Cotton Bowl auto bid

[DurDog]

Yes it starts with coaches but until LaTech is able to be competitive in their pay scale of assistant coaches be grateful for what you have. Skip does his best just to keep some continuity amongst the staff, let alone hire the most qualified assistants necessary to take Tech to the next level.

[PawDawg]

Yes it starts with coaches but until LaTech is able to be competitive in their pay scale of assistant coaches be grateful for what you have. Skip does his best just to keep some continuity amongst the staff, let alone hire the most qualified assistants necessary to take Tech to the next level.

Which assistant coaches could we have kept if we paid them more money? Can't think of any can you?

Please... that excuse is as old as losing 42 seniors and this year being a rebuilding year.

[diamonddawg31]

In 2015 it was the Western Kentucky, Kansas State and Mississippi State games.

WKU 2015 not so much. We pretty much played catch up all game.

[The Historian]

WKU 2015 not so much. We pretty much played catch up all game.

Point taken. I included them because we came out in a Play-Not-To-Lose defense and didn't change it or the mindset of the team until well into the second quarter.

[Dwayne From Minden]

Yes it starts with coaches but until LaTech is able to be competitive in their pay scale of assistant coaches be grateful for what you have. Skip does his best just to keep some continuity amongst the staff, let alone hire the most qualified assistants necessary to take Tech to the next level.

I disagree -

If that's the case he should not be our HC -

The world is littered with up and comers looking to make it big, give them the opportunity

I have NO problem being a stepping-stone program

[PawDawg]

I disagree -

If that's the case he should not be our HC -

The world is littered with up and comers looking to make it big, give them the opportunity

I have NO problem being a stepping-stone program

We've only had one assistant coach recently who used us as a stepping stone. That was Juluke. Had we matched Texas Tech he would not have stayed in Ruston.

Diaz used us as a resting spot. We all knew that going in.

The rest of those we've lost under HCSH have been recycled from his past stints at other schools. IMO, none of those losses hurt our program from a coaching or recruiting standpoint.

[T1]

I disagree -

If that's the case he should not be our HC -

The world is littered with up and comers looking to make it big, give them the opportunity

I have NO problem being a stepping-stone program

Like Baker? But, it's so much easier if you can afford a Diaz!

[GermDawg]

will go to one of these five champions:

AAC: Temple (9-3) vs. Navy (9-2)
C-USA: Louisiana Tech (8-4) vs. WKU (9-3)
MAC: Ohio (8-4) vs. Western Michigan (12-0)
MW: San Diego State (9-3) vs. Wyoming (8-4)
Sun Belt: Appalachian State (9-3), Troy (9-2), Arkansas State (6-5)

Houston and Boise State are out of the running.

An upset in the MAC Championship Game would make things interesting.

This access bowl bid is as achievable for Tech as it ever has been. It's up to us to take care of business to make it happen. If our AD doesn't inexplicably move the Arkansas game for nothing in return, we don't choke in the second half against MTSU, and we do what we were supposed to do against USM, this bid could've been ours for the taking. If WMU loses their title game, we would be two plays and a WTF game from being the favorite to get this Cotton Bowl bid.

If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas.

[The Historian]

will go to one of these five champions:

AAC: Temple (9-3) vs. Navy (9-2)
C-USA: Louisiana Tech (8-4) vs. WKU (9-3)
MAC: Ohio (8-4) vs. Western Michigan (12-0)
MW: San Diego State (9-3) vs. Wyoming (8-4)
Sun Belt: Appalachian State (9-3), Troy (9-2), Arkansas State (6-5)

Houston and Boise State are out of the running.

An upset in the MAC Championship Game would make things interesting.

This access bowl bid is as achievable for Tech as it ever has been. It's up to us to take care of business to make it happen. If our AD doesn't inexplicably move the Arkansas game for nothing in return, we don't choke in the second half against MTSU, and we do what we were supposed to do against USM, this bid could've been ours for the taking. If WMU loses their title game, we would be two plays and a WTF game from being the favorite to get this Cotton Bowl bid.

To add to your point, even with the conference losses to USM and Middle, a win over Arkansas would clearly slot us in as the third choice behind Western Michigan and Navy. We would be a three-loss team with a win over a bowl-bound P5 opponent. We would be the only conference champion with that on a resume.

And as bad as we looked in Hattiesburg, Wyoming and San Diego State looked worse last week. And San Diego State has an 18-point loss to South Alabama.

What's been most surprising to me over the past few days is how little respect Temple is getting in this process. McMurphy didn't even mention a scenario in his story that would give them the bid. Temple has a bad loss to Army, which has just three other FBS wins.

[The Historian]

If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas.

And that's why message boards exist.

[Dawg06]

To add to your point, even with the conference losses to USM and Middle, a win over Arkansas would clearly slot us in as the third choice behind Western Michigan and Navy. We would be a three-loss team with a win over a bowl-bound P5 opponent. We would be the only conference champion with that on a resume.

And as bad as we looked in Hattiesburg, Wyoming and San Diego State looked worse last week. And San Diego State has an 18-point loss to South Alabama.

What's been most surprising to me over the past few days is how little respect Temple is getting in this process. McMurphy didn't even mention a scenario in his story that would give them the bid. Temple has a bad loss to Army, which has just three other FBS wins.

And look at WKU. If they make the 2-point conversion to beat Vandy and we don't make the strip sack on that last drive against them, the Toppers would be sitting at 11-1 right now with their only loss to No. 1 Alabama...

[Dwayne From Minden]

Like Baker? But, it's so much easier if you can afford a Diaz!

We could NEVER afford an undamaged Diaz on an open market -

He was SOLEY a reclamation project who came in on a gamble under Holtz

Don't kid yourself - keeping him had nothing to do with money

His coming here had EVERYTHING to do with lack of other opportunities

Win/Win for both parties

[T1]

No doubt. Glad we had him for that 1 year. Enjoyed it! Now it's back to reality.

[OLDBLUE]

And that's why message boards exist.

Yeah, we got plenty-o- "nuts" and "buts" God bless 'em all.

[HogDawg]

I think what he's trying to say is, given the title of this thread, is the games in which we've needed to win to be in contention for the Access bid.

Like most on this board I think Skip has done a tremendous job with this program, but I think the frustration with the meltdown games is justified. Games in which we've had second half leads and outplayed teams and just haven't gotten it done. More than that, too often our team has gone into "panic and play not to lose mode" too many times. I know our coaches have tried to rectify it.

In 2014, it was Northwestern State, ODU, and Marshall games. Go back and look at the last minute of the first half of the Marshall game. An entire team in play-not-to lose mode that led to a 10-point swing. And even in the HOD Bowl the same thing was about to happen before Dixon made one of the greatest individual plays in Tech history with the strip turnover of the defender after Sokol's turnover.

In 2015 it was the Western Kentucky, Kansas State and Mississippi State games. This year it was Arkansas and Western Kentucky, when we held on for the win. The Kansas State game is the best example from 2015. Up by 7 in the fourth quarter, we went into a shell. Then after we lost the lead the team drove the length of the field to tie the game and send it into overtime. Had our team just kept playing when we had the lead it would have been a double-digit win.

It all starts with the coaches and filters down to the team. As I said, our staff recognizes this has been a problem and has tried to rectify it.

In 2016, we blew a 20-point lead to MTSU midway thru the 3rd Qtr, in the same fashion.