The Viability of Wyoming Football

[WyoBrandX]

For God's sake. This is not a mess. This a really young team learning 1)how to compete and 2) learning how to win. Today they learned how to not quit, a lesson that might extend to the fan base.

Sure it is - its been a mess a long time a coming. Unfortunately, it was like a rubber band - it has stretched, and stretched, and stretched, and now it snapped. I think Bohl can dig us out of it - probably not this year though. I'm hoping we get to 4 wins.

From a different point of view though, I did see alot of good things on the offense today. When Josh was in, it looked like we might have a good offensive package to offer up. It looked like we could move the ball. On the flip side, I thought Eastern Michigan was an FCS team until about 9pm tonight.

 

[nwpoke]

Not a mess. This team is learning on the fly, how to play, how to compete, how to win. Today was about learning how not to quit.

This will be a long season, in all liklihood. Doesn't mean shit as long as these guys learn how to play hard for 4 plus every game. We'll win a few as long as we learn that. This team has cajones, as much or more tHan some of these fans, they just gotta show it

 

[WyoBrandX]

Not a mess. This team is learning on the fly, how to play, how to compete, how to win. Today was about learning how not to quit.

This will be a long season, in all liklihood. Doesn't mean shit as long as these guys learn how to play hard for 4 plus every game. We'll win a few as long as we learn that. This team has cajones, as much or more tHan some of these fans, they just gotta show it

All I can truly say at this point is this season has been a long time coming. Its going to be a long one. I hope we win at least 1 game - and I certainly hope we are looking back at this post next year and saying "Hey look, we are 2-0, we play offense, we play defense, we play special teams, and we are not getting massive penalties." Unfortunately, it might be 2 years before we can say that.

All I can truly hope for is a few games along the way that grab my attention, keep my blood pressure up, and make for a good win or a good loss.

 

[Yabadabadoo]

Human emotions can be a funny thing especially when someone is frustrated...I think we all tend to overreact.

>We are not dropping down a division so lets stop that discussion.

>We're smack in the middle of a massive rebuild and we don't have enough players currently that allow us to beat most teams...however this does not mean that the situation will remain bleak forever.

>I stated weeks and weeks ago that to me, this season was not about the record, not about wins, that bowl game thinking was foolish, and that Bohl & Co. needed the proper amount of time to establish their program. I was ignored, people kept talking about a bowl game and the record at the season's end would define success and or failure.

>Two consecutive losses to start this season over teams historically not as good as us is not reason to come up with apocalyptic scenarios that question the viability of everything as it pertains to our program.

>I'm still uber-confident that when all is said and done -- Wyoming Cowboys football will roar back to life in an unprecedented way with the program contending for a MWC Championship beginning with the 2018 season.

These are dark times for sure, I'm not denying that, and I guess individual frustration should be considered to be a good thing because it's a sign that people care, but by no means have I arrived anywhere close to a consideration that says the Pokes football program is toast with no light in sight.

We don't have a lot of talent currently, we do have young talent with potential that needs to be developed, we need to continue to recruit well, and as the process moves along and the talent on the roster gets better -- so will the team collectively.

1-11 this year, 2-10, 3-9, or even a winless 0-12...in Bohl I trust.

 

[WyoBrandX]

I don't think a team in the league has went winless since the foundation in 1999. There have been some bad teams since that time. I hope it isn't ours that goes winless.

I don't think we will go winless though. I'm a bit worried if it is true - that Josh Allen is out for 6-8 weeks. I haven't seen Cam play in person or on TV, so I don't know how he stacks up against Josh - but I was impressed with #2 Josh.

Our defense is baaaadddd. We have some tough guys out there on that line - they aren't being taught the techniques to get in there and rough up the qb. Instead, they are sumo wresling the other team - and getting us nowhere.

Its tough to believe that Generation X was the last generation to see a 10 win season at Wyoming. We need to get back up there soon - before its too late.

 

[WestWYOPoke]

Let's make this very simple everyone. Anyone that actually thinks that dropping to FCS is a possibility doesn't know shit about how college athletics works. Period. End of discussion. Go back to school and get a degree in Sports administration to see how ignorant you truly are. Wyoming will drop football all together before they ever drop to FCS. That's it, story over.

 

[WyoBrandX]

Let's make this very simple everyone. Anyone that actually thinks that dropping to FCS is a possibility doesn't know shit about how college athletics works. Period. End of discussion. Go back to school and get a degree in Sports administration to see how ignorant you truly are. Wyoming will drop football all together before they ever drop to FCS. That's it, story over.

Agreed. FCS is not a bad label - in fact Montana should probably move up - and Montana State should probably move up.

