IMO, it's not about a player or a coach...

[HiCountryCowboy]

A lot of frustration being spewed by many on this board and I believe it is totally warranted. However, in my opinion, it is not about Bohl or the team. The "we knew it was going to be a long year" and "I trust in Bohl" comments are driving me crazy. While these comments may be true, I am f-word sick of the perpetual losing - apathy is once again setting in for me. We have been being patient since basically 1997 and the idea of doing it again for what looks to be a 3-4 year project looms large for this fan.

I still contend that the culture of status quo acceptance and mediocrity are the cause of this overall frustration. Until a change agent or two at the leadership level is implemented, I am starting to wonder if we will ever be happy fans.

F'in big job ahead and teams like CSU, USU, SDSU, and SJSU have managed to reverse their trends (while starting after we "commenced" ours 3 different times). Can Bohl really get it done with the good ol' boys running the ranch?

[mwc fan]

I think he can get it done. And I think the big season is next year ( yeah I know we say that poop every year) but seriously the schedule is in our favor. We get Coffman at Qb, Wick at Rb most of the young offensive line, Gentry and some other WR's. Defense will again be a question, but we have a lot of young guys getting playing time by necessity. It could be worse.

[PCB]

Who are the good old boys?

[Wyo2dal]

A lot of frustration being spewed by many on this board and I believe it is totally warranted. However, in my opinion, it is not about Bohl or the team. The "we knew it was going to be a long year" and "I trust in Bohl" comments are driving me crazy. While these comments may be true, I am f-word sick of the perpetual losing - apathy is once again setting in for me. We have been being patient since basically 1997 and the idea of doing it again for what looks to be a 3-4 year project looms large for this fan.

I still contend that the culture of status quo acceptance and mediocrity are the cause of this overall frustration. Until a change agent or two at the leadership level is implemented, I am starting to wonder if we will ever be happy fans.

F'in big job ahead and teams like CSU, USU, SDSU, and SJSU have managed to reverse their trends (while starting after we "commenced" ours 3 different times). Can Bohl really get it done with the good ol' boys running the ranch?

The exact reason we should have a different AD right now, Neither AD's since that time have gotten poop done.

[SnowyRange]

Can Bohl really get it done with the good ol' boys running the ranch?

I sure understand the general frustration -- and, with football, the frustration of facing another rebuilding effort -- but who, exactly, are these good old boys and how are they standing in the way of football victories?

[JimmyDimes]

I think he can get it done. And I think the big season is next year ( yeah I know we say that poop every year) but seriously the schedule is in our favor. We get Coffman at Qb, Wick at Rb most of the young offensive line, Gentry and some other WR's. Defense will again be a question, but we have a lot of young guys getting playing time by necessity. It could be worse.

If CSU can turn the table in a couple years, so can Wyoming. It has been a tough year with a change in coaching staffs, a change in both offense and defensive philosophy, a new weight program, a poop load of injuries, the schedule....oh, and we lost the top two QB's from last year.

The truth is, as bad as this year has gone, there is a bright side. We are playing a lot of younger guys. There will be two true freshman in the starting line-up Saturday. The backup linebackers and secondary are getting valuable pt.

Next year we really don't lose much. A couple solid wr's, dl's and lb's, but not much else. Luckily there is some depth at wr and dl. And, as you point out above, we get some good pieces back and some new interesting pieces. We will continue to get better...just need to turn the losing culture around.

[Wyo2dal]

Can Bohl really get it done with the good ol' boys running the ranch?

I sure understand the general frustration -- and, with football, the frustration of facing another rebuilding effort -- but who, exactly, are these good old boys and how are they standing in the way of football victories?

They are more likely to stand in the way or changing things they don't want changed. I don't feel like it will ever impact Football on the field directly but it does impact athletics in the long haul and does have an impact in the end of winning and losing.

There is no accountability with the good ole boys they just like things running how they want it run and they don't want changes which is why the president that was going to make sweeping changes was swept out the door.

