joshvanklomp said:
If you want to drastically change the offensive philosophy you're gonna have to fire Bohl.
If you're the guy who wants to fire the guy who snapped the 30-year drought of consecutive 8-win seasons (and 19-year drought of consecutive 6-win seasons) in favor of a more "unique" offense, more power to ya!
I'll take winning over a unique offense any day of the week.
I personally like the current philosophy (but I liked Shyatt too, so I am weird). However, when talking about Bohl's record, it must be viewed in context.
Go take a closer look at Wyoming's 2004-2007 teams under Glenn and the 93-99 teams under Tiller and Dimel. Several bowl eligible teams that didn't actually get a bowl invite due to the different bowl structure back then (especially the 90's teams).
I don't mind anyone saying Bohl is doing a good job, because he is! But, trying to diminish what previous UW teams did in an effort to promote the current coach does not sit well with me. So we won 8 games two years in a row? That was helped tremendously by being able to play in a bowl game. Look at the records from 96-99:
10-2
7-6
8-3
7-4
Do you know how many bowls those teams played in? Zero. That's because the bowl system was a different setup. You can't tell me the current run of 8-6, 8-5 is somehow superior to those teams. Those teams played tougher competition and were competitive against upper level opponents. The 96 team lost in the conference title game, but they lost at the very end to a Top 10 team on a neutral field, not to a marginal SDSU team at the WAR.
The 97 team went 7-6, which included a close-ish loss (24-10) at a Top 10 Ohio State team, a heartbreaking last second loss to a Top 20 CU team in Boulder (20-19), and a dominating victory over a lower tier Big 12 team (56-10 over Iowa State). Compare that to the OOC opponents we played this year.
The 98 team went 8-3, which included a 7 point loss at a ranked Georgia team (Champ Bailey era Georgia) and a 7 point loss to a ranked AFA team. They did have one terrible game to finish the season against Tulsa which I will never get over, but still. On balance, a much superior team to this year.
The 99 team went 7-4, but beat a ranked AFA team in Colorado Springs, a huge win at home over a ranked BYU team (one of my personal favorite college memories, goalposts came down and took the trip to the Buck), and again a mystery terrible loss at the end of the season. Still, overall a far superior team to this year.
Sorry, I am not buying anything about our current run being the best in 30 years.
Now, Glenn's 2004-2007 era is more debatable. Those teams never really came close to winning the conference the way Bohl's 2016 team did, and they were on the receiving end of some serious beatdowns at the hands of TCU/Utah/BYU. OTOH, they had quite a few more quality wins (UCLA, Ole Miss twice, UVA in dominating fashion, Utah in 2006, etc.) and consistently played tougher schedules than Bohl's teams.
Sagarin Ratings:
98: 43 (not available before this)
99: 45
2004: 49
2005: 82
2006: 72
2007: 85
2016: 78
2017: 73
The impact of the weak SOS we play now can be seen here.