The Year of Mediocrity

[dawg80]

In sports, in general, and especially in college (and high school) the year begins in August/September with football, and ends in May with baseball. It is tied to the academic year.

For Tech, we are coming off mediocrity at its best! Yes, we were awesome at being mediocre. Excelled at it, actually.

Football 7-6
MBB 17-16
WBB 19-12
Baseball 38-23

(might have some of those numbers wrong, doing it from memory)

Winning records all! Yeah, baby! That's good, right? Beats having losing records, for sure. The only real highlight was the Frisco Bowl, where once again Skip demonstrated he knows how to prepare a team for a bowl game. Must have inherited that from his Dad, who was one of the best "big game" coaches ever. Otherwise WBB was one and done in the post season, and the others sat at home. That was then....

….this is now. New year about to start.

First up, football. One has to believe, WANTS to believe, our luck will change and we'll win a few of those one-point barn burners. Truthfully, though, the team could be better than last year and end up with a similar record because of the tough 7-game road slate. I subscribe to the Yoda philosophy: Do or do not. There is no try. So, yes, I put Smith squarely in the same hot seat I placed Higgins in 2016. Prove it.

Prediction: 7-5 regular season, and then a 5th straight bowl win to finish 8-5. And! Georgia, Utah, and Wisconsin will all lose their bowl games leaving Skip's bunch as the lone remaining program on at least a 5-bowl game win streak.

When the time comes, we'll visit the hoops' teams prospects.

[boxerdog]

Only my perspective, but I sense broad belief that the potential of this team is the highest we've had in quite some time. I imagine much of it relates to defensive personnel (along with the establishment of Baker). On top of that, it's hard to imagine a scenario where the offense is worse than last year's, and there is ample reason to believe it could be significantly better. The OL will be better. The qb should be better. The receiving corps will be better. Even though there is a question at rb--I could see Dancy being an effective quick back. I noticed against UAB he has more power than I thought even though he's a tad light in the britches. Henderson looks like a shifty power back to me. Both guys seem to run with conviction.

As I suggested previously, Holtz handcuffed himself with Barnes last year. Sure, we're going to need to make some fg's. But not having that in the back of his mind once we get inside the 35 will probably result in more points overall.

[revf]

I posted a question on this board multiple times...

Would you prefer to have a 7-5, 8-4, 6-6 seasons every year + a bowl game appearance every year for the next 10 years or having one 10-2/11-1 season + winning the C-USA championship + possibly access bowl bid but have crappy seasons the other 9 years?

Apparently who we are is the first not the second. Holtz is Jeff Bower.

[THEarmada]

I'm feeling the mediocrity. Hopefully somebody turns it around.

[detltu]

I posted a question on this board multiple times...

Would you prefer to have a 7-5, 8-4, 6-6 seasons every year + a bowl game appearance every year for the next 10 years or having one 10-2/11-1 season + winning the C-USA championship + possibly access bowl bid but have crappy seasons the other 9 years?

Apparently who we are is the first not the second. Holtz is Jeff Bower.

One great year is not worth 9 years of bad seasons. I will take the 6-8 wins in that scenario. Now if you tell me we will yo-yo back and forth from 10-11 wins one year to 2-3 the next, I would probably be tempted to take the roller coaster. Bicknell's early years were kind of like that without the crazy highs and it was livable.

I would much rather see us go 6-8 wins every year with a 10-11 win season every four to five years. I could even handle a bad year every 10 years or so if we could otherwise maintain a good program overall.

[dawg80]

I posted a question on this board multiple times...

Would you prefer to have a 7-5, 8-4, 6-6 seasons every year + a bowl game appearance every year for the next 10 years or having one 10-2/11-1 season + winning the C-USA championship + possibly access bowl bid but have crappy seasons the other 9 years?

Apparently who we are is the first not the second. Holtz is Jeff Bower.

I reject the premise. I insist upon 8-win seasons being our crappy years, and 10+ win seasons, with an occasional 12+ win season thrown in.

[DogsWin]

Only my perspective, but I sense broad belief that the potential of this team is the highest we've had in quite some time. I imagine much of it relates to defensive personnel (along with the establishment of Baker). On top of that, it's hard to imagine a scenario where the offense is worse than last year's, and there is ample reason to believe it could be significantly better. The OL will be better. The qb should be better. The receiving corps will be better. Even though there is a question at rb--I could see Dancy being an effective quick back. I noticed against UAB he has more power than I thought even though he's a tad light in the britches. Henderson looks like a shifty power back to me. Both guys seem to run with conviction.

As I suggested previously, Holtz handcuffed himself with Barnes last year. Sure, we're going to need to make some fg's. But not having that in the back of his mind once we get inside the 35 will probably result in more points overall.

