My Question: Start our own fan initiative?

[DocHolliday]

Maybe there is something to the idea I'm about to express - maybe not, you guys and gals will be able to answer that question better than myself.

As passionate and supportive WYOMING fans who are dismayed by the current situation of our football program, with the direction of the Athletic Department, the low level expectations, the overall feeling of complacency, and the do just enough to get by losing mentality...I ask you, is it time -- are there people interested in organizing an official body of WYOMING fans, and taking our grievances up a few notches to turn up the heat ourselves?

I'm talking about an organized platform of WYOMING fans, with an official platform, with concerns that may be aired on a larger assembly, officially presented to the school administration, to the new President, distributed to media outlets...and if possible, an official rally at The War before a game before the end of this current season.

We can elect leaders, an organized structure...a body and a movement of people concerned with the state of affairs and who are not willing to accept any longer the way things have been done for far too long.

Is it time to make some noise?

Is it time to ruffle some feathers?

Is it time to let ourselves become the piston in the engine that brings some people out of their comfort zones in Laramie?

I raise this issue and I ask these questions all in the name of a fan base that is fed up, a fan base that loves their POKES, and a fan base that wants and DESERVES more.

Do we want to, and can we, become an agent of change ourselves in Laramie?

You all tell me...with my platform within the media I enthusiastically await your responses.

 

[SDPokeFan]

I can only speak for myself, Doc. You should have asked me this two seasons ago. I've grown so tired and beat down by our constant ineptitude at the revenue sports I find myself more and more apathetic. I know it's the exact opposite of how I should be. I just feel like nothing is ever going to change here. There are far too many people (many of which are regulars on this board) who are fine with 6-6 seasons and going to the Poulan Weedeater Bowl every four years.

 

[DocHolliday]

I can only speak for myself, Doc. You should have asked me this two seasons ago. I've grown so tired and beat down by our constant ineptitude at the revenue sports I find myself more and more apathetic. I know it's the exact opposite of how I should be. I just feel like nothing is ever going to change here. There are far too many people (many of which are regulars on this board) who are fine with 6-6 seasons and going to the Poulan Weedeater Bowl every four years.

Well then those people need to have their collective senses awakened to the idea that .500 or sub-500 football should never be the goal.

Are you telling me that through the years the fan base has become 'conditioned' to accept whatever they are served with no questions asked?

Shame on such people if this is the case...

 

[SDPokeFan]

I can only speak for myself, Doc. You should have asked me this two seasons ago. I've grown so tired and beat down by our constant ineptitude at the revenue sports I find myself more and more apathetic. I know it's the exact opposite of how I should be. I just feel like nothing is ever going to change here. There are far too many people (many of which are regulars on this board) who are fine with 6-6 seasons and going to the Poulan Weedeater Bowl every four years.

Well then those people need to have their collective senses awakened to the idea that .500 or sub-500 football should never be the goal.

Are you telling me that through the years the fan base has become 'conditioned' to accept whatever they are served with no questions asked?

Shame on such people if this is the case...

Sadly, yes. I see it on here all the time. "We can't recruit to Laramie," "We're not going to go to BCS Bowls every year," I could literally spend an hour typing all the excuses people make for Burman, DC and the program in general. Boy I'm with you in wanting to shake things up and not accept mediocrity. I'd really like to go back in time to the 90s when we had a team I could be proud of.

 

[Wyokie]

I can only speak for myself, Doc. You should have asked me this two seasons ago. I've grown so tired and beat down by our constant ineptitude at the revenue sports I find myself more and more apathetic. I know it's the exact opposite of how I should be. I just feel like nothing is ever going to change here. There are far too many people (many of which are regulars on this board) who are fine with 6-6 seasons and going to the Poulan Weedeater Bowl every four years.

Well then those people need to have their collective senses awakened to the idea that .500 or sub-500 football should never be the goal.

Are you telling me that through the years the fan base has become 'conditioned' to accept whatever they are served with no questions asked?

Shame on such people if this is the case...

