Has this team and staff earned a bowl invitation?
Before there was the CFP there were fewer bowls and for a long time the major bowls were rewards for conference champions. Rose = Big10 v Pac 8 (old style), Cotton = SWC v at large, Orange = Big 8 (old Style) v at large, and Sugar = SEC v at large. It wasn't always this way in the early days with more at large teams. They were all probably started as tourist attractions.
The other minor bowls that sprang up were tourist attractions, the first later major bowl that was a tourist attraction was the Fiesta. Other bowls I remember were/are Sun Bowl, Bluebonnet Bowl, Gator Bowl and Peach Bowl. There may have been some other minor bowls, I can't recall them now.
Team yes. At the start of the season with what it looked like we had talent wise I would have taken 7-5 and been content, I expected to lose to Ms. State, USC, Southern Miss, and Western Kentucky. Figured Skip would throw in a WTF game and viola... 7-5 get a average to weak bowl opponent and end up 8-5 maybe.
Nowwwww.... after seeing what the teams on our schedule actually looked like (plus having 7 home games and usually handling our business at home), and seeing our coaching staff steal (turn to a loss) what I thought would have been wins at UNT and UAB by a freaking point, actually FU the USM game which I was actually expecting to lose and then we did 11 points in what 3 minutes, and again steal another win out from under us which I thought would be a loss at USC by another point.
The staff has not! The staff took my 7-5 prediction and instead of being 10-2, turned it into a 6-6 season where we scrapped by to get there.
The way college football is today we take the non-losing season and maybe the bowl bid and we tell our recruits 4 bowls in 4 years etc and smile as we walk past the graves of UL Twins. In no way, even if we win the bowl, does the staff get credit for salvaging a season they turned into a dumpster fire to start with.
You chalk this up to a learning year, less talent, bad play calling and survive to fight another day. This happens again next year, regardless of tougher schedule etc... then we need to make a change. Can't stay with a downward trend for years on end like we did in the past. We are the kings of killing our own programs momentum.
Last edited by DallasDog; 11-29-2017 at 04:36 PM.
100% agree with the above. Another bad year next year (2018) from Holtz, and that will be 3 bad years (2013, 2017 & 2018) and 3 pretty good years (2014, 2015 & 2016). No GREAT years (e.g., CUSA championships). I honestly believe LA Tech has the resources to do much better than this.
Well, Kiffin has shown the whole CFB world what a difference coaching makes. FAU....R U kidding me? They have been a big nothing their entire brief history. Off of three straight 3-9 seasons. Yet, now they are 9-3 and probably about to be CUSA Champs! Kiffin did not walk into a finely tuned program ready to be successful. He did not inherit a winning program. He BUILT one in 9 months! He will accomplish in one season what Holtz has failed to do in 6 years: win a title and win 10 games.
So, while I have repeatedly posted that I like Skip Holtz and think he is a "good" coach, I have also asked (even prior to this disappointing season) "is there nothing more?"
If this is all Holtz has, then I am ready to take a chance on another coach. My alma mater doesn't "settle" for merely being "good." We want GREAT!
But didn't Kiffin bring in a whole bunch of JUCO thugs that will be gone when he is?