All That’s Wrong With Tech Football

[Bulldog Tom]

It was painfully obvious yesterday that this team has quit. Hell, who can blame them? Everybody on the team knows that J'Mar is not getting the job done and that he's still playing only because Holtz has anointed him as the starter come hell or high water. Morale on the team is in the crapper and I wouldn't be surprised to see a mass exodus in the off season. It's time for a coaching change. Holtz is a nice guy, but his hard headedness about J'Mar Smith is literally killing the program. Our program can't afford to lose fans like me, and I bailed after the putrid performance against UAB. I won't be back until J'Mar is benched, or graduates. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll transfer to a SWAC school where he can be the star he thinks he is.

I was thinking the same thing watching the game yesterday. Why stick around for this? Has to be frustrating for players.

[rabiddawg]

There has to be something wrong in the locker room and/or within the coaching staff.
There's a problem in one or both and it needs fixing fast.

I think you are right on this. It all starts with a coach that has no desire to win every game and trickles down from there.

If I were a decent young coach, there is no way I would work for Holtz with that attitude.

If I was a bad coach working for Holtz, I would ride the train til it was off the tracks. That’s what we have in Ruston now.

[ETxBullDawg]

Did anyone see our freshman qb Aaron Allen on the sidelines yesterday? I scanned and scanned, had wife and three others sitting next to me scan and we could not find him. Any info available that I may have missed?

[PawDawg]

Did anyone see our freshman qb Aaron Allen on the sidelines yesterday? I scanned and scanned, had wife and three others sitting next to me scan and we could not find him. Any info available that I may have missed?

Several of the redshirts were not dressed out or even on the sideline yesterday.

[DogsWin]

I won’t be saying anything new here but I think a summary of Tech football is important and necessary. Maybe as much as anything I’m venting my immense frustration and dissatisfaction with the state of things in hopes that some reasonable changes will be made.

Right now as a multi generational Tech fan unless some changes are made in the off season I won’t be renewing my 41 years of holding 8 season tickets. In the span of those years Tech didn’t always have good teams but I don’t recall every having a less inspiring, less innovative and more repeatedly inept and underachieving head coach than Skip Holtz. I could go on and on about his failing qualities but everyone reading this who has watched Tech this year knows full well for themselves what I’m referring to. In my opinion there isn’t a single aspect of this year’s team that is as good as it should be. I’d even go so far as to say that the coaching has made the players and the team worse as the season has progressed.

In addition to the poor and unentertaining product on the field the price of being a season ticket / parking pass holder at Tech is too high.

The tailgating experience is deteriorating in a significant way.

The attendance is deteriorating in a significant way. The student support is pathetic. Even when they show up they don’t show up in any big way.

Tech game scheduling seems to be noticeably detrimental to the program. Please quit playing SEC schools.

Even the big screen is a source of aggravation when key replays don’t take place. I understand the importance of advertising but let’s please have the screen play a part in what’s supposed to be a home field advantage.

As an intangible, I feel like the Tech football I’ve known and loved for 40 years is fading away at a rapid pace. In today’s world with all the options people have to be entertained when they finally walk away there may not be any way to get them back.

Tech Football is at a important crossroads much like the Lady Techsters were once upon a time when some bad decision making effectively ended a dynasty that will never return.

Holtz has clearly 'lost' this team and the problem is not just who is playing QB. The passion for football has been sucked out of our program. The ultra conservative football culture has demoralized the players, fans, asst coaches,... We have an offensive coordinator who is nothing more than an 'advisor' (looking across the field you can clearly watch Skip Holtz slooooooowly call every offensive play for Sloan to signal in). Last year it was the ultraconservative 'prevent defense' that cost us games, but the point is- the culture is the same "Slow down the football game and hope we can win". It is unimaginative, highly predictable, easy to defeat, and demoralizing.

Congrats to Western Kentucky, they just got their first win ever in Ruston, LA and improved to 3-9 on the season.

[revf]

Throw out the miracle block play that won a UNT game and this team is a 6-6 team with all 6 wins coming against teams with losing records.

Right now, this team couldn't beat anyone with a pulse.

Holtz is doing all the interviews instead of making players/other coaches do the interviews.

I watched our sideline a good portion of the game Saturday. We have NO leadership. Coaches and players are all doing their own thing.