Sadly, yes. I see it on here all the time. "We can't recruit to Laramie," "We're not going to go to BCS Bowls every year," I could literally spend an hour typing all the excuses people make for Burman, DC and the program in general. Boy I'm with you in wanting to shake things up and not accept mediocrity. I'd really like to go back in time to the 90s when we had a team I could be proud of.

Same here. Loved the 1988 season except for the embarrassing losses to Houston and Okie State. :roll:

 

[DocHolliday]

Not off to a good start here in the early going.

I guess my ideas just don't coincide with the 'Wyoming Way'?

I have put forth the idea...the rest is up to the masses.

Talk to me amigos...

 

[PokeOLoco]

I agree we have to do something. I'm not sure of the best vehicle, but the president needs to be aware not just of the discontent but more importantly the reason why. The small-time mindset when it comes to athletics. Electing officers and stuff I don't know....but there has to be some organization and some mobilization.

 

[CowboyNV]

I was around Laramie in the 60's when Wyoming was relevant on a national stage. Teams from all over the country feared playing Wyoming. This was during the time when ASU and Arizona were in the conference as well.

Here is a list of the football Conference Champion stats from 1960 on:

1960 Mountain States Conference Co-Champions
1961 Mountain States Conference Co-Champions
1966 Western Athletic Conference Champions
1967 Western Athletic Conference Champions
1968 Western Athletic Conference Champions
1976 Western Athletic Conference Co-Champions
1987 Western Athletic Conference Champions
1988 Western Athletic Conference Champions
1993 Western Athletic Conference Co-Champions
1996 WAC - Pacific Division Champions

What you don't see on this list is any championship since 1993, by my math 20 years (1996 was the year Wyoming lost to BYU in Vegas for the outright championship).

Today's fans (anybody who started rooting for the Pokes after 1996) have never known anything but mediocrity. They buy into the excuses that you can't recruit kids because Laramie isn't flashy enough, our facilities aren't good enough, excuse after excuse after excuse. If you get the right person, you can start to change the mindset at Wyoming. It starts at the top (the President of the University). The speed of the leader is indeed the speed of the team. Wyoming hasn't had a leader for a long time. Until they figure that out, average to below average is all they are ever going to get.

The young guys on here are always laughing at us old guys (blue hairs) because we always bring up the past. Well, we used to be pretty damned good. Not so much any more.

 

[BeaverPoke]

We don't laugh at you for bringing up the past, we just want you to realize that college football is 1 billion percent different than it was in the 60s and 70s.

It's not as easy to recruit to Laramie now.
We are known as a bad program now.
The changes go on and on.

 

[YankPoke]

I can only speak for myself, Doc. You should have asked me this two seasons ago. I've grown so tired and beat down by our constant ineptitude at the revenue sports I find myself more and more apathetic. I know it's the exact opposite of how I should be. I just feel like nothing is ever going to change here. There are far too many people (many of which are regulars on this board) who are fine with 6-6 seasons and going to the Poulan Weedeater Bowl every four years.

I don't think anyone on this board accept mediocre 6-6 seasons like you say, or they probably wouldn't care enough to be here. I am getting frustrated being called a "good Nuff" crowd or a sunshine pumper. I want us competing for conference championships every single season regardless of what sport it is. I also realize that firing a coach every four years gets you no where and only sends you backwards, see Colorado since the firing of Barnett. We can't become Boise State overnight, and it will take time especially with the challenges that this particular University has. We are just saying that step one is to become a team that goes to a bowl game each and every year, which we still have a good chance to make 3 bowl games in 5 years. Once this happens then you start expecting conference championships every season, and so on until you become a team that competes at the national level. This years team can either blow out every single team in the league or get blown out by every team in the league depending on how focused they are. We can blame DC all we want for being inconsistent this year, but at the same time the players have to get themselves up for every game and that usually comes with experience of being a winning team year in and year out and knowing what it takes to win and that can't be coached, look at professional sports where teams like the Yankees know how to get the job done and others don't always regardless of how good a coach the team has.

