I pray that Tech goes winless this year.

[Dawgonit]

Has skip holtz beaten a p5 team,no

He's beaten Illinois in 2014 and Miami in 2019

[Dawg74]

sadly, gladzilla, you are correct...

[inudesu]

sadly, gladzilla, you are correct...

Has skip holtz beaten a p5 team,no

He's beaten Illinois in 2014 and Miami in 2019

Well, not completely.

[kfj]

He's beaten Illinois in 2014 and Miami in 2019

Bowl Games. But let's look at the regular season P5's games:
2013 North Carolina State (L - 14-40)
2013 Kansas (L - 10-13)
2014 Oklahoma (L - 16-48)
2014 Auburn (L - 17-45)
2015 Kansas State (L - 33-39)
2015 Mississippi State (L - 20-45)
2016 Arkansas (L - 20-21)
2016 Texas Tech (L - 45-59)
2017 Mississippi State (L - 21-57)
2017 South Carolina (L - 16-17)
2018 LSU (L - 21-38)
2018 Mississippi State (L - 3-45)
2019 Texas (L - 14-45)
2020 BYU (L - 14-45)
2020 TCU (L - 10-52)
That's all of them, outside Bowl Games, he's 0-15 against P5's

Plus what about all these disappointments:
2014 Norhtwestern State (L - 27-30)
2014 Marshall CUSA Championship (L - 23-26)
2016 Western Kentucky CUSA Championship (L - 44-58)
2020 Ga Southern (L 3-38)

Can't we expect better than mediocrity?

[revf]

Is this what we've seen over the last 8 seasons?

By my count, that's happened. . .once. In what you might consider "unusual" circumstances.

Now, granted, there was one season much worse than that (if you had called for his head after season #1, and you may have, I wouldn't have argued all that strongly against you).

And another kind of close (6-6 regular season, 7-6 with the bowl win).

But until last year, we haven't been "told we should be happy with a 6-6 record cause the team made a bowl game." And even then, it was 5-5.

I think we can be frustrated with the lack of league titles. I think we can be disappointed with any one loss. I think it's totally fine if you want to say you'd like a new coach because you think we can win more games with someone else. But we haven't really been saddled with a run of .500 seasons. We won 10 games season before last. Not sure I'm personally ready to burn it all down at this point (to put it mildly).

This is where I think most fans are...

We will continue the 8-4, 7-5, 9-3 seasons with an occasional 6-6, 5-7, 4-8 thrown in.

We will be conference runner-ups.

We will go to our "bowl game".

Everyone should be happy with that. It's who we are.

The only thing that would get Skip remotely on the hot seat would be if ULM beat the daylights out of us. Just maybe the powers that be would then start to think something is wrong. So maybe instead of praying for a winless season you should pray that we play ULM and they beat us so bad it's ugly.

[inudesu]

This is where I think most fans are...

We will continue the 8-4, 7-5, 9-3 seasons with an occasional 6-6, 5-7, 4-8 thrown in.

We will be conference runner-ups.

We will go to our "bowl game".

Everyone should be happy with that. It's who we are.

The only thing that would get Skip remotely on the hot seat would be if ULM beat the daylights out of us. Just maybe the powers that be would then start to think something is wrong. So maybe instead of praying for a winless season you should pray that we play ULM and they beat us so bad it's ugly.

I'm not against pushing for "more." I guess eventually you have to land on trying a new head coach. But that's probably closer to a last resort for me than it clearly is for some of you (which is fine, different strokes). Because sometimes you fire John Cooper and end up with Jim Tressel. Sure. But sometimes you fire Glen Mason and get Tim Brewster. Or you fire Mack Brown and get Charlie Strong. Sometimes you fire your Jeff Bower and get Larry Fedora (which would be a conversation in "what did you really get" in itself) and then that turns into Ellis Johnson.

It's possible that with Holtz we're stuck at 8 wins per year on average and no conference titles. Maybe that's forever. But I'd rather hold up hope that most of our seasons look more like 2019 than 2020 and sooner or later that's going to break right and those one point P5 losses are wins, and those close calls at the conference title break the other way on a regular basis. I think that can still happen. And part of the reason I think that is that in 2013 I didn't think we'd be above .500 with Holtz. Then we won 9 for three seasons in a row. College football (even over 8 seasons) has such a limited sample size for wins and losses that I think there is room for improvement.

But I could be wrong. Naturally. Maybe the next Nick Saban is just sitting there in our AD's rolodex (or phone contacts I guess these days). Maybe we'd be better off going 0-12 and hiring that guy. But what would be way more likely is that if we go 0-12, we hire someone who either bails as soon as they have a winning season or two (or levels us back out more or less where we are now, just with a couple of terrible seasons in the middle for fun).

Bird in the hand situation I guess.

Is there any room between "settling for mediocrity" and "fire the coach?"

Can you have high expectations and still prefer 8 wins to 0 wins in a given season?

[LEEDAWG]

What's odd is that 12-0 is about as likely as 0-12 given the conference we play in.

I agree with you there. It ironically would take quite a bit of effort to lose all 12 games as a member of C-USA.

