It’s time. What will it cost?

[glm47]

3 options: 7-6 SMU, 9-5 Navy, or 6-7 Illinois.

Navy was on their 3rd string QB and 2nd string RB and yet it took
A last second FG to win.

[Bulldog Tom]

You are calling SMU Skips biggest win? Really?

That's the one most everyone brags about. If only we could play like we played in Frisco. Too bad everyone we play isn't a bad team coached by a member of the student body. Of course if we played like we did against UAB a team of cheerleaders coached by a tuba player from the band could beat us.

[Tech52]

Id consider 2016 WKU a good win as well.

[Bulldog Tom]

I wouldn’t consider that a big win, but I can’t name another one to take its place.

Of course you are right. Skip has no big wins. But hey at least we are one of the 80 teams to go to a bowl.

[Bulldog Tom]

3 options: 7-6 SMU, 9-5 Navy, or 6-7 Illinois.

Ouch that is like LSU playing Alabama, Georgia and Florida. SMU, Navy and Illinois, the "Who's Who of college football".

Sorry I don't mean to rag on you, you seem like a nice guy. But really, SMU, Navy and Illinois?? Skip has no big wins at Tech. We have people bragging, happy about a fourth place finish in the division last year and a bowl win against SMU. I was so excited about last year, great schedule, rock star QB and it turned into a disaster. So this year I figure we will suck again, then we beat North Texas and control our future. Then lose to another start-up program, so it looks like no championship again this year. I have no confidence in Skip, it is becoming very hard to even get excited.

But then again basketball season is just around the corner. Oh wait every D1 school in Louisiana has made the NCAA tourney since we last made it. Every school except Grambling. Maybe it's a Lincoln Parish thing?

[Bulldog Tom]

Id consider 2016 WKU a good win as well.

Maybe that was his best, too bad he lost the next time we played. That would have made this thread irrelevant.

[techman05]

How about Navy ?

Didn’t we beat like their third string QB?

[Houston Techsan]

Even he ran for a TD his first play.

[dawg80]

No, it was their 2nd string QB, but the 3rd string came in for one play, and scored the tying TD with about 4 mins left. We then drove down field and ate up the full 4 mins, kicking the GW FG.

Regardless, the Ft Worth Bowl win over Navy is the best of the four we have under Holtz. Navy was ranked in the Top 25, and are always good. Anyone who follows CFB, at all, has enormous respect for Navy. They play a representative schedule every year, full of P5s, which often includes the likes of Notre Dame, Ohio State, and others like other Big 10 and ACC schools. They play a much tougher schedule than we do.

The win over Illinois, in Dallas, is the 2nd best bowl win under Holtz.

We will be in a 5th straight bowl this year...provided we avoid a WTF game and beat both UTEP and Rice. So, we'll see who the opponent will be this go-around.

[dawg80]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIdr-ALaOio

Highlights

[Blue Dawg]

In the Joe:

2013:
Lamar: n/a
Southern Miss: 1-11

2014:
UTEP: 7-6
UTSA: 4-8
WKU: 8-5
Rice: 8-5

2015:
Southern Univ: n/a
Florida Intl: 5-7
ULL: 4-8
MTSU: 7-6
North Texas: 1-11


2016:
S Carolina St: n/a
UTEP: 4-8
WKU: 11-3
Rice: 3-9
UT San Antonio: 6-7

2017:
Northwestern LA: n/a
South Alabama: 4-8
UTSA: 6-5

Six wins, in four years, over teams that finished with a "winning" record. (7-6 and 6-5 barely count, but whatever).

Six.

Wins.

In.

Four.

Years.

Top 3? That's HALF OF THEM. Just pick WKU and two randomly!

Then overall by Elo:

Navy was actually, at the time, only one rank up from us (-27 point difference). We were also much better than Illinois at the time, with a +613 point difference.

Oh, for the days of the 1995 Bowling Green game; they were 1015 points above us and we won 28-21 (the reason I don't count this as bigger than Fresneck is because the smaller win margin gives us less of a benefit). 1997 Alabama was also a good win (-735), but our glory days are behind us unless Holtz becomes a totally different coach (or we get a totally different coach).

Holtz's biggest win is 2017 WKU (-245). In contrast, he's lost 12 games (up to 13 now) where we were favored by that much (plus one that's close).

1. 2013 Tulane, +873 (!!!)
2. 2017 UNT, +691
3. 2016 USM, +680
4. 2013 Kansas, +594
5. 2013 Army. +584
6. 2015 USM, +561
7. 2017 UAB, +499
8. 2017 FAU, +441
9. 2014 ODU, +347
10. 2017 USM, +329
11. 2013 UNT, +329
12. 2018 UAB, +301
13. 2016 Texas Tech, +252
14. (2016 MTSU, +238)

To provide some good balance on his "good wins" (by Elo, again, so that's why ULL is on here). These are games where the opponent's Elo was higher for whatever reason but we won anyway. Two of these teams didn't even finish 0.500!

1. 2017 WKU, -245 (finished 6-7)
2. 2016 WKU, -195 (finished 11-3)
3. 2014 ULL, -175 (finished 7-4)
4. 2016 Navy, -75 (finished 9-5)
5. 2014 UNT, -44 (finished 4-8)
6. 2015 Ark St, -28 (finished 9-4)

You can slice the numbers any way you want. The story is the same in every metric you might want to use.

We are Elo-favored for all of our remaining games except for MSU, so the question is, which Top 10 WTF will Holtz lay next?

[Champ967]

haters gonna hate --

senile old fools gonna senile old fool

[rabiddawg]

senile old fools gonna senile old fool

You are insulting senile old fools by comparing them to dumbsince65

[SicemDawgz]

Some keep touting 4 bowls in a row. Let’s look at that shall we.
Every year we play

UTEP- Automatic win
UTSA- Nearly automatic win
FCS- Should be automatic win, with fireworks too.

So out of the other 9, Holtz has to win 3 to go bowling. That doesn’t seem like an insurmountable task to me; maybe I’m looking at it wrong.

[Amos Moses]

Of course you are right. Skip has no big wins. But hey at least we are one of the 80 teams to go to a bowl.

Yeah, but we ALMOST beat Arkansas and ALMOST beat South Carolina!