That being said we do need to have more money put into the athletic programs at this school and there does need to be pressure on Burman and the new president to make this happen. I really believe we would be a much better football team if we actually paid our Coordinators salaries that are competitive at least in the MWC and even better nationally. We have done some good things with Burman and he has had some good hires, some bad ones, and some that are up in the air. I think putting pressure on the University to keep progressing, and continually expecting more is the only way that will happen. In my opinion one of the first steps is to start paying our assistant coaches much more money so that we can actually get quality ones in here because in a lot of cases they can be just as important as the head coach to the success of a program.

 

[BeaverPoke]

Remember how Utah won bowl games year after year after year? Didn't they win like 11 bowls in 12 years and not lose one?

Wyo needs to get to a point where we can be winning bowl after bowl after bowl.
DC NEEDS to win one this season, then next season. Whoever the coach is for Thompsons 2 years needs to win bowls both years.
Once we start winning bowls, whether it be NM Bowl to Vegas Bowl, to Holliday Bowl, the Pokes will pick up better recruits.
Then we can make an attempt at winning the MWC consistently (who knows, we may get lucky this season).
Once we are MWC winners year after year, then we make the run at the undefeated season.

But for now, we need to get 6 wins, and win a bowl this season. If we get lucky and get into the MWC Title game this year, and some how win it, then we just skipped a couple steps (or maybe years 2 and 4 of DC were just flukes?) and can win another next season.

Just freaking WIN though!

 

[DocHolliday]

I can only speak for myself, Doc. You should have asked me this two seasons ago. I've grown so tired and beat down by our constant ineptitude at the revenue sports I find myself more and more apathetic. I know it's the exact opposite of how I should be. I just feel like nothing is ever going to change here. There are far too many people (many of which are regulars on this board) who are fine with 6-6 seasons and going to the Poulan Weedeater Bowl every four years.

I don't think anyone on this board accept mediocre 6-6 seasons like you say, or they probably wouldn't care enough to be here. I am getting frustrated being called a "good Nuff" crowd or a sunshine pumper. I want us competing for conference championships every single season regardless of what sport it is. I also realize that firing a coach every four years gets you no where and only sends you backwards, see Colorado since the firing of Barnett. We can't become Boise State overnight, and it will take time especially with the challenges that this particular University has. We are just saying that step one is to become a team that goes to a bowl game each and every year, which we still have a good chance to make 3 bowl games in 5 years. Once this happens then you start expecting conference championships every season, and so on until you become a team that competes at the national level. This years team can either blow out every single team in the league or get blown out by every team in the league depending on how focused they are. We can blame DC all we want for being inconsistent this year, but at the same time the players have to get themselves up for every game and that usually comes with experience of being a winning team year in and year out and knowing what it takes to win and that can't be coached, look at professional sports where teams like the Yankees know how to get the job done and others don't always regardless of how good a coach the team has.

That being said we do need to have more money put into the athletic programs at this school and there does need to be pressure on Burman and the new president to make this happen. I really believe we would be a much better football team if we actually paid our Coordinators salaries that are competitive at least in the MWC and even better nationally. We have done some good things with Burman and he has had some good hires, some bad ones, and some that are up in the air. I think putting pressure on the University to keep progressing, and continually expecting more is the only way that will happen. In my opinion one of the first steps is to start paying our assistant coaches much more money so that we can actually get quality ones in here because in a lot of cases they can be just as important as the head coach to the success of a program.

Sorry YP, I'm sure you mean well, but I don't buy your logic even a little bit.

I myself am a 'doer'.

I look for solutions beyond the barriers.

Your mindset dovetails very nicely with that of the administration.

We can do better.

We must do better.

I'm sure that there are people in Waco who just a few short years ago talked about the realities of the 'new' college football world - and that mediocrity was being served from now on, especially when competing for kids with some Goliath like football programs in Texas.

Check the current BCS standings anytime lately?

 

[CowboyNV]

We don't laugh at you for bringing up the past, we just want you to realize that college football is 1 billion percent different than it was in the 60s and 70s.