This isn't the NFL with 32 teams. Its the FBS with 128 unique teams. It is a unique setup. Regardless though, each week there are 50% winners and 50% losers. We have been losing more than we should lately. We will come back in strength at some point. I hope this is the year. If not I hope next year is. And by god, 3 years in, I hope we win the whole damn thing.

Wyoming football sucks right now. It won't suck forever - go Pokes@

 

[calpoke25]

Unfortunately anyone who talks about dropping to FCS has no idea how the world works, especially college athletics. Wyoming cannot simply teleport its program, as is, with the same money, same fans, same recruiting, same conference for basketball to FCS. We talk about struggling to get recruits to Laramie vs other more desire able locations, well that same problem would exist in FCS. We would see a drastic reduction in financial support. We would not have the same level of fan support, as little as that is. And for gods sake, the basketball program would suffer likely more than the football program. We would not be able to keep our other sports in the MW.

 

[WyoBrandX]

Unfortunately anyone who talks about dropping to FCS has no idea how the world works, especially college athletics. Wyoming cannot simply teleport its program, as is, with the same money, same fans, same recruiting, same conference for basketball to FCS. We talk about struggling to get recruits to Laramie vs other more desire able locations, well that same problem would exist in FCS. We would see a drastic reduction in financial support. We would not have the same level of fan support, as little as that is. And for gods sake, the basketball program would suffer likely more than the football program. We would not be able to keep our other sports in the MW.

You are 100% right - we suck right now - but we would suck even worse at the FCS level. The only way to get out of improved you are.

Go Pokes!

 

[SDPokeFan]

For God's sake. This is not a mess. This a really young team learning 1)how to compete and 2) learning how to win. Today they learned how to not quit, a lesson that might extend to the fan base.

As long as we have idiot fans like this we will
Never move down to FCS where we belong. Wyoming football is dead.

 

[SDPokeFan]

Let's make this very simple everyone. Anyone that actually thinks that dropping to FCS is a possibility doesn't know shit about how college athletics works. Period. End of discussion. Go back to school and get a degree in Sports administration to see how ignorant you truly are. Wyoming will drop football all together before they ever drop to FCS. That's it, story over.

Then we need to drop football. Enough is enough. People are paying money to watch this shit show.

 

[NowherePoke]

In regards to the OP's comment about Wyoming being a better fit institution wise in the Big Sky that is simply not true. However terrible our Football team may be, our peers as a University are regional land grant research institutions and flagship state universities in low population states. That may include Montana and Montana State and that gets people thinking Big Sky. The problem is that those schools are outliers in a conference of regional colleges and directional schools.


Montana belongs in the MWC far more than Wyoming belongs in the Big Sky.

Plus, why punish the entire athletic department just because our administration can't build a competitive FB program. We have hard working coaches and student-athletes succeeding in the MWC in Men's BB, Women's BB, Volleyball, Soccer, S&D, and on the way in XC and T&F. Don't destroy their careers in the vague hope that we can win some FCS games.

If you say that nobody cares about those sports, well....They have something in common with FCS football then.

 

[The Virginian]

Talk of going FCS is crazy talk. End of story.

There also is a fundamental lack of understanding of what FCS is and is not. For one, IT''S NOT DIVISION II. Sorry, equating FCS with NCAA Division II drives me nuts. FCS is a SUBDIVISION of NCAA Division I. It only applies to FOOTBALL. Schools that participate in FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SUBDIVISION (FCS) are NCAA Division I for all other men's and women's sports. All other Division I schools that play football are in FOOTBALL BOWL SUBDIVISION (FBS).

Here's the NCAA's official explanation of the different divisions: http://www.ncaa.org/about/who-we-are/membership/divisional-differences-and-history-multidivision-classification" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here's the NCAA's description of Division I: http://www.ncaa.org/about?division=d1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[kansasCowboy]

For God's sake. This is not a mess. This a really young team learning 1)how to compete and 2) learning how to win. Today they learned how to not quit, a lesson that might extend to the fan base.

As long as we have idiot fans like this we will
Never move down to FCS where we belong. Wyoming football is dead.

It's fans like this who keep us going, actually. If it were up to you we drop a division. It was said above that we would be considered a middle tier team in Big Sky . Which mean we would have to do exactly what we're trying to do now. Build to be successful. Then it would be the same. This coach is mediocre, get rid of him. On to the next. Till we are right back to where we are today. And then we will have you and others saying, "well, let's just fold. We obviously can't compete at any level."
And we would have fans like him telling you, "see where your thought process took us?"
But no, don't blame yourself. You only complain when we do have success...(8-5 a few years back)

 

[ItSucksToBeACSURam]

For God's sake. This is not a mess. This a really young team learning 1)how to compete and 2) learning how to win. Today they learned how to not quit, a lesson that might extend to the fan base.

