and yes it had the typical suicidal back breaking blunders this season has been plagued with. The other side to that is we played decently (by our standards???) on the road against what might be the best MW team this year, most likely a top 3 MW program at the least? I'm impressed that the Pokes have continued to improve this whole season. I posted earlier that's all I wanted to see and I stand by that. The competitive spirit is still lurking in this team. Hey we gotta WIN! So how long before we really give Boise a game in Boise?

I feel like this team is just 2 decent or maybe 1 decent, 1 solid recruiting classes from being able to compete in the MWC. It feels like they just in 10 to 15 new guys that can contribute. That doesn't mean all starters either. Just guys that can help in practice, help depth, and yes fill in a few starting holes for sure. Need a kicker. More contributors across the board should even shore up or help us excel in special teams as well. Goddamn I'd love to see us have the best special teams in the conference...that pretty much never happens.

I think we'll get there even with current coaching. Our play calling, schemes, and gameplans with a few more recruiting classes could work more efficiently/effectively. They obviously haven't seemed too great this year either, but some of these TO's might be on the players. The TO's have been what completely kill us consistently this year more then anything from what my causal eye sees. Again to be competitive it means to start playing teams like Boise within 10 on the road. We gotta start making these other teams sweat more.

I think this staff is competitive in 2 years if they get 2 above stated recruiting classes. How long do you think before we make teams start to sweat us again? Could we really be a top 3 MWC team in 3 years? I mean the MWC looks pretty shitty this year, it seems possible right?

I feel that next year we'll be competing better in games, and probably win a few more, but we're not talking conference champion contenders. Hopefully that'll come in 2017 as our young team would then be an experienced team. Plus, so much of it has to do with the other teams in our conference, regarding how many players they are losing and the quality of their recruits. So far, Bohl & Co. seem to be good at recruiting, so let's see how they coach them. I agree with you about the importance of special teams. It's one-third of the game! We did have the best or second best special teams in 2009, where TCU and we placed in the top three in 3 of the 4 categories (KO & punt return, punt & FG average). We might have been there in 2010 as well, had our punt returners been allowed to return punts. The turnovers are killing us as you say, but you're right that I don't see quit in the players. Another win or two this year would be giant confidence builders.

 

[McPeachy]

Just looking at next years opponents...with homes / aways...

Home vs. Northern Illinois Huskies
Away vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers
Home vs. UC Davis Aggies
Away vs. Eastern Michigan Eagles

* MWC home games: Air Force, Boise State, San Diego State, Utah State
* MWC road games: Colorado State, Nevada, New Mexico, UNLV

First off, may be the year that I get to attend all 12, that hasn't happened (for me) for 7-8, or so, years. With what we return (player wise), I would expect a much improved team, and thus record. How much, I don't really now - and I am not going to predict it right now of course, but anything less than 4-5 wins will disappoint.

 

[Cosmic Cowboy]

Ha ha! I don't think anyone is even thinking about 8 years down the road at this point. If bohl sees some good success within the next four years he'll be here 8 years from now. And I do think we're not far from being competitive. I'm hopeful for the defense because it's obvious that we've got some good, young talent. I'm hopeful for the future of the QB position, Allen and the OK recruit should be good. I think we're set at RB for a while( Hopefully Hill doesn't leave early to go pro, seriously). The young WRs are disappointing me, but we haven't seen CJ Johnson yet so maybe he can redeem them next year. The real reason I think we're on the up and up is the line. Those dudes are holding their own this year and they are young. With the OL recruits we're bringing in I think we'll start dominating the line of scrimmage in the next couple of years and we'll see this pro-style offense bulldoze teams. Not there yet, but you can see glimpses. Hopefully we can win one more this year and go out feeling good. Things aren't as bad as they seem. And hopefully Vigen can learn that if we are getting stuffed up the middle then he needs to try something else.

This is big. I believe that football is won and lost in the trenches for sure. The offense line does look solid and if it improves we'll be dictating pace more and gassing teams at home late hopefully. That O line, plus what looks to be improved qb play next year should make us competitive at least from a shootout standpoint next year. Flip side is our D line which has been SUSPECT all year long. We can't keep getting mushed on that D line as much. Can't dictate shit on that D front. We also need to up our aggression in blitz calls both run & pass to help out our D line if they are overmatched. D line and Lb's seem like top priority recruiting issues at this moment. Hopefully the Pokes get 1 to 2 new quality starters in there with 3-4 competitive backups in those spots asap. Depth is so fucking hard to build in college football, but the MWC still sends kids to the pros. That alone tells me we can recruit talent to Laramie with the right staff.

 

[OrediggerPoke]

We couldn't possibly start off any worse next year than we did this year. I believe that a reasonable expectation should be 5 wins minimum next year. Year 4 is the make or break year...if we see improvement (i.e. bowl games and a serious threat to the top teams in the MWC) then we continue on course, if the team regresses then time to head in another direction.

 

[J-Rod]

Depends how this year's team finishes. They'll likely finish somewhere from 1-11 to 3-9. If it is worse than 3-9, this team will have missed expectations by a sizable margin. Hell, there were people saying 2015 was 6 wins or screw Bohl this past off-season. I've seen some good things, bad things, and lots of in between...if the team finishes 3-9, 5 wins as a minimum next fall is acceptable. 1-2 wins? Then I might lower it to 4 for 2016.

Either way, I'll hold off on saying Wyoming should be contending for anything in the next few years. This team is facing an uphill battle just to not finish with double digit losses this fall. They're not on the cusp of anything.

That's not to say it can't happen. I just don't see 1-11, 2-10, or 3-9 and think, "Yup, we'll win the Mountain Division in 2017". 2017 is the year I expect a bowl game, but not much more.