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Long year...
- Thread starter WyoVaquero
- Start date
bladerunnr
Well-known member
I've been critical of Sawvel on this board numerous times. But what I saw yesterday goes far beyond coaching. Our D line gets no push and they are easily pass blocked. I don't know how you coach around that. Not once the entire game did I see Hughes miss a wide open receiver. Our receivers are covered like a blanket the entire game. The sheep qb had receivers open all over the place. We're lucky he missed several of them. We don't have good enough players to compete.
A friend of mine who is a sheep booster thinks their NIL is about 7 million for football. Is ours anywhere near that? If we aren't prepared or capable of ponying up competitive payouts to players, don't expect coaching miracles.
In fairness to the coaching, I thought the offensive scheme looked pretty good at times. But the O line couldn't protect Hughes for more than about 2 seconds. They couldn't open any holes for Harris. And our receivers don't scare anyone so we can't stretch the field. Listening to Cody Tucker last week and the thought was Wyoming's team speed would be the best it's ever been. I sure didn't see it. We have a very average roster, at best. The sheep had better speed and they punked our O line and D line the entire game.
A friend of mine who is a sheep booster thinks their NIL is about 7 million for football. Is ours anywhere near that? If we aren't prepared or capable of ponying up competitive payouts to players, don't expect coaching miracles.
In fairness to the coaching, I thought the offensive scheme looked pretty good at times. But the O line couldn't protect Hughes for more than about 2 seconds. They couldn't open any holes for Harris. And our receivers don't scare anyone so we can't stretch the field. Listening to Cody Tucker last week and the thought was Wyoming's team speed would be the best it's ever been. I sure didn't see it. We have a very average roster, at best. The sheep had better speed and they punked our O line and D line the entire game.
OrediggerPoke
Well-known member
I’m not sure we can beat Northern Colorado. It will be a battle.A win over an 0-2 weak UNC team next Saturday will get everyone excited about Wyoming football again.
Im a lobo. And I have always liked Wyoming. I never been to Wyoming. I'm planning on it. I enjoy meeting the cowboy fans when they come for the game in Albuquerque. Man it does suck. One game shouldn't decide the rest of the season. I know well. Being a lobo. We're probably going to lose coach eck after this season.
Bear Claw
Well-known member
How well I know. I still have nightmares about the first game I attended in the Sawful era. It was the home opener versus Idaho. We all know how that went down.
Unfortunately that is the most likely course of events. The only way gets accelerated is if Burman gets fired sooner, butas others have noted he is a good ol' boy and our Board of Trustees are largely part of that club as well.
Eck is the real deal. For UNM's sake I hope they realize just how good he is and manage to keep him. Selfishly I would love to see him replace our current coach.
I agree that the offensive scheme and quarterback play were improved but the team lacks the other players needed. What was more distressing was the defense, is worse than last year.
NorthWestCowboy
Active member
When it comes to roster turnover, one year in the revenue sharing, NIL and transfer portal era is like 3 years under the old rules. Especially so when a new coach comes in and brings a bunch of players with him from his past school.
Sadly, in my opinion UW is not positioned well in this new era. Not just because of our AD, current coach, and current legislative support but also because UW has a relatively small alumni and donor base to draw from to fund NIL.
NorthWestCowboy
Active member
If Eck continues on his current trajectory, he is going to get a life changing payday. There is nothing any G6 program can do to hold on to a coach when the P4 comes calling with their checkbook in hand. Hell, Eck could go on to bomb at the P4 level and come back to a G6 in a few seasons and make as much salary as he is making today but with a nice eight-digit buyout balance in the bank.
Nobody knows Wyoming's NIL budget because all this NIL stuff is so secretive.
That being said, I have heard through the grapevine that Wyoming's full NIL budget for this year was about $6 million total. About $4.5 million was allocated for football.
PorkerPoke
Well-known member
If I had to separate out the remaining schedule:
Expected Wins:
UNC
NIU
@ UTEP
50-50:
@CMU
Maybe an upset:
Hawaii
UConn
@SJSU
Unlikely but not impossible:
AFA
Extremely Unlikely:
@NDSU
@UNLV
@UNM
3-9 should be rock bottom
4-8 is the expectation at this point
5-7 is obtainable
6-6 would be a monumental achievement
Anything 7+ would actually be exciting at this point and completely unexpected. It’s bothersome to even say there is a chance but until 5 more losses occur the math says it’s possible.