It's not as easy to recruit to Laramie now.
We are known as a bad program now.
The changes go on and on.

The last time I checked, you still lined up 11 on each side of the ball, and the team with the most points at the end of the game wins. At its core, it is still the same game.

And don't tell me you can't recruit to Laramie. That's some bull shit excuse thought up by people are either too lazy, or too incompetent to figure it out.

 

[YankPoke]

Remember how Utah won bowl games year after year after year? Didn't they win like 11 bowls in 12 years and not lose one?

Wyo needs to get to a point where we can be winning bowl after bowl after bowl.
DC NEEDS to win one this season, then next season. Whoever the coach is for Thompsons 2 years needs to win bowls both years.
Once we start winning bowls, whether it be NM Bowl to Vegas Bowl, to Holliday Bowl, the Pokes will pick up better recruits.
Then we can make an attempt at winning the MWC consistently (who knows, we may get lucky this season).
Once we are MWC winners year after year, then we make the run at the undefeated season.

But for now, we need to get 6 wins, and win a bowl this season. If we get lucky and get into the MWC Title game this year, and some how win it, then we just skipped a couple steps (or maybe years 2 and 4 of DC were just flukes?) and can win another next season.

Just freaking WIN though!

Exactly programs don't show up in one day, it takes winning bowl games and then after that moving to conference championships, then competing nationally. We can't just skip five steps.

 

[DocHolliday]

Remember how Utah won bowl games year after year after year? Didn't they win like 11 bowls in 12 years and not lose one?

Wyo needs to get to a point where we can be winning bowl after bowl after bowl.
DC NEEDS to win one this season, then next season. Whoever the coach is for Thompsons 2 years needs to win bowls both years.
Once we start winning bowls, whether it be NM Bowl to Vegas Bowl, to Holliday Bowl, the Pokes will pick up better recruits.
Then we can make an attempt at winning the MWC consistently (who knows, we may get lucky this season).
Once we are MWC winners year after year, then we make the run at the undefeated season.

But for now, we need to get 6 wins, and win a bowl this season. If we get lucky and get into the MWC Title game this year, and some how win it, then we just skipped a couple steps (or maybe years 2 and 4 of DC were just flukes?) and can win another next season.

Just freaking WIN though!

Once again, I feel like your heart is in the right place...but a 6 win season and a meaningless bowl game isn't going to move the needle much at all.

Some of you people need a serious wake up call.

This model (going on how many years through how many coaches?) simply does not work.

It's time for a total re-boot peoples.

As horrid as it may sound to some of you - the fact is that the future of the program, as well as the environment for serious and significant change moving forward, may be better with the POKES losing out the rest of the way this season.

If the trade off was a housecleaning and a new environment led by this new President?

Where do I sign up for this scenario?

 

[BeaverPoke]

We don't laugh at you for bringing up the past, we just want you to realize that college football is 1 billion percent different than it was in the 60s and 70s.

It's not as easy to recruit to Laramie now.
We are known as a bad program now.
The changes go on and on.

The last time I checked, you still lined up 11 on each side of the ball, and the team with the most points at the end of the game wins. At its core, it is still the same game.

And don't tell me you can't recruit to Laramie. That's some bull shit excuse thought up by people are either too lazy, or too incompetent to figure it out.

If I am an inner city kid, I am picking Boulder, or FoCo over Laramie. If I am a small town country kid I am picking Laramie over Foco or Boulder.
Which gets recruited more, the inner city kid or the small town kid?
That is my point.
Recruiting to Laramie isn't the same as recruiting to San Diego State, or San Jose State. You can not deny that.
You may want to think Laramie is freaking awesome (as I do) but most college football recruits do NOT think that way.
For every 1 small town kid that Wyo gets, we also get 10 city kids.
There aren't as many of them. We can't just focus on kids that love Laramie, we would be a 2-10 team each year.

 

[CowboyNV]

We don't laugh at you for bringing up the past, we just want you to realize that college football is 1 billion percent different than it was in the 60s and 70s.

