BringBackStutzriem
Well-known member
Needs to be seriously considered.
As a quick preface, I'm brand new to the forums. It's not hard to pinpoint the catalyst for joining - I need some commiserating audience with which to discuss the latest Himalayan shitpile that Wyoming football just dropped all over Laramie.
It couldn't possibly get worse than being manhandled in our home opener by a team that was two divisions lower than us when Joe Glenn was head coach, right? Sidenote, was it really that long ago that we were purportedly in the toilet of toilets in Glenn's final season - only to see everything spiral down tenfold in the time since?
Well, gents, it just did. We didn't just get our asses kicked on the scoreboard by Eastern Michigan - we were completely out-executed, out-manned, out-coached, and out-everything'd...by fucking Eastern Michigan. The same program that hasn't won a non conference road game since Ronald fucking Regan was president.
If that sounds like a familiar story, it's because IT IS A FAMILIAR GODDAMNED STORY. The same thing happened last week against North Dakota. Wyoming was extremely fortunate the score wasn't 42-13 against the mascot-less wonders last week (and, realistically, Gentry's touchdown doesn't happen against any team where the safety isn't lulled into a dreamlike haze by the boredom of winning your first-ever game against a D-1 team...well, maybe against Rahim Moore).
Today, it was by the grace of some ungodly god that Wyoming wasn't losing 49-7 at half-time. Yes, I said that correctly. Eastern Michigan should have probably converted its touchdown to take a 42-7 lead, and Nick Smith's abomination of a back-shoulder throw, into the turf, would have been pick-sixed by any cornerback who...well, wasn't playing for a program of the caliber of Eastern Michigan.
We're talking getting dismantled by arguably one of the worst programs in the nation, at home. So what the hell does that make us, exactly?
Here's the deal, guys. I don't know what to make of Craig Bohl as a head coach. His success at North Dakota State was absolutely remarkable. He's one of the greatest FCS coaches of all-time. He clearly knows football.
But I do know that Bohl's base salary is twice of what Joe Glenn's was (and the incentives grow from there). Say what you want to about Glenn (I'm not here to crown him as some exalted saint of Wyoming football), but he boasted wins over UCLA, Tennessee, Virginia, Ole Miss (twice), Utah, and BYU. It probably also should have included a second win over Virginia and one over Syracuse. Since he's left, our best win is over a Fresno State program (in a fringe bowl game) that is now in the same sub-tier conference that we're in. And we've paid two coaches far more handsomely.
What I'm getting at, here, is that it's no longer a coaching issue, a personnel issue, an execution issue. It's an institutional one.
Since we joined the Mountain West Conference in 1999, Wyoming's cumulative record is 74-118. Our pinnacle of 8 wins in 2011 were derived from the most farcical schedule conceivable, and the subsequent ass-kicking we received from Temple in the bowl game was consequently earned. In that span, I'd argue that the closest stretch we came to being a legitimately competitive program occurred from 2004-07, with a series of injuries, untimely turnovers, and general bad-luck derailing us. Our 2006 team was probably the best overall squad since joining the MWC...and they finished the season a whopping 6-6.
But it's not just that we're losing. I counted 29 games that we've lost by 30+ points since 1999. We've now lost to two FCS schools in four seasons (and legitimate scares in 2009, 2010, and 2011). And we're getting our asses handed to us by bottom dwellers.
Sorry, the Pokes aren't tough - and we haven't been for some time.
All while this is happening, ticket prices at War Memorial have escalated immensely. Remember the days of the Knothole? It was still around for Joe Glenn's first game, vs. Montana State, in 2003. Tickets were $5-10. A face-value seat to today's game ran around $40. Today's game may have been the single-most poorly played Division-I football game (on a cumulative quality of play by both teams) I've ever seen. So someone, PLEASE, tell me just how in the hell you're going to keep people buying season tickets (when they cost nearly as much as Broncos tickets - yes, a product of lightyears difference) when Wyoming turns out a result like the one today?
Let's go over a few things, briefly.
The post-game on the radio with Dave and Kevin was (as my face turned ashen) sunshine and rainbows - as usual. At one point, someone managed to say, "And you know who impressed me a bit was Nick Smith, he really hung tough out there." Nick Smith might be a great kid and, on a personal level, he doesn't deserve one lick of hatred. But from a quarterback evaluation, I've never seen a more inept performance at a collegiate level (not I-AA, D-II, or D-III). His final stat line was 3-13 for 0 yards. Just re-read that before gnashing your forehead against the hard edge of your laptop.