[revf]

I'm not against pushing for "more." I guess eventually you have to land on trying a new head coach. But that's probably closer to a last result for me than it clearly is for some of you (which is fine, different strokes). Because sometimes you fire John Cooper and end up with Jim Tressel. Sure. But sometimes you fire Glen Mason and get Tim Brewster. Or you fire Mack Brown and get Charlie Strong. Sometimes you fire your Jeff Bower and get Larry Fedora (which would be a conversation in "what did you really get" in itself) and then that turns into Ellis Johnson.

It's possible that with Holtz we're stuck at 8 wins per year on average and no conference titles. Maybe that's forever. But I'd rather hold up hope that most of our seasons look more like 2019 than 2020 and sooner or later that's going to break right and those one point P5 losses are wins, and those close calls at the conference title breaks the other way on a regular basis. I think that can still happen. And part of the reason I think that is that in 2013 I didn't think we'd be above .500 with Holtz. Then we won 9 for three seasons in a row. College football (even over 8 seasons) has such a limited sample size for wins and losses that I think there is room for improvement.

But I could be wrong. Naturally. Maybe the next Nick Saban is just sitting there in our AD's rolodex (or phone contacts I guess these days). Maybe we'd be better off going 0-12 and hiring that guy. But what would be way more likely is that if we go 0-12, we hire someone who either bails as soon as they have a winning season or two (or levels us back out more or less where we are now, just with a couple of terrible seasons in the middle for fun).

Bird in the hand situation I guess.

Is there any room between "settling for mediocrity" and "fire the coach?"

Can you have high expectations and still prefer 8 wins to 0 wins in a given season?

Jeff Bower has 4 C-USA championships (against an arguably tougher C-USA).

I think the expectation for me is championships. Bowl games are a dime a dozen.

Would I rather win a C-USA championship game or a bowl game?
I'd rather the C-USA championship game.

Others it may be they would rather bowl games. So every fan is different. That's okay.

The one thing I truly miss at Tech is offense. Air Raid was at least fun to watch even if we lost. Handoff runs up the middle, not so much.

[inudesu]

Jeff Bower has 4 C-USA championships (against an arguably tougher C-USA).

I think the expectation for me is championships. Bowl games are a dime a dozen.

Would I rather win a C-USA championship game or a bowl game?
I'd rather the C-USA championship game.

Others it may be they would rather bowl games. So every fan is different. That's okay.

The one thing I truly miss at Tech is offense. Air Raid was at least fun to watch even if we lost. Handoff runs up the middle, not so much.

Fair enough.

I was also hoping for another Air Raid guy after Dykes left.

[T1]

Fair enough.

I was also hoping for another Air Raid guy after Dykes left.

Holtz isn’t an air raid guy, but he’s left his mark on the Tech record books.

Single season
Rk Player Yards Year
1 Tim Rattay 4,943 1998
2 Ryan Higgins 4,617 2016
3 Colby Cameron 4,147 2012
4 Jeff Driskel 4,033 2015
5 Tim Rattay 3,922 1999
6 Tim Rattay 3,881 1997
7 Luke McCown 3,665 2001
8 Luke McCown 3,539 2002
9 Cody Sokol 3,436 2014
10 Jason Martin 3,360 1996
Single

[dawg80]

Yes I am a die hard fan/alum. Exactly what I mean is there is damage done that cannot be undone until the man is gone. I really do think that one bad season followed by good seasons will bring the excitement back. Even if he went 12-0 I'd still fire him and release this statement. "Skip Holtz's track record indicates that he is incapable of maintaining this level of success or even one level below, we at Louisiana Tech University will not accept meritocracy therefore have decided to part ways"

I thought this term means a system of governing or managing based on merit, that is, promotions are based on quality performance. Hmmm, maybe you're right, Tech may not promote (and retain) people who actually get the job done. But, in that case, we would want to keep Holtz!

[HogDawg]

Well, not completely.

Oh.....that's right, LA Tech beat Miami in the Indy Bowl without our best player, Amik Roberston. I forgot about that.

[Bulldog Tom]

I don't, he'll never take tech to the next level

History backs you up.

[DJDAWG]

Man, ya'll are concentrating too much on records. Is Skippy's brand of football fun to watch? NO!

I'd fire him simply for what he's turned Tech's offense in to, promised one style of offense and delivers boring. Fire-able offense.

Would he have been hired if Tech knew what kind of offense he would transform Tech into? NO!

[glm47]

Bowl Games. But let's look at the regular season P5's games:
2013 North Carolina State (L - 14-40)
2013 Kansas (L - 10-13)
2014 Oklahoma (L - 16-48)
2014 Auburn (L - 17-45)
2015 Kansas State (L - 33-39)
2015 Mississippi State (L - 20-45)
2016 Arkansas (L - 20-21)
2016 Texas Tech (L - 45-59)
2017 Mississippi State (L - 21-57)
2017 South Carolina (L - 16-17)
2018 LSU (L - 21-38)
2018 Mississippi State (L - 3-45)
2019 Texas (L - 14-45)
2020 BYU (L - 14-45)
2020 TCU (L - 10-52)
That's all of them, outside Bowl Games, he's 0-15 against P5's

Plus what about all these disappointments:
2014 Norhtwestern State (L - 27-30)
2014 Marshall CUSA Championship (L - 23-26)
2016 Western Kentucky CUSA Championship (L - 44-58)
2020 Ga Southern (L 3-38)

Can't we expect better than mediocrity?

BYU is not P5 are they? I count 4 games for sure we should’ve won.