As long as we have idiot fans like this we will
Never move down to FCS where we belong. Wyoming football is dead.

It's fans like this who keep us going, actually. If it were up to you we drop a division. It was said above that we would be considered a middle tier team in Big Sky . Which mean we would have to do exactly what we're trying to do now. Build to be successful. Then it would be the same. This coach is mediocre, get rid of him. On to the next. Till we are right back to where we are today. And then we will have you and others saying, "well, let's just fold. We obviously can't compete at any level."
And we would have fans like him telling you, "see where your thought process took us?"
But no, don't blame yourself. You only complain when we do have success...(8-5 a few years back)

Agreed. We will never have consistent success if we fire coaches every time they struggle.

 

[FarmerPoke]

Over the last several years I would say priority has been given to improving football facilities, i.e. dollars upon dollars being spent to build the Indoor Practice Facility, Jonah field improvements, East Side of War Memorial Wildcatter Suites and improvements, etc. These expenditures have occurred during an era of Wyoming football where the on field product in general has left much to be desired, and as of this moment, has shown no sign of improvement, obviously I hope Bohl and co. can be the answer and turn Wyo football around, but again my opinion only, I feel the expenditures into the football program are like trying to beat a dead horse to life.

Absolutely spot-on, and it was a great post. This is an entirely different climate and era of college football than when we lost Joe Tiller and Dana Dimel because they sought coaching upgrades. Our next three coaches were all fired because their programs couldn't cut it, and our fourth is clearly off to a resounding start. At what point do we start questioning the notion that it's maybe not a matter of who is coaching - it's the circumstances surrounding the University of Wyoming, in Laramie, Wyoming, population 32,000, trying to be competitive when we're faced with insurmountable, inherent disadvantages.

We're even in a different college football landscape than the one Joe Glenn had when UW truly seemed on the verge of turning the corner (the only time since 1999 that we've been there) in 2005. It's been 10 years. The gap we couldn't close has only widened further. Maybe, just maybe, if Corey Bramlet doesn't turn it over 7 times vs. TCU in 2005...maybe the narrative changes. But you've got to start wondering whether that window closed 10 years ago.

That game to this day still makes my blood boil. TCU that year went 11-1 I think and finished ranked around 10th nationally. We came in either 3-1 or 4-1 with our only loss to Florida, I believe we were actually ranked 25th preseason by SI or something that year. That day as a wild haired freshman along with a wild crowd I watched the most promising season Wyoming football has had in my life time, spiral down the drain in the hands of our qb. Our defense was sooooo good that year, and kept us in it from start to finish, but one bonehead play after another including a 1st and goal inside the 1 fumble sent everyone home wondering what could have been. I don't think I've ever been angrier following a game then I was after that one, or angrier at an individual player. Needless to say I think we lost virtually every game after that that season, maybe we beat NM? Bramlet was never the same, and the program has never came near to sniffing that level again. Hard to believe how much changed on one day!

 

[BringBackStutzriem]

Talk of going FCS is crazy talk. End of story.

There also is a fundamental lack of understanding of what FCS is and is not. For one, IT''S NOT DIVISION II. Sorry, equating FCS with NCAA Division II drives me nuts. FCS is a SUBDIVISION of NCAA Division I. It only applies to FOOTBALL. Schools that participate in FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SUBDIVISION (FCS) are NCAA Division I for all other men's and women's sports. All other Division I schools that play football are in FOOTBALL BOWL SUBDIVISION (FBS).

Here's the NCAA's official explanation of the different divisions: http://www.ncaa.org/about/who-we-are/membership/divisional-differences-and-history-multidivision-classification" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here's the NCAA's description of Division I: http://www.ncaa.org/about?division=d1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Uh, yes, we're all very much aware of what FCS football is and that it's not the same as Division II. What exactly is your point?

And to the posters who commented, "Oh, you've got such a fundamental lack of understanding of how college athletics works, blah blah blah blah blah," you haven't explained in any sort of hard reasoning as to why dropping to FCS isn't a viable option. All you've done is repeat over and over that it's a stupid idea that doesn't work - without explaining why.

You realize that Montana and Southern Utah's athletic departments operate at half of the operational deficit that our does, right?

 

[BringBackStutzriem]

For God's sake. This is not a mess. This a really young team learning 1)how to compete and 2) learning how to win. Today they learned how to not quit, a lesson that might extend to the fan base.

As long as we have idiot fans like this we will
Never move down to FCS where we belong. Wyoming football is dead.