If the team ends September at 3-1 and October at 4-4 or 5-3 then 6 wins is possible. The key is winning the next 3 games.
PorkerPoke
Well-known member
Good point. I’m not a fan of Sawful but winning solves a lot.
Several years ago as a donor and season ticket holder I was asked twice to participate in fan forums (Glenn and Christensen era) discussing how to draw fans. So many suggested stuff like no noon games because of soccer or no home games the first 3 weeks of the hunting season. I didn’t suggest anything other than WIN GAMES and EXPECT TO WIN GAMES adamantly holding the position fans will come regardless of the clock and calendar.
There simply is not a mindset of the powerful feeling winning does for the fans in the state of Wyoming due to extended periods of losing in both major sports.
SDPokeFan
Well-known member
This. I'm used to our offense sucking every year. Seeing the defense regress was quite alarming.
Lets just make Elon an honorary Cowboy
LanderPoke
Well-known member
Win at all costs. Fire people and spend whatever necessary to get a winning program. Money will pour in and it’ll fund itself
And down goes
The era most of us either remember or witnessed that is considered “glory days” was in the late 80’s. Our team was tough and opponents were terrified to come to the war or the arena. Disaster struck the basketball team, Brandy left and the slow decline began. Underachieved with possibly the best roster we’ve ever had in ‘87, then the revolving door began. Enter McClain in the late 90’s and the fire was back! His biggest mistake was, he started to entertain the idea of bigger, better, opportunities, and the fan base turned on him. Therefore, administration turned on him. He’s fired and the decline is rapid. Shy brings back some fun, but the entertainment factor is limited with the exception of one season when Dunktown was definitely our identity. For a year. Now, Sunny brings in the fire, or juice as he calls it. Why? Because he knows what the glory days felt like. It felt like what he felt every day in Gillette as they dominated high school sports in Wyoming. He knows how this state can rally when we are winning. There’s hope with him.
Football on the other hand went from carrying coaches off the field straight into irrelevance. Many of us loved 1996, but the rest of Tiller’s years were mediocre. While we curse administration for not giving his assistants the raises he thought they deserved, back then, the upper management wanted him to prove it beyond one year. I don’t blame them, but still wish that maybe he could have had another year to make it work out. Instead, he left and was pretty much the same at Purdue (58% winning percentage). Being in a bigger conference, he had more bowl opportunities and did fine, but really never was a world beater, yet we put him on a pedestal. Why? Why did fans have him as a hero, and McClain a scapegoat? Why do many fans hold Bohl on a pedestal when his record is similar? The same reason Burman did. The fear of losing and not wanting to see what else could be out there. Burman was around for the glory days and he knows what the people said about past coaches. He runs the athletic department like he’s still a young kid listening to all of the old farts complain about Tiller and McClain and Bohl. He has played it safe the whole time with his hires and it’s finally coming to a head. Football has floated in mediocrity for 30-40 years. There’s been no accountability for coaches that have managed .500 records. The fans are always excited at the beginning of seasons, then when the real competition hits, we aren’t even close. Yet, no shake ups. The young fans that have grown up during this time haven’t been able to experience what it feels like to really be good, so our fan base is passive. Instead of a mentality of we should be winning the conference, we’ve been satisfied with the Arizona bowl or Potato Bowl. Instead of having search committees for replacing coaches, he’s hired within or from safe havens. I think he’s going to luck out with Sunny, thankfully, but the Sawvel hire and even the Ezell hire were lazy and now we’re pissed we didn’t get the same invite CSU or Utah State did? Why would we? We haven’t had a tradition of winning in forever! Until as fans and in university administration we can accept and embrace being a developmental program for players AND coaches, this will be as good as it gets for us. Sometimes you gotta take a risk, and Burman isn’t going to do that. Will The General? That remains to be seen. Hopefully the blue collar mentality from his roots comes to the surface and he shakes some things up. And if he does, we should all be willing to see if it works. And when a great coach comes our way, then leaves after great success, we wish them the best and hope the next one in is just as good or better. Quit with the talk of we’re too small, too isolated, too unknown, and we should drop down. That’s a loser mentality. Winning cures a lot. When Burman said he hired Sawvel because the players liked him and said they’d leave if it was someone else, well, that didn’t seem to pay off. Mora has like 65 new players at CSU, and just proved that turnover isn’t always bad. Sorry for a long rant, but I’m sick of mediocrity. Let’s hope we don’t have to suffer much longer with this nonsense in football.