With that President we most likely would have seen a new AD eventually as he wasn't going to take the job lightly but we all saw how that went.

[MrTitleist]

Isn't there three true freshman starting, Cummings, Priester, and Hill?

[fromolwyoming]

Isn't there three true freshman starting, Cummings, Priester, and Hill?

So far, yeah.

[mwc fan]

Isn't there three true freshman starting, Cummings, Priester, and Hill?

So far yeah.

Lol, yeah that's the key word "so far". It could be a lot more if the injury poop continues. This has truly blown my mind regarding the sudden blitzkrieg of injuries post second half at Hawaii.

[HiCountryCowboy]

Can Bohl really get it done with the good ol' boys running the ranch?

I sure understand the general frustration -- and, with football, the frustration of facing another rebuilding effort -- but who, exactly, are these good old boys and how are they standing in the way of football victories?

First and foremost it's Tom "TBD" Burman. He has won exactly zero MWC championships in any sport since he came on board in 2006! Just let that marinate - Wyo hasn't won a MWC championship since 2002 - 12 f'ing years and counting! He has brought in his own cronies and extended them when they are undeserving, he hasn't had the balls to make tough decision until he was facing literal mutinies, and he's overall kept Wyo athletics in the lower tier even when 3 power house programs bailed (making it easier to compete - his words). Because he's hasn't fought for more money (even when the state has been experiencing it's biggest economic boom in history) or held previous regimes to a higher standard, Coach Bohl is probably facing the toughest challenge he could have imagined.

Next up would be former UW President Buchanan and current President McGinty, but while I have my opinions, I don't feel I am versed enough to substantiate any claims that I might make. However, to me, it seems both we're selected without any serious outsiders being considered. Sternberg had a vision but it seemed to me that the Trustees flushed him in less than a year because he was moving too much cheese and hurt some feeling of those getting fat on mediocrity. Since the AD reports to the President, why would he change if the president's vision doesn't. I guarantee you that he was hearing some footsteps, though, before Sternberg got run!

http://trib.com/news/local/education/lo ... 219b1.html

All in all, I think too many for too long have been proud that we almost beat a Nebraska in football or that we won a consolation tournament in women's basketball, but have never truly believed we could be or should be elite. Those are certainly accomplishments, but they should be stepping stones not ultimate goals.

All this said, what do I know? i am just a hopeless fan who wants to be proud of my alma mater via the only real mechanism to stay connected to the University.

[bladerunnr]

So no one knows how this hire is going to turn out. Bohl was successful at a lower level. The question was always going to be "can he recruit at this level"?

When I mentioned in another thread that maybe it's time to go the JUCO route, I was informed that's not how you build a program from the ground up. Oh well, on the BB side, it sure was nice having Justin Williams and Brad Jones and Dante Richardson stop by for a few years.
I'm amazed that Burman was given a new contract based on these last 2 hires. One was to clean up the huge disaster(schroyer) he created in the first place and the second is unproven at this level. We might have had Jeff Tedford here. I don't believe Burman even interviewed him. All I know is, after about 15 years of mediocre to poor results, my expectations have been reduced to just hoping we can compete and not finish last. I'm totally feeling the sentiments of the poster who started this thread. Even though it was irrational to expect a winning season this year, the nearly constant refrain of "wait till he gets his guys in here" is really hard to listen to anymore.

[BackHarlowRoad]

While I am completely with you in that the "wait til next year" thing is very old, I am also sick of hearing that we "accept mediocrity".

To realize that we don't have the athletes this year to be competitive because they all left, are injured, or shouldn't have been recruited in the first place isn't accepting mediocrity, it's being realistic.

I can bring middle schoolers to a high school game with Nick Saban at the helm and the greatest scheme of all time....I'll still get my ass kicked. We simply don't have good enough football players to compete. This is evident based on their inability to block, inability to read a defense, inability to gain seperation, inability to tackle, inability to keep up with receivers, inability to apply pressure on the QB, I think I've hit about all of them. Is that their fault? Not really, they are mostly FCS talent trying to make it work at the FBS level.

