This graph illustrates why I believe we are not at the level of support we all want us to be. Everyone loves a winner, a consistent winner.
The question I ask is, why have we not been consistent winners?
Graph Tech.JPG
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This graph illustrates why I believe we are not at the level of support we all want us to be. Everyone loves a winner, a consistent winner.
The question I ask is, why have we not been consistent winners?
Graph Tech.JPG
A few excuses:
1. We were independent a lot of this time: 1990 to 2000 (pretty much). So we played some brutal schedules.
2. Then we were in the WAC with some great football programs like Boise St, Fresno St, Nevada, and Hawaii and we still had the brutal OOC schedules. And a lot of traveling.
3. Money. We lost our best assistant coaches under Peace. We lost Crowton, We lost Dooley. We lost Dykes.
4. Facilities. Hard to recruit the best athletes in our area against schools like TCU, Ole Miss, Tulsa, Houston, Mississippi St, etc...
5. No identity. Are we ground and pound like under Peace and Dooley or Air Raid like under Crowton, Bicknell, and Dykes?
6. We failed to get bowl bids about 4 times we were bowl-eligible. 4 more bowls may have helped build some momentum.
All that being said, we did have one of the Top 20 non-AQ programs in the nation in this time frame. It could have been worse. We have had some challenges though.
In a nutshell: Poor facilities, low budget, inconsistency in style, inability to maintain coaching staffs, tough schedules.
7. We lost seniors every year, the head coach wasn't calling the plays, hurry-up offenses are waaaaay too complex, and we needed more time.
Off the cuff, I would say inconsistent identity/philosophy. We go from ball control to wide open offense and back and forth. Makes it hard for coaches to come in and recruit. It takes a year or two to get system in place. If successful they leave and instead of staying with the same philosophy we switch entirely. The only coaches we have fired since I began tech as a freshman were Peace and Bicknell. Both stayed too long.
It seems to me we have been most successful in the win column and at the gate when we have an offense that is fast paced and flings the ball around the field.
I was going to say that Bicknell and Dykes recruited too many JUCOs which didn't give us proper depth to build a program. I think if Dykes didn't get the Cal job we still would have only won 4 or 5 games last year and we would still see the inconsistency. Probable wins under Dykes: 5, 8, 9, 5, 5, 8....
Since 1990 the biggest reason has been turnover within the assistant coaching ranks. Had the increase in the general fund transfer that hit the budget in 2006, been put into place in the late 90s or even 2001 - the year we began WAC play, Bicknell's tenure might look much different today than it did the day he left Ruston in December, 2006. Peace was hit with the same issues, probably even harder than Bicknell.Originally Posted by LongtimeDawgfan
Top 15 Non-AQ wins (as an FBS member) from 1990-2013:
1. BYU (200)
2. Utah (185)
3. TCU (178)
4. Fresno St (181)
5. Toledo (178)
6. Boise St (177)
7. Air Force (170)
8. Southern Miss (162)
9. ECU (155)
10. Northern Illinois (147)
11. Nevada (145)
12. Miami, OH (143)
13. Western Michigan (141)
14. Louisiana Tech (139)
15. Marshall (129)
The win totals on this list are not totally accurate, and the whole list is misleading because Boise State, Nevada, and Marshall have not been FBS the entire time since 1990.
Nevada became FBS in 1992, and it has 145 wins in 22 seasons...6.59 per year.
Boise State became FBS in 1996, and it has 178 (not 177) wins in 18 seasons...9.89 wins per year is by far #1 out of the 15 schools on this list.
Marshall became FBS in 1997, and it has 130 (not 129) wins in 17 seasons...7.65 per year.
Tech is last among the 15 teams listed with 5.79 wins per year.
I just went to a database and put in the years 1990 to 2013. http://football.stassen.com/
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