And I laugh at the notion that we have hit rock bottom. I predict next year will be even worse. If UTSA, Rice, and UTEP can improve slightly we might not make .500. Apathy is here.

[ETxBullDawg]

Several of the redshirts were not dressed out or even on the sideline yesterday.

Good to know. With the quarter over and all the BS within the program we were concerned he may have bolted. Thks for info.

[HogDawg]

Holtz is doing all the interviews instead of making players/other coaches do the interviews.

I watched our sideline a good portion of the game Saturday. We have NO leadership. Coaches and players are all doing their own thing.

And I laugh at the notion that we have hit rock bottom. I predict next year will be even worse. If UTSA, Rice, and UTEP can improve slightly we might not make .500. Apathy is here.

That's a really good point. UNT makes a lot of players (e.g. Mason Fine) available for various interviews. Of course, UNT's marketing is light years ahead of LA Tech's. Sonny Dykes was very good about making our players available to the media.

As for the "rock bottom" comment, that was mine. I wasn't referring to the team's record, but rather to the game day experience. Yesterday, Tech alley looked like a Ghost town. Maybe you weren't there......but I really don't see how it can get any worse than that.

[PawDawg]

Throw out the miracle block play that won a UNT game and this team is a 6-6 team with all 6 wins coming against teams with losing records.

Right now, this team couldn't beat anyone with a pulse.

Holtz is doing all the interviews instead of making players/other coaches do the interviews.

I watched our sideline a good portion of the game Saturday. We have NO leadership. Coaches and players are all doing their own thing.

And I laugh at the notion that we have hit rock bottom. I predict next year will be even worse. If UTSA, Rice, and UTEP can improve slightly we might not make .500. Apathy is here.

Very accurate post.

I spent more time watching our QB and the receivers than anything else. It's easy to see why we've been such a bad team for the past two years.

[DogsWin]

It's called media interview damage control. Holtz wants to control the message- just as he micromanages everything about our offense, defense, and special teams. We've lost 3 of our final 4 games and the team is demoralized and quit. If they are doing interviews one of them might actually speak their mind.

[deacon]

On 3rd and long for WKU in the second half, when we had to call timeout because we substituted late and had 12 on the field, in frustration I yelled “what is going on?”

A PLAYER turned and shouted back “none of your fu#%#ng business”

I couldn’t respond bc there were kids around me. But that’s Tech football 2018. Getting cussed by a player at a Bicknell era home game.

[DogsWin]

Who was the player? You have to remember that the players are just as frustrated as the fans (likely moreso). They get bashed repeatedly by the fans, but they aren't the ones calling the same ineffective plays repeatedly, settling for FGs when we need TDs, etc.

[HogDawg]

On 3rd and long for WKU in the second half, when we had to call timeout because we substituted late and had 12 on the field, in frustration I yelled “what is going on?”

A PLAYER turned and shouted back “none of your fu#%#ng business”

I couldn’t respond bc there were kids around me. But that’s Tech football 2018. Getting cussed by a player at a Bicknell era home game.

That's incredible. You should have gotten a player number. We don't need Richard Cranium's like that on the team.

Just before the 4th Qtr started, Tech was looking awful, and it seemed like we were all just sitting around and waiting for the Dawgs to do something. During a quiet lull I yelled at the players, "THERE IS NO 5TH QTR" A lot of people around me laughed at that one.

[Bone_afide_Dawg]

There have already been several comments directed towards the bottomless apathy that is infecting the Tech football team. I don’t know how it started or what the components of it are but I do know the person ‘responsible’ for correcting it and he’s not making it happen. Not only are improvements not visible but the situation appears to be getting worse which leads me to the conclusion that Holtz himself is responsible.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck... it’s a duck!

Yesterday was yet another game when I could feel my blood boiling at the lack of energy and intensity and ‘want to’ on the field but when I watched for any hint of an inspirational spark I saw no such sign from anyone except maybe #44 (whoever he is, sorry). He at least seemed to take offense to WK’s cheap play.

Our coaches and players allowed a bad team to easily humiliate our program and university yesterday without so much as a whimper of combativeness. It was sad and sickening.

[deacon]

You can believe I know exactly his name, number, position and hometown. I’m just not sure how I want to handle it.