Oh my, here we go again. Still trying to prove Holtz is a good coach. Here are the 17 seasons before Holtz. Under the current bowl system, we would have went bowling at least 11 times, with 14 being a possibility. All these seasons we played a far superior schedule to what Holtz gets each of his seasons. During these 17 seasons we won conference championships and we won games against Power 5 schools. The reason Dooley and Dykes “bailed asap” was because of the job they did here at Tech. The reason Holtz is still here is because of the job he has done here at Tech and his previous history. If Holtz had coached in the 1990’s and produced the same results he would be considered a good coach, but there is nothing in his coaching career that suggests that would be the case.

1996 6-5 Crowton Bowl
1997 9-2 Crowton Bowl
1998 6-6 Crowton Bowl
1999 8-3 Bicknell Bowl
2000 3-9 Bicknell
2001 7-5 Bicknell Bowl
2002 4-8 Bicknell Bowl
2003 5-7 Bicknell Possible Bowl
2004 6-6 Bicknell Bowl
2005 7-4 Bicknell Bowl
2006 3-10 Bicknell
2007 5-7 Dooley Possible Bowl
2008 8-5 Dooley Bowl
2009 4-8 Dooley
2010 5-7 Dykes Possible Bowl
2011 8-5 Dykes Bowl
2012 9-3 Dykes Bowl

In the other thread debating Holtz’ skills or lack thereof part of the debate centered around big wins. Many feel Holtz has no big wins. Let’s look at the big wins (Power 5 or raked teams) during this period. Look at that 10 wins against Power 5 schools.

09.21.96 at Mississippi State 38-23 Crowton
10.04.97 California 41-34 Crowton
11.01.97 at Alabama 26-20 Crowton
09.18.99 at Alabama 29-28 Bicknell
11.03.01 Boise State 48-42 Bicknell
08.31.02 Oklahoma State 39-36 Bicknell
09.13.03 at Michigan State 20-19 Bicknell
11.02.04 Fresno State #17 28-21 Bicknell
12.02.05 at Fresno State #22 40-28 Bicknell
08.30.08 Mississippi State 22-14 Dooley
11.12.11 at Ole Miss 27-7 Dykes
09.22.12 at Illinois 52-24 Dykes
10.06.12 at Virginia 44-38 Dykes

There is no intelligent argument to make that Crowton, Bicknell, Dooley or Dykes wouldn’t have matched or exceeded Skips record if they were the coach during Skips years. Skip gets to coach in a conference where about a third of the teams were in the FCS or didn’t have a football program a decade ago. Skip produces mediocre results in a low-level Group of 5 conference. Of course, he loves Ruston it is the locale of his retirement job. He will never produce results that would attract a Power 5 job and with the scheduling of TMAC should never have a losing season therefore, he will always have at least a New Orleans Bowl bid. By the way, CBS Sports predicts a New Orleans Bowl against ULM this season. That’s sounds like fun, huh? Maybe we can bring back BVDV to turn down this bid.