The Texas A&M games was one of the biggest fails, if not the biggest fail, in the FBS era at Tech. The game should have never been scheduled.
You and others who posted that summer were correct in that we never have success against A&M. And then, at the last minute, to put them on the schedule the year we had a schedule that gave us a red carpet walk to a BCS bowl game was not only a bad decision it was a horrific decision. It was tempting fate. It cost us dearly.
Had we just told A&M thanks but no thanks we would have kept Lamar on the schedule and then played them on opening weekend at some point, either before or after the threat of the hurricane. That would have given us the open date we so desperately needed that year to get healthy and rest the team. Instead, we scheduled A&M and then, because of weather, moved the game to the weekend of our only open date. Sonny tried to move the Idaho game the following week to the end of the season (which Idaho agreed to), but our administration nixed the idea.
Again, it was a horrific decision to even schedule that game.
I understand the dynamics of the 2012 season and the ramifications of the aTm game being moved to our open date. We discussed some of that at that time. But! the aTm game was epic. It's the kind of game, opportunity, that any program would want. I think the biggest fail of '12 was the Utah State game. Team didn't come out prepared to play, fell behind huge, 24 pts, before rallying to force OT. Why the hell that team, from coaches to players, wasn't sky high fired up and focused beats me. I can't relate to that kind of attitude.
But, the aTm game was epic!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L7b6gLISgU
Techman,
I think you make a great point here. Do we as a fan base overweight the importance of the "single big win". What has more impact on the overall health of the program? 1 win over a big time opponent, or a string of 9+ winning seasons with bowl games/wins? I don't know the answer but I think this is a very legit question.
What did the Bama, Ok St. Mich St. etc. wins do for us program wise? Compare that to a string of 9+ win seasons. Are they similar impacts? Or is there a great benefit of one over the other? Even then, once you move into the realm of being really competitive, how hard is it to stay there? Look at Boise St. They had immense success for several seasons a few years ago. While they are still very good they are no longer in the big time picture.
I think we need to define what success means.
Is it attendance? There are demographic issues in our area that prevent us ever really exploding here. Of course, there are many simple things that our administration either ignores or just is ignorant of, but there is a more or less hard limit. Attendance does go up with wins, but we haven't had long-term success for long enough to really tell. USM has had a lot of winning for a long time in a similarly low-density area, and it shows. Every time we have a chance to grab those potential fans, something happens that cuts out all the support we've built to that point. This is mostly our puzzling and unacceptable collapses, but there are also things outside our control like the quarter break and hunting season.
Is it budget? This is something we set for ourselves, so it's a cause of success but not a metric of success. Only a few programs can actually break even, so I don't think this is it either.
Is it wins? Let's just drop back into the Southland like a lot of our posters seem to want and dominate every year. It's not just wins we need (just ask the basketball team).
Is it facility upgrades? There's no question we've improved here from even just a few years ago. But the pressbox hasn't brought us any wins. Has it brought us recruits? Do wins help fund these projects by stimulating donations?
Is it tailgating? The old-timers all say this has greatly improved, but we also saw how a disappointing season cuts out a great deal of that support. Not to mention TMac's puzzling choices and lack of general attention to the gameday experience. Sure, the Bulldog Village is nice if you like carnivals, I guess, but the band and the board haven't been on the same page since we built the damn thing. Lot still to be desired.
I've mixed up cause and effect pretty freely here. And some are totally unrelated. We could have the best tailgating in the world and have a horrible football team. Plenty of examples of that around the nation.
My point is, how are we defining success?
Either the Navy game last year or beating Ole Miss game in 2011
I disagree as to the A&M game being an epic fail in its scheduling. Had we scored any more points in the first half, we win that game. Probably by 10 points or more because it likely negates 1 score for A&M.
As to your comment Blue Dawg, I think we are to the point where attendance and financial support are maxed out based on the effort our admin wants to put into things. Numbers will fluctuate slightly given some success or failures, but they are stagnant overall. I am not taking about facilities improvements being paid for. I’m talking overall budget numbers year to year. We should be measuring success now with wins out of conference and conference championships or at least contention. That means 8 wins or more each year.
Is it maxed because of effort or because of availability? I'm trying to be more positive based on all of your comments, haha
OOC wins and Conference Championshop numbers are...not great. I think Holtz is especially weak in these areas and I'll give him credit for the bowls with the caveats mentioned above.
I think our admin lacks drive and imagination when it comes to attracting new support, keeping existing support, and creating a consistently good sports atmosphere. This has been the case since the Jim Oakes days and probably before, but I’m not old enough to remember those days.