Is that acceptable? Hell no. We need talent, hopefully Bohl can attract it. Mediocre talent can compete with Above average talent with the right mindset and coaching. Problem is, we don't have mediocre talent yet. We are below it.

These other programs that you're talking about didn't necessarily have a talent issue, they just weren't getting the most out of it. Get what I'm saying? We have a much more difficult battle than those schools mentioned.

Not excuses by any means, it can be righted. It won't happen overnight, no matter how badly we want it to.

[HiCountryCowboy]

While I am completely with you in that the "wait til next year" thing is very old, I am also sick of hearing that we "accept mediocrity".

To realize that we don't have the athletes this year to be competitive because they all left, are injured, or shouldn't have been recruited in the first place isn't accepting mediocrity, it's being realistic.

I can bring middle schoolers to a high school game with Nick Saban at the helm and the greatest scheme of all time....I'll still get my ass kicked. We simply don't have good enough football players to compete. This is evident based on their inability to block, inability to read a defense, inability to gain seperation, inability to tackle, inability to keep up with receivers, inability to apply pressure on the QB, I think I've hit about all of them. Is that their fault? Not really, they are mostly FCS talent trying to make it work at the FBS level.

Is that acceptable? Hell no. We need talent, hopefully Bohl can attract it. Mediocre talent can compete with Above average talent with the right mindset and coaching. Problem is, we don't have mediocre talent yet. We are below it.

These other programs that you're talking about didn't necessarily have a talent issue, they just weren't getting the most out of it. Get what I'm saying? We have a much more difficult battle than those schools mentioned.

Not excuses by any means, it can be righted. It won't happen overnight, no matter how badly we want it to.

Again, I don't think accepting mediocrity is about this team this year. Reality, this year, is indeed a bitch. But what has the leadership done (or not done) to let it get to his point? After 16+ years of rebuilding, we are as low as I can take as a fan.

[The Virginian]

While I am completely with you in that the "wait til next year" thing is very old, I am also sick of hearing that we "accept mediocrity".

To realize that we don't have the athletes this year to be competitive because they all left, are injured, or shouldn't have been recruited in the first place isn't accepting mediocrity, it's being realistic.

I can bring middle schoolers to a high school game with Nick Saban at the helm and the greatest scheme of all time....I'll still get my ass kicked. We simply don't have good enough football players to compete. This is evident based on their inability to block, inability to read a defense, inability to gain seperation, inability to tackle, inability to keep up with receivers, inability to apply pressure on the QB, I think I've hit about all of them. Is that their fault? Not really, they are mostly FCS talent trying to make it work at the FBS level.

Is that acceptable? Hell no. We need talent, hopefully Bohl can attract it. Mediocre talent can compete with Above average talent with the right mindset and coaching. Problem is, we don't have mediocre talent yet. We are below it.

These other programs that you're talking about didn't necessarily have a talent issue, they just weren't getting the most out of it. Get what I'm saying? We have a much more difficult battle than those schools mentioned.

Not excuses by any means, it can be righted. It won't happen overnight, no matter how badly we want it to.

Again, I don't think accepting mediocrity is about this team this year. Reality, this year, is indeed a bitch. But what has the leadership done (or not done) to let it get to his point? After 16+ years of rebuilding, we are as low as I can take as a fan.

Personally, I think the Koening years were the low point.

[NowherePoke]

While I am completely with you in that the "wait til next year" thing is very old, I am also sick of hearing that we "accept mediocrity".

To realize that we don't have the athletes this year to be competitive because they all left, are injured, or shouldn't have been recruited in the first place isn't accepting mediocrity, it's being realistic.

I can bring middle schoolers to a high school game with Nick Saban at the helm and the greatest scheme of all time....I'll still get my ass kicked. We simply don't have good enough football players to compete. This is evident based on their inability to block, inability to read a defense, inability to gain seperation, inability to tackle, inability to keep up with receivers, inability to apply pressure on the QB, I think I've hit about all of them. Is that their fault? Not really, they are mostly FCS talent trying to make it work at the FBS level.