It's not as easy to recruit to Laramie now.
We are known as a bad program now.
The changes go on and on.

The last time I checked, you still lined up 11 on each side of the ball, and the team with the most points at the end of the game wins. At its core, it is still the same game.

And don't tell me you can't recruit to Laramie. That's some bull shit excuse thought up by people are either too lazy, or too incompetent to figure it out.

If I am an inner city kid, I am picking Boulder, or FoCo over Laramie. If I am a small town country kid I am picking Laramie over Foco or Boulder.
Which gets recruited more, the inner city kid or the small town kid?
That is my point.
Recruiting to Laramie isn't the same as recruiting to San Diego State, or San Jose State. You can not deny that.
You may want to think Laramie is freaking awesome (as I do) but most college football recruits do NOT think that way.
For every 1 small town kid that Wyo gets, we also get 10 city kids.
There aren't as many of them. We can't just focus on kids that love Laramie, we would be a 2-10 team each year.

Instead of the 4-8 team we are today

 

[YankPoke]

Remember how Utah won bowl games year after year after year? Didn't they win like 11 bowls in 12 years and not lose one?

Wyo needs to get to a point where we can be winning bowl after bowl after bowl.
DC NEEDS to win one this season, then next season. Whoever the coach is for Thompsons 2 years needs to win bowls both years.
Once we start winning bowls, whether it be NM Bowl to Vegas Bowl, to Holliday Bowl, the Pokes will pick up better recruits.
Then we can make an attempt at winning the MWC consistently (who knows, we may get lucky this season).
Once we are MWC winners year after year, then we make the run at the undefeated season.

But for now, we need to get 6 wins, and win a bowl this season. If we get lucky and get into the MWC Title game this year, and some how win it, then we just skipped a couple steps (or maybe years 2 and 4 of DC were just flukes?) and can win another next season.

Just freaking WIN though!

Once again, I feel like your heart is in the right place...but a 6 win season and a meaningless bowl game isn't going to move the needle much at all.

Some of you people need a serious wake up call.

This model (going on how many years through how many coaches?) simply does not work.

It's time for a total re-boot peoples.

As horrid as it may sound to some of you - the fact is that the future of the program, as well as the environment for serious and significant change moving forward, may be better with the POKES losing out the rest of the way this season.

If the trade off was a housecleaning and a new environment led by this new President?

Where do I sign up for this scenario?

You need to wake up Doc and understand that you have to build a program. A program doesn't magically sprout up out of the ground and have one year we are a mediocre football program that had a very limited success ever to being a national power in one day. We need to build a foundation of being a winning program first, and that is winning bowl games, then you build on your foundation and win conference titles. Then you build the rest of the skyscraper by competing nationally. You can't build a skyscraper top without having the foundation built first.

 

[BeaverPoke]

Doc, if Wyo wins bowl games this year, next year, the season after, and the season after (Thompsons RS-senior year), people will notice the fact they just won 4 bowl games in a row.
Hopefully the Pokes don't go 7-6 in each of those seasons.
That is how you build programs though man.
Utah didn't just all of a sudden get Urban Meyer. They had a lot of bowl winning seasons before Urban arrived.
But after they were winning bowl game after bowl game, and kind of plateauing they got Urban. Then they won 2 BCS Bowls.
We just need to get to some bowl games. That is how it starts.

 

[BeaverPoke]

Last time I checked even winning 4 games is better than winning 2.

Look I lost my love affair with DC after the CSU loss.
He was undefeated against them until then, so I was okay with him, not he is on my shit list.
But, if he were to win another bowl game this season, I will be okay with him.
If he can upset either the Ducks or the Spartans next season, get to another bowl, or even win the MWC title next season, I will really be happy with him.

But, for now, he better freaking win.
Bowl game win, this season, no excuses. Lots of winnable games left no doubt. Lot's of lose-able games left too.
He better get 7 W's this season.

We aren't sunshine pumpers because we want a 6 wins plus a bowl win making 7.
We are more realistic than you thinking we can just get someone who will get us 10 in year 1.