We continue to hear all about how Bohl's brand of "Wyoming football" was represented in the second half. Well, when you're losing by 24 points at halftime, an opposing defense tends to go a bit lax, so...no, I am not going to anoint Brian Hill as a saint after rushing for 240 yards (or however many it was) because Eastern Michigan is not a good team. Eastern Michigan will be fortunate to win three games.
What we don't hear, that should be proffered, is the possibility that Wyoming might not be a contender in the Big Sky this season. Actually, let's remove the "might" from that statement. We're a middling team, at best, in the Big Sky this season.
So, if Wyoming isn't a contender in an FCS conference, where does that leave us? At an impasse of questioning what in the holy hell we're still doing pumping so much money into a failing D-I product.
Look, football doesn't turn a profit. It loses money, even at many bigger schools, and certainly at Wyoming. It's not a draw for students to the university. No out-of-state student comes to Wyoming because he/she is enamored with Wyoming football ("I just can't want to get the shit kicked out of us every time fall comes around!!") No, they come to UW because it's a fantastic value school with some very good programs (and not just energy/engineering, but also business, science/ag, liberal arts, etc.
The Montana/North Dakota State kickoff game several weekends ago was one of the most thrilling contests I've seen in a long time. It was an incredible atmosphere. Fever pitch, even. The kind of atmosphere we've dreamed of seeing in Laramie for years. And, you know what? IT HAPPENED IN FCS FOOTBALL.
From an endowment/enrollment/competitive/everything standpoint, the Big Sky is a far more comparable continuum of football programs to Wyoming than, well, anything in D-I football. We fit in. It makes sense.
As the tectonic plates of college football continue to shift up our asses and separate the have's from the have-not's in the college football world even further, it's time to seriously start popping the question.
Because vesting millions upon millions into football facilities for a failing program - all while the state faces a potential funding crisis for public education in the future - is not the god damned answer.
The silence at War Memorial Stadium today wasn't of the stunned variety - it was like the stunned silence following a bad wedding toast given by someone who left the building shortly thereafter. Well folks, Wyoming football is about to leave the building.
As a quick preface, I'm brand new to the forums. It's not hard to pinpoint the catalyst for joining - I need some commiserating audience with which to discuss the latest Himalayan shitpile that Wyoming football just dropped all over Laramie.
It couldn't possibly get worse than being manhandled in our home opener by a team that was two divisions lower than us when Joe Glenn was head coach, right? Sidenote, was it really that long ago that we were purportedly in the toilet of toilets in Glenn's final season - only to see everything spiral down tenfold in the time since?
Well, gents, it just did. We didn't just get our asses kicked on the scoreboard by Eastern Michigan - we were completely out-executed, out-manned, out-coached, and out-everything'd...by fucking Eastern Michigan. The same program that hasn't won a non conference road game since Ronald fucking Regan was president.
If that sounds like a familiar story, it's because IT IS A FAMILIAR GODDAMNED STORY. The same thing happened last week against North Dakota. Wyoming was extremely fortunate the score wasn't 42-13 against the mascot-less wonders last week (and, realistically, Gentry's touchdown doesn't happen against any team where the safety isn't lulled into a dreamlike haze by the boredom of winning your first-ever game against a D-1 team...well, maybe against Rahim Moore).
Today, it was by the grace of some ungodly god that Wyoming wasn't losing 49-7 at half-time. Yes, I said that correctly. Eastern Michigan should have probably converted its touchdown to take a 42-7 lead, and Nick Smith's abomination of a back-shoulder throw, into the turf, would have been pick-sixed by any cornerback who...well, wasn't playing for a program of the caliber of Eastern Michigan.
We're talking getting dismantled by arguably one of the worst programs in the nation, at home. So what the hell does that make us, exactly?
Here's the deal, guys. I don't know what to make of Craig Bohl as a head coach. His success at North Dakota State was absolutely remarkable. He's one of the greatest FCS coaches of all-time. He clearly knows football.
But I do know that Bohl's base salary is twice of what Joe Glenn's was (and the incentives grow from there). Say what you want to about Glenn (I'm not here to crown him as some exalted saint of Wyoming football), but he boasted wins over UCLA, Tennessee, Virginia, Ole Miss (twice), Utah, and BYU. It probably also should have included a second win over Virginia and one over Syracuse. Since he's left, our best win is over a Fresno State program (in a fringe bowl game) that is now in the same sub-tier conference that we're in. And we've paid two coaches far more handsomely.