I agree completely with all of the above. Also, possibly our best LB in 2018 (Trey Baldwin 6'-2" 240) is in Ruston now. We finally have the personnel to make opponents one-dimensional on offense. I think this is Holtz's most talented team since he's been here.

[boxerdog]

Judging strictly from video highlights, I agree about Baldwin. He reminds me of a guy named Santiago from several years back.

[SicemDawgz]

In his 6th year, Holtz should be feeling the pressure this year to win the conference. I would go so far as to say it should be required.

[Bulldog Tom]

I posted a question on this board multiple times...

Would you prefer to have a 7-5, 8-4, 6-6 seasons every year + a bowl game appearance every year for the next 10 years or having one 10-2/11-1 season + winning the C-USA championship + possibly access bowl bid but have crappy seasons the other 9 years?

Apparently who we are is the first not the second. Holtz is Jeff Bower.

Would not want to have 9 crappy seasons for 1 great season. Although, I wish Holtz was Jeff Bower. Bower went to bowl games 10 of his last 11 seasons at USM. There were an average of around 25 bowl games during those years as opposed to 40 plus during Skip's run. Also, Bower won 4 CUSA Championships. Not to mention he had 2 Top 20 finishes.

[Blue Dawg]

In his 6th year, Holtz should be feeling the pressure this year to win the conference. I would go so far as to say it should be required.

This is why I don't want to lay the blame totally with Holtz...he should be feeling the pressure, but will the screws get turned? I'm not sure. I think Holtz would have to do a lot of damage before his job was remotely in danger.

[detltu]

Would not want to have 9 crappy seasons for 1 great season. Although, I wish Holtz was Jeff Bower. Bower went to bowl games 10 of his last 11 seasons at USM. There were an average of around 25 bowl games during those years as opposed to 40 plus during Skip's run. Also, Bower won 4 CUSA Championships. Not to mention he had 2 Top 20 finishes.

Yep. That is a pretty good run. I would be happy with that. Holtz has the 7-9 wins and bowl game routine down. Just need the championships and top 25 rankings and we will be in pretty good shape.

[johnnylightnin]

I agree completely with all of the above. Also, possibly our best LB in 2018 (Trey Baldwin 6'-2" 240) is in Ruston now. We finally have the personnel to make opponents one-dimensional on offense. I think this is Holtz's most talented team since he's been here.

I think that's true from top to bottom, but I'm still concerned about who will step up to make the offense go. I think trying to force J'Mar into a game manager is a losing proposition. Veal has great potential, but he has to have someone get him the ball. Who will step up to fill Boston's shoes?

Should be the best defense we've had since Manny was here.

If Smith develops, as you've predicted he will, we could be very dangerous.

[Dogsince65]

another waste of time thread in my opinion-- anything possible to ridicule the program -- send some money t0 program and get us out of the lower funded athletic programs--that ain't going to happen, it would require doing something beside negativity--

[Bulldog Tom]

In sports, in general, and especially in college (and high school) the year begins in August/September with football, and ends in May with baseball. It is tied to the academic year.

For Tech, we are coming off mediocrity at its best! Yes, we were awesome at being mediocre. Excelled at it, actually.

Football 7-6
MBB 17-16
WBB 19-12
Baseball 38-23

(might have some of those numbers wrong, doing it from memory)

Winning records all! Yeah, baby! That's good, right? Beats having losing records, for sure. The only real highlight was the Frisco Bowl, where once again Skip demonstrated he knows how to prepare a team for a bowl game. Must have inherited that from his Dad, who was one of the best "big game" coaches ever. Otherwise WBB was one and done in the post season, and the others sat at home. That was then....

….this is now. New year about to start.

First up, football. One has to believe, WANTS to believe, our luck will change and we'll win a few of those one-point barn burners. Truthfully, though, the team could be better than last year and end up with a similar record because of the tough 7-game road slate. I subscribe to the Yoda philosophy: Do or do not. There is no try. So, yes, I put Smith squarely in the same hot seat I placed Higgins in 2016. Prove it.

Prediction: 7-5 regular season, and then a 5th straight bowl win to finish 8-5. And! Georgia, Utah, and Wisconsin will all lose their bowl games leaving Skip's bunch as the lone remaining program on at least a 5-bowl game win streak.

When the time comes, we'll visit the hoops' teams prospects.

I feel your pain, in your wanting to see our teams do better than just winning seasons. I too want to see conference championships and the access bowl bid. But as far as these four teams having winning records across the board, this is pretty significant. This has only happened 5 times in the last 30 years. We are kind of at a high water mark. let's take it to the next level!