Is that acceptable? Hell no. We need talent, hopefully Bohl can attract it. Mediocre talent can compete with Above average talent with the right mindset and coaching. Problem is, we don't have mediocre talent yet. We are below it.

These other programs that you're talking about didn't necessarily have a talent issue, they just weren't getting the most out of it. Get what I'm saying? We have a much more difficult battle than those schools mentioned.

Not excuses by any means, it can be righted. It won't happen overnight, no matter how badly we want it to.

Again, I don't think accepting mediocrity is about this team this year. Reality, this year, is indeed a bitch. But what has the leadership done (or not done) to let it get to his point? After 16+ years of rebuilding, we are as low as I can take as a fan.

Personally, I think the Koening years were the low point.

It's hard to get much lower than 5-29, that's for sure. However, I would say that as a fan it is worse now. Even though we were awful under Vic we were not far removed from competitiveness. The 20 years prior to Vic involved 6 different coaches, none of whom finished with a losing record at UW. There were only 5 losing seasons in those 20 years. We were also in the ideal conference alignment in the early 2000's and had a great basketball team. IOW, I didn't feel that success at UW in the revenue sports was unlikely or impossible. I just felt that we had a really poop FB coach and as soon as we got rid of him we would be fine.

Now, it's not so simple. We haven't shown much success in either revenue sport in over a decade (almost 15 years now for football) spread over multiple coaches in both. It is unlikely that Vic, Glenn, DC, Bohl, McClain, Schroyer, and Shyatt are all poor coaches (Schroyer and Vic are of course). I don't really have much hope, which definitely makes 2014 the low point for me personally.

[NowherePoke]

So no one knows how this hire is going to turn out. Bohl was successful at a lower level. The question was always going to be "can he recruit at this level"?

When I mentioned in another thread that maybe it's time to go the JUCO route, I was informed that's not how you build a program from the ground up. Oh well, on the BB side, it sure was nice having Justin Williams and Brad Jones and Dante Richardson stop by for a few years.
I'm amazed that Burman was given a new contract based on these last 2 hires. One was to clean up the huge disaster(schroyer) he created in the first place and the second is unproven at this level. We might have had Jeff Tedford here. I don't believe Burman even interviewed him. All I know is, after about 15 years of mediocre to poor results, my expectations have been reduced to just hoping we can compete and not finish last. I'm totally feeling the sentiments of the poster who started this thread. Even though it was irrational to expect a winning season this year, the nearly constant refrain of "wait till he gets his guys in here" is really hard to listen to anymore.

I thought Tedford would be a good hire, but there are plenty of questions there too. Remember he got fired at Cal and his last team was 3-9 after he had a decade to build the program. On an unfortunate note, it turns out that Tedford's health issues would have prevented him from coaching the team this year anyway although that was certainly not known at the time.

In terms of JC's, there is nothing wrong with going the JC route, the problem is that it isn't that easy to find high quality JC talent in football. Remember, Colby tore up the JC ranks and we have a number of JC players on the current roster that are not getting it done at this level. We need talent, and the JC route is a fine route, but it isn't any easier than recruiting HS players. If a guy can play, he will be recruited by other programs. You have to win recruiting battles one way or the other if you want to be successful. There is no magic elixir of recruiting JC's and everything will be fine.

In terms of basketball, I would ask what we ever won with Williams and Jones? Brad was one of my favorite players ever, and I wish our football team could play with the intensity and aggressiveness that he brought to the basketball court, but in the end we were 17-31 in MWC play during his time at UW (12-18 for Justin Williams). Donta Richardson was a great addition, but he also played alongside Jay Straight, Uche, Josh Davis (for one year), Marcus Bailey (for 1.3 years), etc.