It's fans like this who keep us going, actually. If it were up to you we drop a division. It was said above that we would be considered a middle tier team in Big Sky . Which mean we would have to do exactly what we're trying to do now. Build to be successful. Then it would be the same. This coach is mediocre, get rid of him. On to the next. Till we are right back to where we are today. And then we will have you and others saying, "well, let's just fold. We obviously can't compete at any level."
And we would have fans like him telling you, "see where your thought process took us?"
But no, don't blame yourself. You only complain when we do have success...(8-5 a few years back)

Agreed. We will never have consistent success if we fire coaches every time they struggle.

Well, let's take a look into that "successful" 8-5 season. It included two wins over FCS teams, wins over UNLV, New Mexico, and CSU, who were a combined 6-30 that season, and one over Bowling Green, who was 5-7. Yes, we beat Air Force and SDSU, who both had winning records, but their records were equally inflated by poor opponents. So, when Temple (hardly a world-beater, but a solid team) lined up and kicked the living shit out of us in a bowl game, why was anyone surprised? We were nowhere near their personnel or overall quality, and realistically, if we didn't play the schedule we did, we weren't a bowl team.

My point is, again, an existential one of what exactly are you getting out of UW football when this is the winningest season since the turn of the century? What does it do for you? Are you going to throw tons of $$$ at buying tickets and going to games when this is the best the product gets? You're faced with a reality of how much you legitimately CAN succeed at the D-I (or FBS) level. You can keep sitting around, hoping we'll revert back to 1996 or 1988, but I'm telling you it ain't happening. The landscape of college football has shifted FAR too much and we're falling too far behind.

 

[BringBackStutzriem]

Over the last several years I would say priority has been given to improving football facilities, i.e. dollars upon dollars being spent to build the Indoor Practice Facility, Jonah field improvements, East Side of War Memorial Wildcatter Suites and improvements, etc. These expenditures have occurred during an era of Wyoming football where the on field product in general has left much to be desired, and as of this moment, has shown no sign of improvement, obviously I hope Bohl and co. can be the answer and turn Wyo football around, but again my opinion only, I feel the expenditures into the football program are like trying to beat a dead horse to life.

Absolutely spot-on, and it was a great post. This is an entirely different climate and era of college football than when we lost Joe Tiller and Dana Dimel because they sought coaching upgrades. Our next three coaches were all fired because their programs couldn't cut it, and our fourth is clearly off to a resounding start. At what point do we start questioning the notion that it's maybe not a matter of who is coaching - it's the circumstances surrounding the University of Wyoming, in Laramie, Wyoming, population 32,000, trying to be competitive when we're faced with insurmountable, inherent disadvantages.

We're even in a different college football landscape than the one Joe Glenn had when UW truly seemed on the verge of turning the corner (the only time since 1999 that we've been there) in 2005. It's been 10 years. The gap we couldn't close has only widened further. Maybe, just maybe, if Corey Bramlet doesn't turn it over 7 times vs. TCU in 2005...maybe the narrative changes. But you've got to start wondering whether that window closed 10 years ago.

That game to this day still makes my blood boil. TCU that year went 11-1 I think and finished ranked around 10th nationally. We came in either 3-1 or 4-1 with our only loss to Florida, I believe we were actually ranked 25th preseason by SI or something that year. That day as a wild haired freshman along with a wild crowd I watched the most promising season Wyoming football has had in my life time, spiral down the drain in the hands of our qb. Our defense was sooooo good that year, and kept us in it from start to finish, but one bonehead play after another including a 1st and goal inside the 1 fumble sent everyone home wondering what could have been. I don't think I've ever been angrier following a game then I was after that one, or angrier at an individual player. Needless to say I think we lost virtually every game after that that season, maybe we beat NM? Bramlet was never the same, and the program has never came near to sniffing that level again. Hard to believe how much changed on one day!

Yep, this is the one. Wyoming was 4-1 and was on the verge of being ranked. We jumped out to a really slow start, and already had somewhere around five turnovers, but Bramlet drove us all the way down the field to the goal line with about 6:00 remaining. He had a chance to punch the ball in for a touchdown on an option QB read...and inexplicably, as he was crossing the goal line, dropped the football. TCU recovered, our chance died, and our season collapsed. That was the end of all of Glenn's momentum and - in the time since - we've been nowhere remotely close to that point of success again.

 

[fromolwyoming]

So choosing one of the worst coaches we have ever had where most players would regress from their freshmen year on, never made ANY adjustments, pissed off former players and CJC members, and all but ignored the defense is some how a valid comparison to other coaches who have had success?