What I'm getting at, here, is that it's no longer a coaching issue, a personnel issue, an execution issue. It's an institutional one.
Since we joined the Mountain West Conference in 1999, Wyoming's cumulative record is 74-118. Our pinnacle of 8 wins in 2011 were derived from the most farcical schedule conceivable, and the subsequent ass-kicking we received from Temple in the bowl game was consequently earned. In that span, I'd argue that the closest stretch we came to being a legitimately competitive program occurred from 2004-07, with a series of injuries, untimely turnovers, and general bad-luck derailing us. Our 2006 team was probably the best overall squad since joining the MWC...and they finished the season a whopping 6-6.
But it's not just that we're losing. I counted 29 games that we've lost by 30+ points since 1999. We've now lost to two FCS schools in four seasons (and legitimate scares in 2009, 2010, and 2011). And we're getting our asses handed to us by bottom dwellers.
Sorry, the Pokes aren't tough - and we haven't been for some time.
All while this is happening, ticket prices at War Memorial have escalated immensely. Remember the days of the Knothole? It was still around for Joe Glenn's first game, vs. Montana State, in 2003. Tickets were $5-10. A face-value seat to today's game ran around $40. Today's game may have been the single-most poorly played Division-I football game (on a cumulative quality of play by both teams) I've ever seen. So someone, PLEASE, tell me just how in the hell you're going to keep people buying season tickets (when they cost nearly as much as Broncos tickets - yes, a product of lightyears difference) when Wyoming turns out a result like the one today?
Let's go over a few things, briefly.
The post-game on the radio with Dave and Kevin was (as my face turned ashen) sunshine and rainbows - as usual. At one point, someone managed to say, "And you know who impressed me a bit was Nick Smith, he really hung tough out there." Nick Smith might be a great kid and, on a personal level, he doesn't deserve one lick of hatred. But from a quarterback evaluation, I've never seen a more inept performance at a collegiate level (not I-AA, D-II, or D-III). His final stat line was 3-13 for 0 yards. Just re-read that before gnashing your forehead against the hard edge of your laptop.
We continue to hear all about how Bohl's brand of "Wyoming football" was represented in the second half. Well, when you're losing by 24 points at halftime, an opposing defense tends to go a bit lax, so...no, I am not going to anoint Brian Hill as a saint after rushing for 240 yards (or however many it was) because Eastern Michigan is not a good team. Eastern Michigan will be fortunate to win three games.
What we don't hear, that should be proffered, is the possibility that Wyoming might not be a contender in the Big Sky this season. Actually, let's remove the "might" from that statement. We're a middling team, at best, in the Big Sky this season.
So, if Wyoming isn't a contender in an FCS conference, where does that leave us? At an impasse of questioning what in the holy hell we're still doing pumping so much money into a failing D-I product.
Look, football doesn't turn a profit. It loses money, even at many bigger schools, and certainly at Wyoming. It's not a draw for students to the university. No out-of-state student comes to Wyoming because he/she is enamored with Wyoming football ("I just can't want to get the shit kicked out of us every time fall comes around!!") No, they come to UW because it's a fantastic value school with some very good programs (and not just energy/engineering, but also business, science/ag, liberal arts, etc.
The Montana/North Dakota State kickoff game several weekends ago was one of the most thrilling contests I've seen in a long time. It was an incredible atmosphere. Fever pitch, even. The kind of atmosphere we've dreamed of seeing in Laramie for years. And, you know what? IT HAPPENED IN FCS FOOTBALL.
From an endowment/enrollment/competitive/everything standpoint, the Big Sky is a far more comparable continuum of football programs to Wyoming than, well, anything in D-I football. We fit in. It makes sense.
As the tectonic plates of college football continue to shift up our asses and separate the have's from the have-not's in the college football world even further, it's time to seriously start popping the question.
Because vesting millions upon millions into football facilities for a failing program - all while the state faces a potential funding crisis for public education in the future - is not the god damned answer.
The silence at War Memorial Stadium today wasn't of the stunned variety - it was like the stunned silence following a bad wedding toast given by someone who left the building shortly thereafter. Well folks, Wyoming football is about to leave the building.
. I just think that it would be much easier to build and maintain a legit, year in year out championship contending basketball program than a football program, and could be done at less of a cost than a football program would, given it takes less staff, less players, smaller venue, etc etc.
