Haskins set all kinds of Ohio State single game records last night. He was something like 59 of 73 for 480 yards. OSU has no running game, was held to just 76 yards rushing. But the biggest flaw last night for OSU was their defense, or the lack of it, Purdue gashed 'em. If those stats are considered terrible, I wish Smith would climb UP to that level. We could use some terrible games like that out of our so-called QB.
I actually didn’t see any of the first half. And I never looked at his stats. In the second half, what I did see was about a half dozen, it seemed, dropped sure interceptions. Some sure pick 6’s. He threw the ball into the ground or way over receivers a few times too. But the bottom line is, he couldn’t get it done in the red zone. That is J’Mar every week. It was 1 game for Haskins.
I don't really know if any of the former coaches would have really faired that much better or not with this generation of players to recruit from. Generations change so quickly...
But I am confused on why everyone is so high on Bicknell now, isn't he the coach that said something similar to 'half time adjustments are over rated' and 'I'm not sure why we aren't winning games this year, we're doing the same thing we were doing last year'. Those probably aren't the actual quotes but paraphrased based on my memory.
I didn’t say fire him. Dr Guice could look at the attendance and overall non interest in this team and call Holtz into his office and give him some benchmarks. Then if he doesn’t meet them in the allotted time frame, you can move on to someone else. I don’t think he’s a bad coach per se, but he is as stubborn as a mule. Or we can allow things to go as they have been and buy some nice cute cutouts of people to stick in the stands and pipe in some crowd noise through the speakers. You can’t sit on your hands and watch your fan base shrink without trying to do something.
Or we could look to the FCS. Here are 3 guys who would love to be here and would appreciate the opportunity.
Brian Bohannon, Kennesaw State. They have only had football for four years, he is the only coach in school history. His record? 32-11 with one conference title. Team currently in the top 10.
Mike Houston, James Madison. This is his 3rd job at the lower level schools, winners at them all. 7 conference championships in 8 seasons as a head coach. His last job? The Citadel for two years, he took them to a Southern Conference championship and the play-offs. Oh and he won the national championship at James Madison two years ago!
John Grass, Jacksonville State. High school coach for 20 years. This is his 5th season at JSU. He finally lost a conference game this season. Overall record you ask? 48-10 while winning his conference every year and always finishing in the top 10 nationally.
This guys apparently want to win and know how to get the job done. I wouldn't imagine any of them make what Skip makes. I have no idea what offensive or defensive schemes they run, but they or someone similarly successful could be a great fit at a school like Tech. Now none of them may want their shot at the FBS to be associated with an AD like TMac, but someday soon a school will take a shot on these guys. It would be in their best interest for that school to be one like Tech, that is so close to success.
I posted the following on another thread on Monday. I'm not as patient as you with the benchmarks but it is time for Dr. Guice to step in and give clear direction:
"Let me address both the administrative and football sides of the question. Les Guice can fix all of this in a five minute meeting at the 16th floor at Wyly Tower before noon today. He simply calls the AD and tells him to go by and pick up the Head Football Coach and come to his office. Now. Right Now. He tells them that after the lackluster attendance at Homecoming this past weekend and the declining attendance and I'm sure the whispers in his ear, not so pleasant emails and downright angry comments he has heard from alumni and supporters that he wants this at home football performance fixed. He doesn't care if we are 5-2, he has had heard enough from the people who have seen enough of this crap show for the last two seasons. He also doesn't ask for thier "feedback" or anything else except a nod in the affirmative and their plan to do so by noon tomorrow. The President of a university in Louisiana is the king of those he oversees. They all walk in fear of not pleasing him. If you don't believe that you have never interacted with any of the staff or faculty."
I am not saying fire him either. I said put him on the bench. We cant afford to fire him because that would cost $2mil which we dont have. The lower level coach hire wont work either because they will want more than we can pay, in addition to Holtz salary, so look at the juco route where we can get one for a $100,000 or less which we might be able to squeeze into the budget. We got a problem here and something must be done, ticket sales have hit the bottom-our 2018-2019 budget is already hurting big time.
Or make him AD and move Joe Sloan up ?
....I sincerely don't want to fan this "fire the coach" flame, because all I really want to see is someone else tried at QB. Is that really so difficult to understand? But with that said, if we continue to lose fans at JAS, Holtz will eventually get us to the point where we can't afford NOT to fire him.
If LA Tech loses 10K paying customers (fans) from JAS each year because of poor play, that's a gate decrease of -$250,000 per game in ticket revenue alone. Over an average 6 homes games per season, that's a decrease in ticket revenue of -$1.5M per year. EVERY year. And that doesn't include the expected decreases in LTAC contributions or the decrease in concessions. Holtz should really think about this stuff.
Have you been to either of the last 2 games? We had maybe 14K at homecoming. No exaggeration.
Back when Sonny Dykes was coaching, we drew 23,645 for our 2012 Homecoming game against UTSA. That's because Dykes played a brand of football that was fun to watch. Here's what we've drawn for Homecoming over the past 9 years:
Year:
2010 - 19,750 (Idaho)
2011 - 19,642 (S Jose St)
2012 - 23,645 (UTSA)
2013 - 20,317 (N Texas)
2014 - 20,011 (WKU)
2015 - 16,986 (N Texas)
2016 - 23,012 (UTSA)
2017 - 18,504 (N Texas)
2018 - 14,000 (Estimated Actual)
It should be noted that LA Tech's other high point for Homecoming attendance --in 2016-- was when the Bulldogs had future NFL wide receivers Carlos Henderson and Trent Taylor on the team, entertaining Tech fans with some miraculous catches from CUSA's "Player of the Year", QB Ryan Higgins. That was fun stuff to watch.
Since the 2016 season, Holtz has been losing Homecoming fans. I haven't checked the rest of our home games, but I'm guessing the pattern is similar. But clearly, since Holtz anointed J'Mar as the starting QB, our attendance has decreased. Do the math.
Sorry, HD, I guess it wasn’t clear. I was ageeeing with you.