What could have been…

[chipdouglas]

We open 8-1 (we were probably never beating Jeanty on the road), warts and all. Coaching carousel/portal happens and the team absolutely implodes; ending 2024 with an 0-4 skid to close the season, notwithstanding the respectable last stand in San Diego.

In another universe, at full strength and without the drama, we effortlessly go 12-1 and are a bubble playoff team, either winning our bowl game or at least showing out and demanding a second look as a future P4 add.

Instead, university admins are broadcasting pay cuts for the school’s golden goose in this pivotal transition year, the entire team hits the eject button and we go from minor league royalty to an also-ran in the MWC.

Hindsight is 20/20, but it’s honestly difficult to imagine playing a poker hand any worse. I wonder how grim it gets from here in terms of recruiting and staffing in light of public austerity, power conference demotion and bowl tie-ins and revshare, staffing instability, etc.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

We open 8-1 (we were probably never beating Jeanty on the road), warts and all. Coaching carousel/portal happens and the team absolutely implodes; ending 2024 with an 0-4 skid to close the season, notwithstanding the respectable last stand in San Diego.

In another universe, at full strength and without the drama, we effortlessly go 12-1 and are a bubble playoff team, either winning our bowl game or at least showing out and demanding a second look as a future P4 add.

Instead, university admins are broadcasting pay cuts for the school’s golden goose in this pivotal transition year, the entire team hits the eject button and we go from minor league royalty to an also-ran in the MWC.

Hindsight is 20/20, but it’s honestly difficult to imagine playing a poker hand any worse. I wonder how grim it gets from here in terms of recruiting and staffing in light of public austerity, power conference demotion and bowl tie-ins and revshare, staffing instability, etc.

There is no scenario we actually finish 12-1 because I'm convinced now that there were powers on this team, coaching and players combined, that were cancers to the team locker room/ cohesiveness.

The coaches leaving was 100% addition by subtraction. The players leaving were sycophants. And for the most part, after word came down that the program was getting austerity measures dropped on them, who tf could blame them for bolting.

But I'm 100% sure that the 3 game skid this year and the 1-7 skid last year were not coincidences.

Good riddance to bad rubbish; those chickens will come home to roost for their respective teams.

 

[chipdouglas]

There is no scenario we actually finish 12-1 because I'm convinced now that there were powers on this team, coaching and players combined, that were cancers to the team locker room/ cohesiveness.

The coaches leaving was 100% addition by subtraction. The players leaving were sycophants. And for the most part, after word came down that the program was getting austerity measures dropped on them, who tf could blame them for bolting.

But I'm 100% sure that the 3 game skid this year and the 1-7 skid last year were not coincidences.

Good riddance to bad rubbish; those chickens will come home to roost for their respective teams.

My man, New Mexico, a battered OSU and Wyoming at home stood between us and 12-1. Those are body bag games any other year. No reason a team that beat UW & Tech shouldn’t be favored in those games (and we were, by double digits, in all 3).

You can hate what happened with coaches, and the subsequent fallout (I do), but that’s something an until-recently power conference team with the #1 QB for TDs can muscle through, and IMO would have if not for the late season collapse caused by personnel chaos.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

My man, New Mexico, a battered OSU and Wyoming at home stood between us and 12-1. Those are body bag games any other year. No reason a team that beat UW & Tech shouldn’t be favored in those games (and we were, by double digits, in all 3).

You can hate what happened with coaches, and the subsequent fallout (I do), but that’s something an until-recently power conference team with the #1 QB for TDs can muscle through, and IMO would have if not for the late season collapse caused by personnel chaos.

care to elaborate?

Because all I saw was the same old guys making the same old mistakes, only there wasn't enough magic fairy dust to bail them out for the 10th/11th/12th time. Not scoring a single point in the 3rd quarter over the span of a season tends to catch up to you - that's a coaching issue, not a personnel issue.