I have nothing against JC's in hoops (quite the opposite), but I don't think you can use JC success in basketball as a correlation for football. In general in basketball you will find that there is decent depth at the guard, wing and undersized PF positions in the JC ranks and that if you recruit those categories you can consistently find D1 caliber players (Pako Cruz, Luke Martinez, Tyson Johnson, Nate Sobey, even Derrious Gilmore are all recent examples), but big men are significantly over-recruited (landing Williams was a coup for McClain, but that was a long time ago) and there aren't too many JC guys capable of coming in and leading a top tier MWC team. It's more of a solution for depth and role players.

In football, there are fewer programs and a bigger gap (IMO) between the level of play at a JC and at a FBS institution.


Tl; dr: The only thing that matters is talent, whether it is JC, HS, or transfer.

[Brew_Poke]

A lot of frustration being spewed by many on this board and I believe it is totally warranted. However, in my opinion, it is not about Bohl or the team. The "we knew it was going to be a long year" and "I trust in Bohl" comments are driving me crazy. While these comments may be true, I am f-word sick of the perpetual losing - apathy is once again setting in for me. We have been being patient since basically 1997 and the idea of doing it again for what looks to be a 3-4 year project looms large for this fan.

I still contend that the culture of status quo acceptance and mediocrity are the cause of this overall frustration. Until a change agent or two at the leadership level is implemented, I am starting to wonder if we will ever be happy fans.

F'in big job ahead and teams like CSU, USU, SDSU, and SJSU have managed to reverse their trends (while starting after we "commenced" ours 3 different times). Can Bohl really get it done with the good ol' boys running the ranch?

I'm kind of done. For the first time in 20 years, I don't think I'm going to attend one Wyoming football game this season. Like I've said a few times, they're going to have to show me that they care as much as me before I invest again.

[Brew_Poke]

A lot of frustration being spewed by many on this board and I believe it is totally warranted. However, in my opinion, it is not about Bohl or the team. The "we knew it was going to be a long year" and "I trust in Bohl" comments are driving me crazy. While these comments may be true, I am f-word sick of the perpetual losing - apathy is once again setting in for me. We have been being patient since basically 1997 and the idea of doing it again for what looks to be a 3-4 year project looms large for this fan.

I still contend that the culture of status quo acceptance and mediocrity are the cause of this overall frustration. Until a change agent or two at the leadership level is implemented, I am starting to wonder if we will ever be happy fans.

F'in big job ahead and teams like CSU, USU, SDSU, and SJSU have managed to reverse their trends (while starting after we "commenced" ours 3 different times). Can Bohl really get it done with the good ol' boys running the ranch?

The exact reason we should have a different AD right now, Neither AD's since that time have gotten poop done.

I sort of remember Barta being okay for getting shovels in the ground on the strategic plan, and for getting some money coming in.

[stymeman]

I didn't expect us in year 1 of Bohl to win the MWC Championship game, unlike some others may of thought, but the step up to FBS vs FCS is a jump up regardless. We all know we're Wyoming and we'll never compete for the 4 game playoff nor the National Championship game, but here's what I'd like to see:

1. Beat the teams we are "supposed" to beat for a change
2. Be competitive in all games we play
3. Stay healthy
4. Compete for a MWC Mountain Division Championship and potentially the MWC Championship game winner
5. Go to a better bowl than the New Mexico bowl every 2 years or so, yes I'll take the NM bowl but it's not my goal
6. Have a Defense that can tackle somebody, put that player into the ground and make a difference in the game
7. Make War Memorial Stadium a place that opponents fear to have to come to.
8. Make some plays during a big point of a game
9. Win some more ball games
10. Get some players in here that are "Cowboy Tough", speedy and can make a difference

I hate the idea of the worry about things changing and it's somewhat working and then 5-6 years we have a change in the Coaching staff. I think Bohl's in it for the long haul and will do some good things here at UW, until the big $$ lures him away someday. Yeah maybe it's time our AD parts his ways with us, and we try new things with someone else new instead of coaching changes. Year one is over and it's time to look forward to Year 2!!!!!

I don't think I'm asking for too much, or am I????