Yes We have a small alumni base, but, there is A LOT of money in some hands in our state. We are in a position that should favor our team. It’s the only 4 year institution in the state, everywhere across the state you see Steamboat and brown and gold. What’s become lost is a competitive mentality. I know some on here are going to disagree and hate what I have to say, but I’ll do it anyway. Two very different paths struck our 2 prominent sports.
The era most of us either remember or witnessed that is considered “glory days” was in the late 80’s. Our team was tough and opponents were terrified to come to the war or the arena. Disaster struck the basketball team, Brandy left and the slow decline began. Underachieved with possibly the best roster we’ve ever had in ‘87, then the revolving door began. Enter McClain in the late 90’s and the fire was back! His biggest mistake was, he started to entertain the idea of bigger, better, opportunities, and the fan base turned on him. Therefore, administration turned on him. He’s fired and the decline is rapid. Shy brings back some fun, but the entertainment factor is limited with the exception of one season when Dunktown was definitely our identity. For a year. Now, Sunny brings in the fire, or juice as he calls it. Why? Because he knows what the glory days felt like. It felt like what he felt every day in Gillette as they dominated high school sports in Wyoming. He knows how this state can rally when we are winning. There’s hope with him.
Football on the other hand went from carrying coaches off the field straight into irrelevance. Many of us loved 1996, but the rest of Tiller’s years were mediocre. While we curse administration for not giving his assistants the raises he thought they deserved, back then, the upper management wanted him to prove it beyond one year. I don’t blame them, but still wish that maybe he could have had another year to make it work out. Instead, he left and was pretty much the same at Purdue (58% winning percentage). Being in a bigger conference, he had more bowl opportunities and did fine, but really never was a world beater, yet we put him on a pedestal. Why? Why did fans have him as a hero, and McClain a scapegoat? Why do many fans hold Bohl on a pedestal when his record is similar? The same reason Burman did. The fear of losing and not wanting to see what else could be out there. Burman was around for the glory days and he knows what the people said about past coaches. He runs the athletic department like he’s still a young kid listening to all of the old farts complain about Tiller and McClain and Bohl. He has played it safe the whole time with his hires and it’s finally coming to a head. Football has floated in mediocrity for 30-40 years. There’s been no accountability for coaches that have managed .500 records. The fans are always excited at the beginning of seasons, then when the real competition hits, we aren’t even close. Yet, no shake ups. The young fans that have grown up during this time haven’t been able to experience what it feels like to really be good, so our fan base is passive. Instead of a mentality of we should be winning the conference, we’ve been satisfied with the Arizona bowl or Potato Bowl. Instead of having search committees for replacing coaches, he’s hired within or from safe havens. I think he’s going to luck out with Sunny, thankfully, but the Sawvel hire and even the Ezell hire were lazy and now we’re pissed we didn’t get the same invite CSU or Utah State did? Why would we? We haven’t had a tradition of winning in forever! Until as fans and in university administration we can accept and embrace being a developmental program for players AND coaches, this will be as good as it gets for us. Sometimes you gotta take a risk, and Burman isn’t going to do that. Will The General? That remains to be seen. Hopefully the blue collar mentality from his roots comes to the surface and he shakes some things up. And if he does, we should all be willing to see if it works. And when a great coach comes our way, then leaves after great success, we wish them the best and hope the next one in is just as good or better. Quit with the talk of we’re too small, too isolated, too unknown, and we should drop down. That’s a loser mentality. Winning cures a lot. When Burman said he hired Sawvel because the players liked him and said they’d leave if it was someone else, well, that didn’t seem to pay off. Mora has like 65 new players at CSU, and just proved that turnover isn’t always bad. Sorry for a long rant, but I’m sick of mediocrity. Let’s hope we don’t have to suffer much longer with this nonsense in football.
