The Viability of Wyoming Football: Redux

[SnowyRange]

Rather than throwing in the towel, there's another way of looking at this. But it's not much more pleasant.

I was talking to one of my sports-obsessed friends about this (non-Wyoming guy). He said, basically, "Face facts. You haven't been a credible football program for a long time. Maybe ever. So now you got a new guy who's a builder. But you have to realize he has to build a program, not simply rebuild a team. There's a big difference. It's going to take years. Don't sweat this season. Don't sweat next season. Or the season after that. You're not going to be able to tell if he's being successful until 5 or 6 or 7 years into this."

He's probably right.

If I added correctly: in the last 45 years we've had 16 winning seasons. 3 of those were "winning" because we had one more win than we had losses. From Tiller through last year our winning percentage is about .450. From 1970 through Tiller it was slightly better: around .475.

To make a long story short, he thinks the whole "it's hard to recruit to Laramie" thing is poop. If you have a credible program, then a higher level of recruit is going to think seriously about playing there. (He knows our basketball program. He says, hey, you're in a spot where, within reason, your coaches can walk into any house in the country, and a kid is going to give them a real listen. Doesn't matter if you're in the middle of nowhere and the wind blows.)

But it's going to take a long time to get our football program to that level (if it can be done at all). This is going to require daily, tiny, incremental effort over a long period of time. This isn't about Xs and Os and schemes; it's not about teaching our current level of recruits how to run, throw, block and tackle better. It's about, finally, making us credible in the eyes of a higher level of recruit.

So, I'm going to try to adopt that attitude: make an evaluation 3 or 4 years from now.

In the meantime, I'll quibble and argue and pull out my hair about any given game. Otherwise, what's the fun of sports? But I'm not going to agonize.

I won't go into existential despair, if ever, for a long, long time.

[laxwyo]

I agree with this post completely.

I'm still going to be sick every Saturday even when I know this

[LanderPoke]

best post I've read all season

[BringBackStutzriem]

Rather than throwing in the towel, there's another way of looking at this. But it's not much more pleasant.

I was talking to one of my sports-obsessed friends about this (non-Wyoming guy). He said, basically, "Face facts. You haven't been a credible football program for a long time. Maybe ever. So now you got a new guy who's a builder. But you have to realize he has to build a program, not simply rebuild a team. There's a big difference. It's going to take years. Don't sweat this season. Don't sweat next season. Or the season after that. You're not going to be able to tell if he's being successful until 5 or 6 or 7 years into this."

He's probably right.

If I added correctly: in the last 45 years we've had 16 winning seasons. 3 of those were "winning" because we had one more win than we had losses. From Tiller through last year our winning percentage is about .450. From 1970 through Tiller it was slightly better: around .475.

To make a long story short, he thinks the whole "it's hard to recruit to Laramie" thing is poop. If you have a credible program, then a higher level of recruit is going to think seriously about playing there. (He knows our basketball program. He says, hey, you're in a spot where, within reason, your coaches can walk into any house in the country, and a kid is going to give them a real listen. Doesn't matter if you're in the middle of nowhere and the wind blows.)

But it's going to take a long time to get our football program to that level (if it can be done at all). This is going to require daily, tiny, incremental effort over a long period of time. This isn't about Xs and Os and schemes; it's not about teaching our current level of recruits how to run, throw, block and tackle better. It's about, finally, making us credible in the eyes of a higher level of recruit.

So, I'm going to try to adopt that attitude: make an evaluation 3 or 4 years from now.

In the meantime, I'll quibble and argue and pull out my hair about any given game. Otherwise, what's the fun of sports? But I'm not going to agonize.

I won't go into existential despair, if ever, for a long, long time.

This is all a very fair assessment of it, and I appreciate your good attitude about it. It's not easy to see Wyoming suck as badly as it has the first two games of the season. But let's say, hypothetically, Bohl can't get it done in 3-4 years and nothing much changes. Do you start asking those questions a bit more seriously, once again, and wonder that it's not necessarily the coach or the personnel - it's the inherent challenges of the program?

And you're right, sports are around to keep us entertained, so I'll proffer this one...at least Wyoming isn't the Colorado Rockies.

[ItSucksToBeACSURam]

Fantastic write up. I agree with everything, as agonizing and infuriating and frustrating as it is. It's going to take way more time than I thought to right this ship

[Yabadabadoo]

Refreshing to see some sanity + reality beginning to set in...also good to see that some are starting to come around to my critique following last week's game and as well as yesterday's result.

Enjoy your NFL Sunday.

[laxwyo]

Man I how it's true about building a program. These two or three seasons a would be worth some sort of sustained success instead of the yoyo seasons DC had.

[kansasCowboy]

Rather than throwing in the towel, there's another way of looking at this. But it's not much more pleasant.

I was talking to one of my sports-obsessed friends about this (non-Wyoming guy). He said, basically, "Face facts. You haven't been a credible football program for a long time. Maybe ever. So now you got a new guy who's a builder. But you have to realize he has to build a program, not simply rebuild a team. There's a big difference. It's going to take years. Don't sweat this season. Don't sweat next season. Or the season after that. You're not going to be able to tell if he's being successful until 5 or 6 or 7 years into this."

He's probably right.

If I added correctly: in the last 45 years we've had 16 winning seasons. 3 of those were "winning" because we had one more win than we had losses. From Tiller through last year our winning percentage is about .450. From 1970 through Tiller it was slightly better: around .475.

To make a long story short, he thinks the whole "it's hard to recruit to Laramie" thing is poop. If you have a credible program, then a higher level of recruit is going to think seriously about playing there. (He knows our basketball program. He says, hey, you're in a spot where, within reason, your coaches can walk into any house in the country, and a kid is going to give them a real listen. Doesn't matter if you're in the middle of nowhere and the wind blows.)

But it's going to take a long time to get our football program to that level (if it can be done at all). This is going to require daily, tiny, incremental effort over a long period of time. This isn't about Xs and Os and schemes; it's not about teaching our current level of recruits how to run, throw, block and tackle better. It's about, finally, making us credible in the eyes of a higher level of recruit.

So, I'm going to try to adopt that attitude: make an evaluation 3 or 4 years from now.

In the meantime, I'll quibble and argue and pull out my hair about any given game. Otherwise, what's the fun of sports? But I'm not going to agonize.

I won't go into existential despair, if ever, for a long, long time.

I'm so glad someone else sees this!
We've seen Craig Bohl successful. And bet your butt he is hating this losing just as much, if not more than anyone of the fans that struggle to swallow it.
When NDSU entered in to the MVC, they had significant growing pains. They went from back to back 10-1 seasons to a whole new game. 6-5; 3-8; 9-5; Champs(x3)
He took over a program at a whole new level which was NOT anywhere near back to back 10-1 seasons
So he plants the seed and waits for it to grow. 4-8; maybe this year is 0-12; then maybe we see 4-8 again; and if we don't give up on him we may have found our Greg Schiano to Rutgers; or our David Cutcliffe to Duke; or Frank Beamer to VT; or even our Bill Snyder to the worst program in the history of college football- Kansas St.
It takes time, he planted the seed, it took on a frost, but in the end we have a giant sweet watermelon! An amazing feast from a tiny glimmer of hope. You can't make the watermelon grow any faster people. It will always take time, work, dedication and commitment. The question is, will you wait till the fruit is ripe or cut it too soon?

[ZapPoke]

Good posts all. Thanks guys for coming forward with this. I do not want to hear any more poop about how we should just drop a level!

[DVDA]